AAR: A Weekend at Blaster's

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  • outrider58

    Eats Bacon Raw
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 29, 2014
    49,818
    After repeated invites, I finally took Blaster229 up on his gracious offer to teach me some of the shooting techniques he learned in the FAM Service.

    Now I've never claimed to be a great pistol shot, and in recent years, have shot very little with handguns. So Mike had his hands full. Add to that, I showed up with a fairly green P80 G19 w/ a Trijicon RMR atop it. The course consisted of three steel targets a little larger than head size, and one 2'x3' cardboard target and was approximately 50 yards long.

    We started on grip and aiming(pointing) fundamentals. Something I dearly needed. The difficulty I had was with the RMR. Being new to the sight and pistol, and the fact that Mike doesn't use them, we had a couple hurdles overcome at the outset. I ended up turning the sight off.

    I won't go into every aspect of what we did. We did so many different evolutions, I know I couldn't recite them all nor in the proper order. We practiced everything from shooting point blank and gaining separation to closing the distance and taking on multiple targets, sometimes triaging between four targets, some being more immediate threats than others.

    I will say, I had an absolute ball! I didn't want to stop. I can not wait to get to my home range and apply the methods I learned, at least the ones I'm allowed to do there. Hopefully, on my next trip up there, I will have gained a bit more skill and proceed from where we left off.

    I have read in threads here, Mike offering for people to come up and shoot with him. If you ever get the offer, you've got to take him up on it. It is a serious offer and Mike is a great teacher. He was extremely patient with me and he was a very gracious host. The only downside, you may gain a couple pounds eating some of his home cooking. :)
    Here are a couple pics...
     

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    teratos

    My hair is amazing
    MDS Supporter
    Patriot Picket
    Jan 22, 2009
    59,775
    Bel Air
    I would never go any place that would have me as a guest.

    Looks like you had a blast. Great weekend for it.
     

    outrider58

    Eats Bacon Raw
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 29, 2014
    49,818
    Outrider, I just wanna know how many holes the canoe sustained...

    Doc, I’ll keep that in mind.
    Not one through the canoe, but I kept catching hell for these...
    (what the hell? they all hit center mass...:innocent0)
     

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    outrider58

    Eats Bacon Raw
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 29, 2014
    49,818
    I would never go any place that would have me as a guest.

    Looks like you had a blast. Great weekend for it.
    Groucho Marx?


    You can come as the "help" next time. :D
    Weather was absolutely perfect!
     

    TheOriginalMexicanBob

    Ultimate Member
    Jul 2, 2017
    32,178
    Sun City West, AZ
    That's paraphrasing Groucho Marx but the sentiment is pretty much the same.

    My other favorite Groucho quote is "A man is only as old as the woman he feels." My wife is ten years younger than me so I'm feeling pretty good.
     

    Speed3

    Ultimate Member
    Aug 19, 2011
    7,816
    MD
    Awesome, glad you had a blast! My pistol shooting is the weakest of them all, clearly something to train more than anything else.
     

    Blaster229

    God loves you, I don't.
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 14, 2010
    46,410
    Glen Burnie
    It was great having you up! I know maybe 3 others are trying to work out a date to come up. It's an open invitation to anyone who wants to get away for 2 nights or so. Having no schedule is my schedule.
    Plenty of room. 2 extra bedrooms with full baths. So, 2 couples if it worked out that way.

    I have no lesson plan, so we played it by ear. We did a lot of talking about mindset and self defense.

    We learned about getting out of the perfect shot group mindset, and concentrated on lethal hits.
    Point shooting. Pressing out from the high ready and breaking the shot when arms are fully extended at the target. This helps break that small shot group desire. When you learn and get in the rhythm of just hitting center mass somewhere.
    We learned what a miss should look like when we shoot. Not saying to ourselves oh sheesh, getting pissed off. But, missing, staying on the threat and get another shot off.
    Staying on the target when we make a shot and assess other threats. Not immediately come back to the high ready or the holster.
    Making scanning from the high ready part of our ritual after it's clear. Since it's not a static line range, we could actually look left, right, rotating behind us all the while having the pistol face with us.
    Making a bent elbow shot (shot from retention) from about a 1 yard distance. Get to know what muzzle blast feels like on your face. Then, getting off the X and making shots (while pressing out) on target while we are creating distance backwards.
    Shoot move, shoot, move, shoot move advancing forward to threats, then repeating it, but backwards.
    1 handed shooting while using our support hand/arm as best we can with a fist on our sternum. This does 2 things, keeps our hand out of the muzzle, but 2, If that hand is injured, it MAY help a little to block shots to the chest.
    When we have some sort of malfunction during training, we rush to fix it just like we were in a fight. Not just stand there and stare at it like a dog being shown a card trick :)
    We learned stance means zilch when you are shooting. I think I end up making a lot of my shots up on my toes as I start to slow down (when moving) to make the shot.
    I think we figured out that trigger finger placement doesn't make much of a difference when we have a good grip.

    That's probably 70% of everything. I could literally make a whole 2 day class out of it.

    It's a lot of fun, and hopefully learning. IF anyone would like to come up to relax, eat, shoot, and throw a few beverages down, just shoot me a PM. Would love to have you up.
     

    outrider58

    Eats Bacon Raw
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 29, 2014
    49,818
    It was great having you up! I know maybe 3 others are trying to work out a date to come up. It's an open invitation to anyone who wants to get away for 2 nights or so. Having no schedule is my schedule.
    Plenty of room. 2 extra bedrooms with full baths. So, 2 couples if it worked out that way.

    I have no lesson plan, so we played it by ear. We did a lot of talking about mindset and self defense.

    We learned about getting out of the perfect shot group mindset, and concentrated on lethal hits.
    Point shooting. Pressing out from the high ready and breaking the shot when arms are fully extended at the target. This helps break that small shot group desire. When you learn and get in the rhythm of just hitting center mass somewhere.
    We learned what a miss should look like when we shoot. Not saying to ourselves oh sheesh, getting pissed off. But, missing, staying on the threat and get another shot off.
    Staying on the target when we make a shot and assess other threats. Not immediately come back to the high ready or the holster.
    Making scanning from the high ready part of our ritual after it's clear. Since it's not a static line range, we could actually look left, right, rotating behind us all the while having the pistol face with us.
    Making a bent elbow shot (shot from retention) from about a 1 yard distance. Get to know what muzzle blast feels like on your face. Then, getting off the X and making shots (while pressing out) on target while we are creating distance backwards.
    Shoot move, shoot, move, shoot move advancing forward to threats, then repeating it, but backwards.
    1 handed shooting while using our support hand/arm as best we can with a fist on our sternum. This does 2 things, keeps our hand out of the muzzle, but 2, If that hand is injured, it MAY help a little to block shots to the chest.
    When we have some sort of malfunction during training, we rush to fix it just like we were in a fight. Not just stand there and stare at it like a dog being shown a card trick :)
    We learned stance means zilch when you are shooting. I think I end up making a lot of my shots up on my toes as I start to slow down (when moving) to make the shot.
    I think we figured out that trigger finger placement doesn't make much of a difference when we have a good grip.

    That's probably 70% of everything. I could literally make a whole 2 day class out of it.

    It's a lot of fun, and hopefully learning. IF anyone would like to come up to relax, eat, shoot, and throw a few beverages down, just shoot me a PM. Would love to have you up.
    By the end of the day, this became second nature. :thumbsup:


    You'll notice in one pic, it looks like I'm shooting while walking. I am not. I stopped amid stride and was landing hits. We're not Bull's eye shooting here. Stance and trigger finger position are worthless in a gun fight.


    There were a lot more good habits I needed to have become muscle memory that day as well. Especially malfunction clearing. Think I' might start loading random duds in my range mags to pick up more proficiency.
     

    Czechnologist

    Concerned Citizen
    Mar 9, 2016
    6,522
    GzEiDIz.gif


    Sorry I missed-out this time but thanks for the invitation! Wife and I had made other plans for the weekend but, we're looking forward to eventually making the pilgrimage.
     

    Blaster229

    God loves you, I don't.
    MDS Supporter
    Sep 14, 2010
    46,410
    Glen Burnie
    Beautiful place Blaster!
    Thanks! Seriously, come on up. Don't ask when a good time is, just tell me when you can make it.
    It's a nice 4 hour drive from you. Then when you get here, just sit on your ass. We can be as busy or as slow as you like.
     

    outrider58

    Eats Bacon Raw
    MDS Supporter
    Jul 29, 2014
    49,818
    GzEiDIz.gif


    Sorry I missed-out this time but thanks for the invitation! Wife and I had made other plans for the weekend but, we're looking forward to eventually making the pilgrimage.

    A close call, to say the least...
     

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