Okay, how about telling us about the best firearm instructors you have trained with, or the best schools you have been to civilian or law enforcement and any memorable stories...from the class or from the instructors...brag on your teachers...let's hear about them so we can possibly seek them out...
Best firearm instructors you have had...and their stories...
- Thread starter billc
- Start date
US Marine Corps, Edson Range, Camp Pendleton, CA. 1979-1985. Instructors varied.
Sorry for a long post, but it's tough to talk about these two guys in a sentence or two.
Gene Marley. Everyone called him Gino. Thirty years as a cop/firearm instructor in Massachusetts. Then twenty more at a Federal level.
I wasn't a cop until I was 36. A late bloomer, but I'd been around the block a time or two. Had a permit to carry from my twenties and taught as a civilian contractor at the Boston Police Academy for years before I ever wore a badge.
Gino had to qualify me as part of the academy process. He was a grizzled old guy in his seventies, with skinny arms, bow legs and stone cold, blue eyes. We were breaking for lunch one day and he said, "Hey, karate guy, stick around for a minute. So I did.
He set up a chair at the firing line on the range, went to his office and brought back a wooden box, kinda looked like the base of speakers podium made out of scrap wood. He set it up halfway down the firing range, which was seventy five feet, so this was half of that. He went to his desk and took out a huge fricken butcher's knife. Looked like the kind of thing you would behead a bull with. Walked down range to the block thing and stuck it in the top with a thunk, the blade facing us.
He took two balloons out of his pocket and blew them up. Taped them to the backstop at the back of the range. Two blue balloons, about twenty feet apart. He said, "I'm going to shoot...hit that blade dead center and hit those two balloons. I'm thinking, "yeah, right"
He made an interesting production out of it. Takes the telescope they use as a range finder, and sets it on the big old knife. He makes several trips down to the box, adjusting ever so little, then checks the scope again. Finally he's ready. Sits in the chair. Aims......Then snaps his fingers, gets up, goes in his office and comes out with a hand mirror. One of those things old ladies use to look at their hair. Then he turns the chair around backwards, sits in it, puts his ears on, levels the gun over his shoulder, aims for twenty seconds and fires. Both balloons explode.
I damn near soiled myself. A few minutes later he asks, "All karate people as gullible as you?" He puts up two more balloons and says, "Shoot the backstop." So I do. Both balloons explode. "lead is soft" he says, "the backstop is not. The lead shatters. Don't believe everything you see, investigate first, rookie."
He could watch a guy shoot for five seconds and tell if the guy had weak triceps, which would make him draw more with his shoulder, could tell which eye was dominant on the guy, give you all the reasons why the guy was pulling left or right, up or down. It was all so second nature to him. He constantly preached "back gound - civilians or crossfire" "two in the body, one in the head" "hit him in the hips" and he always said, "cover and reload - you should be able to reload in your sleep, drunk and half blind, on a hill in the rain. And FAST".
Gino had one of the best collections of antique firearms in the country. Even had one of the first ten Colt 45s ever made. He was collecting antique guns for over fifty years. He'd bring some in every now and then and let us shoot them. It was a hoot.
I doubt if he's still alive. But, I don't want to know. I like remembering him just like he was.
Joey B was another firearm instructor of mine. Fascinated by guns since childhood, he was running a gun store from the time he was 22. He sold me my first gun, back in the day. He eventually left the gun business because of insurance costs in Massachusetts. (Mass HATES the gun business). Became a Fed and eventually was my Captain. Best armorer I've ever met. If he couldn't get a replacement part for a weapon, he'd make the damn thing. I have no idea how. I asked him "do you have manufacturing equipment at your house?" He'd just smile.
Something cool....if you were sitting in front of TV with the remote in your hand, and flicked through the stations as fast as you could, you would be able to recognize and name the various sports that were on. Even if it was on screen for less than a second, you could say, "that was hockey, then basketball, then boxing, that's skiiing, that's boxing, there's soccer, that's gymnastics." Joey could do that with guns. Didn't matter if it was news footage of a foreign war, a western, a gangster movie or a police documentary, he'd just rattle off any gun - handgun or rifle, like he was reading them from a list. I'd ask him how he could tell the difference between so and so and such and such, and he'd say, "look at the way it sits in the holster". And he'd identify the ammo by sound. The man knew the whole business of firearms, knew guns like he knew his own kids, knew ammo, knew holsters and really knew the law as it pertains to weapons. He might get the names of his nephews wrong, but, damn, he sure knew about things that go bang.
I owe both men a great deal.
Gene Marley. Everyone called him Gino. Thirty years as a cop/firearm instructor in Massachusetts. Then twenty more at a Federal level.
I wasn't a cop until I was 36. A late bloomer, but I'd been around the block a time or two. Had a permit to carry from my twenties and taught as a civilian contractor at the Boston Police Academy for years before I ever wore a badge.
Gino had to qualify me as part of the academy process. He was a grizzled old guy in his seventies, with skinny arms, bow legs and stone cold, blue eyes. We were breaking for lunch one day and he said, "Hey, karate guy, stick around for a minute. So I did.
He set up a chair at the firing line on the range, went to his office and brought back a wooden box, kinda looked like the base of speakers podium made out of scrap wood. He set it up halfway down the firing range, which was seventy five feet, so this was half of that. He went to his desk and took out a huge fricken butcher's knife. Looked like the kind of thing you would behead a bull with. Walked down range to the block thing and stuck it in the top with a thunk, the blade facing us.
He took two balloons out of his pocket and blew them up. Taped them to the backstop at the back of the range. Two blue balloons, about twenty feet apart. He said, "I'm going to shoot...hit that blade dead center and hit those two balloons. I'm thinking, "yeah, right"
He made an interesting production out of it. Takes the telescope they use as a range finder, and sets it on the big old knife. He makes several trips down to the box, adjusting ever so little, then checks the scope again. Finally he's ready. Sits in the chair. Aims......Then snaps his fingers, gets up, goes in his office and comes out with a hand mirror. One of those things old ladies use to look at their hair. Then he turns the chair around backwards, sits in it, puts his ears on, levels the gun over his shoulder, aims for twenty seconds and fires. Both balloons explode.
I damn near soiled myself. A few minutes later he asks, "All karate people as gullible as you?" He puts up two more balloons and says, "Shoot the backstop." So I do. Both balloons explode. "lead is soft" he says, "the backstop is not. The lead shatters. Don't believe everything you see, investigate first, rookie."
He could watch a guy shoot for five seconds and tell if the guy had weak triceps, which would make him draw more with his shoulder, could tell which eye was dominant on the guy, give you all the reasons why the guy was pulling left or right, up or down. It was all so second nature to him. He constantly preached "back gound - civilians or crossfire" "two in the body, one in the head" "hit him in the hips" and he always said, "cover and reload - you should be able to reload in your sleep, drunk and half blind, on a hill in the rain. And FAST".
Gino had one of the best collections of antique firearms in the country. Even had one of the first ten Colt 45s ever made. He was collecting antique guns for over fifty years. He'd bring some in every now and then and let us shoot them. It was a hoot.
I doubt if he's still alive. But, I don't want to know. I like remembering him just like he was.
Joey B was another firearm instructor of mine. Fascinated by guns since childhood, he was running a gun store from the time he was 22. He sold me my first gun, back in the day. He eventually left the gun business because of insurance costs in Massachusetts. (Mass HATES the gun business). Became a Fed and eventually was my Captain. Best armorer I've ever met. If he couldn't get a replacement part for a weapon, he'd make the damn thing. I have no idea how. I asked him "do you have manufacturing equipment at your house?" He'd just smile.
Something cool....if you were sitting in front of TV with the remote in your hand, and flicked through the stations as fast as you could, you would be able to recognize and name the various sports that were on. Even if it was on screen for less than a second, you could say, "that was hockey, then basketball, then boxing, that's skiiing, that's boxing, there's soccer, that's gymnastics." Joey could do that with guns. Didn't matter if it was news footage of a foreign war, a western, a gangster movie or a police documentary, he'd just rattle off any gun - handgun or rifle, like he was reading them from a list. I'd ask him how he could tell the difference between so and so and such and such, and he'd say, "look at the way it sits in the holster". And he'd identify the ammo by sound. The man knew the whole business of firearms, knew guns like he knew his own kids, knew ammo, knew holsters and really knew the law as it pertains to weapons. He might get the names of his nephews wrong, but, damn, he sure knew about things that go bang.
I owe both men a great deal.
Tgace
Grandmaster
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I can't recall their names, but Ill list the crew from The Ontario Provincial Police Tactical Unit who instructed me in my SWAT Basic Academy.
The OPP SWAT team is a full time unit who trains with international teams as varied as SAS, GSG9, SEALS, etc. And their operational territory is all of Ontario so these guys have to travel to locations as varied as Toronto to remote Native Territories.
I shot till my hands were scarred. Had to race people to boxes where all my firearms were broken down to pieces...the magazines too...so I had to assemble them then shoot a course head to head. And their qualification courses were no $%#@@%rs. Any miss on a humanoid target was a fail. Fail after remedial training and you were out.
I don't know if I'm still at that level anymore...
After that course Id say the second best was the FBI's Street Survival School...tons of live fire but the Simunition training was probably the best thing they had.
Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk 2
The OPP SWAT team is a full time unit who trains with international teams as varied as SAS, GSG9, SEALS, etc. And their operational territory is all of Ontario so these guys have to travel to locations as varied as Toronto to remote Native Territories.
I shot till my hands were scarred. Had to race people to boxes where all my firearms were broken down to pieces...the magazines too...so I had to assemble them then shoot a course head to head. And their qualification courses were no $%#@@%rs. Any miss on a humanoid target was a fail. Fail after remedial training and you were out.
I don't know if I'm still at that level anymore...
After that course Id say the second best was the FBI's Street Survival School...tons of live fire but the Simunition training was probably the best thing they had.
Sent from my SCH-I405 using Tapatalk 2
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