18 hours is a lot to take in over one weekend, so exactly which exercises were covered on which day will not be specified, as there was so much covered.
No photos since even if I had a camera there was no time to use it, we were a very busy group.
I had decided that, after all, it simply wouldn't do for any firearms instructor worth his title to not know how to run a revolver as a self defense gun, and since, while the full size "service" wheelguns now only exist as competition/hunting arms, the "snubby" has enjoyed something of a resurgence in the concealed carry area, and has never left the law enforcement backup role, and since I myself choose a snubby as a backup to my SIG P220, and as a summer primary when it's too much hassle to bother with a concealing garment at the belt, it would then behoove me to seek out the guy whose field of specialization is to maximize the snub's effectiveness and minimize its limitations.
And so it was I found myself pulling into the Southern Maine Fish and Game club which was the backup locale for the class( the classroom-only portions were to be held at Kittery Trading Post but that fell through. Lesson: always have a backup plan). I had brought with me my two personal snubs: A bobbed-hammer Ruger SP101 in .357 Magnum, and an older, but still in great shape, S&W model 60 in .38 Special( an all stainless steel model that though not officially rated for it, handles +P ammo just fine, already had the hammer bobbbed and rendered double action only when I bought it, and WITHOUT that asinine frame mounted suicide lock now foisted on all new S&W revolvers despite all protestations from consumers).
I, of course, knew of the wisdom of having any guns one carried for duty or defense being either bought or rendered double action only for practical and legal reasons before I took these courses, but it was a point Michael addressed very early on, and used the example of the Luis Alvarez case as well as some of his own personal experiences to support the point.
Michael deBethencourt himself is a man that is very unlikely to be forgotten once you meet him. His youthful beginnings as a carnival barker become obvious in his speaking and instruction style, he has that unique skill of making you crack up and yet still remaining serious enough about the topic to make the material stick. He also likes to "Bushwhack" his students, and give them instructions which they'll follow, only to throw a wrench in the works after they're done and make the point as to why it was "wrong" to do. "This is an artificial environment", Michael told us,"If I bushwhack you here, nobody dies." The point is to make the students cognizant of what they do on the range that doesn't serve them as far as getting ready for the self defense situation they hope never occurs, but are training for.
Our first classroom drill was to learn a new "manual of arms" for reloading the snub. I and the other three students the first day were all right handed, and so learned that one, but Michael has a manual of arms for the left handed amongst us as well, which he taught to the two left handers who joined us the second day.
This much I will say about it: that when we first began learning it, it was at least no slower than the "old way" I was taught of loading with the strong hand and losing the firing grip on the gun, but by the end of day two it was the fastest revolver reload I'd ever done, AND because the snub stays in the shooting hand all throughout, one carries the spare ammo on the left side, which is a boon to those of us who carry autos, since there is commonality with the auto's manual of arms and therefore less to mentally trip up over should the transition from one to the other need to happen midfight. *I* can still reload an auto faster than *I* can reload a revolver, but I can confidently state that now *I* can reload a revolver faster than homeboy can reload HIS stolen auto.
Once we had that down, we were then introduced to reload drills with loose rounds, Speed Strips, and three different brands of speedloaders( DADE loaders, HKS, and Safariland). We learned a different way to use the speed strips as well( they are strips of rubberized plastic that hold 6 rounds. Massad Ayoob, back in the way back when, came up with a technique loading them only up to 5, curling a finger under the empty hole and laying the index finger across the strip like a scalpel, because with 6 one had no leverage to peel the strip and always lost a round). But Ayoob's method is designed to use the older, offhand loading method, and Michael showed us a technique that, while only loading 4 in the center of the strip, was much faster than I thought possible and worked no matter which end of the strip you grab from your pocket.
Okay--we had the manual of arms and some reloads down, getting pretty confident. Those of us familiar with such training know what that means: Time for a bushwhacking.
Michael gave us the instructions for the drill: " Let's say you've taken down two out of three attackers, but the third is about to blow right past you and get to your loved ones.You're empty, you've got your speed strip. I want you to load the gun as quickly as you can and get back in the fight, you're against the clock here. Grab your deathmaster 2000.....ready, GO!"
(All reload drills start with you dryfiring as if shooting, and clicking( If you pull the gun and it goes BANG-BANG-BANG, there's no need to reload--since the revolver has no visible way of transmitting that it's empty, such as the slide locking back on an auto, the point is to internalize that feeling/hearing "Click-click-click" is Nature's way of telling you that it is TIME TO RELOAD). With Michael yelling out instructions the whole way through, we each perform the manual of arms, slap out the dummy rounds, grab the dummy-loaded speed strip,snap in all four and get back in the fight.
When we are done, Michael asks us if we are happy with how quick we performed the reload, indicating each of us in turn: "are ya happy?" "Ya happy?" "Ya happy?" After we answer yes, he then makes his point: "I'M not. None of you did what I asked you to do. I told you to load as quickly as you can and get back in the fight before the bad guy got past you. after you loaded the gun, what did you do? You CONTINUED TO LOAD THE GUN". The bad guy outflanked and ran right past you while you stood there fingerlovin' the gun".
He then told us the story of the Newhall Massacre in 1970, during which two heavily armed felons killed 4 California Highway Patrolmen. At the end of the gunfight, the final officer, wounded in the chest and both legs, was trying to reload his revolver. Under the enormous stress of the situation, he reverted to his training( he'd been taught to shoot 6, reload 6, shoot 6 more and so on). So intent did he become on loading those 6 that he failed to notice one of the felons had flanked him. Making direct muzzle contact with his stolen .45, the felon said, "Got you now, mother****er", and blew the officer's head off just as he was closing the cylinder on the full load.
Lesson: ONE ROUND LOADS THE GUN. Knowing which way your cylinder rotates will let you know where to roll the cylinder so it's the first hole the hammer hits.
Related to this , we were taught during loose round drills that if we could help it we ought not load rounds right next to each other in the cylinder--dispersed rounds in the cylinder means not having to click through a whole cylinder before you get a bang.
It's late and I'm tired, but tomorrow I will post more on the drills we did on day two( and oh yes, there was much much more).
No photos since even if I had a camera there was no time to use it, we were a very busy group.
I had decided that, after all, it simply wouldn't do for any firearms instructor worth his title to not know how to run a revolver as a self defense gun, and since, while the full size "service" wheelguns now only exist as competition/hunting arms, the "snubby" has enjoyed something of a resurgence in the concealed carry area, and has never left the law enforcement backup role, and since I myself choose a snubby as a backup to my SIG P220, and as a summer primary when it's too much hassle to bother with a concealing garment at the belt, it would then behoove me to seek out the guy whose field of specialization is to maximize the snub's effectiveness and minimize its limitations.
And so it was I found myself pulling into the Southern Maine Fish and Game club which was the backup locale for the class( the classroom-only portions were to be held at Kittery Trading Post but that fell through. Lesson: always have a backup plan). I had brought with me my two personal snubs: A bobbed-hammer Ruger SP101 in .357 Magnum, and an older, but still in great shape, S&W model 60 in .38 Special( an all stainless steel model that though not officially rated for it, handles +P ammo just fine, already had the hammer bobbbed and rendered double action only when I bought it, and WITHOUT that asinine frame mounted suicide lock now foisted on all new S&W revolvers despite all protestations from consumers).
I, of course, knew of the wisdom of having any guns one carried for duty or defense being either bought or rendered double action only for practical and legal reasons before I took these courses, but it was a point Michael addressed very early on, and used the example of the Luis Alvarez case as well as some of his own personal experiences to support the point.
Michael deBethencourt himself is a man that is very unlikely to be forgotten once you meet him. His youthful beginnings as a carnival barker become obvious in his speaking and instruction style, he has that unique skill of making you crack up and yet still remaining serious enough about the topic to make the material stick. He also likes to "Bushwhack" his students, and give them instructions which they'll follow, only to throw a wrench in the works after they're done and make the point as to why it was "wrong" to do. "This is an artificial environment", Michael told us,"If I bushwhack you here, nobody dies." The point is to make the students cognizant of what they do on the range that doesn't serve them as far as getting ready for the self defense situation they hope never occurs, but are training for.
Our first classroom drill was to learn a new "manual of arms" for reloading the snub. I and the other three students the first day were all right handed, and so learned that one, but Michael has a manual of arms for the left handed amongst us as well, which he taught to the two left handers who joined us the second day.
This much I will say about it: that when we first began learning it, it was at least no slower than the "old way" I was taught of loading with the strong hand and losing the firing grip on the gun, but by the end of day two it was the fastest revolver reload I'd ever done, AND because the snub stays in the shooting hand all throughout, one carries the spare ammo on the left side, which is a boon to those of us who carry autos, since there is commonality with the auto's manual of arms and therefore less to mentally trip up over should the transition from one to the other need to happen midfight. *I* can still reload an auto faster than *I* can reload a revolver, but I can confidently state that now *I* can reload a revolver faster than homeboy can reload HIS stolen auto.
Once we had that down, we were then introduced to reload drills with loose rounds, Speed Strips, and three different brands of speedloaders( DADE loaders, HKS, and Safariland). We learned a different way to use the speed strips as well( they are strips of rubberized plastic that hold 6 rounds. Massad Ayoob, back in the way back when, came up with a technique loading them only up to 5, curling a finger under the empty hole and laying the index finger across the strip like a scalpel, because with 6 one had no leverage to peel the strip and always lost a round). But Ayoob's method is designed to use the older, offhand loading method, and Michael showed us a technique that, while only loading 4 in the center of the strip, was much faster than I thought possible and worked no matter which end of the strip you grab from your pocket.
Okay--we had the manual of arms and some reloads down, getting pretty confident. Those of us familiar with such training know what that means: Time for a bushwhacking.
Michael gave us the instructions for the drill: " Let's say you've taken down two out of three attackers, but the third is about to blow right past you and get to your loved ones.You're empty, you've got your speed strip. I want you to load the gun as quickly as you can and get back in the fight, you're against the clock here. Grab your deathmaster 2000.....ready, GO!"
(All reload drills start with you dryfiring as if shooting, and clicking( If you pull the gun and it goes BANG-BANG-BANG, there's no need to reload--since the revolver has no visible way of transmitting that it's empty, such as the slide locking back on an auto, the point is to internalize that feeling/hearing "Click-click-click" is Nature's way of telling you that it is TIME TO RELOAD). With Michael yelling out instructions the whole way through, we each perform the manual of arms, slap out the dummy rounds, grab the dummy-loaded speed strip,snap in all four and get back in the fight.
When we are done, Michael asks us if we are happy with how quick we performed the reload, indicating each of us in turn: "are ya happy?" "Ya happy?" "Ya happy?" After we answer yes, he then makes his point: "I'M not. None of you did what I asked you to do. I told you to load as quickly as you can and get back in the fight before the bad guy got past you. after you loaded the gun, what did you do? You CONTINUED TO LOAD THE GUN". The bad guy outflanked and ran right past you while you stood there fingerlovin' the gun".
He then told us the story of the Newhall Massacre in 1970, during which two heavily armed felons killed 4 California Highway Patrolmen. At the end of the gunfight, the final officer, wounded in the chest and both legs, was trying to reload his revolver. Under the enormous stress of the situation, he reverted to his training( he'd been taught to shoot 6, reload 6, shoot 6 more and so on). So intent did he become on loading those 6 that he failed to notice one of the felons had flanked him. Making direct muzzle contact with his stolen .45, the felon said, "Got you now, mother****er", and blew the officer's head off just as he was closing the cylinder on the full load.
Lesson: ONE ROUND LOADS THE GUN. Knowing which way your cylinder rotates will let you know where to roll the cylinder so it's the first hole the hammer hits.
Related to this , we were taught during loose round drills that if we could help it we ought not load rounds right next to each other in the cylinder--dispersed rounds in the cylinder means not having to click through a whole cylinder before you get a bang.
It's late and I'm tired, but tomorrow I will post more on the drills we did on day two( and oh yes, there was much much more).
.
