(Continued from Part 1.)
Physical Requirements
Can you stand for six hours a day in the sun and weather? Be brutally honest with yourself here. I saw one gentleman who came who could not. I felt so bad for him. To have spent all the money and time and be unable to actually complete the training would be heartbreaking. On the other hand there were absolutely people north of 60 completing the course. You don’t need to be able to run a marathon but you do need to be able to stand in the sun for several hours. Bear in mind that at even at your most tired, you are still responsible for controlling deadly force.
If your body can no longer handle that sort of exertion, then consider where better to spend the money that you’ve earned and saved. Maybe you should spend it on a cruise for yourself. Maybe you should go on a trip to Hawaii or Florida. Or whatever it is that floats your boat. There’s a time to enjoy the fruits of your labors.
There’s also a time to invest and pass on the fruits of your labors. As an option, consider giving a loved one the opportunity to train at gunsite. As I was going through this I realized it would be a perfect graduation gift to a preparedness minded young person. As a young person starting out, you have neither your finances nor the vacation days to go spend a week training at Gunsite. The baseline skill that it would give them would be an advantage for the rest of their lives. Knowlege and skill travel free and they can always add more to the investment. If you don’t know such an individual, I would point you to the Jeff Cooper Legacy Foundation, administered by his children, which gives out scholarships to Gunsite to deserving candidates.
The following are my recommendations for preparing to attend a handgun course at Gunsite:
Marksmanship Preparation
The official Gunsite advice is “come as an empty cup” instead of entrenching any bad habits you have (or will) develop. I saw a young man come to Gunsite who had fewer than 50 rounds through his gun. At the end of it he was a competent shooter. So that is definitely an option and what they advise.
Having repeated the official position, I am going to assume that if you are reading this blog and considering going to Gunsite you already have a firearm for use if needed. You may even be a Concealed Carry Licensee. In which case, I don’t think saying “don’t train with your firearm that you may need to use” is the best advice. So I am going to make some suggestions here for things that you can practice that won’t hurt you and will make it easier for you to drink from the fire hose.
These are not Gunsite approved practices. I am not speaking on behalf of Gunsite. These are not Gunsite drills. These do not take the place of getting real training. These are just digging out the footings so someone else can pour a foundation. These are things that I wish I had done (or did actually do) that I feel would (or did) help prepare for Gunsite.
1. Practice Finding your sights or dot
One gentleman I trained with was having real trouble finding his red dot, even after 2 days of training. Evening of D ay 2, I shared with him the advice from Ben Stoeger that fixed me when I couldn’t find my dot:
That simple. It’s so stupid it boggles the mind. Yet. Just a little bit of time practicing that protocol on different targets and you won’t be fighting to find the dot. First: “sanitize” that firearm: triple check that it is completely unloaded. Use visual and tactile methods to make sure the chamber is empty. Ensure there is no ammo in the room. Then: don’t overthink it. Look at the target. Point at the target. See the Dot. Repeat with a different target. You’re teaching your brain at a subconscious level how to point this tool.
Ben Stoeger uses the analogy of a computer mouse. You don’t look at the mouse or the cursor when you are using it. You don’t follow the cursor’s path as you move it. You look where you want it to go and when it gets there you click. Apply that same protocol to your pistol.
Ben shared this protocol freely on YouTube (although I can’t recall the specific video) and it fixed me. The gentleman I subsequently shared it with? Next day he said he was finding the dot everytime too. If you show up able to find your dot, your life will be a lot better. Your trainers will be grateful. Same applies to iron sights by the way: Look, point, sights. You’re just training yourself to point with a tool.
2. Scored b-8 slow fire targets
It’s not cool. It’s not exciting. But Pat Mac (a former Delta Force and master pistol shooter) said that if he had limited rounds to practice he’d put a target at 50 yards and put them on paper. You can hear him in his own words here. Elsewhere, he expanded this to say that his logic is that he needs to align his sights and execute a controlled press of the trigger no matter the application. These scored targets show how well you are executing those fundamentals.
The first time I tried at 50 yards it was a mess. It is not easy. Maybe it’s easy for you, in which case, great, but most of us struggle. Try a b-8 at 25 yards. If you’re not keeping all the rounds on paper at 25 yards (and I wasn’t), close in to 15 yards and work there. If you’re using a dot, go ahead and zero while you’re at 15 yards, Gunsite uses the 15-yard zero for pistols. Regardless of what sights you’re using I have some hard talk: it’s not the gun, it’s you. Your gun can keep all your shots in the black. If your shots aren’t all there, then it’s you.
It’s your choice whether to use one-handed or two-handed grip. I use a two-handed grip because I want to get good at one grip first. But slow controlled single shots with scored b-8s will help you. The progression of goals I heard was: All on paper, All in the black, All 8+. That’ll keep you busy for a long time, certainly til you get to Gunsite.
3. Low ready to Target
This is one I certainly slept on and have not put nearly enough practice into this technique. It’s dead simple. You can do it at pretty much any range. Point your pistol at the base of the target. Your job? Quickly and smoothly coming up and putting a round on target. Doing this on command would be best but even without a command or beep it’s worth doing.
This is a skill that has direct application for self-defense. If you are problem-solving with a pistol, and it’s not in its holster, you’ll probably have it at low ready. So why aren’t you practicing going from low ready to target? I didn’t have a good answer other than “Well it seems lame”. Maybe. It’s also important. I wish I had spent more rounds this way before coming to Gunsite.
If you’re using a USPSA-type target, or any cardboard silhouette, use only the upper half of the A zone. You will be training to hit the upper thoracic cavity to stop threats at Gunsite, so an “A zone” hit in the lower half of the body isn’t the goal. Use only the upper half.
4. Draw
This one is dicier. I hesitate to have it here but having the basics of a good drawstroke will let them turn your stroke into a better one and that I think is a good thing. So this is what I did, and I think this was a good place to start. Pat Mac again, it’s quick, but that’s just because there are no secrets just work. If you don’t have a developed draw stroke, you’ll do a lot worse than to start with his.
Adjacent Reading Preparation
This is a quick paragraph. Read Ayoob’s “Deadly Force, Understanding Your Right To Self Defense” and /or read Horne and Riley’s “Left of Bang” and/or read Miller’s “Scaling Force, dynamic decision-making under threat of violence”. These are all adjacent to what you’ll learn at Gunsite. Each of these books develop things that 250 will introduce you to but they just doesn’t have time to deeply explore. Highly recommend these three books. Entirely up to you.
Equipment Preparations
This is going to run into some money. No two ways around it. If you have no equipment other than just a pistol and are starting from scratch, I would estimate you will need to spend between 200 and 400 dollars getting this equipment. If you go low end, you can certainly end pretty close to that 200. The good news is that these are things you will continue to use or you can resell and bring the cost down. The other good news is you probably already have some of this stuff so that number gets down. Everything you’ve already spent money on you don’t need to rebuy.
Here’s the list of the things you’ll need to have to train by category.
Gun Gear: Gun belt, magazine holders, holster, dump pouch and a flashlight
Personal Protection Gear: Eye Pro, Ear Pro, Hat
I’ll go briefly over each category, explaining what I did and what I would do differently having been through the Gunsite 250 Defensive Handgun course.
I think you need to choose your general approach to this set of equipment. You can approach this set of required gear as a prepared citizen’s “Battle Belt” (BB), as a Competition Setup (CS), or as an Outside The Waistband Conceal Carry setup (CC). Use whichever approach you think is more your speed and need. I think the intro competition setup is the cheapest approach and one that will do you a lot of good so that was my main approach.
Gun Belt
If you are just approaching this as CC, you just need a sturdy leather or stiffened webbing belt that you need for any CC application. You’ll need to spend 40-100 bucks here. You might get away with a cheaper belt but this holds deadly force next to your body. I wouldn’t go too cheap here and a quality belt will last years. Look at the cost as “cost per year” and it’s not too bad.
For the other approaches, BB and CS, the standard has become a dual belt system. This is composed of an inner soft Velcro belt that goes through your pant loops and a stiff outer belt that connects to the Velcro. All of your equipment attaches to the stiff outer belt which you can take on and off as a whole. This means that everything (mag holders, holster, first aid kit, radio, etc) stays where you left it on the belt, and in relation to your pants. You don’t have to fool with belt loops or keepers or anything like that. Everything is where you left it and you can get in and out of it easily. These retail in the 60-150 ballpark.
I used Ben Stoeger’s Pro Shop and his double alpha academy belt for this. It worked fine. I chose this because of his excellent (and freely given) advice on YouTube that helped me with my marksmanship. It’s now my range belt; I use it whenever I go to the range. I went on the cheap side of this and it was fine. You don’t need to spend 150 bucks on this. If you’re trying to make the perfect BB and expect to carry more weight with more movement you probably want a more expensive one but you don’t need a lot here.
Magazine Holders
Gunsite requires two standard capacity mag holders or four if your mags hold 10 or fewer rounds. I would say three mag holders if you have standard capacity mags or five mag holders if you have limited capacity mags. That extra one is just a luxury, but it’s a nice little one.
Price wise it doesn’t matter which approach you’ve chosen, magazine holders will run between 20 and 50 bucks each. If you choose competition approach those mag holders are aimed more at speed and less at retention. If you choose CC they are aimed at concealment at the cost of speed. If you choose BB they are aimed retention over speed. I would say 70% of students had more concealed carry type magazine holders and 30% were competition or battle belt focused.
I used Stoeger’s pro shop for his universal magazine holders. I chose them because I already had to pay shipping for my belt and I only bought two because I was trying to keep costs down. They worked fine, I have zero problems with them. I wish I had bought 3, as a pair is a little light for doing actual competition. A nice benefit of these is they are truly universal, they use plastic leaf springs for retention, so if I change firearms the magazines will still fit.
I had planned to get another pair using Blade Tech and take 4 mag holders and compare them. I’ve used Blade Tech for my AR15 mag holder and they work great. It was just cost that said “I don’t want to buy and pay shipping again when I don’t have to, I’ll just stick with the 2 I have”. And it worked.
Holster
A quality holster will set you back between 60 and 200 bucks. There are a ton of models out there; your choice depends on which track you’ve taken. If you have a strong preference that’s great you don’t need me. If you don’t have an existing preference, see what most people in your track have chosen are doing and start there.
These days holsters, especially the kydex ones, are made for a specific make and model of firearm. This means that this holster has a smaller resale value so get one you will use. Universal ones tend to be too cheap for this application. The exception being nice leather holsters which can be more universal. Either way, you don’t want a 30 dollar padded fabric holster. It needs to be quality here.
I bought a Safariland holster secondhand. It has retention but that didn’t slow me down terribly. You’ll need to decide what features you want, with the exception that they are strict about NO SERPA TYPE HOLSTERS. I wouldn’t go too complicated here. If hadn’t had the opportunity to buy used, I would have gotten a basic side draw holster from T. Rex Arms. The people I know who have used them are happy with them. I own a CC one (that I couldn’t use at Gunsite) that I have no complaints about that holster.
Dump Pouch
Finally, a need you can solve cheaply. I found a military surplus canteen pouch that I used as my dump pouch. It was less than 5 dollars and worked just fine. You’ll never be that far from a staging area and/or your car. You just need something to hold empty (or partially empty) magazines from the line to your staging area.
(To be concluded tomorrow, in Part 3.)
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