Close Range Gunfighting

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smince

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Gabe Suarez' Extreme Close Range Gunfighting

I took this course in Gadsden this weekend. I wish I could have taken something like this 20 years ago. It would have saved me a ton of ammo and a lot of money.

We shot at angles, to our sides, behind us, one-handed, weak handed, all while moving from the BG. His main theme is to "get off the X", that is to say, move so you won't be a stationary target. Ranges were from actual contact to about 10 feet.

We shot from sitting and from vehicles, and did some two-man tactics. Close to 500 rounds in two days. And we did Force-on-Force with Airsoft against each other. This really shows if the tactics work or not. And my right nipple is still hurting from taking a direct Airsoft hit even with a t-shirt and two sweatshirts on.

Shot my Glock 30 Saturday about 250 rounds. One malf, I didn't seat a mag in far enough. Shot my Colt Defender Sunday, over 200 rounds. I had two bad mags that I thought I had separated, but they got mixed into the good mags and as Murphy would have it, I drew both for one stage. They are in the trash now. Otherwise the Defender worked like a champ, too.

High cap mags aren't a bad thing. We found out that moving and shooting, you may miss.

Glocks and 1911's were about evenly mixed, two XD's, a Kahr, and a couple of SIG's in the class. A few AL LE officers, BASF security, a Doctor, an investment banker, couple of Army SF-types, a individual from the Dominican Republic, and a few regular guys like myself all terrorized Gadsden this weekend. 17 in all.

The Kahr and a Kimber Ultra CDP were very unreliable in this class. It wasn't a beginners class and a couple of people probably shouldn't have been there, but they kept up.

Gabe Suarez is a very good instructor. He treated us like adult customers or clients, not as a DI. He is serious but also interjects much humor. Not PC in the least. You wanted to listen to him like he was a friend that had something important to tell you. A very reachable teacher.

Even though this is my only class with a big-name teacher, I would highly recommend it. At the very least, buy his book or if you can afford it, the DVD on "Close-Range Gunfighting". Some of his techniques are controversial and wouldn't be accepted at IDPA/IPSC but I think are very viable for the real world.
http://www.suarezinternational.com/
http://www.onesourcetactical.com/index.asp
 
smince, congratulations! Now we need to get you in something like Kalashnikov Rifle Gunfighting(which is WAAAAY fun, especially if "Sonny" Pauzikas co-teaches), or something equally un-P.C....:evil:
 
After this class I would be curious as to your opinion as to the need for some type of point shooting to compliment your aimed fire skills.
Which type of shooting did you do during FOF?
 
We did do 'point shooting' at the closer ranges. When an adversary is on top of you (as in FoF), you can't use your sights. However, at the extended ranges (10 feet was our long range shooting in this class) I do remember using my front sight to verify I was on target, even if sometimes it was just in my peripheral vision. This was replaying the action later; at the time we were shooting I don't remember seeing it.

I agree there is a (limited) use for point shooting, but I don't think I would have been as good at it if I hadn't shoot thousands of aimed, sighted rounds first. I won't speak for others whose experience may be different.
 
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