As Pytron said, I hang out at FAS a lot. Marty & Gila are just plain
good people, and good instructors too. I've taken classes from both of them and have never walked away unhappy.
I've only been shooting for about 3 years now. I took my first class at FAS a little over 6 months after I began shooting. Here are some things I've written about their classes.
About FAS-2:
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=573147&highlight=FAS2#post573147 This was the first class I took from them and my shooting improved immeasurably in just one weekend. It went from abyssmal to merely bad, just like that!
About FAS-4: http://www.thearmedcitizen.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2053
About FAS-4 the second time around:
http://www.thearmedcitizen.net/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=20765#post20765
About their tactical matches:
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=561049#post561049 (that was the very first time I'd ever been to a match. I was such a new shooter that I flubbed one stage simply because I
didn't know what a falling steel plate looked like.)
http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=561049#post561049 (about one particular scenario at that first match).
The matches have changed a little bit since that time. FAS matches are now affiliated with The Polite Society. There are a lot more pure shooting stages and fewer stages that are pure tactics. The matches are a
lot of fun and a good time to get together with other shooters.
Classes I've taken but haven't posted much about:
- Defensive shotgun. This one-day class was a lot of fun and a truly excellent value at $95. Gila was the lead instructor when I took the course and Marty provided most of the demos. I still don't own a shotgun designed for defense, but I learned how to get the most out of the old dove-slayer my dad gave me and learned a bunch of stuff about shotguns that I'd never realized before.
- FAS-1. This one is evolving so much that I hesitate to say much about it. Since FAS has started giving away free handgun safety seminars, their entry-level class has necessarily seen some changes. I've assisted at both the freebie classes and FAS-1 and consider both of them highly worthwhile for the beginning shooter. Additionally, the freebie classes are a great, no-risk way to find out if the instructional style at FAS is for you.
- FAS-3. I didn't post a review of FAS-3 when I took it, because much of the class is composed of scenarios, and in order to say anything useful about it, I'd have had to spoil the plots for readers intending to take the class. Suffice it to say that the class is one of the most enjoyable I've taken, though I did get killed a lot.
I'm signed up for the Cirillo class in a couple weeks, and for FAS-5 in July.
Yeah, I guess you could say I'd recommend FAS.
pax
No one knows what he can do till he tries. -- Publilius Syrus
