Louis Awerbuck/YFA Pistol Refresher- DPRC Durham, NC- 9/2/2009 (With AAR, 5/21 Class)

[Fred Fuller]

From the email...

Louis and Leigh have agreed to return to the DPRC [Durham Pistol and Rifle Club] range on Wednesday, 9/2/09 to offer a one day Tactical Handgun Refresher class. The DPRC has offered us the use of the Pistol Pit # 1 range, (the nicer range w/shade and shelter), to host the class. I have attached the announcement/schedule. It may not be posted on the YFA website for a while as Louis and Leigh are still on the circuit for a couple of weeks.

If you are interested please drop me an e-mail and send your application and deposit directly to YFA at their AZ address. Thanks

POC for this class is Jim Parris- see the schedule at http://www.yfainc.com/schedule.html for Jim's contact info.

My wife and I attended the class on 21 May 09- it was a busy day with a lot of good work done. If you need a brush-up/rust removal for your pistol skills, this is a great opportunity.

lpl

 

[Fred Fuller]

-from the attachment to the email...

September 2, 2009 – Tactical Handgun Refresher Class


ALL COURSES ARE TO BEGIN AT 9:00A.M.
Limited to 18 Students/Class

Cost: Refresher Courses – $200.00, (Note: An additional charge of $10.00/day/shooter as a range fee is required to be paid separately on the day of the class to DPRC, Inc. for use of their facility.

Note: Total cost of $210.00 reflects YFA 2009 pricing including a separate charge of $10.00/day range fee for use of DPRC facilities.

Special Note: The course will be conducted on the Pistol Pit # 1 range between the Bullseye Pistol Range and the High Power Rifle Range on Wednesday, 9/2/09. The Pistol Pit will be closed to all but class participants during class range sessions.

Basic Requirements: Ear and eye protection, a safe, functional repeating firearm, ammunition, holster and/or sling and suitable carriers for spare ammunition.

Registration: Limited to 18 students per course. Prior course attendance or wavier is required for Refresher courses and/or Advanced courses. A $50.00 deposit is required for refresher courses. Applications and deposits should be sent directly to YFA at their AZ address.

Contact: Jim Parris at [email protected] or call (919) 417-3689 or write to P.O. Box 2689, Durham, NC 27715-2689. You can also contact YFA directly at [email protected] or (928) 772-8262.

INSTRUCTOR
Louis Awerbuck was Chief Rangemaster for the American Pistol Institute, (Gunsite) until 1987, where he attained the title of Shooting Master. An adjunct firearms instructor for the Marine Corps Security Force BN Atlantic and adjunct firearms instructor for the Central Training Academy, Department of Energy, Louis has trained students in the civilian and police firearms field and has instructed military personnel from various U. S. facilities. Louis is also an adjunct Senior Rangemaster at the current Gunsite Academy.

Louis is a graduate of all courses taught at API, the Satterwhite/API special weapons course and International Training Consultants Shotgun and Automatic Weapons courses, a member of IALEFI (International Association of Law Enforcement Instructors), and NRA Police Certified.

Louis served in the South African Defense Force and was a state level pistol and shotgun competitive shooter in South Africa. Louis is the author of four books, Hit or Myth, The Defensive Shotgun , Tactical Reality and More Tactical Reality, and he is the staff Tactical Consultant, with a monthly column on training and tactics, for SWAT Magazine.

 

[Fred Fuller]

I didn't find the COF (course of fire) for the refresher classes online anywhere. Neither was I able to find any AARs on the pistol refresher class already posted online. So I'll try to get a brief one put together here, based just on memory. We didn't have a sit-down classroom session in this class, it was all range work, and I have no notes (and no pictures either). My wife Fran and I both attended the second pistol refresher class in Louis' annual DPRC visit on Thursday, 21 May. The Wednesday class was bigger, it was almost full (18 students max). Ours only had 10 people. It's the first time we've shot the same YFA class together- when I took Louis' shotgun class several years ago, Fran did the support gig, and when she took Louis' carbine class a couple of years ago, I did the scut work for her (loading magazines etc.) This time we both had to load our own magazines etc.

Ammo load for this class was stated at 300 rounds, we carried a bit extra. Fran and I shot about that much each. The couple of students who were working with their concealed carry revolvers didn't go through as much ammo as the students with semiautos.

Louis started the class with a strenuous safety lecture. He always emphasizes safety first last and always in the conduct of a class, but unfortunately had a bad experience with an unsafe student in a previous class on this circuit. So safety was emphasized- and the consequences of being unsafe made very clear.

We did a lot of from-the-holster work, mostly at relatively short range, 5-7-10-15 yards. Ours was a pretty small class, 10 people give or take (we had a couple of students coming and going), so we ran two 5-student relays. All on paper targets, no steel, in Louis' inimitable style (targets always tilted and target frames turned at odd angles). We did the first half of the day on flat targets, the second half on 3-D targets made by folding two cardboard backers together and stapling one of Louis' custom printed silhouette targets over the framework.

We did shooting on the move, left/right and advance/retreat, shooting designated targets by shooter number which required avoiding shoot-throughs or hitting covering targets. This was on a 4-target setup with two in front and two in back, it was necessary for students to move laterally on the "Shoot!" command to open up lanes to hit their designated target without hitting the target in front or behind with shoot-throughs or missed shots.

We also ran the same drills with guns pre-staged to various conditions to cause the student to have to get the gun up and running under pressure. Louis is a past master at building drill on top of drill to complicate things for students and add pressure to perform. Of course it's nothing at all like the pressure that getting shot at induces- but it's still enough to give some students a bad case of the willies. It's as much pressure as some of us will ever see without actually getting into a gunfight. Learning to perform the basic skills under pressure is critical, and it doesn't matter if it's done in class or in competition, as long as the lessons are learned and confidence is built.

It was a good session, Fran and I both needed it. It wouldn't have been terribly demanding for a regular IPSC or IDPA competitor, for example, but neither one of us has competed for several years and it pushed us in ways we needed to be pushed. Neither of us had shot a Glock for a couple of years either, since Andy Stanford's Glock Summit a couple of years ago in fact. We both decided we needed a service pistol tuneup, even though neither of us regularly carries a Glock (I usually carry a J frame and Fran carries a KelTec P3AT).

We did some flashlight work at the end of the day too, as several students in this class had not tried out or adopted any particular flashlight techniques. In the Wednesday session, they did backup guns instead of flashlights- but in our session, only three or four of the students carried BUGs to class. Our class elected to work with flashlight techniques instead of BUGs.

lpl

 

[Fred Fuller]

Bump for edit to AAR