I attended this course on 27 through 29 June 2003. The class was held at Denny and Flint Hansen's range in Dewey, Arizona.
The facilities were excellent. The Hansen's have a nice range that would accomodate approx. 15 shooters. The berm is set up to permit safe fire in 3 directions out to 15 yards. The range can be extended a little past 100 yards. There is more then adequate parking, a moblie home that serves as classroom and restrooms. There is also an old house suitable for simunitions or airsoft training. The range proved easy to find from Prescott Valley and was a short drive (10 minutes) from a couple resturants.
The course started with about 3 hours of classroom instruction. Louis covered safety, shotguns, ammunition, slings and the administrative functions during this time. His knowledge of the subject matter is amazing. During this time he reveiwed what weapons everyone was using and told us exactly what difficulties we would have on the range. We also talked a little about tactics and the ongoing rifle/shotgun; which is the best defensive close quarters weapon? debate.
We then proceeded to the range where we fired some basic drills to warm up and see where the guns were shooting. Then we patterned our shotguns.
Day two started at 11:00 am with some warm up drills. We then zeroed our shotguns at 25 yards with slugs. We spent the rest of the afternoon firing drills alternating between slugs and birdshot. After a dinner break, we returned to the range for the night shoot. Louis demonstrated the use of the coaxial mounted light and the handheld light with the shotgun. He also gave a very good demonstration of the use of light as a weapon. Louis asked for a volunteer who had no history of seizures or epilepsy. I volunteered. He strobed his SureFire in my eyes for a few seconds. Then he told me to engage the steel plates about 10 yards downrange. It took a long time for me to reaquire enough vision to engage the plates, maybe 40 seconds to a minute. Then we repeated the process and I engaged the plates using my light. This was somewhat faster. But it proved to me that the bright light of a SureFire has definate tactical applications as a less lethal weapon in a CQB range encounter. While it didn't disable me, it slowed me down enough to make me a much bigger, slower target then I usually am.
On day three we started with some basic handgun shooting before moving into transition drills. We worked with transition drills until lunch. After lunch, we did some crawl stage two man movement drills. After doing the drills with both bare hands and then unloaded weapons, we moved to the old house where we ran a simulation using airsoft guns. Denny Hansen's daughter Ashley and Flint Hansen were roleplayers. The scenario was that you and a friend were watching the Super Bowl on the big screen TV when you heard your daughter screaming from a back room. The mission was to find her and get her out of the situation. This was very professionally done, with the Hansens filling their roles perfectly. I know from experience that it takes a lot of planning and work to make these types of simulations a good training event and keep them from degenerating into a free play "I shot you first! No you didn't! type game, which while fun ha little training value.
After the simulator we fired a two man movement exercise on steel. Then we received our certificates, policed up the range, and departed.
If anyone has read Louis's book or his articles in S.W.A.T. or other magazines and wondered if he's the real deal, let me assure you that he is. This was the first formal shotgun training outside of what Illinois requires in the mandatory firearms portion of the police academy that I ever had. I have always preferred a rifle or carbine because I have a long background with them, but I am confident I could fight with a shotgun nearly as efficiently as a carbine (within the shotgun's range limitations) after completing the course.
My thanks to Denny Hansen who sponsored the course and made the facilities available. Denny hinted that there were some upgrades to his facility in the works, it sounds like it's on the way to becoming a first class facility. And to Louis who had the patience with my ham fisted attempts to master the bolt release button on my Benelli M121 M1 and still teach me a lot in spite of the handicap it gave me. (If anyone knows where one of the modification kits HK made for them 20 years ago can be found, please let me know).
The bottom line is that if you want to master your weapon and learn to fight, you have to train. I am certain that I spent the weekend training under and with the best......
Jeff
The facilities were excellent. The Hansen's have a nice range that would accomodate approx. 15 shooters. The berm is set up to permit safe fire in 3 directions out to 15 yards. The range can be extended a little past 100 yards. There is more then adequate parking, a moblie home that serves as classroom and restrooms. There is also an old house suitable for simunitions or airsoft training. The range proved easy to find from Prescott Valley and was a short drive (10 minutes) from a couple resturants.
The course started with about 3 hours of classroom instruction. Louis covered safety, shotguns, ammunition, slings and the administrative functions during this time. His knowledge of the subject matter is amazing. During this time he reveiwed what weapons everyone was using and told us exactly what difficulties we would have on the range. We also talked a little about tactics and the ongoing rifle/shotgun; which is the best defensive close quarters weapon? debate.
We then proceeded to the range where we fired some basic drills to warm up and see where the guns were shooting. Then we patterned our shotguns.
Day two started at 11:00 am with some warm up drills. We then zeroed our shotguns at 25 yards with slugs. We spent the rest of the afternoon firing drills alternating between slugs and birdshot. After a dinner break, we returned to the range for the night shoot. Louis demonstrated the use of the coaxial mounted light and the handheld light with the shotgun. He also gave a very good demonstration of the use of light as a weapon. Louis asked for a volunteer who had no history of seizures or epilepsy. I volunteered. He strobed his SureFire in my eyes for a few seconds. Then he told me to engage the steel plates about 10 yards downrange. It took a long time for me to reaquire enough vision to engage the plates, maybe 40 seconds to a minute. Then we repeated the process and I engaged the plates using my light. This was somewhat faster. But it proved to me that the bright light of a SureFire has definate tactical applications as a less lethal weapon in a CQB range encounter. While it didn't disable me, it slowed me down enough to make me a much bigger, slower target then I usually am.
On day three we started with some basic handgun shooting before moving into transition drills. We worked with transition drills until lunch. After lunch, we did some crawl stage two man movement drills. After doing the drills with both bare hands and then unloaded weapons, we moved to the old house where we ran a simulation using airsoft guns. Denny Hansen's daughter Ashley and Flint Hansen were roleplayers. The scenario was that you and a friend were watching the Super Bowl on the big screen TV when you heard your daughter screaming from a back room. The mission was to find her and get her out of the situation. This was very professionally done, with the Hansens filling their roles perfectly. I know from experience that it takes a lot of planning and work to make these types of simulations a good training event and keep them from degenerating into a free play "I shot you first! No you didn't! type game, which while fun ha little training value.
After the simulator we fired a two man movement exercise on steel. Then we received our certificates, policed up the range, and departed.
If anyone has read Louis's book or his articles in S.W.A.T. or other magazines and wondered if he's the real deal, let me assure you that he is. This was the first formal shotgun training outside of what Illinois requires in the mandatory firearms portion of the police academy that I ever had. I have always preferred a rifle or carbine because I have a long background with them, but I am confident I could fight with a shotgun nearly as efficiently as a carbine (within the shotgun's range limitations) after completing the course.
My thanks to Denny Hansen who sponsored the course and made the facilities available. Denny hinted that there were some upgrades to his facility in the works, it sounds like it's on the way to becoming a first class facility. And to Louis who had the patience with my ham fisted attempts to master the bolt release button on my Benelli M121 M1 and still teach me a lot in spite of the handicap it gave me. (If anyone knows where one of the modification kits HK made for them 20 years ago can be found, please let me know).
The bottom line is that if you want to master your weapon and learn to fight, you have to train. I am certain that I spent the weekend training under and with the best......
Jeff
