Posted by
JohnKSa:
People would be better served by taking the following advice given earlier in the thread.
Originally Posted by AK103
...take both to the range, and practice as realistically as you can with them, and compare the results.
By realistically, I dont mean slow fire bullseye shooting, I mean drawing from how you carry the gun, and energetically engaging the targets (emphasis on "targets" too), in as many different ways as you can. This will give you the best idea as to whats going to work the best for you.
Yes indeed.
But--when I think back five and a half years, I wonder how much, had I read and tried to heed that advice with what I knew at the time, it would really have benefitted me a great deal.
Someone who had taken a two day defensive pistol shooting course strongly recommended that I sign up for it. I looked into it and found that I would be expected to bring 1,200 rounds of practice ammo.
When I thought about how much my hand would sting after shooting two-plus boxes at a time through my Airweight Centennial or my S&W M&P 9C, I got worried. And then I learned that students were to bring semi--autos only with spare magazines, and that full size pistols were preferred.
I compromised by acquiring a steel-frame .45 Commander-length pistol with an Officer's frame.
Enough about equipment. The course was shortened to one long day with a lot of shooting. What I learned, first and foremost, was how much faster people were expected to shoot in those classes, and with how much less precision, than I had ever realized. That was a real eye-opener.
I took another course last year--the I.C.E. PDN Combat Focus Shooting course.
I took a compact 9MM. We trained in shooting at different targets located at different but close ranges, in different directions from the shooter, balancing speed and precision according to the situation, drawing while moving. Another real eye opener.
The real point was that in the real world, one does not set out to "go shooting" with the target already in mind and to try to hit certain zones on a stationary torso target located at a fixed distance directly in front of the shooter. One must react to an entirely unanticipated situation, effectively and very quickly.
I strongly recommend that course, or the "home study" version, but there are a number of other alternatives. Massad Ayoob, Tom Givens, and Mike Seeklander (to name just a few good ones) all offer courses, and they travel.
I really do think people should make an effort to attend one of these courses, particularly before forming opinions based on preconceived notions about the supposed effectiveness of a particular kind of defensive handgun.
I ended up with a different pistol and a different type of holster after the PDN course.
