TDI report. Handgun I

[bottom shelf]

Welp, day one is over. What a day. It was about 73 degrees and sunny.

There were 29 students. 7 of them female. There were also 9 instructors.

Today included about 4 hours in the classroom, and the rest of the time on the range. Classroom instruction included a few words about their training philosophy, followed by Instructor introductions, and finally Student introductions. After that, the topics covered were: Legal justification for deadly force, Psychology of self defense, Skills training for at home, and what to do after the gun fight.

There was a one hour lunch break, then out to the range for the days drills. For the shooting, the class was divided into two groups of about 15 people each. One group was on the firing line performing the drill while the other group was loading mags. Instructor to shooter ratio was better than 1 to 2.

I got some VERY valuable pointers from the instructors. Some things I have been doing, they do differently. After trying their way, I like it better. Stance and grip are two of the things I changed. I have been using a Weaver stance for a few years. They recommended Isosceles since that is what the body wants to automatically go into in an encounter. I had never tried it before, but it only took 2 or 3 mags to really warm up to it and begin to prefer it.

Today's round count was 250. Most shooters fired between 200 and 210 I think. Two of us were shooting .40S&W. One feller was .45ACP from a 1911, there was one person shooting .357sig, and everyone else was 9mm.

The day ended with a cleaning clinic.

I'm not sure what we're doing tomorrow.

 

[mg.mikael]

Sounds like your enjoying yourself. Keep us posted!

 

[possum]

great to see members of this forum out there getting the training that they need but the training that few go the extra mile to get. i have trained with TDI and it seems you are having a good time, but more importantly getting what you wanted, and more importantly what you needed form the class, and it will get even better. they have a great program.

i agree iso stance is the way to go.

that is alot of students in a class, but it is good to see that they had plenty of instructers which comes out to be a much better student/ instructor ratio than other big time schools.

keep us posted i love to read aar's, if i aint training i want to be reading about it.

you were shooting .40? what kinda handgun etc. any issues at all that you encountered with the gun, ammo, mags etc.

 

[Oyeboten]

What and where is "TDI"?

 

[ramis]

What and where is "TDI"?

Tactical Defense Institute. Located by West Union,OH.

http://www.tdiohio.com/

They are within easy driving distance from me and I would love to take some courses there. Just need to save some money and buy the ammo.

bottom shelf, do you think you could do the level 1-3 handgun course with a HK P7 PSP without burning your hand off?

 

[bottom shelf]

you were shooting .40? what kinda handgun etc. any issues at all that you encountered with the gun, ammo, mags etc.

It's a pretty new XDm40. So far, it has run flawlessly except for the malfunction drill where the instructors load up your mags for you, but they slip a few empty cases in there to bring the gun to a halt. I'm shooting 165gn flat nose on top of 5.2 gns of Titegroup.

Since it is my first training (Except for the NC CCW course), I didn't know what to expect, so I brought along a lot of hardware. There's the XDm40 and also an XDm9, in case the round count combined with the aggressive checkering on the .40 started removing layers of skin. Just to be sure, I also brought an XD45 with a much more comfortable grip. (Lighter checkering)

I also didn't know if these old hands could stand up to the round count with a 7 pound trigger pull, so I brought along 2 Berettas. A 92Vertec and a 96FS, both with a 3 pound trigger pull. So far, it's been the XDm40 all the way.

Ramis, I dunno about the P7. For most of the drills, it would be fine, but some of the first days drills involved a high round count in a short time. That gas blowback system might really get tough to live with. The second day would be fine. The round count was higher, but it was pretty evenly spread throughout the day. Prolly wouldn't have gotten too hot today. A shooting glove would solve the P7 leaky gas problem.

Stand by, Possum. Day 2 report coming you way in a few minutes.

 

[YammyMonkey]

I did something similar with my first few courses- way overloaded w/gear, ammo, etc. But as it turned out I never had to worry about running out of ammo, mags, guns, food etc. I was also able to supply the group with a bunch of baby wipes for the pre-meal de-leading.