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+1 for Spartan Group (and private lesson write-up)

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Short version

I really enjoyed my private lesson with a Spartan Group instructor and I highly recommend them.

 

Long version

I had attended the Spartan Group grand opening and taken an interest in Advanced Combat Pistol class. The prerequisite is to have completed RTSP Tactical Handgun, which is the highest level “regular” class, or equivalent training. I’ve taken my share of Gun for Hire classes (Urban Pistol 1&2, Low Light 1…which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to do a write-up on the Urban 2 class), but I’ve been shooting for less than  a year (about 5k rounds), and I wasn’t completely confident to claim I was fully qualified. I chatted with Tier 2 instructor Charles Mollineaux and he suggested beginning with a private class where I could also be evaluated for eligibility. I’d found myself becoming inconsistent lately, some days accurate enough to castrate flies at 10 yards, other days with shots all over the place. I figured it was due to not having fundamentals down pat, and I figured this would be a good opportunity to get it sorted out and scheduled a 2 hour lesson.

 

Fast forward to about two weeks later our session got started. I think he normally starts in a “classroom” setting, but because of my experience he offered we could go straight to the range. I brought a Sig Sauer P229 as my main gun and a Springfield XD9 as a backup. I brought three 15-round mags for the P229, and wish I had brought more. I’d often find my rhythm being interrupted by having to stop and reload, and next time I’ll bring five. If you have a lower capacity mag, e.g. 1911, I think you’ll want to bring a lot more to minimize interruptions. He started off evaluating my stance, draw and grip. Five minutes into the session, he was providing me with tons of great tips. Ten minutes in, I was wishing I had brought a note pad or something to write everything down. He was able to fine tune everything, be it my stance, grip, trigger pull, reloading, malfunction clearing, etc. I realized I never really had a consistent, repeatable grip. But he made a suggestion that helped tremendously, and that I’ll be able to repeat consistently. He noted I loaded my mag pouches with ammo facing backward. Never having been instructed on it, it just felt natural to me and what I’ve been training. He showed how reloading can be faster and more reliable under stress with ammo facing forward. That’s another thing I had been doing wrong. I thought understood the concept of reloading in my “workspace”, but he showed me that I had been doing it incorrectly. Most of the remainder of the session consisted of drills, where he would diagnose misses, observe what I did wrong, and suggest necessary corrections. I found this immediate feedback to be particularly helpful. He later incorporated 90 and 180 degree turns where one maximizes stability and minimizes unnecessary body movement. He also drilled on “scan and assess”, where I realized I’ve been doing more head turning as opposed to true scanning. I went through a lot more material than I was expecting within a relatively short period of time. I have to admit I don’t have much endurance in shooting. On range trips, I generally keep to about 125 rounds and only spend 30-40 minutes. After that I start to lose concentration and end up throwing lead downrange with no real benefit. Charles noticed me starting to run out of gas after a while, but kept pushing me. Fortunately, I caught a second wind and started to get back into it.

 

I had actually started to get discouraged with guns over the past couple weeks. First Drake, then Utah non-res permits, and it didn’t help getting zilch during the spring Turkey season.  I was almost getting ready to dump my guns on Bloomberg’s door step and take up knitting. Honestly, if I hadn’t already scheduled this lesson a couple weeks ago, I wouldn’t have bothered anymore. But I think it will make such a dramatic improvement in my shooting that it’s relit a fire in me. Thanks Spartan Group (and Charles), and I’ll be back.

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Glad to hear it was worthwhile.  Can you share some of the specifics that you think improved your grip and consistency?

 

I find your magazine direction to be an interesting comment.  I always stow them with bullets forward as that was the way I was taught, but have noticed sever people stowing them at matches with bullets facing back.  I have questioned those people, and everyone of them are military personnel and all state that is the way they do it in the military.  Interesting.

 

I have found (assuming they allow in a private lesson) that if you video yourself it provides a great tool in that you can rewatch and learn more.

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I've never been "taught" a particular grip and kept finding myself cycling through different versions. I check out forums such as this and youtube, and everyone and their grandmother has their own idea on what's the proper grip. Some say death grip pressure, some say firm handshake pressure, some say equal pressure from both hands, while others are 60/40 weak vs strong hand. So I would never be consistent in my grip and never really know what to practice. He advised me to grip with the upper half of my hands, which would naturally cause my elbows to open up outwards, which would help to soak recoil. I also had a problem with my upper arms/shoulders getting tired. If I were doing his grip properly, there should be zero tension on my upper arm/shoulder and all tension should be on my hands. When I did this I shot perfectly. At least now I have one consistent grip to practice. He was also helpful in terms of trigger. His method was actually different than I've learned from other people. He advised taking up the slack in trigger and then slapping it before it breaks. He considers this to be more of a combat trigger pull as opposed to a bullseye trigger pull, but again, I seemed to do really well when I did this. Another helpful idea was getting a firm grip on the gun, same as your shooting grip, before drawing it. I was probably told to do this before but I guess I've forgotten. I was using a Safariland ALS holster, and because of small hands, I tend to want to shift my hand to the left to better allow my thumb to reach the retention unlocker (or whatever it's called). Those are probably some of the more immediate things that come to mind.

 

And as far as mag direction, I can't claim any sort of military training. I just tinkered around with what seemed to be more comfortable and facing backward seemed easier. It's hard for me to explain in words, but he pointed out that if you have the bullets facing forward, you sweep your hand along your belt line and have your hand rest on the mag with your index finger resting lengthwise pointing toward the follower. You then remove the mag and effectively "point" the mag to the mag well. I found it very intuitive to load the mag without looking. And as far as reloading in your workspace, I was holding my hand too far away from my body which made loading harder. I'm probably not explaining it very well. I think he mentioned bullets facing rear is a common technique in the military for ARs, but I'm not positive. I've done zero rifle training, so I can't really comment there.

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Thanks.  Useful info.  I just tried what you suggested about pressure in the upper part of the hand and see what you are talking about, great tip.  The key thing is you feel you got value from the lesson and that is what really counts.  I am planning on taking their home invasion course.

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