I thought that I would start a thread covering this weekend's Shotgun classes taught by Michigan Defensive Firearms Institute.
Day 1 - Shotgun I
We started the day out going over safety rules for the class and a round of introductions. After that, all of us students were broken into two groups. It worked out to where one group was on the firing line running drills, while the other group was reloading, rehydrating, and resting.
Being a total shotgun noob, today was an eye opening experience. I always suspected that running a shotgun was more difficult then it looked. This is why I stayed away from shotguns for so long. Frankly, I was intimidated by the prospect of operating a shotgun altogether. So many choices in ammunition types, different control schemes for different models, I didn't know how to one reload quickly. Today, we mostly worked on shooting and reloading the gun. We were constantly pushed way beyond our comfort levels, and we learned at what point each of us would reach a point of failure, and do dumb things. I know I did some dumb things. I can't tell you how many times I fumbled trying to load shells, or work the gun incorrectly and cause myself a delay. I think that by the end of the class today, alot of those bugs were worked out. I certainly have alot of things to practice when I get home. The difference now, is that I know that I'm making mistakes, and I know what I need to do, which for me, mostly means speed and smoothness.
Before today, my plan was that if I had to use my shotgun, I expected to run my magazine tube empty, drop it, and go to my handgun. I now better understand the strengths and weaknesses of a shotgun. Because of that, I am beginning to have the confidence to be able to use it as a weapon to defend my family with.
If you have not, I urge you to take a class like this, and learn what a shotgun is truly capable of, and how to best use it.
Today was very challenging, and I expect Shotgun II, which we are taking tomorrow, to be much more challenging. I do, thanks to Tom & Trek, feel ready for what will be thrown at us tomorrow.
I am most certainly exhausted, and I am going to bed now.
Day 2
We did some warm ups consisting of drills we had worked on the prior day to refresh our minds. The rest of the day built upon the prior day's lessons. Everything that we learned on Day 1, was tied together in Day 2. We worked on engaging targets behind us, moving to and shooting from cover, shooting both right and left handed, we patterned our guns and worked on shotgun to handgun transitions.
When working on targets behind us, we were taught how to look first, then move. This was added to later by having multiple choice targets. These drills were for me, by far the most fun I had at the class. However, I'd like to stress, that it could not have been accomplished without all the ground work that was done prior to this.
A big lesson for me with working from cover was to keep as much of my body as possible tucked in behind cover, as well as our standoff distance from the cover itself.
When we started switching hands, I had never shot a long gun left handed before, and learning how to transition was the hardest part of that for me. It was easier for me to shoot left handed then I anticipated.
We patterned our guns, and several of us swapped buckshot and slugs around to each other, so that we could all try ammo that we had not brought along ourselves. That was a great opportunity. I discovered that one of the Federal Flite Control loads, and the Hornady Critical Defense performed best in my gun, while the Brenneke Home Defense Low Recoil Rifled Slugs delivered good performance in my gun as well. I have a ton of buckshot and slugs of less favorable options that I'm going to go burn through sometime this week to practice! I'll also be planning to purchase some more of my favorite slugs to sight in with.
Leading up to our shotgun to handgun transitions, we did some pistol shooting to warm up. I asked Trek about the grip that we were being taught, as I couldn't reliably reach the safety on my CZ-75 with my right hand. I have typically used my support hand to operate the safety, magazine release, and slide stop. Tom proceeded to pin my left arm and ask what exactly I was supposed to do to defend myself in that situation, and I could do nothing. I think that along with learning how to properly load a shotgun, that was my biggest take away from the class. I've been rough on myself wondering how I could have been so stupid and miss something so obvious.
Something that was drilled into our heads on both days was situational awareness. We were to do this by bring the shotgun up to just below our line of sight, so that we could see what we needed to do with the gun in our peripheral vision, while at the same time assessing the area for additional threats. We also stabilized and rotated the guns as needed to gain benefit from gravity and not to waste time with unneeded movements. By the end of Day 2, I found myself doing this while doing everything else. Loading side saddles while we were on break? Yup - scan and assess. My wife even asked what I was looking for when I plugged my cell phone into the car charger before we left for home...hahaha.
Thank you Tom & Trek! I look forward to future training!
Day 1 - Shotgun I
We started the day out going over safety rules for the class and a round of introductions. After that, all of us students were broken into two groups. It worked out to where one group was on the firing line running drills, while the other group was reloading, rehydrating, and resting.
Being a total shotgun noob, today was an eye opening experience. I always suspected that running a shotgun was more difficult then it looked. This is why I stayed away from shotguns for so long. Frankly, I was intimidated by the prospect of operating a shotgun altogether. So many choices in ammunition types, different control schemes for different models, I didn't know how to one reload quickly. Today, we mostly worked on shooting and reloading the gun. We were constantly pushed way beyond our comfort levels, and we learned at what point each of us would reach a point of failure, and do dumb things. I know I did some dumb things. I can't tell you how many times I fumbled trying to load shells, or work the gun incorrectly and cause myself a delay. I think that by the end of the class today, alot of those bugs were worked out. I certainly have alot of things to practice when I get home. The difference now, is that I know that I'm making mistakes, and I know what I need to do, which for me, mostly means speed and smoothness.
Before today, my plan was that if I had to use my shotgun, I expected to run my magazine tube empty, drop it, and go to my handgun. I now better understand the strengths and weaknesses of a shotgun. Because of that, I am beginning to have the confidence to be able to use it as a weapon to defend my family with.
If you have not, I urge you to take a class like this, and learn what a shotgun is truly capable of, and how to best use it.
Today was very challenging, and I expect Shotgun II, which we are taking tomorrow, to be much more challenging. I do, thanks to Tom & Trek, feel ready for what will be thrown at us tomorrow.
I am most certainly exhausted, and I am going to bed now.
Day 2
We did some warm ups consisting of drills we had worked on the prior day to refresh our minds. The rest of the day built upon the prior day's lessons. Everything that we learned on Day 1, was tied together in Day 2. We worked on engaging targets behind us, moving to and shooting from cover, shooting both right and left handed, we patterned our guns and worked on shotgun to handgun transitions.
When working on targets behind us, we were taught how to look first, then move. This was added to later by having multiple choice targets. These drills were for me, by far the most fun I had at the class. However, I'd like to stress, that it could not have been accomplished without all the ground work that was done prior to this.
A big lesson for me with working from cover was to keep as much of my body as possible tucked in behind cover, as well as our standoff distance from the cover itself.
When we started switching hands, I had never shot a long gun left handed before, and learning how to transition was the hardest part of that for me. It was easier for me to shoot left handed then I anticipated.
We patterned our guns, and several of us swapped buckshot and slugs around to each other, so that we could all try ammo that we had not brought along ourselves. That was a great opportunity. I discovered that one of the Federal Flite Control loads, and the Hornady Critical Defense performed best in my gun, while the Brenneke Home Defense Low Recoil Rifled Slugs delivered good performance in my gun as well. I have a ton of buckshot and slugs of less favorable options that I'm going to go burn through sometime this week to practice! I'll also be planning to purchase some more of my favorite slugs to sight in with.
Leading up to our shotgun to handgun transitions, we did some pistol shooting to warm up. I asked Trek about the grip that we were being taught, as I couldn't reliably reach the safety on my CZ-75 with my right hand. I have typically used my support hand to operate the safety, magazine release, and slide stop. Tom proceeded to pin my left arm and ask what exactly I was supposed to do to defend myself in that situation, and I could do nothing. I think that along with learning how to properly load a shotgun, that was my biggest take away from the class. I've been rough on myself wondering how I could have been so stupid and miss something so obvious.
Something that was drilled into our heads on both days was situational awareness. We were to do this by bring the shotgun up to just below our line of sight, so that we could see what we needed to do with the gun in our peripheral vision, while at the same time assessing the area for additional threats. We also stabilized and rotated the guns as needed to gain benefit from gravity and not to waste time with unneeded movements. By the end of Day 2, I found myself doing this while doing everything else. Loading side saddles while we were on break? Yup - scan and assess. My wife even asked what I was looking for when I plugged my cell phone into the car charger before we left for home...hahaha.
Thank you Tom & Trek! I look forward to future training!
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