When and Where: 7 NOV 2021, Mayday Gun Range Oxford, OH
Who: Dave Spaulding primary instructor, Bucky Buchannen Assistant Instructor
What: One day class on what Dave calls the "combative" use of the Mini Red Dot Sight on a pistol. Not to be confused with the competitive use of the same.
My gear: Sig X-compact with Romeo 1 Pro and Wilson Combat grip unit. Comptac Warrior OWB holster, with open front concealment. About 250 rounds of Federal Syntech 147 grain training match ammunition.
Intro: I had been to a Dave Spaulding class many moons ago in South Bend, IN. It was so long ago that I was one of the first people he had seen in a class both carrying appendix and shooting a pistol with a slide mounted red dot. Obviously I knew who Dave was prior to that as he has a long history in the firearms training community. This current class was being billed as the last class under his Handgun Combatives banner before he retires. He will continue to teach on occasion but no longer as a regular thing.
I arrived at the nice indoor range about an hour early as is my custom. Dave and the other students started arriving a short time later. We set up in a classroom and got paperwork and some conversation taken care of before a 9:00 start time. There were 12 students signed up for the class. 10 showed.
Dave started right off by explaining that he and Bucky had developed this class because of customer demand, not because he felt a special class for MRDS guns was necessary. I have heard Steve Fisher say the same thing in class years ago. Dave further explained that he and Bucky developed the curriculum for this class independent of what others were doing and then went to some classes taught by others. Dave then went on to give his viewpoints on many things red dot related. He talked about liking auto adjust dots (somewhat of a departure from most instructors), the MRDS as a great raining aid even if you don't carry it, how important a proprioceptive index is for MRDS pistols, and the number 1 problem with using the MRDS, presentation. He also mentions how while being able to threat focus is a great benefit to dot guns, it still has to be remembered that the gun still blocks things about the target/opponent such as hands and waistband.
The classroom portion of the day would then focus on the history of the MRDS on handguns and the units themselves and set up. It is at this point that I would like to point out Dave Spaulding was actually an early expirimentor of MRDS on handguns. I remember when I went to that class with him years ago he had already been trying all of this stuff out after seeing Kelly McCaan work with it. When speaking of BUIS on MRDS handguns Dave says he is generally in favor of them but prefers a lower than true co-witness (I agree), and that it should be remembered if something is occluding your lens the BUIS may not be visible either. He is in agreement with most others and believes that the irons should be zero'd separately from the dot. We talked about alternative sighting methods and testing your gun/sight combo in all weather conditions. When speaking of brands, Dave says he has seen the most failures with Vortex and Sig Romeo sights. Again, I concur. Surprisingly to me, he likes the Bushnell 250. That is one of the few MRDS that I have not tried and you don't really hear much about them. As soon as I have another pistol that needs a dot, I will try one out. As Dave sees it the keys to MRDS use are 1) Consistency, 2) Deliberation, 3) Essential skills done the same way every time. An interesting side note Dave brought up is that his biggest fear with the MRDS is not complete failure of the dot, but an unexpected shift of zero. That would suck to still see your dot so you don't think anything is wrong, but suddenly you aren't hitting anything. He said he has had it happen. Dave wrapped up the classroom portion with a safety brief that was as follows. "DON"T DO STUPID SH^T!" That is pretty much in keeping with the no nonsense personality I have come to expect from Dave.
On the range we split up into two relays and started with zeroing. We were shooting on a 3X3 inch target at 10 yards. I was nervous to do well in the class and it showed. Typically I can put a 5 round group into one large hole at 10 yards but that didn't happen here. It got worse when the lady I was paired with put her rounds into one small hole. We then moved back to 25 yards where I was able to redeem myself. A few others had to do a fair amount of adjusting. Dave then had us shoot his chest cavity at 5, 7, 10, 12, 20, and 25 yards, I was settling into a groove now and getting more comfortable. After this it was a break for lunch.
Back at the range after lunch we started with the big reveal. This was Dave's method for finding the dot if it isn't in the window on Presentation. Dave likes the word presentation because it may not be just from the draw. It could be from a ready position, or after a reload, or from a downed or compromised position, etc.. Dave mentioned that a common solution for not seeing the dot is to squeeze the pinky to bring the dot down as most of the time if it isn't there it is likely to be high. He doesn't feel this applies all of the time though, so he has a different solution. It is actually quite simple but instead of me explaining it you can see Dave explain it (and me demo it) HERE. After that we went on to many of Dave's drills some of which you can find on YouTube if you are interested. We did his Orange Dot drill, his reset during recovery drill, dot to the edges of the window, 9 in 9 drill. A little side story on the 9 in 9. I have tried it before and found it to be much harder than it looks. When Dave announced it he said there was probably nobody in the class who could do it in 9 seconds. He then looked at me and said, "I bet you think you can?" I replied, nope. I am glad I said nope because although I had the fastest time, it was still 10.33 seconds. After this we did some fun command style drills and then the man vs man drag race. Because I am an idiot sometimes, I was the first person out on the man vs. man. I did not understand the directions and instead of shooting the required 3 rounds, I shot 9, 3 on each of 3 sections. Oh well, stupid is as stupid does. That was pretty much it.
We had a short debrief and were awarded certificates. By 6 pm I was taking my white knuckle 4 hour trip home to Coloma, MI via the Indiana backroads scanning for deer as the combines were chasing them out of the fields all around me. While it was a short class and I was familiar with most of the material I found the day beneficial. I actually am working with Dave's finding the dot solution in dry work extensively and using his orange dot drill every time I go to the range.
Who: Dave Spaulding primary instructor, Bucky Buchannen Assistant Instructor
What: One day class on what Dave calls the "combative" use of the Mini Red Dot Sight on a pistol. Not to be confused with the competitive use of the same.
My gear: Sig X-compact with Romeo 1 Pro and Wilson Combat grip unit. Comptac Warrior OWB holster, with open front concealment. About 250 rounds of Federal Syntech 147 grain training match ammunition.
Intro: I had been to a Dave Spaulding class many moons ago in South Bend, IN. It was so long ago that I was one of the first people he had seen in a class both carrying appendix and shooting a pistol with a slide mounted red dot. Obviously I knew who Dave was prior to that as he has a long history in the firearms training community. This current class was being billed as the last class under his Handgun Combatives banner before he retires. He will continue to teach on occasion but no longer as a regular thing.
I arrived at the nice indoor range about an hour early as is my custom. Dave and the other students started arriving a short time later. We set up in a classroom and got paperwork and some conversation taken care of before a 9:00 start time. There were 12 students signed up for the class. 10 showed.
Dave started right off by explaining that he and Bucky had developed this class because of customer demand, not because he felt a special class for MRDS guns was necessary. I have heard Steve Fisher say the same thing in class years ago. Dave further explained that he and Bucky developed the curriculum for this class independent of what others were doing and then went to some classes taught by others. Dave then went on to give his viewpoints on many things red dot related. He talked about liking auto adjust dots (somewhat of a departure from most instructors), the MRDS as a great raining aid even if you don't carry it, how important a proprioceptive index is for MRDS pistols, and the number 1 problem with using the MRDS, presentation. He also mentions how while being able to threat focus is a great benefit to dot guns, it still has to be remembered that the gun still blocks things about the target/opponent such as hands and waistband.
The classroom portion of the day would then focus on the history of the MRDS on handguns and the units themselves and set up. It is at this point that I would like to point out Dave Spaulding was actually an early expirimentor of MRDS on handguns. I remember when I went to that class with him years ago he had already been trying all of this stuff out after seeing Kelly McCaan work with it. When speaking of BUIS on MRDS handguns Dave says he is generally in favor of them but prefers a lower than true co-witness (I agree), and that it should be remembered if something is occluding your lens the BUIS may not be visible either. He is in agreement with most others and believes that the irons should be zero'd separately from the dot. We talked about alternative sighting methods and testing your gun/sight combo in all weather conditions. When speaking of brands, Dave says he has seen the most failures with Vortex and Sig Romeo sights. Again, I concur. Surprisingly to me, he likes the Bushnell 250. That is one of the few MRDS that I have not tried and you don't really hear much about them. As soon as I have another pistol that needs a dot, I will try one out. As Dave sees it the keys to MRDS use are 1) Consistency, 2) Deliberation, 3) Essential skills done the same way every time. An interesting side note Dave brought up is that his biggest fear with the MRDS is not complete failure of the dot, but an unexpected shift of zero. That would suck to still see your dot so you don't think anything is wrong, but suddenly you aren't hitting anything. He said he has had it happen. Dave wrapped up the classroom portion with a safety brief that was as follows. "DON"T DO STUPID SH^T!" That is pretty much in keeping with the no nonsense personality I have come to expect from Dave.
On the range we split up into two relays and started with zeroing. We were shooting on a 3X3 inch target at 10 yards. I was nervous to do well in the class and it showed. Typically I can put a 5 round group into one large hole at 10 yards but that didn't happen here. It got worse when the lady I was paired with put her rounds into one small hole. We then moved back to 25 yards where I was able to redeem myself. A few others had to do a fair amount of adjusting. Dave then had us shoot his chest cavity at 5, 7, 10, 12, 20, and 25 yards, I was settling into a groove now and getting more comfortable. After this it was a break for lunch.
Back at the range after lunch we started with the big reveal. This was Dave's method for finding the dot if it isn't in the window on Presentation. Dave likes the word presentation because it may not be just from the draw. It could be from a ready position, or after a reload, or from a downed or compromised position, etc.. Dave mentioned that a common solution for not seeing the dot is to squeeze the pinky to bring the dot down as most of the time if it isn't there it is likely to be high. He doesn't feel this applies all of the time though, so he has a different solution. It is actually quite simple but instead of me explaining it you can see Dave explain it (and me demo it) HERE. After that we went on to many of Dave's drills some of which you can find on YouTube if you are interested. We did his Orange Dot drill, his reset during recovery drill, dot to the edges of the window, 9 in 9 drill. A little side story on the 9 in 9. I have tried it before and found it to be much harder than it looks. When Dave announced it he said there was probably nobody in the class who could do it in 9 seconds. He then looked at me and said, "I bet you think you can?" I replied, nope. I am glad I said nope because although I had the fastest time, it was still 10.33 seconds. After this we did some fun command style drills and then the man vs man drag race. Because I am an idiot sometimes, I was the first person out on the man vs. man. I did not understand the directions and instead of shooting the required 3 rounds, I shot 9, 3 on each of 3 sections. Oh well, stupid is as stupid does. That was pretty much it.
We had a short debrief and were awarded certificates. By 6 pm I was taking my white knuckle 4 hour trip home to Coloma, MI via the Indiana backroads scanning for deer as the combines were chasing them out of the fields all around me. While it was a short class and I was familiar with most of the material I found the day beneficial. I actually am working with Dave's finding the dot solution in dry work extensively and using his orange dot drill every time I go to the range.
