AAR – Vickers Tactical Advanced Handgun Marksmanship
10/10-11/2009
Greenville, TX

Larry Vickers returned to North Texas this past weekend and conducted his Advanced Handgun Marksmanship class for 14 students at the Adrenaline Proving Grounds Range (www.apgtraining.com) in Greenville, TX. The students consisted of an engineer, academics (two university professor types), cops (both retired and active duty), managers, a PSD contractor in Iraq and a gun writer. Pistols in use were mostly Glock, with at least two M&P 9mms, two 1911s in .45 ACP, a CZ and one Sig P226 in .357 Sig. Gun malfunctions were few and mostly involved a couple of Glocks with modifications that didn’t pan out well. The weather was just barely OK. It had rained in excess of four inches in the two days preceding the class and although clear and sunny weather was promised by the weather astrologists, it remained cloudy, misty and in the 50s throughout the entire two days of training.

Larry doesn’t do this specific class very often and I had been after him to do this for some time after reading a review of it and seeing some of the drills and materials contained within the class. Those of you who have training time in with Vickers know that he emphasizes disciplined and accurate shooting responses over speed with the service pistol. This is clearly a product of his SFOD-Delta experiences and training and while some may question the approach, it’s hard to credibly attack the stance. The class is all about building a solid foundation of fundamental shooting skills and then testing those skills with a series of demanding drills from the standpoints of time allotment and distance. Those seeking a super high round count as a measure of a quality training course would likely be disappointed as we expended about 700 rounds over the two days and yet everybody left the range with their stern assembly dragging in the mud both days from the mental exhaustion of making every single shot count.

The class began on TD1 with an in depth safety briefing that covered how most training and practice on typical ranges doesn’t prepare us for real world confrontations. Also covered was the lip service given to firearms safety but the lack of a true lifestyle or value based commitment to true safety with firearms at all times, whether in training, practice, recreation or in actual combative situations. Some of us can recount way too many horror stories in this regard and LAV covered the ground well on this.

The fundamentals of shooting with regard to sight usage and trigger control were the beginning of actual range use and Larry has some solid demonstrations that show what is important and what’s oversold regarding these two. Suffice it to say, that sight alignment is important but not as much as pushed at times for most pistol shots. We had solid reinforcement throughout that properly managing a trigger is the most important shooting fundamental to be mastered. Vickers pointed out that it’s a lot easier to teach sights than it is trigger because one can be presented visually, while the other is a “feel” experience. It’s been my experience that most folks don’t know what a proper trigger press is and even fewer know how to teach it.

Larry has a set of trigger control training drills that I’ve now seen several times and that are among the best in teaching and diagnosing trigger control problems. Students in the class worked on them the beginning of both days. These drills, properly learned and executed, are worth the price of admission for a serious shooter or trainer of shooters. The drills are conducted with a buddy and can easily be adapted for one-man use in future practice sessions. Perhaps the best of the drills is one that actually allows practice of what Jeff Cooper called the “compressed surprise break”. I’ve heard the term and some basic description of what it is, but this one gives a student an actual experience of what that truly feels like in actual use.

Following the trigger drills and what was an eye opening experience for some over the importance of good trigger control over sight alignment, we were off and running on Larry’s training drills. Covered were the 1/2/3 Drill, one that I call the “200 Drill” that required precise one handed shooting from both sides along with increasing distances, reloading techniques, trigger reset with accompanying two shot drills and several more butt kickers. What really pushed us mentally was the use of an NRA B-8 bullseye center over an IDPA silhouette to force accurate delivery of shots on target under time pressure. The bull has a 5.5” diameter with about a 2.5” 10-ring and many drills were scored by the actual scoring rings. One young copper there (the offspring of one of the cops I worked with at my old PD for 25 years) learned that perhaps his LE firearms training wasn’t as solid as he may have thought once the heat came on in these drills.

Larry continued to increase the heat setting in the class by combining time and accuracy pressure along with reload and draw speed pressure in drills such as the Siebel Drill that combined a set of varied and stressful demands. The FBI Duel forced draw speed and accuracy while under the clock and again, while increasing distance in LAV’s infamous “walk backs”. Competitions amongst the class on these drills and others were frequent for hats and Larry’s improved version of the Glock magazine catch.

The class continued to be like climbing a mountain with the level of challenge increasing. On TD2 we reviewed the first day and repeated the trigger drills. We ran Ken Hackathorn’s “The Test” which is a great benchmark drill of a given shooter’s competence. The FBI Bullseye Course was the next major test that came up in a modified (read easier) version and then in the pure version that put all to the test. The final drill to be run was a modified Delta 700 Point Aggregate, properly termed “The Humbler” for what it does to those who attempt it. We omitted the prone stage due to muddy conditions, but ran the rest and this demanding course wore us down after running it twice. Debrief and tear down was done, certificates handed out and tails were dragged away to the house!

If you desire a truly intensive and demanding training experience that demands that you truly shoot a pistol well, you would be hard pressed to beat this class. It’s fundamentally sound and intensive beyond most folks’ experience and is well worth the time, effort and money.

Many thanks are due to Tango Down for the magazine catches and also to the Training Section of the Garland Police Department who handled the training credit for the Texas LEOs in attendance.

Wayne,

What kinds of distances were you shooting at the 5.5" bulls? Just trying to gauge whether I'd even be in the ballpark.

Chris,

We shot back to 25 yards and everybody is in the ballpark when they apply fundamentals like they are supposed to. I've always found that lots of shooters (especially pistol shooters) create their own reality of failing to perform well because something is "too hard". You hit with a pistol at mid and extended ranges the same way you do at close range: align the gun on target, press the trigger without disturbing that alignment and then follow through for any needed additional shots.

Larry was excellent at communicating this concept and showing just how important proper trigger management is in this process.

The whole class reminded me of something that Bruce said during a class he taught in Houston in November 2006 that jumped out at me. He spoke of us "allowing ourselves" to make a precise or difficult shot. I'm convinced that lots of our problems occur when we don't have a belief that we can execute fundamentals on demand and make a specific shot, whether it be a difficult and precise shot or one that we must make to save our lives under deadly stress.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Wayne Dobbs,

Larry is on my short list of training classes to take. Thanks for the AAR!