Paul Gomez
www.Gomez-Training.com
Yavapai Firearms Academy Pistol/Carbine Course
5 – 7 June 2009, Sevierville, TN
This course was coordinated by a Sevierville PD Sergeant who has brought Louis Awerbuck into the area for the last 14 years. There were 11 students [six local cops, a lawyer, a doc or two, a security contractor and a bum].
A number of friends and colleagues have spoken well of Awerbuck over many years. I first read his book 'Hit or Myth' back in 1996 or '97 and felt it was, and still is, a very important work that belongs in the library of anyone interested in this grand endeavor of ours. As a matter of fact, Louis Awerbuck's courses tend to bring the students along the path of target design and use that is lined out in his book.
I ran a Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm with AmeriGlo Operator sights [.125 wide trit front and .160 wide plain rear] in a Leather Arsenal modified DDCS. My carbine was a plain jane M4 built on a Superior Arms lower and a DMPS flattop top end. I ran one of the CSAT/Paul Howe rear apertures from XS Sight Systems mounted in an A1 detachable carry handle. I used a padded VTAC sling on the gun and carried one spare magazine on my person in one of the bullets down/bullets rearward RM Holsters mag pouch that I had Jeff make for me several years ago.
Day One began with paperwork at 0815 and on the range for 0900. All targets on day one were flat paper. We started the first morning with pistol work to allow Louis to see where the students skill levels were and to allow the bad weather to clear out. Louis was adamant that people stop focusing on 'trigger reset' when running their guns. In an example of what I think is a great problem in our community, Louis was saying one thing while actually meaning something else. He was railing against holding the trigger to the rear, following breaking a shot, realigning the sights and releasing the trigger to the reset point. What he wanted the students to do was resetting the trigger much earlier in the process AND removing the slack from the trigger, so that the trigger was actually prepped & at the break point. I found this block to be particularly illuminating.
Much to my chagrin, I blew not one, but two head shots on the early stages of pistol work.
After lunch, we shifted to carbine work. We confirmed zeros an inch and a half low at 25 and moved into working holdover/offset. One thing that is worth noting is that at 61 years of age, Awerbuck's eyesight is damn impressive. I'll be 38 this year and I haven't been able to see 5.56mm bullet holes in a zero target at 25M for the last 10 years. Louis walks the line at 25M and gives corrections for sight adjustment! I don't know about his 'see speed' but his visual acuity is freaky.
On day one I ran a number of curved 20rd magazines and had several issues with properly seating the mag. It was quite annoying and in a glaring blast of the obvious I figured out what the issue was that evening. The curved 20rd mags feel just like 30rd mags when I go to establish a using grasp on them [I 'beer can' grip my 30s, when I do the same with the curved 20s, there is not enough mag sticking out of my fist to seat into the gun]. The issue never came up with straight 20rd mags because they feel completely different. I ditched the curved 20s for the rest of the class and the problem disappeared. The class host had a couple of TangoDown ARC-L magazines that refused to run in his Noveske. I added those two mags to my mix for class to see if the issue was strictly with the mags or if there was some sort of tolerance issues between the Noveske and ARC-Ls. More on the TangoDown mags later.
Day Two started with curved paper targets square to the shooting line. As the day progressed, targets were placed at various angles to the shooter and to the firing line to force appropriate targeting/shot placement to get hits into the 'deep meat'. Lateral movement, as well as advancing and withdrawing movement, were covered. Stoppage Reductions and Transitions to Handgun were introduced and integrated into drills. Additionally, we did some shooting at 50M and 100M to confirm zero. The training day ended with each student participating in a single shot carbine drill and a single shot pistol drill against an erratically moving target controlled by Awerbuck.
Day Three started with an array of complex targets and a series of drills where you had one shootable target and the rest were no shoots. Your goal was to figure out when you had a shot that could be taken without putting rounds through a no shoot at the same time. Of course, movement to change your relationship to the threat to allow appropriate shooting was part and parcel of the drill. Throughout the day students were given more complex and challenging problems. We opted to run through lunch on Sunday to end a bit earlier so those with 'miles to go' could get on the road sooner.
As others have said before, YFA classes are not high round count classes. Louis is very concerned with ensuring that every student gets feedback and improves. Additionally, he uses almost every bad shot or error as a teaching point so that everyone learns from every opportunity. We fired approximately 400 rounds of pistol and 400 rounds of rifle over three days.
I had an interesting issue with the TangoDown ARC-L mags. On a couple of occasions, the follower would stick approximately ¼ inch below where it should be, so that when the bolt was run, no ammo was picked up...Needless to say, this was not satisfactory. I spoke with TangoDown and they advised that I was about the third report of issues with the new mags. My mags are headed back but I am curious to continue working with the ARC-L mags.
The CSAT/Paul Howe rear sight is a very interesting concept and it worked well, on the occasions when I remembered to use it. I've run an AR long enough that it was very taxing for me to utilize a different interface with the gun [IE using the rear notch instead of looking through the aperture] than the one that I was accustomed to.
5 – 7 June 2009, Sevierville, TN
This course was coordinated by a Sevierville PD Sergeant who has brought Louis Awerbuck into the area for the last 14 years. There were 11 students [six local cops, a lawyer, a doc or two, a security contractor and a bum].
A number of friends and colleagues have spoken well of Awerbuck over many years. I first read his book 'Hit or Myth' back in 1996 or '97 and felt it was, and still is, a very important work that belongs in the library of anyone interested in this grand endeavor of ours. As a matter of fact, Louis Awerbuck's courses tend to bring the students along the path of target design and use that is lined out in his book.
I ran a Smith & Wesson M&P 9mm with AmeriGlo Operator sights [.125 wide trit front and .160 wide plain rear] in a Leather Arsenal modified DDCS. My carbine was a plain jane M4 built on a Superior Arms lower and a DMPS flattop top end. I ran one of the CSAT/Paul Howe rear apertures from XS Sight Systems mounted in an A1 detachable carry handle. I used a padded VTAC sling on the gun and carried one spare magazine on my person in one of the bullets down/bullets rearward RM Holsters mag pouch that I had Jeff make for me several years ago.
Day One began with paperwork at 0815 and on the range for 0900. All targets on day one were flat paper. We started the first morning with pistol work to allow Louis to see where the students skill levels were and to allow the bad weather to clear out. Louis was adamant that people stop focusing on 'trigger reset' when running their guns. In an example of what I think is a great problem in our community, Louis was saying one thing while actually meaning something else. He was railing against holding the trigger to the rear, following breaking a shot, realigning the sights and releasing the trigger to the reset point. What he wanted the students to do was resetting the trigger much earlier in the process AND removing the slack from the trigger, so that the trigger was actually prepped & at the break point. I found this block to be particularly illuminating.
Much to my chagrin, I blew not one, but two head shots on the early stages of pistol work.
After lunch, we shifted to carbine work. We confirmed zeros an inch and a half low at 25 and moved into working holdover/offset. One thing that is worth noting is that at 61 years of age, Awerbuck's eyesight is damn impressive. I'll be 38 this year and I haven't been able to see 5.56mm bullet holes in a zero target at 25M for the last 10 years. Louis walks the line at 25M and gives corrections for sight adjustment! I don't know about his 'see speed' but his visual acuity is freaky.
On day one I ran a number of curved 20rd magazines and had several issues with properly seating the mag. It was quite annoying and in a glaring blast of the obvious I figured out what the issue was that evening. The curved 20rd mags feel just like 30rd mags when I go to establish a using grasp on them [I 'beer can' grip my 30s, when I do the same with the curved 20s, there is not enough mag sticking out of my fist to seat into the gun]. The issue never came up with straight 20rd mags because they feel completely different. I ditched the curved 20s for the rest of the class and the problem disappeared. The class host had a couple of TangoDown ARC-L magazines that refused to run in his Noveske. I added those two mags to my mix for class to see if the issue was strictly with the mags or if there was some sort of tolerance issues between the Noveske and ARC-Ls. More on the TangoDown mags later.
Day Two started with curved paper targets square to the shooting line. As the day progressed, targets were placed at various angles to the shooter and to the firing line to force appropriate targeting/shot placement to get hits into the 'deep meat'. Lateral movement, as well as advancing and withdrawing movement, were covered. Stoppage Reductions and Transitions to Handgun were introduced and integrated into drills. Additionally, we did some shooting at 50M and 100M to confirm zero. The training day ended with each student participating in a single shot carbine drill and a single shot pistol drill against an erratically moving target controlled by Awerbuck.
Day Three started with an array of complex targets and a series of drills where you had one shootable target and the rest were no shoots. Your goal was to figure out when you had a shot that could be taken without putting rounds through a no shoot at the same time. Of course, movement to change your relationship to the threat to allow appropriate shooting was part and parcel of the drill. Throughout the day students were given more complex and challenging problems. We opted to run through lunch on Sunday to end a bit earlier so those with 'miles to go' could get on the road sooner.
As others have said before, YFA classes are not high round count classes. Louis is very concerned with ensuring that every student gets feedback and improves. Additionally, he uses almost every bad shot or error as a teaching point so that everyone learns from every opportunity. We fired approximately 400 rounds of pistol and 400 rounds of rifle over three days.
I had an interesting issue with the TangoDown ARC-L mags. On a couple of occasions, the follower would stick approximately ¼ inch below where it should be, so that when the bolt was run, no ammo was picked up...Needless to say, this was not satisfactory. I spoke with TangoDown and they advised that I was about the third report of issues with the new mags. My mags are headed back but I am curious to continue working with the ARC-L mags.
The CSAT/Paul Howe rear sight is a very interesting concept and it worked well, on the occasions when I remembered to use it. I've run an AR long enough that it was very taxing for me to utilize a different interface with the gun [IE using the rear notch instead of looking through the aperture] than the one that I was accustomed to.
