Rangemaster Tactical Conference/ Polite Society Match

[Cruel Hand Luke]

I spent this past weekend working/attending/presenting at the Rangemaster Tactical Conference. The event is held at the Memphis Police Training facility-which is freakin' NICE. This is one of the PREMIERE training events in the country every year and all serious gunmen really should attend at least once.

Being on the staff, I RO'd the indoor stages of the match from 7Am to noon on Saturday. I was able to catch Steve Moses' "Dealing with MMA trained opponents" presentation, though I was getting over the flu so I just watched and took notes( but don't worry, I'll get plenty of practice when I get together with my training partners....). Steve covered likely attacks that MMA trained opponents will try to use and submission holds they will try to employ and ways to survive the initial attack and access your knife and escape. After Steve's presentation I went to Haney Mahmoud's "Responding to Active Shooters" presentation. He covered material in respect to closing with and dealing with active shooters and the moral,legal and safety issues associated. He discussed IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) and the fact that they could be encountered in an active shooter scenario.The shooters at Columbine had 26 IEDs between them on their person when they were killed.

Sunday morning I attended Claude Werner's "Shooting in Reaction Time" presentation on the indoor frangible range. Claude teaches at the Rogers Shooting School in Ellijay Ga. The targets used are the Rogers School targets- pneumaticly driven targets where the head rises and appears for a set amount of time and the target is engaged with the specified # of shots and then the head shot within that time frame. If you don't shoot QUICKLY you cannot make the times. After the class was over I was honored that Claude asked me to join him and Mike Benedict to "play" with the target system. We dialed the time down to 1 second and shot (or tried...) head shots from concealment at 5 yards in ONE second.

I then went to Tom Givens' lecture on 7 selected shootings that his students have been involved in. Tom has had close to 50 (yes 50)student involved shootings in the last decade. Tom therefor has about the best database of real shootings involving civilians in the US. I have seen this before in classes and at NTI , but it never gets old and i get something new out of it every time.

Afterwards I reported back to the indoor range to RO for a couple of hours as we got the last of the shooters run through the match course. Then it was off to the class room to do my presentation on "Dynamic Movement-Get Off the X". Afterwards the awards for the match winners were handed out and door prizes were handed out. Just as last year, it was an EXCELLENT event, a supreme success, and the greatest value in training available at $8 per instructor by the time you divide the #of trainers by the dollar amount the attendees had to pay to attend.

Here is John Farnam's review of the event.

24 Feb 08

"Polite Society" Event, Memphis, TN, 2008

I just completed the 2008 PS Event in Memphis, TN. Friend and

colleague,

Tom Givens, puts this extravaganza on every February, and it was, as

always, an

enormous benefit to all who attended. As last year, the event took

place at

MPD's Academy.

Shooting exercises consisted of three "situational" drills,

two in low

light, and one in normal, outdoor light. In the first one, you are

compelled to

engage three, armed thugs in a parking lot, using your car as cover.

In the

next, you are compelled to rescue your wife from armed thugs who are

attempting to kidnap her. Range in both exercises was four to seven

meters.

Flashlight use was optional. Targets were fully-dressed mannequins

that toppled

when hit. Targets were visibly armed and perniciously threatening.

"Non-targets

" were also dressed mannequins, but plainly represented no threat.

In low

light, you really had to look closely! "Hit-zones" were undefined,

and, for

most of us, multiple hits were required to take out each target. I

elected

not to use my flashlight, as the situation developed so rapidly. I

just

moved, drew, and started fighting!

A third low-light exercise required us all to fire at paper targets,

but

starting from supine and requiring the use of only the non-dominant

hand!

This

was designed to simulate being wounded and down and still having to

continue

the fight. Range was five meters. Many of us need to practice more

with

one-hand shooting! Rollins on your side works much better than trying

to arch

your back.

The outside drill required us to start seated in a car, then engage

two,

armed attackers out the passenger-side window. Then, the contestant

had to

tactically exit the vehicle, move to a brick wall, and, using it for

cover,

engage two more armed, thugs, the view of whom was obscured by an

unarmed

bystander. Again, targets and non-targets were dressed mannequins.

Range

was four

to seven meters.

The final drill was also outdoors and required each of us to shoot down

a

row of steel plates, strong-hand, support-hand, and free-style. Range

was

five

and seven meters.

I was armed with my Beretta PX4 (40S&W) and 140gr Cor-Bon DPX

ammunition.

Back-up pistol was my Rohrbaugh R9, also loaded with DPX. Pistol and

ammunition ran fine. I didn't deploy my backup pistol nor Cold-Steel

blades.

It was an excellent training exercise, and, as with the NTI, extremely

valuable, as each of us get to go into each drill cold, having little

idea of what

to expect. It is an priceless opportunity to test and evaluate

oneself,

under stress. The best way to approach it is to not think about

scores/times at

all, and stop worrying about what you think some evaluator wants to

see you

do or not do. You run each drill as realistically and tactically

sound as

you can, making what mistakes you will, moving on without hesitation,

and

charging through to the end. Great day!

There were many valuable classes this year, all instructed by my

personal

friends and colleagues, and I did my best to attend all of them!

TJ Pilline put on an excellent, live-fire Urban Rifle Class, stressing

optical-offset on close targets, particularly brain-stem shots at close

range. TJ

is an advocate for one-point slings!

John Hearne presented his excellent summary of FBI's OIS data. He

reminded

us that we're often too polite for our own good, and that we need to

look

upon VCAs as an entirely different species, as their capacity for

violence

and

depravity is virtually unlimited. John reminded us all that frequent,

stressful training is the key to victory, along with personal tenacity.

I

love

this: "Getting shot is no big deal. Getting shot again, because you

failed to

take decisive action, IS a big deal!"

"South-Nark" is the AKA for another of our instructor who presented an

excellent hand-on Class called "Managing Unknown Contacts."

We all learned how

to use posture, movement, and verbalization to maintain adequate

reactionary

distance and how to recognize pernicious duplicity.

William Aprill, best known for his excellent Retention-and-Disarms

Class,

this year spoke, in his capacity as a practicing psychologist, about

Post-Trauma

Disorder. He acquainted us with the latest information on this

subject as

well as treatment options. He stressed the importance of always

"staying in

the game," in order to avoid "fear and helplessness" that is the source

of so

much heartburn.

Henry Mahmoud and Steve Moses did a wonderful presentation on Team

Tactics.

He indicated that teams are often thrown together hastily, so each of

us

needs to have necessary tactical gear with us always, including a

serious pistol

and at least one reload. Henry said that five is the maximum number

for an

effective tactical team. More than that, and it becomes unmanageable

and

dangerous.

Andy Stanford talked with us about flashlights, assuring us that LED is

the

trend, and that conventional, xenon bulbs were on their way out. Few

know

as

much about low-light fighting as Andy!

Paul Gomez presented an interesting Class on the "Evolution of the

Draw-stroke." Paul never ceases to astonish me with his vast

historical knowledge!

Randy Harris showed us an excellent series of videos demonstrating how

to

put your opponent at the maximum disadvantage through aggressive

movement, the

kind of movement that forces him into aggravated muzzle whip.

Claude Werner, representing the Rogers School, showed us all how to run

the

trigger and move the muzzle onto target simultaneously. He also

stressed the

importance of catching the link, again, while the muzzle is moving.

Claude

personally demonstrated all this with his Beretta 92F. I'm going to

have to

drill myself on this so I can decide how much of it I'm going to steal

from

Claude!

Skip Gochenour had another of his classic "head-scratchers"

for us! Skip

talked about the concept of "Honor" and "Shame" and the way the two

influence our civilization. He went through the historical development

of

law

pertaining to the use of deadly force. He pointed out that in most

civilizations,

particularly the "Thug-ocracies" of the Middle-East, governments

insist on

an monopoly on the use of force. Citizens/subjects are allowed no

individual

discretion. Only in the "New World" do we see individual citizens

with the

right to defend themselves, even with deadly force, at their own,

personal

command and judgement.

Mike Brown, in his hands-on class, showed us all how to successfully

access

one's pistol while otherwise engaged in a physical fight. It can be

challenging, but Mike showed us some excellent tricks.

Mike Warsocki's well-organized mind took us, step-by-step, through the

exigent decision-making process. Mike explains the procedure in great

detail, far

more detailed than I had ever thought about.

Jim Yeager, as few others are qualified to, explained to us accessories

that

come in handy on a serious rifle, and ones that are more trouble than

they'

re worth. Like TJ, Jim likes a one-point sling. He is also a fan of

EOTech

and Aimpoint.

I highly recommend the PS Event to all Operators. Not to be missed!

/John

Edited February 27, 2008 by Cruel Hand Luke

[Im Neero]

I'm going to have to make it out to this one year.

[deerslayer]

I'm going to have to make it out to this one year.

+1

[Cruel Hand Luke]

The combined match scores are posted at http://www.rangemaster.com/ . You might recognize some of the names.

[molonlabetn]

Good stuff, excellent read!

[Im Neero]

It looks like some guy named Randy Harris didn't do so bad.

[Cruel Hand Luke]

Yeah, there is something to be said for that "Front sight, PRESS" stuff.

[gunsablazin]

Nice shooting Randy!

Robin

[Im Neero]

Yeah, there is something to be said for that "Front sight, PRESS" stuff.

Sometimes it disappoints me that it really is that simple. Mostly when I'm telling it to a new shooter and they start shooting as well as I do.

[Guest jackdog]

good read great stuff, would love to go to one of these.