Been here, done this and got the T-shirt

[A.J. Holst]

Close Range Gun-fighting, Randy Harris, Instructor, Suarez International

As close to an un-biased review as possible.

About Me:

I am 44 year old male and have owned and shot handguns since I was 21. I in what most folks consider a nice, safe neighborhood. It mostly is, other than a recent auto break-in, but had my son actually LOCKED his car, based on what was stolen, the kids would not have risked the sound of smashing out a window, it was crime of convenience. We have a pretty effective alarm dog and I do not have an arsenal of weapons. I acquired a permit to legally carry a concealed handgun a little over 4 years ago. I became serious about every day carry June 2008. During my waking hours, I carry my handgun 90% of the time. The other 10% it is within arm’s reach. Thanks to the encouragement, mentoring and coaching from my best friend, I can shoot my preferred handguns pretty well out to 15 yards and hit the target out to 25. I have competed in one IDPA match and didn’t finish in last place. I enjoy shooting and have the advantage of a private outdoor range 10 minutes from the house. I have never taken any type of professional handgun training and realized I needed to do something / anything to improve my skills beyond where I was.

Why and How I selected Suarez International:

I participate on the TN Gun Owners Forum and Randy Harris had posted to establish interest for any of the SI courses in my area. As I had the place, I thought this may be a good deal for me. So I checked out Suarez and Randy. The internet has a lot of information, but I am pretty intelligent, can decipher fact from opinion and competent enough to make a sound decision. Facts: Gabe has a “pastâ€; SI is still in business; SI has repeat student business; Randy Harris has an excellent reputation; from my class – SI does train current and former military some of whom do or did special stuff in service as well as LE-types. My biggest concern was the teaching environment; while SI promotes the attitude of “we are always looking at new ways of doing things to get better†you can still get a closed-minded Type-A instructor When Randy and I communicated regarding when and where, if the property itself was suitable, etc, he seemed pretty low-key, so I committed and we set a date.

Why Close Range Gun-fighting:

Speaking with Randy, this is the course he recommended when I described my skill level. On-line reviews were favorable and what I wanted to learn was in the course syllabus: learn to shoot better and learn how to put rounds on target while moving. Pretty low expectations, but this was my first-ever professional training, if my instructor was insane and teaching stuff I would never do or use, I wanted to get something out of it. Randy is NOT insane, he’s a pretty cool dude.

Gear

I ran my EDC gun, a CZ 75B Omega. Flawless operation shooting 700 rounds of 115gr FMJ Sellier and Bellot / WWB / Federal Champion. Other handguns represented were S&W M&P, Glock, SA 1911 and Ruger. Calibers: 1 - .45, 2 - .40, 5 – 9mm

Bonus: I brought an extra handgun on Day 2 and ran it through two drill strings (3 shots x 5 times) to function test (it’s new) and try my new skills on another platform. One of my classmates swapped between a 1911 and SR9.

What I learned: bring a mag loader, you will have the opportunity to shoot a MINIMUM of 500 rounds; if you run a 1911 – bring a lot of mags and practice reloads.

I used my 5.11 Tactical Casual Leather belt; do some research, find one you like in your budget and get a good quality belt if you don’t have one.

My EDC holster is a N82 (Nate Squared) Tactical. For my body shape and carry position, this is an awesome holster YMMV. Holster has a leather body shield and could be made better with a combat cut.

I used a Galco double mag pouch. For training, I do not recommend using mag pouches with Velcro flaps, it will slow you down.

For the most part, my classmates used what appeared to be their primary rigs and wore “street†clothes. Common-sense tells me that’s what I want to train with. Bonus: If you have other carry holsters you want to “testâ€, go for it, I used an alternate on Day 2 as did some of my classmates

ON TO TRAINING

Here’s the deal, this is close range gun-fighting, meaning the threat is 5 yards or MUCH closer; this training focuses on the close threat. The BG needs to get close to you to get your stuff – money, jewelry, women, etc. It’s not likely he’ll gun you down from across the street and then take his time looting your bullet filled corpse. SI preaches MOVE – MOVE - MOVE and I like it! Trading rounds with a BG like in the Old West or exchanging blows like Rock’em-Sock’em Robots is probably not the best survival tactics to employ.

Randy has put together an excellent article entitled “Pests Eat Fast†An easy acronym for avoiding and if it goes bad, a good way to survive an up-close personal attack. I suggest future students read it prior to class; once you see it in motion it makes perfect (and common) sense.

So far into training, we have not fired a gun. We are spending a lot of time on how to be pro-active in recognizing a potential threat and learning multiple levels to prevent anyone from drawing / employing a weapon all from Pests Eat Fast.

Then we did some shooting. The focus was on “back-to-basics†including proper grip, sight picture, alternative indexing, draw / ready position mechanics.

After lunch we then applied what we learned to moving and shooting, both one handed and two handed drills.

End of day recap and departed range. The gang met at a local restaurant for dinner, which I missed, thanks to an escaped dog...

Day 2 started with review of what we learned on Day 1. Today’s goal is to put it all together.

A lot more shooting…

I want to say at this point Randy is a great instructor. I had two safety violations, one muzzle and one trigger. Randy quietly came up to me and said, “I know the gun is empty (which it was) but let’s not practice ANY bad habits.†If anyone else had a safety violation, I am not aware of it because Randy handled it the same way, without embarrassment or ridicule. Randy also broke the class into 2 groups of 4 which allowed him more time to provide individual and personalized instruction and observe who was doing what on the firing line.

End of day recap and we all departed with new friends.

So was it worth it?

My expectations were met, here’s some stuff I learned…

I can shoot better and I can shoot on the move

My skill level shooting one handed with either hand has increased dramatically

I am better prepared to identify and avoid potential attack

I am more confident of surviving a close encounter of the bad kind

I am better prepared to protect my family

I liked my instructor and his teaching style / training methods

The skills I gained has increased my confidence to participate in more IDPA matches

I learned that cover is like a smelly friend, it’s better from 4 – 6 feet away.

Knowing what I know now, I will lean towards carrying a hi-cap handgun whenever possible.

Malfunctions can kill you; keep moving while you are trying to clear!

An empty and/or jammed handgun can be very effective when smashed into an attacker’s face.

The temps were in the low 90s with high humidity, future classes will be spring, fall or winter.

I will take another SI training course with Randy Harris

[frontier737]

Thanks for a well written review.

[Cruel Hand Luke]

Thanks for the kind words Gotthegoods.

Like I said in class, adults don't learn by being yelled at or by being talked down to. And I'm not the kind of guy who makes himself feel better by making others feel bad. That is just not me. I'm confident from what I can do...and have done....not from who I can make feel bad. If my mission were to make ME feel superior then I guess yelling at and making fun of the students would be the right thing to do. As my mission is to make YOU better, there is nothing to be gained by making you nervous or embarrassed.

The hard part is convincing guys who have "been around guns their whole life" to come to class. I have been around electricity my whole life....that does not make me an electrician. And many people think that simply owning a gun makes them competent and prepared to defend themselves and their loved ones in a life threatening situation. Yet one guy in particular in class who has been a lifelong shooter and even a soldier in the 82nd Airborne said he didn't realize just how much he did not know. So sometimes it is hard to get people to take the leap of faith and sign up for class. But those that did were all asking when the next one will be.

As to the gear folks used, a class like this is an excellent place to see just how well your gear and the way you set it up works in more real world type situatons. This is especially so when you use that same gear from concealment. So I look at the class as a "gear lab" where you can see whether your setup really works well for you or not. I have personal preferences, but we don't make fun of you if you don't use the same gear we do. We are not all the same and do not all have the same lifestyle or wardrobe and I'm down to earth enought to recognize that and not force MY solutions on you if they are not appropriate for you.

I really enjoyed teaching this class and working with this group. It was a pretty diverse group and I think everyone benefitted not only from the class material, but from interacting with the other students.

Looking forward to the next one!

Edited July 1, 2012 by Cruel Hand Luke

[TN-popo]

The hard part is convincing guys who have "been around guns their whole life" to come to class. I have been around electricity my whole life....that does not make me an electrician. And many people think that simply owning a gun makes them competent and prepared to defend themselves and their loved ones in a life threatening situation.

Very true.

[Fyrguy]

I was in the same class and can't say enough good things about the class. Looking forward to other opportunities (and getting some classes to middle TN).