Course Review - PRI Handgun II

[BigPoppa]

Conflict of Interest Disclaimer – The following training review reflects a course I attended at a school that could be perceived by some as my “competitorâ€. While we do offer two (2) similar classes in the same region, I do not necessarily consider them a competitor, primarily due to geographic distance. Nonetheless, I post this disclaimer up front in the interest of full disclosure.

I have just returned from a 2 day Handgun II course at Personal Responsibility, Inc. (PRI) at Bucksnort, Tennessee. This is my second time through this course, and I plan on going through it at least once a year from now on.

Handgun II offers an excellent review of the fundamentals while introducing enough new material for novice shooters or for those whose only formal training is the HCP course. It’s also a comprehensive refresher and tune up for more experience shooters.

All of PRI’s staff are multi-session Gunsite graduates, and one PRI Instructor / co-owner (Ron Fielder) is now a staff instructor at Gunsite, so much of PRI’s doctrine is Gunsite influenced. PRI is an excellent opportunity to get the nuts and bolts of Gunsite level training without investing the time and money to go to Paulden, Arizona.

During the two (quite hot) days at Bucksnort, our instructors were Ron Fielder, John M.L. Brown, and Andy Veazey. Ron is a retired Metro Nashville SWAT cop, and John and Andy are both practicing attorneys. John is also the lead attorney for officer involved shootings for the Nashville Fraternal Order of Police chapter. This variety and depth of experience and knowledge is unusual and adds an extra element to PRI’s training. Just listening to these guys during the breaks makes your tuition worth it.

Saturday, Day 1, was a balmy 92 or so, sunny and clear. Most of Saturday was spent reviewing fundamentals such as stance, grip, proper drawstroke, trigger press, and administrative loading and unloading. Some of our classmates were either relatively new to defensive handguns and/or had developed some bad habits that had to be addressed. Ron, John, and Andy were patient with these folks and rather than saying “Do thisâ€, they were always “Do this and here’s why….â€. We ran through various marksmanship drills, and began to get into movement (lateral, backward, and forward).

While normally we create distance from an adversary, Ron went into why, sometimes, you’ll need to go toward the assailant. His description of the “second surprise†was the high point of the day for me. The gist of it is this………the bad guy is first of all not expecting his would-be victim to produce a gun in response. Following that, the bad guy is DAMN SURE not expecting his prey to turn into the predator and start coming TOWARDS him while shooting !! That’s the sweet psychology of giving the turdbag mugger/carjacker HIS “Oh SH*#%^†moment. I have always said that one of the advantages to training like this is that you get to see the true colors of your gun and gear. And by Saturday afternoon, a couple of my classmates had seen that their gun/holster/other gear was NOT what they would want to rely on in a real life gunfight.

Sunday was another warm one – 94 or so, and I couldn’t buy a breeze. But hey, I’m shooting and having fun. We took advantage of the morning’s relative coolness, and went into position shooting first thing. We shot from three different kneeling platforms, and from prone. John and Andy set us up with some malfunctions and stoppages that we had to fight through, fix, and get back in the fight. We also continued to polish our emergency reload skills. A shooting on steel tournament was conducted that introduced us to the mild pressure of shooting against a fellow student for time and hits. The tournament drill was set up to reinforce our skills in smooth reloads, good trigger press, and acquiring and acting against multiple threats. After lunch, we ran through some force on force scenarios that reminded all of us that bad situations can develop very quickly and we need to either get to cover or get shot.

Did I, personally, learn lots of new material in this course ? No. But new shooters would, as well as those who haven’t had as much formal training beyond the HCP course. This course’s value to me was the review and practice of the fundamentals, because, as we all know, skill at arms is quite perishable. This, along with Ron, John, and Andy’s sage advice, and “world view†made this a worthwhile endeavor for me.

I urge my HCP students to follow up with additional, quality training – even if it’s not from me. PRI has always been on my list of recommendations. It’s good stuff, and I heartily encourage any TGO’er who has a chance to get out to Bucksnort.

I'm headed back for Handgun III in two weeks. Stay tuned for a review.

[Guest Verbal Kint]

Good, unbiased, review. Thanks for taking the time to share your experience with us.

[GLOCKMEISTER]

Ron and John are great... nuff said!

[TGO David]

Thanks for the review! I'm very interested in hearing about your Handgun III experiences down the road.

[Guest macmonkey]

Thanks for the review. I'm going to take this course and others they offer next summer. Took my HCP there a month ago and loved it. Wish they were closer to Nashville though.

[tnroadrunner]

Does PRI have a web site? Cannot find anything on them. I don't live to far from Bucksnort.

[Guest CVille]

http://www.prifirearmstraining.com/

+1 for the hg2 class @ PRI.

[tnroadrunner]

Thank You CVille

[Guest tcampbell]

I've taken HG2..I will be taking it once a year also...great refresher course :-)

[mhm2a]

Thanks for the review...