Tactical Conference 2025
Some folks have said they go to the Tactical Conference because it sells out so quickly. Here’s the scoop for next year.
They’ll go quick so don’t delay.
SixFerShur 2nd Day
The first day of SixFerShur sold out faster than I expected. My host, The Complete Combatant, has kindly offered to host a second class on the following Sunday. If you weren’t able to register for Saturday, now you still have a chance to learn how to spin your wheels.
Sunday, May 5, Dahlonega, Georgia – Home Range of The Complete Combatant
https://www.shootingclasses.com/thecompletecombatant/course/?courseId=4493
One Day – $199 plus $20 Range fee
Important: Although a few exercises will be shot with small (J Frame ish) revolvers, this is NOT a J Frame course. You will need a full size (K frame or equivalent) revolver to attend. Shooting 300 rounds in a day through an Airweight J Frame only teaches one thing; how to flinch.
I was asked if a Ruger SP101 would be workable for the course. My answer is:
“If you can shoot 300 rounds through it in a day without developing a flinch, that’s the object of the exercise.”
Please be sure you can do that. What I want to avoid is teaching someone how to massively flinch.
https://www.shootingclasses.com/thecompletecombatant/course/?courseId=4493
SixFerShur
I will be conducting the 2024 Revolver Operator Course this May in North Georgia.
May 4, Dahlonega, Georgia – Home Range of The Complete Combatant
One Day – $199 plus $20 Range fee
Important: Although a few exercises will be shot with small (J Frame ish) revolvers, this is NOT a J Frame course. You will need a full size (K frame or equivalent) revolver to attend. Shooting 300 rounds in a day through an Airweight J Frame only teaches one thing; how to flinch.
https://www.shootingclasses.com/thecompletecombatant/course/?courseId=4493
The Pence Drill is one of the two keystone drills of the Revolver Operator Course.
Fair attribution: I liberated the SixFerShur title from Tamara Keel’s blog post because it’s hilarious.
https://booksbikesboomsticks.blogspot.com/2024/03/narrow-focus-cartridge.html
That’s probably what I’ll call the class from now on because “Revolver Operator Course” sounds so mundane by comparison.
Fundamentals and Training Aids (Part 1)
#fridayfundamentals
Revisiting the series about the Fundamentals of Pistol Shooting https://tacticalprofessor.wordpress.com/2021/11/05/fundamentals-of-pistol-shooting-part-1/ brings to mind the subject of training aids. Training aids are other pieces of equipment you will find useful for marksmanship and gunhandling practice. Your pistol shouldn’t be your only practice tool. There are a wide variety of readily available and inexpensive training aids.
An Inert pistol replica is the most valuable training aid you can own. Having a replica of your real gun is the best but it’s not absolutely necessary. This picture shows a small portion of my collection of inert pistols. No trainer worth his or her salt lacks at least one inert pistol for demonstration purposes.
The rubber 1911 is the first training aid I ever acquired. I carried it on field exercises when I was a 90mm M67 Recoilless Rifle Gunner in the Army and didn’t want to clean two weapons every time I came back from the field. I’ve had it for 50 years now.
The orange and blue camo inert pistol was purchased from WalMart for less than $10. If no replica of your personal pistol is readily available, at least there’s something that can be used. It also makes a satisfying pew-pew noise when the trigger is pressed.
A SIRT Pistol is a useful option but expensive. Only three models are available; Glock 17, S&W M&P, and a generic subcompact model that reportedly only fits a holster for a Springfield XD-S.
An inert pistol can be used in a variety of ways. Among other things:
- Draw practice, especially for those who are reluctant to practice with their real pistol at home.
- Checking the solidity of your grip by having a partner hold the front of the slide and try to move it around.
- Practice getting your pistol out of its safe storage location quickly.
- Introducing others to holding a pistol without intimidating them.
- Doing demonstrations without endangering others.
There are also a number of other training aids that can improve your shooting.
How to use these other training aids will be covered in future installments of this series.
Tactical Professor books (all PDF)
https://store.payloadz.com/results/337896-tactical-professor
Gunsite Glock Service Pistol
I find this development entertaining beyond measure.
A Commander style 9mm Glock with Optical sight and various other enhancements specified by Gunsite instructors.
The question in my mind is whether Jeff Cooper would have embraced this concept or viewed it as a “Rooney Gun.”
But as a lady was quoted in this article about Jews taking up arms in response to anti-Semitism:
“I’ve seen the way the world is changing,” she explained. “I need to change with the world.”
I hope her training includes some commentary about Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make.
https://store.payloadz.com/details/2617872-ebooks-true-crime-serious-mistakes-gunowners-make.html
Firearms are relentlessly unforgiving
Firearms are relentlessly unforgiving of the smallest lapse in attention or good judgement.
The shooting of a special police officer during a training exercise at a D.C. library came as the group of trainees had gathered to take a picture and were ‘joking around,’ according to court documents.
[The shooter, a retired POlice lieutenant], who conducted the training as a private contractor, was arrested Friday and has now been charged with involuntary manslaughter in Manyan’s death.
Before, during, and after training or dry practice, there’s no room for “joking around.”
One of the very first things I learned in the Army from the men who had just returned from Vietnam was:
F8ck around, f8ck around, get yourself or someone else killed.
It’s a lesson I’ve kept in mind for 50 years. RIP Officer Manyan.
Gun Training from Friends and Relatives
This is a good example of why “My uncle is a veteran and he taught me to shoot” isn’t the hot ticket.
Watching the video in slow motion and looking at the track of the hits, it’s fairly clear that every hit on the roof and back of his car was created by the homeowner. Negative Outcome. There’s a hit on the side glass that probably came from the criminals and started it all.
This story was sent to me by a friend from the original tip on Gun Free Zone https://gunfreezone.net/thats-a-lot-of-dumb-luck-and-spent-brass/. I agree with this commentary.
He is very lucky to have survived and to have not been charged with a crime for filling a neighborhood with bullets.
Suppressive fire has its place in a combat zone but not in your own neighborhood.
SSS Summit Roundup from Active Response
Greg Ellifritz wrote an excellent article about the Summit. I’ll just link it here for those who are interested.
Greg asked me to open the links to my Patreon articles about the Summit and those are now public. The links are available in his article.
Surgical Speed Shooting Summit 2022 – An Overview
Twenty-one years ago, Andy Stanford researched and wrote the book Surgical Speed Shooting https://www.amazon.com/Surgical-Speed-Shooting-High-Speed-Marksmanship/dp/1581601433 about combat shooting technique. He began teaching classes based on what his research had found. A number of people in the industry, myself included, became part of a group Andy formed to spread his knowledge.
Fast forward to June 2022. Andy organized a four day event, the Surgical Speed Shooting Summit, https://www.tacticalresponse.com/products/surgical-speed-shooting-summit to further update what he learned subsequent to writing his book. The event was held at the classroom and range of Tactical Response https://www.tacticalresponse.com/ in Western Tennessee. The purpose of the Summit was not only to update Surgical Speed Shooting but also to bring together a group of some of the top trainers in the industry, many of whom were not SSS related, to add their expertise to the knowledgebase. The final group of instructors was:
- John Holschen
- John Hearne
- Greg Ellifritz
- Michael Green
- Claude Werner
- Michael DeBethencourt
- Allan McBee
- John Johnston
- Karl Rehn
- Don Redl
- Lee Weems
- Melody Lauer
The first day started with a half day update of what Andy has gleaned about combat pistol shooting since the book’s publication. For the second half of the day, the group went to the range to shoot a few drills and see some targets Andy has developed for Surefire https://www.surefire.com/.
Day Two was spent at the Tactical Response classroom with each trainer giving a presentation of his or her own choosing. The topics all related to personal defense but did not have to be specifically on Surgical Speed Shooting.
On the third day, 47 students arrived at the Tactical Response range to begin training with the 12 instructors who had been divided into three different groups of four instructors each. The students were divided into equal sized groups based on an initial skill evaluation by shooting one of the Surefire drills. The student groups received 2 hours of training each by each instructor group. The instructors divided their two hour time frames among themselves to that the students received 12 total short blocks of instruction.
The final day’s range activities for the students were similar to the third day’s but the instructor groups were reorganized and the instructors had the option to present different material than they had on the previous day.
Finally, everyone returned to the Tactical Response classroom for a wrap-up of the Summit’s events. The instructors and students invidually gave examples of two things that they had personally taken away from the Summit’s training and presentations. As each person gave their take-aways, they were presented with a certificate testifying to their attendance at this historic event.
More about each day’s activities in the next few posts.
Special Forces Advisor – The Big Picture
#throwbackthursday
A long, long way from northern Iran. In the airspace over North Carolina, that’s where the story of any Special Forces advisor really starts.
Note that at the time this film was made, Eye-ran was not our enemy.
North Carolina or North Iran, a jump’s a jump. The same tension as you shuffle toward the plane door, the same big lift in your chest as you see that silk billowing out above you, and the same hard meeting with Mother Earth.
And one thing more that’s the same for any Army man who comes down in a parachute, even at a tactics class, one part of our course at Fort Bragg Special Warfare School. When he lands, it may be the safe ending to a flight but his job is just beginning.
You five students know your part in this exercise. You’ve been dropped presumably into enemy-held territory but guerillas friendly to us are operating. You’re to link up with the guerrilla force in your area, train them in the tactics which we’ve been teaching you, and follow through on a bridge destruction mission with them.
My book Shooting Your Black Rifle seems appropriate to this series of films. If you would like to purchase it, click on the image below.
tacticalprofessor 
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