Outdoor Adventure USA

I just got back from a week long Tactical Shotgun training class at Gunsite in Arizona. It is my second class at Gunsite, if you have not been I recommend it highly.

Hey! Where is the pile of dead bad guys?

I'm looking for them.... I'm looking...

Boy that looks like fun! Never realized you were left handed - or was that the requiement for this drill? Except you kinfe is in your left pocket. Have you booked your wife to attend yet?

toms wrote:Boy that looks like fun! Never realized you were left handed - or was that the requiement for this drill? Except you kinfe is in your left pocket. Have you booked your wife to attend yet?

Yep, left handed. Since all the folks at Gunsite are 870 fans (Hans Vang was hanging around the class), I was a target all week for shooting a Benelli... and shooting it left handed... all week long. lol

I am waiting for the 2009 class schedule to be finalized. Next March or April should have a Pistol 250 (for my wife) and Pistol 350 (for me) at the same time.

Notice the "earplugs":

Looks like a good way to get lead poisoning, especially if they go off!

I spent another 5 days in Paulden, Arizona (just North of Prescott), this time to take Defensive Shotgun 260.

Unfortunately, there are not too many photos as I spent much of the down time in between drills recovering and rehydrating.

Drills ranged from 7 yards up to 100 yards with bird shot, buck shot and slugs.

There were seven Benelli shotguns present... an M1 a couple M2s and M4s... a Mossburg and a bunch of 870s.





Hans Vang has a shot nearby and spent some time at the class giving advice... but mostly pimping his guns. He is quite the character.

We practiced American carry:


African carry:


Also low ready, outdoor ready and indoor ready. Of course there were many drills getting into a shooting position from all of the above.

We worked on 90 degree turns to the left and to the right. And 180 degree turn (left and right).


We started with "shoot 2, load 2" regardless of the magazine capacity to force people to practice loading under pressure. After a while it changed to "load what you shoot".

We did one day outdoor simulator, one night outdoor simulator and one indoor simulator.

Going in:


Looking for "badguys". No... I don't look comfortable in all these photos. Part of it is from sectioning the doorways without showing myself. And part of it is part of the process of learning. The instuctor follows the student and offers helps as needed. Different doors swung different ways. Some opened easily other swung shut.








We also practiced moving while shooting and loading while shooting.
Then shooting, moving and loading to and from cover.



And a little taste of working as a team covering each other as they move to and from cover points.



The Scrambler is seven stations with targets ranging from 65-110 yards. The record (with a a Carbine) 36 secs.

1st:


2nd, 3rd and 4th(prone from box on right):


I didn't get any photos of the last stations.

The final test:
Five single shots 1 target at 7 yards from low ready (total 5 secs)
Five single shots 1 target at 15 yards from low ready (total 7.5 secs)
Three shots 3 targets at 10 yards from low ready (total 2.5 secs)
Shoot 2, load 2, shoot 2 (total 15 secs)
Five single shots at 35 yards from low ready (total 10 secs)
Five single shots at 50 yards from low ready (total 15 secs)

The first ones were with bird or buck shot on steel and any hit counted. The last two were with slugs and on paper. Normal scoring rules.



The little blue box is a shot activated timer. It gave total time and splits for each shot in the sequence.

In this shoot-off we started seated. Jump up grab your gun and shoot the red or blue targets at about 15 yards (buckshot) but not the yellow "hostage". Then select slug and shoot the 50 yards target in the distance.

Traveltoad:

Those were great photos. That sounds like a great OAUSA adventure to me. How bout some costs and other info!!

DaveK wrote:Traveltoad:

Those were great photos. That sounds like a great OAUSA adventure to me. How bout some costs and other info!!

http://www.Gunsite.com

It is not an inexpensive place. But, it is oh, so much fun!