I attended Tom Perroni's Basic Tactical Pistol course on 11/7 which was taught at Commonwealth Criminal Justice Academy in Fredericksburg, Va.

I had previously taken a concealed carry course from Tom (about 4 years back) and liked his teaching style so I had wanted to go back to him for further teaching, but funds haven't allowed me to do so until now.

A little of my history, I've been a gun owner now for ~8 years and have never been more than just your casual paper shooter / plinker. I consider myself sub-par to average when it comes to your typical amateur shooter with no formal training. I had taken my first class (an appleseed event a few weeks ago) and really got a lot out of it, so i wanted to keep working on my skills. So after reading a few AAR's on the internet (all pretty glowingly positive), I signed up for the course with Tom. I actually signed up just the day before the course and Tom was great about returning my call and getting me all the info i needed to be ready for the class.

I showed up to the class @ 9AM and there were three instructors and 10 "students" there. Three of them were just back for requalifications, so that left 7 of us with training and range time with Tom's crew. Along with Tom, we received training from an ex-operator/marine and an ex-seal. Everyone was extremely friendly and knowledgable and willing to help. The class consisted of a hodge-podge of backgrounds, some with armed forces experience, some with a fair amount of training course experience, and some of us with little to no training.

The class started off with a couple of quick videos showing real world combat situations which set the mood quickly and appropriately. We then started the classroom portion of the class which started with safety. We then moved onto the combat mindset and the pistol grip (at which point we got our guns and began to practice dry). We then went on to talk about the draw, the combat stance, reloading, and the two most important parts of landing shots on target - trigger control and front sight picture. After a bit of dry fire practice and a quick analysis of our grips/stances, we broke for lunch @ noon. We reconvened at 1 and headed out to the range. The range is about 10 minutes away and is on 400 (800?) acres of land. We set up on a 25 yard gravel range that had been set up with wooden target holders for each of us. We then took turns (one by one) placing a few shots on small dots from 3-10 feet away so they could analyze any gross errors we were making. After this was done, we ran drills on these little dots. It was really amazing how quickly tom and his team got everyone up to speed landing consistent precise shots on target. It was very helpful for me to practice drawing from a holster and firing, as I had never done that before. After every session (3-5 shots) one of the trainers would critique your technique and give you something to keep in mind for next time. Because of this, i feel that i was able to rapidly improve my shooting throughout the day.

The next drill was right handed shooting, then left handed shooting. I had never known the proper technique to do this at all and was amazed just how accurately I could place rounds without ever practicing that before. We then ran malfunction drills (Tap, rack, fight, etc) which were very helpful to me as well, as i had never learned the proper way to clear a malfunction. The instructors then set up NRA silhouette (i believe) targets and practiced incorporating movement into our drills. We started with simple side to side movements and then moved to walking towards and away from the target while firing. We then practiced fighting to our feet, which was a fun and interesting set of drills. We worked a bit on CQB skills which involved quickly putting rounds on target, creating distance between you and the target, and shot placement. We also learned how to shoot from cover and got the opportunity to shoot on steel. The day concluded with us taking turns firing two shots on steel and if you missed a shot you were out. If you hit, you went to the end of the line and did it again, this time from further away. It really became evident to me how much my shooting had improved throughout the day because i came into the class pretty clumsy with my handgun and was amazed how easily and quickly i could put rounds on target at 25 yards.

I realize this is a pretty long write-up so let me re-summarize. The course was well worth the time and money it cost and i will certainly be back to train with Tom in the future (in fact, i'm signing up to take a carbine class in just a couple of weeks). I was very impressed with the quality of his training staff, particularly their friendliness, willingness to help, and ability to quickly diagnose a problem in your shooting and help you to correct it. Every single time i asked for more help, they spent extra time with me until i really felt I had worked the problem out. A fourth instructor showed up at the range, which left us with 4 instructors and 7 students, which gave us time for lots of 1 on 1 feedback. I feel that i learned a good set of fundamentals, which i can practice at home and can try to hone on my own at the range. In conclusion, i had a BLAST out there with tom and his crew and met a friendly bunch of guys who showed up for the class.

Thanks again to Tom and the whole crew at Virginia Commonwealth Criminal Justice! I highly recommend them to anyone looking to train, especially all you virginia shooters.

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