CCJA Basic Tactical Pistol 11/7/09 AAR Looong

Hi, New poster here. I promise I am not trolling for CCJA nor am I a plant for them. I want to outline my experiences from a Basic Tactical Pistol Course I took over the weekend.

Attn: Moderators, If this post in any violates your Terms of Service please remove it and notify me, Thank you.

I had the opportunity to meet Tom Perroni and at a training I attended in October. Tom provided classroom facilities and the gun range.

Tom was not teaching that course but he would go out of his way to help someone that may of been having issues, mostly with fundamentals. I saw him help one kid with thumb placement and he helped me with locking of my elbows. 30 seconds max with each of us and our shooting improved.

He had nothing to gain from this but he did it anyway and I appreciated it. I think that everyone he mentored that day did. In virtually every case it was not more than a minute or two he spent with anyone. All the while doing this Tom was very mindful not to appear to be taking over that class or being disrespectful to the instructors in any way.

After I met Tom I liked him right away. During the 2 days of the course whenever I had an opportunity I'd try to get within earshot so I could listen to him help others or talk shop.

I learned alot in that 2 day course in October but I learned something else too. I wanted to learn from Tom Perroni and his team members.

Tom has surrounded himself with some of the best in his business. Most, if not of them have special ops backgrounds and are contractor soldiers (with recent combat experience) or they are affiliated with 3 letter gov't agencies. Tom's no slouch either, his list of credentials is nothing to sneeze at. Tom also has very close ties to Black Water (yes, it is once again called Black Water).

I'll openly confess what I know about fighting with a gun or CQB techniques would fit in a teaspoon. I'm just a dumb old network engineer. The extent of my "tactical" training consisted of shooting at a one of those funny looking terrorist targets at the gun range.

When I learned that CCJA was offering this basic tactial handgun course I signed up right away. I had no idea what in the world to expect but I was absolutely amped up about going. Especially if the training was going to be anything at all like what I experienced in October which was my first taste of combat handgun training.

Friday night I got all of my stuff together and loaded it into my truck with the exception of my carry gun. I went to bed about 2030 but had a hard time going to sleep. I was wide awake at 0215 yesterday ready to go. I live in Southeastern VA and the course was in Fredericksburg which is about 2 1/2 hours away. I left home at 0430 and drove slowly up the interstate to Richmond.

I stopped at the Flying J north of Richmond on I-95 and had a huge buffet breakfast and gassed up my truck. I then continued to make my way the last 35 miles up I-95 at 55 mph.

I got to the facility at around 0800 and saw Tom's SUV parked behind the building so I figured he was there. I went in and went to their office on the 2nd floor and sure enough, Tom was there. He was busy tending to a few things but took time to talk with me and made me at home. The facility has complimentary coffee, tea, sodas, bottled water and snacks. I had a cup of coffee already so I was GTG.

Other students started showing up around 0830 as did the other two instructors. "Pete" is a retired Chief Navy SEAL and "Jade" a US Marine. Jade has a "special" background too. They were referred to as "former" during introductions but I was in the Navy and there is no such thing as a "former" Navy SEAL or US Marine. A US Navy Chief will always be a US Navy Chief. I made it a point to address Pete as Chief all day out of respect for his paygrade.

Before class started we were shown a video that without going into too much detail was dash camera video of a VIP escort detail. It took place in what was once a very violent city in Iraq. It was 2 vehicles and the first one hit an IED.

The camera video footage showed the operation where the detail "pushed through" as long as the damaged vehicle would run. You could clearly hear the conversation that was taking place in the vehicle and everyone was very calm and professional. While offloading everything they could from the destroyed vehicle the Mahdi Militia (Muqtada Al Sadr's boys) were walking toward them. A tactical relocation (retreat) takes place and the vehicle that survived the IED attack is hauling freight back the other way with it's cooling system damaged and all parties from the destroyed SUV safely on board. Funny thing is while all of this is going on you can clearly hear Ozzy Osbourne music being played from the stereo in the SUV (it's not an over dub). Someone that's in that room was a part of that escort detail but I won't tell you who. You gotta to take one CCJA's courses to find out. :tongue:

Sorry, but I digress. Tom outlines in great detail the sequence of events from the day in his post.

We were given a student guide of the lesson material that was taught in class and it is full of good stuff. Several interesting acronyms were used throughout the classroom environment. The one that stands out to me the most is "MOVE". If you don't know what it is you gotta take the class to find out. The most important classroom topics to me were the 5 steps to the draw, a detailed description of sight placement at different distances from a target and the proper position of the weapon after firing and the workspace.

We broke for lunch at around noon (can't believe people wanted to eat lunch!). We reconveined at 1300 in the classroom to sign release forms, tac up and then caravan out to the range.

The range was considered to be a 360 degree "hot" range based on the training scenarios. Our first firing exercise was shooting at "torture dots". Picture a piece of paper with 10 circles on it numbered 1-10. The circles are 1 1/2 inch diameter. The range officer would call out a drill "Place 2 shots in number 4 and 1 shot in number 9". You would assume a ready position and the range officer would call out "Shooters Ready" and the firing line would acknowledge "Ready" and the range officer would then call out "Contact Front". The firing line would acknowledge with "Contact Front" and conduct the exercise. We worked on this drill at ranges of 1 to 7 yards. I will continue to use this drill in my future range practice.

If you didn't hit the target they Range Officers would scream out "you missed, you owe me one"! I didn't know if they wanted push ups or what?! I finally figured out that if you missed an objective you continued shooting until you accomplished it. After you accomplished the objective you would return the weapon to retention and scan and breathe.

In typical NosaMSirhC fashion I was jerking the trigger and some times pressing down the front of the gun. Just a few seconds of tuning by Chief Pete and Mr. Tom and I was back on track.

After the "torture dots" we then moved on to LE targets for "Fail to stop drills". Typical drill was 2 center mass and 1 to the head.

Using the "workspace" we exercised on reloading and ensuring you have a topped off magazine in the weapon at every opportunity.

I have done one handed shooting before but have always been reluctant to use my weak hand. I actually shot better with my left hand than my right. We were taught that is because most of us didn't have any bad habits to undo and we took our time using the weak hand.

Fighting to your feet; man that drill is cool to train on but I hope I never have to use it. You start out on your back with your arms out and your legs spread as if you had been knocked down. You draw your weapon as you raise your head and fire 2 shots at the target. You then sit up and fire 2 shots at the target. While keeping the weapon on the target you come to your knees and fire 2 shots and then finally stand up and finsh off with 2 more shots. From a real world standpoint this was the most important drill to me all day. I always carry my spare magazines in a leather mag pouch on my weak side. We did this drill 4 times (twice with our fingers and twice live). I was unaware that at some point while lying on my back my last full magazine had fallen out of my mag pouch. While doing the drill the second time my gun ran dry and I had to reload. (CCJA training doesn't have "time outs" for you to stop and reload. You do everything on the go and all the while the instructors hollering at you to keep you on your toes) I had no magazine to go to because my last full mag was on the ground. I had 2 partials in my right pocket but was disoriented so I didn't think to go for one of those. Long story short, I was a dead man at the end of that drill. Learning in that one exercise that I needed to rethink my EDC gear was worth the $150.00 cost of the course by itself. Thanks Tom, you may very well of saved my life or that of a family member by putting me through that drill.

We also did shooting from our backs. This drill was pretty neat and I could see a real world application for it. It was also kind of hollywood to me because reminded me of when DiNozo shot Ziva's lover on NCIS. Difference is I'm more like MaGee than DiNozo (wish I was like Gibbs) and Saturday I had my G23 and not one of my Sigs.

Then we worked on Type 1 Type 2 malfunctions. That was cool because we had to correct the malfunction and complete the exercise. TAP RACK BANG. Type 1 and Type 2 malfunctions will now be a regular part of my training both on and off the range. We then did Type 3 malfunctions which are a RIP RACK FIGHT. Glocker's have it easier than most but there again you gotta go to learn the secret if you don't already know it.

Then we moved on to drawing with movement and they put somewhat of a twist on it . We drew as we stepped offline to the right and fired 2 shots. If you were reloading you had to move to the left as you did the reload exercise. It was a very safe exercise as none of us were close enough to one another to run into your fellow shooter if you had to reload during the drill.

Team shooting was very cool too. We started out at one yard from the target and all ten of us had to use our peripheral vision and walk backwards together while shooting at the target. Round count didn't matter and if your gun ran dry you had to shout "Im out" and do a tactical reload using the workspace and continuing to move. We got to do this drill a few times both moving forwards and moving backwards. (continued)