There is a percentage of the population that has acquired perceptions that simply cannot be corrected regardless of fact or evidence. As an example an intelligent individual whom is an RN, has a couple degrees to include business accolades has routinely stated if she was confronted by a bad guy/gal she would shoot em in the leg. Say whatever you want to say you cannot change her mind. On the semi bright side she does not own nor carry a firearm. Recent events caused her to change her thought processes and take a CCW class and a separate shooting class with the goal to acquire a “self defense” pistol. Upon her graduation(s) and additional training she still stated she would just “shoot em in the leg”. Overwhelmed with frustration I finally asked her to have me stand at whatever distance she felt she would feel compelled to shoot the threat “in the leg” and whenever she felt ready to draw her pistol to engage. At 10 feet it was a no brainer for me to beat the draw and in a simulated fashion kill her. How fast can you cover 10 feet? As fast as you can blink; which is why all tactical self defense training is center mass shots again as Kerry say’s “for the most part”.

Being simplistic, I say again being simplistic, having the ability to put numerous rounds in a kill zone in an extremely fast and efficient manner at close distance under pressure negating or killing said threat. Numerous rounds in an extremely fast and efficient (accurate) manner. At contact distance to 30 feet. Yet you practice shooting one round, looking up over your pistol to see where you hit, lowering your head and shooting another round, raising your head to see where you hit again. Hey If I gotta get in a gunfight can I choose you? Step off 30′ and have some kid show you how fast he can cover it and then stick you in the neck with a Benchmade. Numerous rounds in a split second all on target to negate the threat. Not one. Numerous rounds. Then some more until I am positive you are out of the fight. Thousands of documented cases where opponent’s were shot dozens of times and stayed in the fight. Quit looking keep squeezing. Or pressing. Or whatever is currently in vogue that you do to a trigger to make it go bang.

Everyone needs continuing education in the evolving concept of Gunfighting. Problem is half of our instructors are, well, not so great! Pretty easy for a new shooter to get entry level instruction as there are a plethora of entry level qualified instructors available. A one or two day course however simply does not cut it; Gunsite 250 pistol course is a 5 day course and is awesome for the new or semi-experienced shooter. And, um, hey.. if you shoot 20 rounds at the range every other week you can call yourself “semi-experienced”. Maybe. The problem arises for the intermediate to advanced shooter to get an experienced educated instructor. The majority of these instructors seem to believe we are in Afghanistan and train as such; crawling over and under, jumping hither and yon, running for cover. No. My fight is at Walmart not Afghanistan. Was at the “highest level” pistol training course offered (supposedly) where one of the instructors keeps yapping about how he was a Green Beret Medic. No such thing. There are Special Forces Aidman (300F1) trained to the level of ER Doctors in the longest (and hardest) Special Forces Course in existence. Yeah I oughta know and yes it’s on my DD214. He is also a “pilot”, Hollywood stunt man, business expert, the list just does not stop and nor does his mouth. So anyhoo he has us at 25 yards, 75′, long way. Ok I get it. We DO need to be able to whack at 25 yards.. scenario is no cover, no retreat, we are in a fight to the death. So his instruction is to fire one round, skimmy hoople two steps right (using the special skimmy hoople technique), fire another round, skimmy hoople two steps left, fire another round. Gotta keep moving so we are harder to hit! Yeah. No. In the above scenario I’m not moving left right nowhere. In fact I am going to move toward my opponent in a fast and efficient manner while constantly pulling the trigger; let him him hoople skim left and right and I’ll simply ventilate him. Alot. Point being after you gain enough experience you need to evaluate and sift through information provided to you, keep what you can use and makes sense, and discard the rest. This same instructor was one whom said you do not need to ever look behind you AFTER your threat is down. Huh? What? Soon as my threat is not a threat I am checking my six FAST and if clear reloading with a full mag. I can do bad instructor stories all day long.. just do some checking and get some bona fides or talk to the guy and feel em out. Another “instructor” promoted himself as a hot shit Marine Force Recon (Mustang) and fooled everyone for a decade. Took one of his courses with my wife, sat in the car after, called bullshit. Chicken shit AR course of no value. Turns out he was a fraud. No one in the community ever asked to see his bona fides or DD214. And hey you don’t need a veteran to be your instructor either. Colonel Cooper used to only allow and hire instructor’s whom “have been shot at”. Sorry but that’s just dumb. What about the ex navy SEAL whom is now an instructor and has you skinny up a telephone pole and engage targets with your pistol? Say what? There’s an “instructor” whom hangs out at our local coffee shop. Calls himself “Reaper”. Really. Apparently was in the Army 3 years and claims his platoon gave him the nickname. The Reaper. My ass. Anyone having you call them the “Reaper” or “Terminator” or “Killer” is a wannabe. Stay away from em.
There is some serious talent out there to learn from and one of the better ones is Ernest Langdon. Look him up and take a couple of his courses. And no I don’t agree with everything he teaches but he is an awesome instructor regardless!

Booked a hunt in Utah for Elk. Operation was run by a family with 5 or 6 sons. Our “guide” (one of the sons) picked us up at the airport and during the 70 minute drive we came across literally 5 miles of construction cones on the freeway. He ran over every one of them. Intentionally. Said “that’s what we do here”. It went downhill from there. Shoulda coulda woulda had em turn around and take us back to the airport!

Same outfitter had six of us in camp and at dinner one of the “hunters” told us he came every year. Left his rifle there every year. Never practiced, ever. His arrogance was beyond the pale; while we were discussing tactics, checking equipment, dry-firing, and checking our zeroes he literally drank red wine and laughed at us. He did get his shot opportunity and shot an Elk in the ass which subsequently ran off never to be seen again. I find this individual and his ilk disgusting and literally reprehensible. A “Hunter” owes his quarry an ethical quick clean kill. A “Hunter” should know his limitations and be mentally mature and strong enough to recognize and adhere to his limitations.

Colorado Elk hunt the outfitter had three hunters with guides spread across the front of a mountain range overlooking a valley. Each A.M. a herd of Elk would come in off the plains and take a different path up the mountains. Elk went center and up; the hunter stationed “center” shot at these Elk eight times. I am not kidding. Really. Eight times. Shoot. Reload. Shoot Reload. His guide encouraged him to keep shooting! Didn’t hit squat. Elk backtracked down the mountain and bedded down in the plains, in the open, 1200 yards away or so. Smart Elk. They could hang out there all day with 360 degrees of visibility. They radioed my guide; we hoofed down the mountain and subsequently low crawled to a ridge 555 yards from the bull we wanted. One shot, heart. Done. I had practiced, had confidence, and knew exactly where my shot would be at 550 yards using that specific platform. That’s not arrogance; that’s confidence in my ability with that equipment after eons of practice. By the by that same hunter had an afternoon shot opportunity and missed four more times. There was a range not 5 miles from where we were and we could shoot during the afternoon lull; I very kindly offered to take him there and help him out. No way. Too macho. Too much testosterone. Had bragged about all the game he killed “back East”. After this I orally tortured the crap out of him with analogies from baseball on.. “yeah you’re a major league pitcher who just walked twelve batters” Guess what? Manager just pulled you out of the game hot shot.. on and on until he packed up and drove away. Good riddance. As an aside as long as he was running around shooting holes in trees and chasing Elk all over Kingdom Come the other hunters didn’t have a chance.. like my wife. So yeah; screw him.

We could do this all day but here’s some insight. Most “guides” are just locals whom know the “outfitter” and work on a part time basis. Does not mean they are experienced nor pros. How about the “guide” in Alaska whom pulled out a bic and lit it to see “which way the wind is blowing”. Umm.. we were in a 12′ aluminum boat which was skipping forward at about 8 knots. Which way do you think the wind was blowing?

Another guide whom was a quarterback on a college team and was called up (or whatever) to the “pro’s”. Played one play in one game and was done but FOR CHRISTOPHER’S SAKE every freaking minute of every freaking day was about him and his football “glory day’s” think Bruce Springsteen. He was 35 years old at the time. Drove a beat up old truck, was broke, divorced, and had nothing. Wonder why.

We hunted in Pike County for years and of course you have to have a “guide” to hunt. One year we were hunting Turkey’s and it started raining. “Guide” said we had to go in cause Turkey’s apparently beam to another dimension when it rains. We stayed out and bagged our two Turkeys. Yep they were wet and didn’t look so good dead n wet but a blowdryer before pics fixed that..

Canadian guide bragged up and down about how a rifle was just a tool the same as a hammer and NEVER cleaned his rifle. Then kept talking smack about what an awesome shot he was. Prior to the hunt we wanted to check our zeroes (demanded) and finally he relented. Shot our groups, all fine, zeroes good. Told him to check his; show us how awesome he is. At 100 yards he was not within a foot of paper..