We have scheduled most of the classes we plan to offer through the end of the year. Weekday private lessons are available with Karl at the A-Zone, by appointment, on any gun, at any level, on any topic we offer.
It’s not too early to start planning your fall training. We have a packed schedule in September and October before our annual November/December deer season hiatus. Plan ahead and get registered for one or more of these upcoming courses!
SEPTEMBER – NOVEMBER CLASSES
We have a lot of training opportunities for all levels planned for the fall. Visit the KR Training website to get more information about these courses.
We have several of the core Defensive Pistol Skills Program courses coming up in the next 2 months.
Defensive Pistol Skills 1, coming up Saturday Sept 6 in a small class, 3 hour format, teaches you how to select and safely use a belt holster for concealed carry. Even if you only plan on “carrying in the car” or at home, a holster can be useful. My article on car carry in the NRA’s Shooting Illustrated explains in more detail. Every pistol shooter should have a practical holster for their gun – and mass market holsters sold in gun shops and at gun shows are typically low quality. You can spend the same money online from a quality vendor and get a much more useful, safer holster
Handgun Beyond Basics and Handgun Skill Builder are coming up back to back on Saturday Sept 20. These classes improve your pistol skills with coaching and drills to get you faster and more accurate.
The last weekend of October we will offer four of the coin courses on Saturday and Sunday: AT-2 Scenarios and Tactical Scenarios are only offered twice a year. These scenario courses use live roleplayers and simulated weapons to give students the opportunity to “do what they would do” in actual situations. In my opinion these courses are the most important classes we offer. You don’t have to be a great shooter to attend. Content is suitable for anyone at the carry permit level or higher. On Sunday of that weekend we will offer Defensive Pistol Skills 2, which focuses on armed movement in structures and shooting from cover, and Low Light Shooting 1, which teaches skills when you have weak ambient light, a handheld flashlight and/or a weapon mounted light. We only offer the Low Light Shooting class twice a year. Both of those live fire classes teach skills that should be considered essential for any armed citizen.
RIFLE COURSES
In September, Doug Greig will offer two rifle classes: Intermediate Rifle (and Pistol Caliber Carbine) at the A-Zone, and Midrange Mastery (50-300 yards) at his private range near Caldwell. The Midrange Mastery course is a makeup class for a session of this course that was cancelled and rescheduled from earlier this year.
CHUCK PRESSBURG “NO FAIL PISTOL”
Retired Army Ranger Chuck Pressburg will be offering his No Fail Pistol class at the A-Zone October 4-5. The class is an intermediate/advanced class focused on high accountability shooting for real world applications. The course would be an excellent choice for armed teachers and church security personnel concerned with active shooter defense, engaging targets at distances out to 25 yards in situations where missed shots are unacceptable. The course has received rave reviews from Eric Wise (Cornerstone Performance) and John Hearne (Rangemaster, Two Pillars Training). A few slots are still open in this class.
Here’s a 15 minute video where a recent graduate of the No Fail Pistol class provides an in-depth AAR.
STAFF & ALUMNI NEWS
Karl and Ed Vinyard attended the Knife Skills for CCW Instructors course put on by Greg Ellfritz at the A-Zone in August. This class was attended by instructors from multiple states (Florida, Tennessee, Missouri, New Mexico and Texas) to learn Greg’s curriculum for teaching knife skills to carry permit holders.
If you are interested in a half day introduction to Greg’s knife curriculum, contact us. We could offer that course in half day or full day version in December or January.
Thomas Rodriguez competed in the Rocky Mountain 3-Gun match. I loaned Thomas a 2011 in .45 ACP and gave him some pre-match coaching. He finished top 3 in “heavy scope” division and top senior in the overall match.
DISCOUNT CODES
I have collected up all the discount codes we have set up with vendors we recommend. Alumni of KR Training classes will find them in the monthly e-news email. You’ll have to open the email and scroll to the bottom to find them. It’s a reward for actually opening and reading the email!
REFRESHER DEALS
Re-take any class you’ve taken before for half price! Contact me to get the alumni discount code. Firearms skills deteriorate without practice. Most ranges don’t allow drawing from a holster, shooting quickly, moving or shooting from cover. If you don’t practice the skills you learned in class, they won’t be there when you need them.
Great video from PHLster showing their tests of car holsters.
This video compiles match footage and other clips to give the history of practical shooting in Canada. It’s a great overview showing how equipment, stages, and shooting techniques have evolved and changed.
MUSIC VIDEOS OF THE MONTH
This month’s videos are from the Black Cat Choir at SD’s Roadhouse (formerly the Stone Cellar) in Round Top, Texas. Both feature all the players in the band on extended jams: SRV’s “Tin Pan Alley” and a jam on the end of “Long Train Runnin”.
We’ve had an unusually high number of basic level students train with us in 2025, but their interest in higher level classes, particularly those focusing on carrying on body outside home, has been low. In response to that trend, I modified our old Home Defense Tactics course into the new Home Defense Tactics and Shooting Skills course. Instead of teaching home defense with inert plastic guns (often called “red guns” or “blue guns”) in a student’s home, I teach the same skills in the A-Zone classroom building with the inert guns and add an extra hour of live fire drills. Part of my curriculum development work for the live fire drills was to go to the range and shoot the drills I planned to use in the course. Here are two short videos that show a progression of drills from simple to complex.
The Demo Videos
I used my Taurus G3 with iron sights and its factory storage box to represent the equipment that a budget-limited home defense handgun owner might have. Every drill would start by retrieving the handgun from the box, as it might be stored in the home.
For the first video, a “Shoot Steel” target replacement center was used. I created this paper overlay to use with the Shoot Steel company’s cardboard targets, which I like better than USPSA or IDPA targets for defensive pistol practice. The Shoot Steel cardboard target has a smaller “A-Zone” and more realistic features, including a head area that includes a neck and ears instead of a simple square “head box”.
I should have used an actual ShootSteel cardboard target for the videos, but I just grabbed a shot up USPSA target, taped one of my target centers on it, and got to work.
Video #1 shows a progression of drills:
Retrieve gun, fire 3 rounds high chest (body)
Retrieve gun, move to cover, fire 2 rounds body, 2 rounds head
Retrieve gun, move to cover, fire 2 rounds body, retreat behind cover, assess, fire 2 rounds head
Video #2 uses two targets, one photorealistic, the other a ShootSteel target with a weapon overlay. With that target I also drew “hands up” on the back side, making it a no shoot if flipped around.
Retrieve gun from box, fire 2 rounds to the body on the close target while moving to cover. From cover, lean out, fire one to the head on the close target. From opposite side of cover, engage the farther target.
Retrieve gun from box. Point muzzle down while moving to cover to avoid muzzling the no-shoot. From left side of the cover, engage the far threat. Retreat to cover & assess. Re-engage the far threat if necesssary.
Retrieve gun from box. Avert muzzle while passing no-shoot. From left side of the cover, engage the far threat. Avert muzzle again, step out from cover, shooting around the no-shoot, re-engage the far target.
The idea behind these drills is simulate a family member coming down a hallway toward you, while you are in a safe room or at least near a doorway you can use as concealment or a heavier piece of furniture that might serve as actual cover. You don’t want to point your gun at the family member as you are moving. The final drill simulates the far target moving to put your family member between him and your gun, forcing you to step out from cover to get a clear shot at the far threat. In a perfect world that far threat target would be on a rolling target stand (or indoor range target carrier) moving toward you during that final drill.
In the actual course there are additional drills, run between those in the Part 1 and Part 2 videos, to build the skills necessary for the Part 2 drills. I shot the drills at “student speed”, so those watching the videos could get an idea of what is considered acceptable speed and accuracy.
How I made the videos
I used my iPhone and my LongShot Ranger camera.
The Ranger is intended to be placed downrange near the target when shooting at longer distances (I’ve used it for 25 yard pistol zeroing and rifle training from 25-100 yards). Using its own WiFi server it can send real time video to your phone to eliminate lots of walking back and forth to inspect hits on your target. The app also has a feature where it can record video from both the Ranger and your phone’s camera.
The vertical video was recorded with the Ranger’s camera, and the widescreen was recorded using my iPhone’s camera. I imported that video into Magix’ Vegas software, merged all the takes of many drills together into one file, and then cropped that file twice, to create two separate sync’ed videos I could blend into a single view, with captions and inserted still photos. I think instructional videos should have captions, so that those watching with the sound off can follow the action – and I believe that scripted captions work better for short videos than captions auto-generated from the video soundtrack. I did add a narration track, but due to the video length limitations on Instagram, it has less information than the captions do.
We’ve held a few sessions of the Home Defense Shooting Skills course this year, typically as an afternoon course held immediately after our popular Basic Pistol course. If there’s interest from the students in our upcoming October 2025 basic course, we have room in the schedule to add a session of this course. In 2026 we will offer it or the related Personal Tactics Skills course as follow on courses with all our basic pistol classes.
I was a recent guest on the “That Weems Guy” podcast discussing the problems I’ve observed students have with traditional double action handguns. Ernest Langdon was the other guest, covering the advantages from his perspective. The full podcast episode is here
Langdon has put together a great set of instructional online programs addressing different common questions related to gun ownership and concealed carry. He mentions them in the podcast. They are available at this site https://lttdiscover.com
For those that read faster than they can listen and prefer blog posts to podcasts, here’s a summary with some background information and extended discussion.
How Does a Traditional Double Action Pistol Work?
Advocates of this design refer to it as “traditional double action” (TDA). Many also use the term Double Action/Single Action (DA/SA). The gun was designed to be carried with a round chambered, with the hammer lowered using a decocking lever that makes the gun safe to carry (or have ready for home defense). That means that the trigger pull for the first shot will perform two actions: cocking the hammer and releasing it. For follow up shots, the cycling of the slide cocks the hammer for the user, so those rounds are fired in single action mode.
Typical factory double action trigger pulls can be 10-12 pounds, but action work or installation of modified parts can lower it to 6 pounds. Some duty/carry trigger modifications lower the single action trigger to 3-4 pounds. Many TDA guns used in competition have the single action trigger lowered below 3 pounds. Generally, people shoot shorter, lighter trigger pulls better than long, heavy triggers.
I’ve been teaching the Texas License to Carry course since 1995.
The shooting qualification test has 23 separate strings, each starting from a ready position. The way this course of fire is supposed to be run is that shooters using TDA guns should decock each time the gun returns to a ready position. That means people shooting the test will have 23 double-action trigger pulls.
Informal polling of students that come to our non-LTC courses, bringing TDA guns indicates that very few trainers offering the Texas LTC course actually require TDA pistol users to decock for each string, allowing them to fire all shots using the gun in single action mode. While this undoubtedly helps those students get better scores on the test, it violates the policies our state police academy set for instructors for conduct of the class, and worse, it misleads TDA users into thinking that it is acceptable to ignore the decocker and the double action first shot design. Many of my complaints about TDA pistols originate with the users and their inability or refusal to operate this type of firearm the way it was designed.
Cons (Disadvantages)
The biggest problem is ergonomics: those with shorter fingers and less hand strength will have a difficult time reaching and pulling the longer, heavier double action trigger on most traditional double action designs. This picture shows the problem. I’m holding the M9 airsoft gun (same size as actual M9) with the frame and barrel properly aligned with my hand and arm, but the best I can do is get the side of my finger to the trigger, and my entire trigger finger is mashed up hard against the frame.
My trigger finger is 2.9″ or 74mm, which is below average for male index finger length according to this chart. The ‘average’ index finger length, from this data, would be 3.11″. To have a trigger finger long enough to get the crease even with the trigger, and make the right angle turn to get the pad of the trigger finger to the trigger face would require a finger that was probably 0.5″ longer, or 3.4″ (88 mm).
So the basic design of the M9 and most other TDA guns places the face of the double action trigger out of comfortable reach for those with average finger lengths.
Nicholls, Mike & Orr, Catherine & Yates, Mark & Loftus, Andrea. (2008). A new means of measuring index/ring finger (2D:4D) ratio and its association with gender and hand preference. Laterality. 13. 71-91. 10.1080/13576500701751287.
If you have to twist the gun in your hand so it’s recoiling into the thumb knuckle, or lay your trigger finger against the frame just to get the tip of the finger on the trigger in double action mode…the gun is too big for your hand and there are no “workarounds” for this other than getting a gun with a smaller frame and shorter trigger reach. Being able to point the pistol like an extension of your index finger is an important part of pistol shooting, particularly for those using slide mounted optics for aiming. Similarly, if you can’t press the trigger straight to the rear, parallel to the barrel, and have to press it from the side (or push the whole gun to the side because your trigger finger is pushing against the frame, it’s going to affect your ability to keep the gun aligned with the target as you fire.
My observation is that the vast majority of people who are fans of TDA guns base all their assessment on how the gun fits them in single action mode, and gun fit problems related to double action are ignored, excused or dismissed. “It’s only for one shot, and self defense shootings all happen at close range, so if my first hit is bad I can just follow up with a good 2nd shot. I can just thumb cock the gun for my first shot. I will twist the gun for that first shot and let the recoil readjust my grip. I would rather suffer with that first shot to get to that awesome single action trigger than shoot a striker fired gun that has a medium-difficult trigger for every shot. I carry on an empty chamber and will rack the slide, so I won’t have to shoot the gun double action at all.” – just to share a few of the common responses TDA shooters give when confronted with the cold reality of their TDA gun not fitting their hand in double action mode.
The folks at “A Girl and a Gun” have a good explanation of gun fit.
Most people don’t practice (live or dry) enough to really learn how to master one trigger pull (striker or single action). They overaim and then pounce on the trigger trying to make the gun fire at the magic “NOW!!!” moment, only to discover that violently slamming the trigger to the rear as hard and fast as they can causes the gun to move and their shot to miss the spot they aimed at.
Adding the complexity of learning how to manipulate the trigger properly for two different trigger pulls makes the job of learning the pistol more difficult. Additionally, developing the skill to decock the pistol each time the gun returns to the ready position, between drills, requires diligent attention as well.
By comparison, all a striker fired pistol user needs to learn is how to work the trigger the same way for every shot, and all their concentration can be on muzzle direction and taking finger off the trigger each time the gun is off target, back to ready or heading back to the holster. Adding the two extra TDA specific tasks to their workload just adds more mental overload. (Similarly, remembering to put the manual safety back on, when using a 1911/2011 style pistol or any pistol with a manual safety, adds another task that striker-fired gun users don’t have to perform.)
For years I have written about the gap between the 99% of basic gun owners & carry permit holders and the 1%. The 1% are those that attend training beyond state minimums, typically taking 15-30 hours specific to defensive handgun skills working from the holster. Their standards for baseline performance are higher, and they pay more attention to running whatever gun they have chosen correctly. The largest gap is the failure to train to automaticity. Tasks that are automated occur without conscious thought about each step in the task. Drawing the pistol is not 3, 4 or more discreet steps. It’s a smooth continuous one, where each step occurs at the right time (muzzle to target, hands joining, safety switched to fire, finger to trigger, sights to eye target line). Without training all those steps to the automatic level, under stress, steps will be forgotten or done at the wrong time, potentially leading to an unintended discharge, a missed shot or even a failure to fire if switching the manual safety to “fire” is forgotten.
The 99% are often uncomfortable with the idea of keeping a round chambered in a defensive firearm. This concern motivates many to leave the gun unchambered, planning on racking the slide when the gun is picked up from a nightstand or drawn from a holster. This adds yet another task (and time) to the job of getting the gun into the fight as quickly as possible. The decision to have the gun unchambered does allow them to avoid the double action trigger and the decocking lever, since the gun goes into single action mode when the slide is racked. In this case, two wrongs don’t make a right.
If the goal is to rack the slide each time the gun is picked up or drawn, each drill in dry or live practice should start with, and include, the task of racking the gun, so that the task is not forgotten under stress. If they choose a TDA gun to provide heavy-trigger pull “insurance” against their poor trigger finger discipline, and lack of motivation to train to that higher standard, it’s very likely that they will also fail to put in the work to master the double action first shot trigger pull.
Go to any public shooting range and observe a TDA pistol owner as they practice. A 99%er will arrive at the range with their gun unloaded in a box or a bag. They will insert a magazine, rack the gun, to put it in single action mode, and empty the magazine in some form of untimed, unstructured practice. At no point during the firing of all the rounds in the magazine is the gun brought back to ready and decocked to start a new string. If there is a break in the firing and the muzzle is lowered, at best the gun is laid on the bench, hammer back. At worst the gun stays in the hand, muzzle lowered, finger on trigger and hammer back. When the magazine runs dry, the user will insert a new magazine, rack the slide, once again putting the gun in single action only mode, and continue avoiding and ignoring the decocking lever. Many years ago I allowed another trainer to rent my range to run a class. I observed the trainer’s assistant holstering their TDA pistol without decocking it, and brought this to the assistant’s attention. It was clear from that person’s response that they didn’t understand how a TDA gun was to be run.
In a competitive market for the Texas LTC course, most students are seeking the shortest, cheapest course, and have no interest in doing more on the range than the state minimum. Our approach has been to include a 50 round training block before we shoot the test, with dry and live fire drills correcting the most common shooting errors. As part of that 50 round block, we require TDA users to decock (and 1911/2011 users to put their manual safety on). In both cases, it’s common for users of those guns to require constant reminders to perform those tasks, because they have never included them in their own practice — and in some cases did not understand that their TDA gun could not be carried or stored hammer back on a loaded chamber in single action mode. They confused 1911/2011 “cocked and locked”, which is mechanically safe with single action TDA use.
My experience as a trainer mostly dealing with the 99%, trying to motivate them to join the 1%, has been that most, even when informed about the additional complexity of their TDA gun, have no intention of putting in the work to master the extra tasks associated with that design. Worst of all, most of the factors that Ernest identified as benefits of the TDA design don’t exist if the TDA user never takes advantage of chambered, decocked, hammer down carry.
Pros
In the podcast, Ernest correctly noted that “trigger checking” is a problem when shooters, including very trained ones, are in high stress situations. Force Science Institute published this article about that issue. You should read it.
If a highly trained person with much more life experience in lethal force incidents is still prone to putting finger on trigger when it should not be there, the likelihood that an untrained person will make this error is even higher. For those with large enough hands, running a tuned (non factory) TDA gun with a 6 lb double action trigger, the effort required to fire the gun is only slightly more (due to trigger pull length) than a striker fired gun with a factory trigger. It is possible that the longer pull, or heavier pull on an unmodified gun, might prevent some unintended discharges in those situations. Similarly, for the armed homeowner, the longer heavier trigger pull might provide similar protection against the unintended discharge under stress.
The benefits only apply to those that can get fast-enough acceptable hits using the double action trigger, which takes practice (dry and live) to learn. Without that effort, double action shots are likely to be slow and farther off target than a single action or striker fired shot would be. How do I know this? 30 years of watching 99%er carry permit students make those errors. 50 rounds of pre-test practice is not enough to do more than show them how to practice to get better after class is over, and increasing the length of the state-mandated class to include more rounds and more time is not only not viable in a market where cheap & short is the primary customer desire, but also limited by state regulations setting the maximum course hours.
Why are TDA guns popular in competition?
Within the past decade, TDA guns have had a surge in popularity in USPSA competition. This occurred because within the specific divisions that exclude 1911/2011 style pistols, the options are polymer framed striker fired guns, and metal framed TDA guns. USPSA stages tend to have high round counts (15-30), and each paper target is engaged twice, making shot to shot recoil recovery important. Additionally, USPSA does not require TDA users to decock each time they move, as might be required in a real world defensive pistol course. A heavy metal framed TDA gun, outfitted with a competition trigger upgrade, would have a 6 pound, not a 10-12 pound, DA trigger, and a sub 3 lb single action trigger. That provides the user with faster split times (shot to shot on a single target), and a shorter lighter trigger pull for all but the first round fired on a stage. For a highly motivated competitor, learning the 6 lb double action first shot trigger on their gamer gun, assuming they can reach the trigger, is not a significant obstacle, and the benefits of the heavy metal frame and improved single action trigger provide competitive advantage.
General purpose defensive handgun buyers should not be misled by this situation. Real world defensive incidents are short duration, often low round count events by comparison to USPSA field courses. A less motivated, less skilled shooter’s ability to hit accurately and quickly with a factory double action trigger is going to be much less than that of the M/GM level competitors touting the virtues of the TDA guns on youTube “influencer” videos.
I Shoot Good Enough – This Doesn’t Apply To Me
If your “good enough” standard is hitting anywhere on a B-27 target at 3 yards in untimed practice, then you are correct. It probably doesn’t apply you – but the problem is your standards of “good enough” are unrealistic. If you can shoot 90% or better on the Texas carry permit test, this is better but still not “good” from a realistic analysis. State qualification tests, include those for law enforcement, typically use target scoring areas that are much too large, relative to their utility in stopping a lethal attack. The common standard within the 1%er defensive pistol training community is that hits outside a 6″, or maybe an 8″ circle should be considered “unacceptable”. Performance under stress is always going to be worse than performance on a comfortable day of practice. Real testing should be based on “cold drill” performance (the first shots fired during a practice session). There are no warm up shots, no pre-fight dryfire time to re-remember how to run the trigger properly.
If you insist that your shooting is “good enough”, start your next practice session with the simple 5×5 drill: 5 shots, 5 seconds, into a 5″ circle (NRA B-8 target 9-10-X ring center), at 5 yards. If you run a TDA gun, that means starting with the gun loaded and decocked, so shot #1 is fired double action. Start from the ready or holstered (ready is allowed at more ranges and gives you more time to get the shots). Pay attention to where that first shot hits.
Try five 1-shot drills starting with the gun in single action mode, then repeat with each shot in double action mode. Compare your speed and accuracy.
If you choose a TDA gun for personal protection, understand that the first shot is likely going to be the most important one you fire in a defensive encounter, and put the work in to learn how to run the gun the way it was designed, to realistic standards. That might mean upgrading the factory trigger (Langdon Tactical does great work on Beretta M9/92 and PX4 guns), or comparing your performance with a non TDA gun, which might lead to changing your choice of your primary defensive pistol. Whatever action type you choose, learn how to use it the way it was designed to be run, choose a gun that fits your hand and trigger reach, and make your practice relevant to the task for which you purchased the gun.
We have scheduled most of the classes and matches we plan to offer through the end of the year. Weekday private lessons are available with Karl at the A-Zone, by appointment on any gun, at any level on any topic we offer.
It’s not too early to start planning your fall training. We have a packed schedule in September and October before our annual November/December deer season hiatus. Plan ahead and get registered for one or more of these upcoming courses!
SIG 320 POLICY CHANGE
Due to recent documents and policy changes from the FBI,Air Force and Gunsite Academy, out of abundance of caution KR Training is changing its policy regarding the use of the SIG 320 pistol in classes. Our new policy, effective 7/24/2025, is that the SIG 320 may only be used in KR Training classes or at the A-Zone Range for any event if carried in an outside-the-waistband duty or competition holster that puts the muzzle pointing at the ground, not any part of the user’s body, when the gun is holstered.
AUGUST – OCTOBER CLASSES
We have a lot of training opportunities for all levels planned for August-October. Most of the August courses are either early morning (8a-11a) or indoors in the classroom. Visit the KR Training website to get more information about these courses.
I’ve been a student of John Holschen’s since the mid 1990’s (when he taught for Insights Training in Seattle, WA), and most recently in classes he’s offered at conferences and through his own training business. He’s bringing his NURO based pistol program to KR Training in September. His class is suitable for intermediate/advanced students that have had formal training or have safely completed matches where drawing from a holster under time stress was taught and tested.
More about John and the NURO here:
Ep. 156 | 5 Steps to Survive Extreme Events with John Holschen by Lora Thorson
Due to popular demand we have added more Summer Fun Matches, July 30, August 6 and 13. These will all feature stages from the 1990’s Texas Paper and Iron Championship. $20 match fee, shoot 100+ rounds in 2-3 hours. Match starts at 6 pm but late arrivals are welcome. All levels are welcome: .22 pistols, .22 rifles, centerfire pistols and pistol caliber carbines. Events will include stand and shoot paper and steel stages, a plate rack stage and a shoothouse stage. Register here.
STAFF & ALUMNI NEWS
Karl accepted an invitation to join the NRA’s Education and Training Committee, along with multiple other private sector trainers including Tim Kelly (Apache Solutions), Brian Hill (Complete Combatant), and Mike Ox. They will bring some new perspective to the revitalized NRA, as it rebuilds under new leadership.
The Armed Citizen Legal Defense Network has been sold to CCW Safe. Karl was on the board of ACLDN and he will be continuing forward as a CCW Safe affiliated instructor. It will be the program we recommend to students for legal self defense coverage.
In early July, Karl and Uncle Zo attended the Greybeard Actual Pistol Skill Development course. Dave Reichek worked the course as Matt’s (Greybeard) assistant instructor. Zo also attended Gabe White’s Pistol Shooting Solutions course while working as the official KR Training host for the class, while Penny, Karl, Dave & Jacob Reichek were on hunting & photo safari in South Africa.
DISCOUNT CODES
I have collected up all the discount codes we have set up with vendors we recommend. Alumni of KR Training classes will find them in the monthly e-news email. You’ll have to open the email and scroll to the bottom to find them. It’s a reward for actually opening and reading the email!
REFRESHER DEALS
Re-take any class you’ve taken before for half price! Contact me to get the alumni discount code. Firearms skills deteriorate without practice. Most ranges don’t allow drawing from a holster, shooting quickly, moving or shooting from cover. If you don’t practice the skills you learned in class, they won’t be there when you need them.
BLOG O RAMA
All the articles you missed if you don’t follow the KR Training Facebook page and Instagram feed. John Daub and Paul Martin have both stepped back from blogging, so at the moment Uncle Zo and I are the only KR Training staff actively writing. Some of my writing is being published on the NRA’s Shooting Illustrated website. Greg Ellfritz has been writing a lot recently, in addition to his Weekend Knowledge Dump, and I have included some of his recent articles here.
KR Training gets a nice mention in this video from Gideon Optics
Ed Monk’s new book on the Active Shooter problem is now available. I just got my copy and will be reviewing it on this blog soon. You can get your copy and read more about it here.
MUSIC VIDEOS OF THE MONTH
My quartet recently performed at the Magnolia Society venue in Columbus, Texas. A fan sitting right up front recorded this clip of us doing part of “Movin on Up (Jefferson’s Theme)”.
and to promote the special Jerry Garcia “Days Between” solo show I’ll be playing at Mac’s Daqs in La Grange August 8th, here’s my piano/vocal version of “Truckin”. For the Days Between show I’ll be playing songs from the Grateful Dead, Jerry Garcia Band, and Dead-adjacent artists like Dylan, The Band, Bruce Hornsby, and Phish.
On June 28, 2025, KR Training hosted a fun shoot event for the Lee County Republican Party. We set up steel targets on multiple bays, and set up a simple shoothouse course. The range was open from 9-11 and then a cease fire was called for lunch (burgers provided by Lee County GOP) and speeches from LTC Allen West, Sheriff Garrett Durrenberger and candidate Tom Glass. The event made the Lexington Leader newspaper.
We have scheduled most of the classes and matches we plan to offer through the end of the year, with a few dates left open so we can respond to student requests. Weekday private lessons are available with Karl at the A-Zone, by appointment on any gun, at any level on any topic we offer. Some classes on our calendar have already sold out and aren’t listed below.
Doug Greig will teach this class on Saturday June 14 in the morning. It’s our basic AR-15 / defensive carbine course for carbine owners that have never had formal training in defensive long gun skills. Slots are still available.
GABE WHITE PISTOL SHOOTING SOLUTIONS
Gabe White returns to the A-Zone June 21-22 for a session of his Pistol Shooting Solutions class. It focuses on draw speed and getting fast, accurate hits at 7 yards. Day 2 includes work on shooting on the move and other more advanced skills. If you have completed any class or match where drawing from a holster under time pressure was performed, you have the pre-reqs to attend Gabe’s course. He’s famous for his Skills Tests (Dark, Light and Turbo Pins).
LEE COUNTY GOP FUN SHOOT & LTC ALLEN WEST SPEECH
On June 28 we are hosting a fun shoot fundraiser for the Lee County GOP. From 9-11 am the range will be open for shooting on our steel targets, and those with USPSA/IDPA experience or training at the DPS-2 level or higher will be allowed to use the shoot house. We will have a stage and targets set up there.
100% of your $30 fee goes to the Lee County GOP. Event includes 2 hours range time, lunch (burgers) and the opportunity to meet, greet and listen to Lee County Sheriff Garrett Durrenberger and LTC Allen West give brief remarks.
Pre-registration is required and you can register here.
MATT LITTLE GREYBEARD ACTUAL PISTOL SKILL DEVELOPMENT
Matt will be offering a 2 day level 1 defensive pistol course Saturday and Sunday July 12-13. More information about the course is here. Here’s a video taken during a previous Pistol Skill Development class.
AUGUST- OCTOBER CLASSES
We have a lot of training opportunities for all levels planned for August-October. Most of the August courses are either early morning (8a-11a) or indoors in the classroom. Visit the KR Training website to get more information about these courses.
Basic Pistol & LTC completion – August 2
Personal Tactics Skills (indoors) August 2 afternoon
Grid Down Wound Care (indoors / Greg Ellifritz) – August 9
The Explosive Threat (indoors / Greg Ellifritz) – August 10
Top 10 Drills – August 16
Knife Skills for CCW Instructor Development (indoors / Greg Ellifritz) – August 23-24
No Fail Pistol (Chuck Pressburg performance pistol course) – October 4-5
Rangemaster Instructor Development – October 9-11
Rangemaster Advanced Instructor Development – October 12-13
Volunteer Church Security Team Member Shooting Skills (Steve Moses) – October 19
Retention Distance Defensive Pistol Skills (Steve Moses) – October 20
Force on Force Instructor – October 24
AT-2 Scenarios – October 25 am
Tactical Scenarios – October 25 pm
Defensive Pistol Skills 2 – October 26 afternoon
Low Light Shooting 1 – October 26 evening
STAFF & ALUMNI NEWS
I was a guest on Matt Little’s podcast. Listen or watch the episode here
One more student completed his 40 hour Defensive Pistol Skills Challenge coin program with us in May. If you have your LTC, whether you took the training from us or not, that counts as 6 of the 40 hours in the Defensive Pistol Skills Program. We will be offering all the courses except DPS-3 this fall.
Eric Victorin attended and passed the Rangemaster Defensive Shotgun instructor course. He and RM certified Advanced Shotgun Instructor Dave Reichek will be teaching a half day (morning) Defensive Shotgun 2 class in July.
We hosted Greg Ellifritz of Active Response Training for his Extreme Close Quarters Shooting instructor course in early June. KR Training staffers Karl Rehn, Dave Reichek, Ed Vinyard, David Tschirhart, Oscar Lee James III, and Alonso Robles all passed the course. We will be offering a 6 hour Close Quarters Shooting course on July 26 introducing carry permit level students to Greg’s close quarters shooting techniques.
DISCOUNT CODES
I have collected up all the discount codes we have set up with vendors we recommend. Alumni of KR Training classes will find them in the monthly e-news email. You’ll have to open the email and scroll to the bottom to find them. It’s a reward for actually opening and reading the email!
REFRESHER DEALS
Re-take any class you’ve taken before for half price! Contact me to get the alumni discount code. Firearms skills deteriorate without practice. Most ranges don’t allow drawing from a holster, shooting quickly, moving or shooting from cover. If you don’t practice the skills you learned in class, they won’t be there when you need them.
BLOG O RAMA
All the articles you missed if you don’t follow the KR Training Facebook page and Instagram feed. John Daub and Paul Martin have both stepped back from blogging, so at the moment Uncle Zo and I are the only KR Training staff actively writing. Some of my writing is being published on the NRA’s Shooting Illustrated website (one article linked below). Greg Ellfritz has been writing a lot recently, in addition to his Weekend Knowledge Dump, and I have included some of his recent articles here.
In response to a discussion online about lasers and dots, I went to the range and shot the FBI agent shooting test using two different laser-equipped pistols, and wrote an article for the NRA’s Shooting Illustrated online journal (to be published later this month). Here are the instagram videos.
I’ve been playing a lot of shows, mostly private events, in May and June. Here’s a clip of me playing the great song “Wine O Clock” (Shemekia Coupland cover) at a solo show at Luigi’s in College Station.
We have scheduled most of the classes and matches we plan to offer through August 2025, with a few dates left open so we can respond to student requests. Weekday private lessons are available with Karl at the A-Zone, by appointment on any gun, at any level on any topic we offer. Some classes on our calendar have already sold out and aren’t listed below.
Our Defensive Pistol 1 and Small Gun Courses are intended to help people get comfortable with carrying a gun with them outside the home. DPS-1 focuses on learning how to draw safety and quickly from a belt holster (inside or outside waistband). We have loaner holsters and discuss holster selection during the course. Students do NOT need to go buy a holster for class.
The level of shooting skill required to pass the Texas License to Carry shooting test is not the level of skill a well prepared armed citizen should have. The DPS-1 and DPS Small Gun courses teach students how to shoot faster and hit a smaller, anatomically correct target zone (the B-27 used for the LTC test has many, many flaws), which are essential skills for survival in an actual defensive shooting incident. Even if you think you will never carry outside the home, you should take a class to learn how to select and use an appropriate holster. I discuss why holster skills are relevant for car carry in this recent article on the NRA Shooting Illustrated site.
The Small Gun class focuses on pocket carry, purse carry, fanny pack carry, and other non-holster methods. We have loaner packs and purses and even loaner “small guns” that students can use for class. A small gun in your pocket is much more useful than a big gun carried in your car or at home.
If you’ve taken the regular DPS-1 course – the “Small Gun” class is different material. Different skills, different drills. Not just a repeat of DPS-1 shot with a smaller gun.
Here’s a video showing me shooting a small gun (SIG 365 .380) from pocket, sneaky pete, day timer, fanny pack, and Enigma deep carry, with draws from open and concealed carry for comparison. With training and practice you can have a “fast enough” draw without a traditional belt holster.
This year’s matches have expanded to include .22 pistol and rifle divisions, and a carry gun division, in addition to open carry/gamer gun divisions. The match fee has been reduced to $20 since we are no longer submitting classifier results to USPSA. Matches will include falling and stationary steel stages, a shoot house stage, and a variety of standards, drills and stand and shoot courses. Matches start at 6 pm but shooters can arrive later and we will work you in. They are open to shooters of all skill levels. They run on Wednesday evenings. We still start shooting at 6 but if you show up as late as 7 you can still shoot the stages. Bring 150-200 rounds, most matches will be 100-125 rounds, 4-5 stages. Centerfire pistols will need holsters (open carry or concealed), .22 pistols can start from a low ready position.
Here’s a video of Matt Little (Greybeard Actual) shooting some Steel Challenge style stages.
GABE WHITE PISTOL SHOOTING SOLUTIONS
Gabe White returns to the A-Zone June 21-22 for a session of his Pistol Shooting Solutions class. It focuses on draw speed and getting fast, accurate hits at 7 yards. Day 2 includes work on shooting on the move and other more advanced skills. If you have completed any class or match where drawing from a holster under time pressure was performed, you have the pre-reqs to attend Gabe’s course. He’s famous for his Skills Tests (Dark, Light and Turbo Pins).
Two students completed their 40 hour Defensive Pistol Skills program, earning their challenge coins in March and April. We will offer all the coin courses against this year except for DPS-3, mostly in September and October.
Tracy Thronburg, Chuck Baxter and Ken Carden attended the Massad Ayoob Group Revolver class in March.
Karl presented two sessions at the 2025 Rangemaster Tactical Conference, and Dave Reichek worked as a range officer, finishing 13th overall in the main match. Dozens of KR Training alumni and instructors attended this event. Registration for Tac Con 2026 opens May 5th. It typically sells out within a few hours of registration opening.
In April, Tracy assisted Massad Ayoob in teaching the MAG-80 course hosted at KR Training.
Karl was a student, shooting two perfect 300 scores on the double-speed MAG qualification course.
Tracy also attended the Intensive Pistol course taught by Aqil Qadir of Rangemaster at the Dallas Pistol Club.
Tracy and Karl were also mentioned multiple times in this episode of the “That Weems Guy” podcast about the 2025 Rangemaster Tactical Conference.
Doug and Zack Greig were featured in an article in the Texas State Rifle Association’s monthly magazine.
DISCOUNT CODES
I have collected up all the discount codes we have set up with vendors we recommend. Alumni of KR Training classes will find them in the monthly e-news email. You’ll have to open the email and scroll to the bottom to find them. It’s a reward for actually opening and reading the email!
REFRESHER DEALS
Re-take any class you’ve taken before for half price! Contact me to get the alumni discount code. Firearms skills deteriorate without practice. Most ranges don’t allow drawing from a holster, shooting quickly, moving or shooting from cover. If you don’t practice the skills you learned in class, they won’t be there when you need them.
BLOG O RAMA
All the articles you missed if you don’t follow the KR Training Facebook page and Instagram feed. John Daub and Paul Martin have both stepped back from blogging, so at the moment Uncle Zo and I are the only KR Training staff actively writing. Some of my writing is being published on the NRA’s Shooting Illustrated website (one article linked below). Greg Ellfritz has been writing a lot recently, in addition to his Weekend Knowledge Dump, and I have included some of his recent articles here.
Since there was no April newsletter, the May newsletter gets two music videos. The first is the Black Cat Choir covering The Who’s “Squeezebox”, with me playing accordion parts on my keyboard.
The second is Midnight Express covering Supertramp’s “Bloody Well Right” at a big show at the Palace Theatre in Bryan, Texas.
I was a presenter at the 2025 Rangemaster Tactical Conference. Thanks to Tom Givens who keeps inviting me back to teach. As best I can tell I’ve been to all or part of 24 of the 27 that have been held. This year that was noted on my registration tag.
The history of TacCon can be found here https://taccon.info/about, or you can read about it by searching for all the Tactical Conference posts on this blog site. The oldest content I have online is from 2005.
The Tactical Conference is a descendant of the National Tactical Invitational, which was an event intended for students of national defensive pistol schools to meet and train together. This year 45 trainers put on sessions on 85 different topics, for 400+ attendees. Due to having to play a rock and roll gig in Round Top, Texas, that Saturday night, I only got to attend half of TacCon 25. I got to attend 4 sessions on Friday, and taught 2 sessions Saturday morning. Here’s what I learned, saw and did:
John Farnam
John Farnam is 80. Many credit him with being the “first traveling trainer”. He’s been teaching longer than any of us, and still on the road teaching courses and sharing his knowledge. A Friday morning rainstorm gave him a packed house for his 2 hour “Instructional Development For Our Art”, where he spoke without notes or slides, giving us his perspective on current trends and issues. His wife Vicki recently published a great new book on Off Body Carry that’s an excellent resource for anyone interested in that topic. Learn more about her program here https://www.flexccarrysolutions.com
Claude Werner
Claude is one of the deep thinkers in our community, and a deep data analyst. His presentation was an updated version of his “Off Duty Shootings of the LAPD” material, which looks at trends and common factors of off duty officer involved shootings, and discusses their relevance to armed citizen incidents. One takeaway from this year’s presentation was Claude’s observation that many off duty cops were bringing their guns to the fight from off-body platforms (which tied in with John & Vicki’s discussion of off body carry during the previous session.)
Don Redl
Don was a frequent attendee to the National Tactical Invitational, and he’s made a comeback of sorts teaching at the Surgical Speed Shooting Summit in 2022 and at recent TacCons.
Don’s primary areas of expertise are in corporate security and executive protection and he offers training that includes both live fire and force on force scenarios. His topic this year was “Catastrophic Force on Force Accidents”. He discussed all the safety issues related to everything from Airsoft games to complex professional multiplayer scenarios using Simunition and blanks, and presented some information on cases he’s worked as an expert witness on safe conduct of this type of training.
One issue he brought up was something we used to do ourselves using Airsoft guns but had phased out of our program: the use of Airsoft (or Simunition or UTM) guns for live fire drills and tactics training where risk are higher than normal: close quarter shooting, firing from the ground at targets simulating a person standing over you, working around vehicles, working inside real structures (as opposed to shoot houses).
I’m going to bring that aspect of our training back in a Close Quarter Shooting course this summer.
Justin Dyal
Within the Rangemaster Tactical Conference community, Justin is best known as the creator of the Five Yard Roundup Drill.
He has created many simple high-value drills, but also teaches his own Force on Force tactics course and live fire pistol classes. His topic for 2025 was “Building Skills You Can Believe In”.
The focus was on Skills in Context, which he described this way:
Skill (learn the basics)
Skill to Standard (an institutional or state standard, or a school standard)
Skill in Context (apply the skill in a realistic situation or exercise)
Skill in Context Under Pressure (apply the skill in a realistic exercise with time/physical/emotional pressure)
The vast majority of gun owners, at best, only reach the “Skill to Standard” level. Often that is based on an institutional (agency) qualification course or a state carry permit standard. The standard was usually developed with some realistic context, but also scaled down from ideal standards for a variety of political and policy reasons.
Skill in Context is what was offered in most of the live fire blocks at TacCon 2025, and what is presented in most live fire classes in the private sector that go beyond the carry permit minimum. Performance Under Pressure is introduced by competition, or by creation of a high standard that can earn the shooter a coin or patch or other award.
Texas Cop Quals
My block this year was an extension of material I’ve presented in previous years, discussing widely used course of fire and their relative difficulty level and context. In the past I’ve focused on historical qualification courses going back as far as the 1920’s. This year I ran attendees through courses of fire shot by the Austin, Houston, and Dallas police departments, and a qualification course used by the Texas Department of Public Safety. Each course was 50 rounds long, each using a different target, with different skills tested, with wildly varying time limits.
The shooters that attended my blocks were very skilled, with the lowest score shot on any qual being 93%, and most shooting 97% or higher on each of the four qual courses. In many cases the shooters were firing midsize carry guns drawn from concealment, not duty pistols worn in open carry holsters.
Each course included strings that started close at 3 yards, working back to 15 and 25 yards, incorporating timed reloads and one handed shooting. One test included two handed shooting gripping the gun with the opposite hand (so left handed using a two handed grip for a normally right handed shooter) which is a skill that’s rarely included or tested in police qualification course. The two factors that allows my students to shoot so well on the courses of fire were target size and time. Over the past 30 years the standards used by the private sector training community have increased: acceptable hit zones have shrunk, even from the 6.5″x11″ USPSA A-Zone and IDPA 8″ circular O-ring to more widely used 5.5″ B8 centers and 6″ squares. Widespread adoption of optic sights for handguns (aka “red dot sights”) have enabled shooters to fire with more accuracy. Time limits for institutional qualification courses have always been 2-3x the par time set for more reality-based programs.
These targets all scored 99% or better on one of the qual courses. Note that in the first, the shot distribution is much broader than the other two. On the second target, the group size is small, but centered in the 10 ring of the B-27’s bullseye — which is located far too low relative to the heart and lungs on a human torso. The last target was shot by someone using more modern principles: using the high chest as the aiming point, scoring the same 100% as the bullseye shooter, but applying their skill in better context.
The B-27 is a uniquely awful target still mandated for use in the Texas License to Carry, School Safety and First Responder Training courses. I wrote about its history in this older blog post
The version of the B-27 that I used for the qual we shot at TacCon25 had the FBI’s “Q” bottle superimposed over the B-27 scoring rings. It’s the best available compromise target that meets state requirements but also gives the shooter a better understanding of what should be acceptable and unacceptable hits.
Others on the KR Training Team
David Reichek served as a Range Officer for the entire weekend, finishing 13th overall in the pistol match. Scores in this year’s match were considerably higher than last year’s, showing the continuing evolution of skill. KR Training had dozens of alumni including more than a dozen challenge coin holders attend the event. I’ve already been invited by Tom to teach at the 2026 event.
The 2025 event sold out within 12 hours of registration opening. We will post the registration link on the KR Training Facebook as soon as registration opens.
In the first half of the 20th century, Zilker was home to a police firing range. Built in 1934 near the Zilker Clubhouse along Rollingwood Drive for the Austin Police Department’s pistol marksmanship courses, the range fell into disrepair and stopped being actively used for firearms training in the mid-1970s.
This historical photo is from 1941, when the range was in active use — apparently by cowboys as well as cops.
1933 Original storeroom and shooting shed are constructed
1934 The CCC expands the central storeroom and adds restroom wings
1938 A masonry wall separating the skeet field and pistol range is erected, and the shed structure is extended to cover 36 shooting stations. A gabled concession addition is constructed on the south facade at an unknown date
2006 South addition removed and window openings are bricked in
2011 Covered shooting shed is demolished
2016 Masonry site well separating the pistol range and skeet field is demolished
Austin Rifle Club at the Zilker Range
While poking around the Austin Rifle Club Education building, ARC members Cindi and Roy found this flyer for the 1949 Ninth Annual Ada Zilker Robinson matches. Ada Zilker Robinson was the daughter or grand-daughter of the Zilker that donated the park to the city of Austin. They were held at the Zilker Park range officiated by members of ARC. There are a few old plaques from this match they found buried in one of the safes not too long ago that are related to one iteration of this match, although it’s not clear which.
Fun things to note: The entry fee per match was $1, and the protest fee, fifty cents. Returned to you if your protest was successful.
Another document they ran across was a contract between ARC and Camp Mabry from 1928 allowing Austin Rifle Club to use the ground floor of Barracks 1 as an indoor range.
We have scheduled most of the classes we plan to offer through June 2025, with a few May/June weekends left open so we can respond to student requests. Weekday private lessons are available with Karl at the A-Zone, by appointment on any gun, at any level on any topic we offer. Some classes on our calendar have already sold out and aren’t listed below.
PERSONAL TACTICS & FORCE ON FORCE SCENARIOS MARCH 22
On Saturday, March 22 we will offer two classes back to back: Personal Tactics Skills and AT-2 Scenarios. These two classes are really part 1 and part 2 of a one day course, so we encourage people to take both if possible. The most common failure in a self-defense incident is decision making, not shooting skill.
These courses develop decision making skill via a structure process that begins by answering the question “what should I do if…” for the most common situations, progresses by using the Image Based Decisional Drills classroom exercises, and provides hands on training in use of inert training pepper spray units.
The afternoon course (AT-2 Scenarios) continues the training by running scenarios with live roleplayers using SIRT laser guns and Simunition marking pistols to give students opportunity to practice making the right choices. We only offer the AT-2 course twice a year (spring and fall), and it’s a required course for those wanting to complete their Defensive Pistol Skills Program challenge coin.
This video from a 2005 episode of Shooting Gallery shows a sample “stop and rob” scenario similar to those in the AT-2 scenarios class.
Both courses are suitable for anyone that has taken our Basic Pistol course or has their Texas carry permit. Often students will say they don’t feel “ready” for this type of training, thinking that better live fire skills training will make them more “ready”. It doesn’t. Shooting competitions where you run memorized sequences of targets does not develop the critical skill of making use of force decisions in real time. The carry permit course teaches the law but does NOT teach tactics or decision making.
I believe that these two courses are the most important, most useful classes we offer and I encourage anyone that has not taken them to take advantage of this training opportunity.
RED DOT PISTOL LEVEL 1 – MARCH 23
Our level 1 Red Dot Pistol class provides instruction in these essential skills: selecting an appropriate red dot sight for defensive use, zeroing the sight, understanding the need for and use of backup iron sights, learning how to quickly find the dot when the gun comes from ready or holster to target, and automating the task of compensating for holdover (aiming high) for close range shots. A properly zeroed red dot sight will be “on” from 15-75 yards but will shoot low for closer shots.
We have loaner red dot guns for those wanting to learn about red dot sights without investing in
DEFENSIVE PISTOL SKILLS 2 and LOW LIGHT SHOOTING MARCH 23
Due to low enrollment in the March 8 sessions we delayed the Defensive Pistol Skills 2 / Low Light Shooting 1 combo to March 23rd. DPS-2 is in the afternoon and Low Light shooting runs from 6-9 pm.
Both of these courses are required classes in the Defensive Pistol Skills Training challenge coin program. DPS-2 continues where DPS-1 ends, improving student ability to draw from concealment, adding the skills of “armed movement in structures” (aka houseclearing) and shooting from cover. Students get a run in our live fire shoot house during DPS-2.
This video shows me doing a live fire shoothouse run at the 2010 Rangemaster Tactical Conference held at the US Shooting Academy in Tulsa, OK.
“Burglar in the nighttime” is the most common concern of the armed homeowner, yet very few ever do any low light practice or learn proper flashlight or weapon mounted light skills. Our course teaches those skills, including a low light shoot house run. This will be the only low light course we offer until October 2025.
Here’s some video from a 2021 low light shooting course
In May we will start up our summer match series, running USPSA-format matches on Wednesday nights. To kick off the summer match season we will offer our 6 hour Intro to Competition Pistol course. It explains the different types of handgun matches available in our area (USPSA, Steel Challenge, IDPA, Falling Steel, Glock Shooting Sports), provides coaching on competition specific skills (shooting, draws, reloads, one handed shooting and safe movement), and concludes with sample stages: IDPA classifier, plate rack (falling steel/Glock shooting sports), Steel Challenge, and a shoot house stage shot twice (IDPA and USPSA format). Shooting local matches is a great way to practice and improve your skills, and this course is the best way to get started in pistol competition.
Here’s a video of USPSA Grand Master Cory K shooting a shoot house stage.
Karl was a guest on the Defenders Live podcast (episode to be released in March), and did a 10 minute interview on Tom Gresham’s nationally syndicated “Gun Talk” show.
DISCOUNT CODES
I have collected up all the discount codes we have set up with vendors we recommend. Alumni of KR Training classes will find them in the monthly e-news email. You’ll have to open the email and scroll to the bottom to find them. It’s a reward for actually opening and reading the email!
REFRESHER DEALS
Re-take any class you’ve taken before for half price! Contact me to get the alumni discount code. Firearms skills deteriorate without practice. Most ranges don’t allow drawing from a holster, shooting quickly, moving or shooting from cover. If you don’t practice the skills you learned in class, they won’t be there when you need them.
BLOG O RAMA
All the articles you missed if you don’t follow the KR Training Facebook page and Instagram feed. John Daub and Paul Martin have both stepped back from blogging, so at the moment Uncle Zo and I are the only KR Training staff actively writing. Some of my writing is being published on the NRA’s Shooting Illustrated website (one article linked below). Greg Ellfritz has been writing a lot recently, in addition to his Weekend Knowledge Dump, and I have included some of his recent articles here.
Here’s a visualization video of one of my original songs: “It’s True” from my Respectable CD. The full album is available on iTunes, Spotify and many other streaming audio platforms. “It’s True” is a bluesy love song in the vein of The Band and the Allman Brothers. I’m playing lead guitar, keyboards and bass on this track, with Mike Riemann on drums. I’m singing lead, backed up by Aaron Roughton.
Bob Jewell recently wrote about the updated Bakersfield PD qualification course, and his writeup was picked up by Eric Lamberson of the Sensible Self Defense blog.
The original target design was tracked down and shared by many with an interest in the history of handgun training.
According to Bob Jewell, Bakersfield now uses a USPSA target scored 10/9/6 for the A, C and D zones.
The updated test is
• Stage 1: Two rounds at 10 feet in 2 seconds
• Stage 2: Two rounds at 20 feet in 3 seconds
• Stage 3: Two rounds, combat reload and two rounds at 30 feet in 7 seconds
• Stage 4: Two rounds at 60 feet in 4 seconds
Overtime shots score zero points. BPD uses a turning target system. I suggest using the industry standard “any shot more than 0.3 sec overtime is late”, developed because the buzzer length on most shot timers is 0.3 seconds.
This past Sunday I had a few minutes before an afternoon Basic Pistol course, and I needed to function test an M&P Shield that was going to be used as a class loaner gun. Having just read Eric’s article, I grabbed two magazines for the Shield and got KR Training assistant instructor Uncle Zo to record me using his Shooters Global timer that can record shot times with video in their app.
I managed to keep all 10 in the A-Zone for a perfect 100 points. The Shield is upgraded with XS F8 sights, but I’ve been shooting a dot mostly this year. So it took some concentration to hit the 60 foot (20 yard) shots with the irons on the subcompact gun. I also tested the ETS plastic 9 and 12 round Shield magazines. Students had used both during Saturday’s class, and the 12 round magazine had not run reliably. I only used the 9 round magazine for the cold run on the Bakersfield qual so that the video would show a true cold run with no “mulligans” or do-overs.
The Bakersfield qual is a simple 10 round evaluation of multiple skills and ability to shoot at 4 different practical distances – arm’s length, car length, across a room, and across a street. Give it a try during your next dry fire or live fire session! Bakersfield standards are that 80 points passes.
I taught two shotgun classes on Saturday, February 8th at KR Training – Defensive Shotgun 1 – Fundamentals, and Defensive Shotgun 2 – Manipulations. In our Fundamentals class, students bring their self defense buckshot loads and pattern those loads at 7 yards, 15 yards, and 25 yards (if their 15 yard patterns give us any confidence that all their pellets will stay on an IPSC target; most sporting goods store off-the-shelf buckshot fails this litmus test miserably). I typically demo FederaI’s FliteControl 00 buckshot load during this portion of class in order to give students an idea what “the gold standard” looks like, in comparison to the usually vastly inferior performing ammunition they brought. In the interest of preserving class time, the day prior to class, I performed some comparative testing of two 00 buckshot loads through my two primary shotguns, which yielded some very interesting results.
Shotgun #1 is a Beretta 1301 Tactical, which is my go-to gun; shotgun #2 is a pump-action Mossberg 500 with a standard 18.5″ “security barrel” that I’ve probably had for well over a dozen years.
Federal FliteControl 00 buck is known to be an outstanding performer with respect to pattern tightness.
Hornady produces 00 buckshot loads with the VersaTite wad, which is designed to minic the performance of the FliteControl wad.
I shot both the Federal and Hornady loads through each gun at the same distances and measured the results:
Beretta 1301-T Hornady TAP (VersaTite) 00 buck 8 pellet
1.5″ max spread (estimated)
6.75″ max spread
13.25″ spread
Mossberg 500 18.5″ Hornady TAP (VersaTite) 00 buck 8 pellet
1.7″ max spread (estimated)
6.875″ max spread
not measurable 8th pellet not on target
One note about the testing: I wanted to use a single target for each gun/load combination, so the 25 yard shots are intentionally low on the target so as to not result in any overlapping patterns.
I fully expected the FliteControl load to vastly outperform the Hornady load, and Federal did not disappoint. At 7 yards out of both guns, FliteControl produces a 12-gauge (roughly 3/4 inch) hole; the Hornady load already demonstrates clearly evident pellet spread.
Comparing the two loads from the same shotgun (Beretta 1301), by 15 yards the Hornady pattern is nearly twice as large (3.54″ vs 6.75″). At 25 yards, the Federal FliteControl pattern is a relatively uniform 9.375″, which still fits cleanly within a USPSA/IPSC target “C” zone, while the Hornady load produced a “flier” which was very nearly off the target entirely.
The results took a surprising and unexpected turn when I compared the FliteControl pattern from the “cheap” Mossberg pump to my “Gucci” Beretta 1301. The Beretta produced nice, tight patterns that matched my expectations. The Mossberg produced outstanding patterns approximately 1/2 the size of my Beretta; At 25 yards, my Mossberg shot a pattern that fits within the “A” zone of a USPSA/IPSC target.
Also noteworthy, there was no real difference in pattern size of the Hornady load between the two shotguns; however, at 25 yards out of the Mossberg, the Hornady load shot a “donut”, meaning that if I was aiming at high center chest vitals, it’s likely to hit everything but the area I’m trying to get pellets into.
Key takeaways:
Shotgun barrels are like snowflakes: every one of them is different. It is paramount that you pattern YOUR defensive load, in YOUR gun, to see what its capabilities and limitations are (see below).
“Rule 4” still applies with shotguns! At what ranges are you fully confident in your ability to hit your intended target with every single projectile? With the Mossberg shotgun and Federal FliteControl 00 buck, I would be very confident in my ability to engage bad guys 25-30 yards away and ensure that every single pellet hits what I want it to hit (you are accountable for every single projectile that leaves your gun.) With my Beretta and Federal FliteControl 00 buck, my maximum engagement range is still easily 20-25 yards, depending on target profile (full value target facing towards me, or a side profile target? Big wide person or skinny meth-head?)
Federal FliteControl is still King. Switching to the Hornady load, my maximum engagement distance is substantially reduced to 15-20 yards, depending on the target profile. Past this distance, I likely to need to use a slug to ensure all my projectiles hit what I am aiming at; usage of slugs introduces its own set of “Rule 4” problems due to a slug’s tendency to massively over-penetrate.
We have scheduled most of the classes we plan to offer through April 2025 with plans to add a few more based on student inquiries. Weekday private lessons are available with Karl at the A-Zone, by appointment on any gun, at any level on any topic we offer. Some classes on our calendar have already sold out and aren’t listed below.
On Saturday, February 8, Dave Reichek (Rangemaster-certified Advanced Shotgun Instructor) will offer two half day shotgun courses. Shotgun 1 is suitable for anyone with any shotgun and is an introduction to defensive shotgun basics. Shotgun 2 is suitable for graduates of any of our previous shotgun courses – and if you’ve taken any of our full day or level 2 shotgun classes in the past, you can re-take the October Shotgun 2 course for half price!
Home Defense Tactics and Shooting Skills
We know that most of our students don’t carry “on body” in public as often as they should, and the #1 concern of most new gun owners is home defense. So we designed a new Home Defense Tactics and Shooting Skills course that doesn’t require a holster, suitable for anyone that has passed our Basic Pistol course and/or the carry permit class. It teaches home defense concepts and skills that aren’t covered in the basic or carry permit courses. The class can be taken with loaner guns as pistol only, or using both your home defense pistol and long gun (rifle or shotgun). Topics include:
Home physical security – locks, lights, cameras and alarms, as they relate to an armed homeowner. Range practice accessing your gun from a box, moving to cover and engaging threats. Tactical movement aka “house clearing” – how to do it and when to do it
Everyone in class will get a run in our shoot house using our 3D reactive targets, an experience you can’t get at any commercial range. Here’s a sample video from January’s defensive match.
So far, interest in this course has been low. I don’t know if it’s because newly graduated Basic Pistol/carry permit students don’t feel “ready” to attend, or because higher level students think the class will be “too basic” We designed this class to be the course the 99% of carry permit holders that have never taken a class beyond the state minimum would benefit from attending. It teaches the skills they are most likely to use, offering an opportunity to practice with their home defense pistol, with optional rifle/shotgun drills. It includes material and drills that aren’t in any of our other classes. I encourage everyone to share the info about this 3 hour, inexpensive class with your gun-owning, non-training friends so awareness of this new course will reach its intended audience.
Our Top 10 drills class is a quick evaluation of your skills and a great tune-up session. Drill 1 starts with basic marksmanship and each drill after that adds skills and time pressure. It’s suitable for anyone that’s completed our Defensive Pistol Skills 1 class (which is why it’s paired with that course in March). Many students take the Top 10 Drills class every year as their annual refresher.
Karl and Dave Reichek did some volunteer coaching for the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets Marksmanship Unit in January. Doug Greig was awarded a scholarship to attend Gunsite in 2025 by the Jeff Cooper Legacy Foundation. Karl represented KR Training at the “Skip the Line” fundraiser for the Central Texas Food Bank event organized by Paul Martin.
DISCOUNT CODES
I have collected up all the discount codes we have set up with vendors we recommend. Alumni of KR Training classes will find them in the monthly e-news email. You’ll have to open the email and scroll to the bottom to find them. It’s a reward for actually opening and reading the email!
REFRESHER DEALS
Re-take any class you’ve taken before for half price! Contact me to get the alumni discount code. Firearms skills deteriorate without practice. Most ranges don’t allow drawing from a holster, shooting quickly, moving or shooting from cover. If you don’t practice the skills you learned in class, they won’t be there when you need them.
BLOG O RAMA
All the articles you missed if you don’t follow the KR Training Facebook page and Instagram feed. John Daub and Paul Martin have both stepped back from blogging, so at the moment Uncle Zo and I are the only KR Training staff actively writing. Some of my writing is being published on the NRA’s Shooting Illustrated website (two articles linked below). Greg Ellfritz has been writing a lot recently, in addition to his Weekend Knowledge Dump, and I have included some of his recent articles here.
Texas’s best Chicago tribute band “Changes”, performed at a big benefit show in Bryan in November. We featured guest vocalist Anna Cargill from Austin on several songs, including the classic “I’ve Been Searching So Long”.
The first volume in Colonel Cooper’s series of autobiographical reminiscences, philosophical essays, political observations, firearms instruction, and spiritual appreciation for the grand gift of life. FireWorks, originally published in 1980, includes essays published in magazines like True, Toros, Soldier of Fortune, Guns and Ammo, Guns, Road and Track, and Westways Magazine (a car/travel magazine) from the 1950’s through the late 1970’s.
It’s available in several editions, paperback and hardback. I picked up a Gunsite Press edition at a used bookstore along my drive to YeagerFest in January. Upon my return I found a second, shrink-wrapped copy purchased directly from Cooper’s family in my stack of “books to read”. Copies are still available from Amazon and ABEbooks and ebay. There is an incorrect listing on the Internet Archive claiming a digitized version of the book is available for free there, but the file is for Tappan on Survival. Some of the essays in Fireworks were published in Tappan’s Survival Newsletter, and Tappen wrote the foreward for Fireworks.
John Dean “Jeff” Cooper was recognized as the father of what is commonly known as the Modern Technique of handgun shooting, and one of the 20th century’s foremost international experts on the use and history of small arms. Cooper was commissioned into the United States Marine Corps prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. During World War II he served in the Pacific on the USS Pennsylvania (BB-38), and then was recalled to active duty for the Korean War, resigning his commission as Lieutenant Colonel in 1956. He received a bachelor’s degree in political science from Stanford University and, in the mid-1960s, a master’s degree in history from the University of California, Riverside. In 1976, Cooper founded the American Pistol Institute (API) in Paulden, Arizona (later the Gunsite Training Center). Cooper began teaching shotgun and rifle classes to law enforcement and military personnel as well as civilians and did on-site training for individuals and groups from around the world.
This book is a reflection of how journalism, in particular the craft of “gun writing” has deteriorated in the Internet era. In Cooper’s day, articles and essays were longer than a few hundred words. They went deeper into topics and tell longer stories than can be presented in short videos, with better structure and content than 3 hour “bros-chatting” podcast can provide. The book showcases Cooper’s talent as writer and storyteller, with a mix of essays and stories on topics ranging from terrorism, hunting, military combat, gunfighter mindset, politics, riflery, auto racing and more.
Chapters
The Deadly American – a philosophical essay about the mindset of the killer-hero, who is (according to Cooper) not necessarily a criminal, nor a soldier, nor a policeman. Cooper describes that person as “someone who simply does not hold the lives of adversaries to be particularly important, who is highly skilled with weapons and enthusiastic about their use, who does not prey upon society and usually obeys its laws, but whom it is very dangerous to thwart.”
The Man Who Knew How it Was – is a fictional account of a conversation between boy fascinated with TV westerns of the late 1950’s, and his uncle, who was old enough to have known real old West gunfighters.
Open Letter to a Legislative Hoplophobe – One of many political articles Cooper wrote speaking directly to gun control supporters.
Get Charlemagne! – The story of Congressional Medal of Honor winner Herman Henry Hanneken.
The Trip Home – A well written story about a Marine returning home after WW2.
To An American Serving in Vietnam – A short essay
Home of the Brave – An essay about bullfighting
Inferno on Foot – Hiking the Grand Canyon
Venison Harvest – A deer hunting essay
A Rhineland Roebuck – Roebuck hunting story
The Fall of the Wild – Another hunting story
Aguardientes De Agave – History and recipes for Tequila drinks
The First Race – Essay/story about a driver’s first auto race
Travels With Corvy – Another racing story
Attention from the Left – A story about danger in Latin America during a Cooper teaching trip.
Nocturne in the Ten Ring – Story of conflict/military adventure in the West Indies
Mental Conditioning for Combat – The classic “color codes” decorated by anecdotes and commentary
“We Have to Disarm the Citizens of this Country” – another short political article
What is “Accuracy”? – Discussion of rifle shooting skill and equipment
Ballistic Wampum – Recommendations on which calibers and specific rounds to keep on hand for barter goods.
Rainbow’s End – African hunting tale
Baby – about Cooper’s famous rifle
Rhodesian Elegy – About Cooper’s trip to Rhodesia, with commentary about its history and politics
Kriegsoberst! – WW2 German military flying ace Hans-Ulrich Rudel
Wegener – 1970’s terrorism
Cooper’s writing is in the tradition of Hemingway, but also the pulp writers of the 50’s and 60’s that wrote for “men’s adventure magazines”. Articles from those classic magazines are being curated and released by the good folks at Men’s Adventure Quarterly in issues like this one.
It’s a style of writing, and an outlook on the world, that is different from what is common in the modern era, even in the gun culture and among gun writers. I’ve read many of Cooper’s books and compliations of old Gunsite newsletters. This book is a great overview of the depth and breadth of his writing ability and insight into a much wider range of subjects.
On January 11-12, SureFire’s Andy Stanford partnered with Tactical Response to host YeagerFest 2025. Back in 2022, Andy and Tactical Response teamed to host the Surgical Speed Shooting Summit, which brought a dozen trainers together to discuss and teach pistol technique.
Andy put together this event specifically to share new ideas with other trainers. While the event was open enrollment (and several people who were not instructors attended), the majority of attendees were instructors trained by Tactical Response, Rangemaster, or other programs who were actively teaching. In addition to Andy, the other presenters were Karl Rehn (KR Training), John Holschen (West Coast Armory North), John Hearne (Rangemaster/Two Pillars), Joey Glover (Tactical Response) and Dustin Solomon (Building Shooters). A winter storm dumping inches of snow on the roads and the range affected turnout, but 16 instructors plus the invited presenters enjoyed a chilly weekend of training. The instructors and range officers that worked this event are shown in the picture below.
The event was discussed in detail on a recent That Weems Guy podcast episode.
My memories and takeaways from the event:
Andy has been a student and a trainer of pistolcraft since the late 1970’s, when he started with the Southwest Pistol League. In the past few years he shared my interest in documenting the history of firearms training, recording some video interviews with many Gunsite-era instructors. He shared some of those videos in his 2024 Rangemaster Tactical Conference presentation. His primary message to attendees was that the most important innovations in training were not related to equipment or technique, but to application of modern sports science (as developed for professional athletes) and new technology for defensive handgun training. This topic includes John Hearne’s work on the importance of automaticity, frequency and recency as a predictor of gunfight performance, Karl’s use of the SIRT pistol, Ace simulator,Coolfire Trainer, Mantis and other virtual/simulator tech as well as live action force on force scenarios, and the work Dustin Solomon and John Holschen are doing with visual stimulus training using Solomon’s Nuro devices.
The Nuro integrates a shot timer with red and green lasers that can be turned on and off to run user-defined programs. This allows human reaction time to visual stimulus (when to start and stop shooting) to be measured. With multiple interconnected devices, multiple targets can be turned from shoot to no-shoot during a course fire, requiring the student to continue assessing threats and adapting behavior after the first shot is fired.
KR Training hosted this course in 2024 and will be hosting it again in September 2025. Registration is not open but if you subscribe to the KR Training email newsletter you will get the announcement before the general public.
Day 1
Each day started at the Tennessee Freshwater Pearl Museum, a meeting hall near the range.
Andy gave his overview and shared a summation of his thoughts on training which included these gems:
Only lifelong enthusiasts excel at anything. There are no shortcuts to excellent. Take as many classes as possibly initially to gain traction, then a minimum of one per year. Strive sincerely to understand. 10 years to journeyman, 20 years minimum to mastery. Saturation, incubation, illumination. Were you wrong then, or are you wrong now? Keep an open mind.
Joey Glover presented on the Tactical Response philosophy of training:
We want good people to leave with the Mindset, Tactics and Skill to protect themselves and the people around them. We don’t try to make better shooters out of students, but better people. Our attitude about what we teach is: does this offer a benefit? Does it work in the dark? Is it repeatable? Does it survive being tested under stress, including in force on force scenarios?
John Hearne presented on the root assumptions and 10 principles of the Rangemaster program.
You are on your own.
Pro-social violence exists and is a good thing
Performance is possible with preparation
In the past I’ve written about the 10 principles of Rangemaster’s program, and how KR Training has implemented them.
Holschen presented some material to prepare students for the Nuro training, discussing Integrating Visual Processing In Firearms Training.
John has been collecting data on student performance (more than 100 students taught in his 2 day course, plus members of his monthly study group at his West Coast Armory North range near Seattle, WA. With single and multiple target arrays, he has measured student draw to first shot times from visual stimulus, instead of the familiar “standby…shooter ready…beep/whistle” audible signals used in most programs. Even air powered turning target systems produce an easily recognizable “whoosh” as the air cylinders engage before the targets turn. What John found is that even high skilled shooters with concealment draws under 1.5 seconds often add 0.5-1.0 seconds to their first shot time (8″ circle at 7 yards) when the start signal is purely visual, particularly when it could appear on any of 3 potential threats facing the shooter.
John’s performance standard is 90% hits on an 8″ circle at 7 yards, with first shot in less than 2.0 seconds from visual stimulus, and ability to stop shooting within 0.5 seconds of the visual stimulus disappearing. According to his data less than 30% of the shooters he trained were able to meet that requirement after 2 days of training using the Nuro units. As a shooter with decades of habituation to shooting timer starts, reorienting myself to a purely visual start signal required more concentration and attention. Similarly, shifting my focus to look for changes in the visual signal (laser changing color, turning off, or moving from one target to another) required a different mental process than simply “running the automatic program” associated with standard live fire drills. Holschen’s data indicated that when the requirement to continue paying attention to visual information was added to the shooting task, split times slowed from the 0.2’s to the 0.5s or slower. Even the best of his study group participants were only achieving 0.4’s when the burden of shifting focus from shooting to decision making between each shot was added.
Holschen noted in his presentation that performing well on his drills was much more difficult for those running iron sights than a pistol mounted optic (PMO). This is because the PMO can be shot with a pure target focus and more open vision, compared to the narrow front sight focus required for iron sights.
After John’s presentation concluded, we headed to the range. Students were split into two groups, alternating between live fire taught by me, Andy and John Hearne and running Nuro drills with Holschen.
John Hearne gave his detailed range safety presentation, and John Holschen also covered his views on the language of the “Four Safety Rules” (and need for improvement). My own thoughts on that topic didn’t get presented at this event, but you can read them here. There was discussion during the event, (and in the That Weems Guy podcast episode) about the difference between doctrine and dogma, specifically as it relates to reverence some trainers have for Cooper’s original wording and sequence.
My range block focused on teaching others how I use the take up laser on the SIRT pistol to teach the basics of trigger press. Most inaccurate shots (aka unacceptable hits aka misses) happen because of gun movement that occurs as the trigger is pressed. Traditional one shot at a time dry fire, if the shooter focuses on the sights (or dot) for visual feedback about gun movement, can improve skill, but often when live fire is reintroduced, shooting errors that aren’t occurring in dry fire will return — and they are missed because the shooter is blinking as the gun is firing. Often the problem is that the trigger is not being manipulated the same way in dry fire as it is in live fire.
I have students ignore the sights, and simply focus on how much the takeup laser dot moves as they press the trigger. I have them vary the speed of trigger press from slowest possible to fastest possible to observe what effect trigger movement speed has on gun movement. Similarly, I have them make changes in their grip (firing hand and support hand) to observe the effect grip pressure has on dot movement. Finally, I introduce the Rangemaster concept of 3 shooting speeds: quickly, carefully and precisely, and use the SIRT pistol to train the differences in trigger manipulation required for those 3 modes. All of this is done with 100% target focus, with no attempt to align the sights (or dot) on the SIRT pistol with the eye. Reintegration of aiming happens in live fire after the student consistently presses the trigger and grips the gun correctly in the SIRT exercises. I have been using this approach in all our basic and intermediate classes, and I’ve observed much better results from students than traditional dry fire/live fire approaches. Most importantly the students seem to understand the cause and effect of what causes them to miss better with this approach, enabling them to self-correct more quickly.
Andy’s material focused on the drills from his Surefire Master Coach course, similar to what is shown in these videos from a session of that course we hosted at KR Training.
We started day 2 in the classroom, with more lecture from Holschen on movement and considerations for incorporating more movement and 3D thinking into live fire drills. One of the most interesting take-home points for me was the concept of combining the “how far can someone move in the time it takes me to draw” and applying it to my own movement vs. a threats. More simply, if my average draw is 1.4 seconds, would it be tactically better to move as far off line as I can, maybe adding 10% to the draw time, to minimize my chances of being shot? Historically square range training does not incorporate aggressive offline movement (at best a step or two) for safety and logistics and class size reasons. The cramped stalls of an indoor range, as well as range rules at commercial ranges generally, make it hard to practice this potentially life-saving skill. However, it’s still possible to practice that in backyard dry fire or outdoor range individual practice, or when doing close quarter force on force work, when the opportunity presents itself. As with most shooters’ undeveloped skill to react quickly to visual stimulus, the skill to get off line quickly is underdeveloped for many, including those that have attended a lot of training and shoot at a high level from a static position.
The centerpiece of Day 2 was Dustin Solomon’s presentation on human learning and his experience having to teach a large group of shooters with very limited range time and very limited ammo, often in very short sessions – a structure totally different from traditional 2 day classes favored by traveling trainers. Those that haven’t read his Training Shooters book should get a copy and read it. Andy provided copies of the book to attendees.
We ended day 2 back on the range, with John Hearne and Andy running shooters through the Rangemaster Baseline Assessment Drill and more of Andy’s SureFire Master Coach drills, alternating with more Nuro work using more complex target configurations adding 3D problems and movement.
Final Thoughts
Anytime Andy calls and invites me to an event, I go, even if details about what is going to happen, or what he wants me to teach are vague or completely undefined. For this trip he brought his understudy, CJ Cowan, who will be transitioning into Andy’s training role with SureFire in the upcoming years as Andy inches closer to retirement. Andy and James Yeager, Tactical Response founder, were very close friends, and Saturday night’s activities included a meeting at the TR “Team Room” where James was remembered by his students and friends. John Hearne observed that “Tactical Response classes are chaotic but not in a bad way.” John Holschen commented that “Tactical Response alumni are some of the best students I’ve taught. They listen well and keep an open mind.”. That was my experience as well during this event and the Surgical Speed Shooting Summit. I think this event was a great tribute to James, moving the art and craft of training forward and I was honored to have been a part of it.
Back in the 1990’s a pistol club in Midland, Texas ran a cool match called the Texas Paper and Iron Championship. Like the Steel Challenge and Bianchi Cup, it featured the same stages each time. It had surprisingly strong sponsorship (including Coors), and a great prize table. Penny and I and others from the KR Training family shot the match many years in a row, with our last visit being in 2001.
It was, for a short time, considered the “undiscovered jewel” and was expected to become a major national match. Top shooters including Rob Leatham and Michael Voigt were regulars and frequent match winners. There was a great American Handgunner article written about the match, but my attempts to find it in their archives was unsuccessful.
Someone recently asked me about the match and the stages, so I dug out the old match booklets, found one of the original cardboard targets in my shed, and found a few photos to share.
Poppin W was a mix of stationary and falling steel. 3 runs, all counted for score. Everyone had to do a mandatory reload between first and last shot. You had to shoot all 5 stationary steel targets before engaging the two falling steel and the gong. The falling steel were stacked one behind the other, with a smaller falling plate behind the large one. Most people would shoot the 5 stationary plates, the large steel, reload and shoot the last two plates. My stage runs from 1999 were all around 7 seconds, with sub 6’s being my training goal.
Time’s a Wastin used the International Speed Shooting Association target, which was an 18″x24″ cardboard rectangle, with 8″ and 12″ circles in the center. Shots inside the 8″ circle were “down zero”, Shots outside the 8″ but inside the 12″ added 0.2 seconds, and shots on the paper but outside the 12″ circle added 0.5 seconds. This version of time only scoring pre-dated the scoring used in IDPA, and had smaller time penalties for poor accuracy than most of the current Time Only scoring rules.
This was a classic accelerator/decelerator stage, again with a reload required between first and last shot. Most people, depending on gun capacity, would reload between T1 and T2 or T2 and T3, regardless of which direction they were engaging the array (front to back or back to front). 1999 times were in the mid 5’s, with a training goal of sub 5’s on each string.
Sgt. York’s Way was a 4 string, 6 round drill where you shot all 4 variations: front to back, back to front, each from the left and right boxes. The back target was at 19 yards and the front target was at 2 yards, so the shooter’s ability to adjust their transition speed (and not overrun the zero down zones) was key.
Runs on this stage were quick: 2.90-3.39, with training goals of 2.5 per string.
Triple Roundabout was a Steel Challenge style stage with a mandatory reload. The plates had to be shot in 3 groups: P1-3 were in the center, P4 and P5 on the shooter’s far left, P6 and P7 on the far right, and the stop plate, which had to be shot last, at center back. The common strategy on this was to start with P1 and move right across those 5 plates, reload to engage the last 3 left to right: P6, P4 and the stop plate. The ability to do a quick reload between two 15 yard targets with a wide spread was a key skill for this stage. Another strategy was to reload between P1 and P2, on the closest two targets. In the early days of this match, most people were shooting single stack .38 super 1911’s and minor loads – typically the same gear they would use at Steel Challenge but with a slightly higher power factor load to ensure the reactive steel would fall. Doing the reload between the first two plates would leave the shooter 10-11 rounds to hit the remaining 7 targets, leaving a thin margin of “extras” available to make up misses.
1999 match runs were between 6-8 seconds, with sub 6’s being training goals.
The Gauntlet was most people’s favorite stage – a one string run and gun with a mix of stationary and falling steel. There was falling steel to shoot from each of the 3 boxes, stationary steel to be shot on the move when outside the boxes. With the low capacity single stack guns, it was possible to run the stage with one reload, if you did it between the two falling poppers from Box B, but the safer option was to reload twice, between each box. When the 2011 pistols became popular, and 24 round magazines were available (and allowed), the removal of the need to reload sped up the winning times on this stage.
My 1999 Gauntlet time (shot with a 24 round magazine and a dot), was 17.17. The training goal was sub 16.
V Double was yet another Steel Challenge style stage but with 3 runs all counting for score, and a mandatory reload during each string. Most people would shoot left to right, a group of 3, another group of 3, reload and a hard pivot to hammer the last 2 on the right.
My 1999 times on V-Double were all sub 7, with sub 6 being my training goal.
Hung Over and Strung Out was a moving Bill Drill stage that involved precise footwork to be in the correct box for each target. Back in the single stack days it required two reloads, which meant reloading during one of the 6 shot engagements. 6 on T1 as you moved forward in Box A, 2-4 on T2 from Box B, 2-4 more on T3 as you moved into Box C, then a flat footed reload in Box C to fire remaining shots on T3 and 6 on T4. 24 round magazines made this stage a lot easier.
My 1999 stage time, with the 24 round mag and a dot, was 7.60, but I had too many shots outside the 12″ circle, and one miss, for a total time of 15.10. If I recall correctly I came back with a sub 8 second run in 2001.
This stage is from the 2001 match, where they switched to using the NRA D1 target instead of the original ISSA’s, after they ran out of the original production run. The D1 was used for Bianchi Cup and Glock Shooting Sports matches and were easier to get. They also offered a larger area outside the 12″ circle, which turned a few would-have-been-misses into 0.5 penalties on this hose-fest stage.
Pack Em and Stack Em was another paper stage, one shot per target, top row reload bottom row, repeated for bottom row reload top row. Unlike Steel Challenge every run at Paper and Iron counted for score. When they switched to the taller D1’s, I remember the bottom row of targets starting at ground level, with the top part of the tombstone D1 overlapped with the bottom of the top row, to keep the target stack from being taller than the berm.
My 1999 stage times were 5.67 and 6.25, and my training goals were sub 6 second runs.
Now that I’ve dug up all the stage drawings, maybe they will show up as stages at one of the Chicken Ranch Shooters summer weekday evening matches this year.
We have scheduled most of the classes we plan to offer through March 2025 with plans to add a few more based on student inquiries. Weekday private lessons are available with Karl at the A-Zone, by appointment on any gun, at any level on any topic we offer.
Doug Greig is teaching classes at the newly reopened Impact Zone range in Hempstead. The January class will focus on 100-300 yard carbine shooting – something we can’t offer at the A-Zone.
2024 YEAR IN REVIEW
2024 was an amazing year for KR Training, with more than 100 classes presented at home and on the road (Ohio, Nashville, Dallas, Houston, Austin). Six KR Training staff members taught as lead instructors (Karl, John Daub, Dave Reichek, Greg Howard, Doug Greig and Tracy Thronburg), and we hosted 13 traveling trainers (Greg Ellifritz, Ben Stoeger, Chris Cypert, Caleb Causey, Jeremy ORarden, Tom Givens, Massad Ayoob, Gabe White, John Hearne, Eric Wise, Steve Moses and Ed Monk). We also held 13 USPSA matches on summer weekdays. Between classes, matches and private lessons I spent over 120 days on the range in 2024, not counting range maintenance and personal practice session days.
Eric Lamberson from Sensible Self Defense runs a monthly “Short Range” match testing defensive pistol skills. The stage designs are based on actual incidents, using 3D reactive or clothes-wearing paper targets. Scoring is similar to IDPA but this is not an official IDPA or USPSA match. I’ve invited Eric to run one of his matches at the A-Zone in January. Participants can shoot using their carry gear, concealed or unconcealed, or USPSA gear (pistol or pistol caliber carbine). The registration link is here.
On Saturday, February 8, Dave Reichek (Rangemaster-certified Advanced Shotgun Instructor) will offer two half day shotgun courses. Shotgun 1 is suitable for anyone with any shotgun and is an introduction to defensive shotgun basics. Shotgun 2 is suitable for graduates of any of our previous shotgun courses – and if you’ve taken any of our full day or level 2 shotgun classes in the past, you can re-take the October Shotgun 2 course for half price!
Tracy, Dave Reichek and David Tschirhart attended the Cougar Mountain Solutions (Erick Gelhaus) Pistol Mounted Optic instructor class in Dallas in December. Dave was top shooter in the class, with high scores on multiple drills.
Eric Victorin earned his TCOLE (Texas law enforcement) firearm instructor and Rangemaster Advanced Pistol Instructor ratings this fall.
DISCOUNT CODES
I have collected up all the discount codes we have set up with vendors we recommend. Alumni of KR Training classes will find them in the monthly e-news email. You’ll have to open the email and scroll to the bottom to find them. It’s a reward for actually opening and reading the email!
REFRESHER DEALS
Re-take any class you’ve taken before for half price! Contact me to get the alumni discount code. Firearms skills deteriorate without practice. Most ranges don’t allow drawing from a holster, shooting quickly, moving or shooting from cover. If you don’t practice the skills you learned in class, they won’t be there when you need them.
BLOG O RAMA
All the articles you missed if you don’t follow the KR Training Facebook page and Instagram feed. The busy holiday season has kept me from writing much on the KR Training blog, but I have a lot of material in the queue. I also have two articles that will be appearing on the NRA’s Shooting Illustrated online site in early 2025, and a contract to write two more articles for them in January and February.
The Black Cat Choir performed at the Junk Gypsy Prom, which was a big event at the end of the October Antique Show in Round Top, Texas. James Pharaon recorded video with multiple fixed and mobile cameras, and we recorded the soundboard audio, which I mixed for sync with the video. Our cover of the Doors “Light My Fire” is one the videos produced from those recordings. I played 131 shows as a solo act, as the Karl Rehn Trio and with 6 larger bands in 2024.
We have scheduled many of the classes we plan to offer from Dec 2024 through March 2025 with plans to add a few more based on student inquiries. Weekday private lessons will be available with Karl at the A-Zone, by appointment, throughout November and December with weekday classes resuming January 2025.
Doug Greig is teaching classes at the newly reopened Impact Zone range in Hempstead (near Houston) in November, December and January. The January class will focus on 100-300 yard carbine shooting.
AMMO PRICES GOING UP JANUARY 2025
Multiple vendors and many industry insiders have been posting that ammunition prices will be going up by 5-10% effective January 2025. Raw materials used to make ammunition may be in short supply. I recommend planning ahead and purchasing ammunition you intend to use in 2025 as soon as possible.
In early December we are hosting Jeremy with Ascend Overland for two separate one day vehicle classes. These will be classroom based vehicle courses, not guns-around-vehicles tactics, so there’s no live fire component and no off road driving component. Promo video for the 2WD class is linked below, and registration is open on the KR Training website.
Eric Lamberson from Sensible Self Defense runs a monthly “Short Range” match testing defensive pistol skills. The stage designs are based on actual incidents, using 3D reactive or clothes-wearing paper targets. Scoring is similar to IDPA but this is not an official IDPA or USPSA match. I’ve invited Eric to run one of his matches at the A-Zone in January. Participants can shoot using their carry gear, concealed or unconcealed, or USPSA gear (pistol or pistol caliber carbine). The registration link is here.
On Saturday, February 8, Dave Reichek (Rangemaster-certified Advanced Shotgun Instructor) will offer two half day shotgun courses. Shotgun 1 is suitable for anyone with any shotgun and is an introduction to defensive shotgun basics. Shotgun 2 is suitable for graduates of any of our previous shotgun courses – and if you’ve taken any of our full day or level 2 shotgun classes in the past, you can re-take the October Shotgun 2 course for half price!
KR Training coin holder Randy Wallen shot the Glock Shooting Sports Match in Dallas in October, winning 3rd in Amateur Civilian and was High Senior in Amateur Civilian and Rimfire divisions. As a result of his wins he was promoted to Master division in GSSF.
Doug Greig was on the Big Tex Outdoors podcast, talking about his own program and his work with KR Training.
Paul Martin attended and wrote about the Thunderstick Summit. Karl worked with Texas Parks and Wildlife teaching youth pistol shooters in October, and did some coaching for the Texas A&M Corps of Cadets Marksmanship Trip in November.
Tracy, Dave Reichek and David Tschirhart will all be attending the Cougar Mountain Solutions (Erick Gelhaus) Pistol Mounted Optic instructor class in Dallas in December.
DISCOUNT CODES
I have collected up all the discount codes we have set up with vendors we recommend. Alumni of KR Training classes will find them in the monthly e-news email. You’ll have to open the email and scroll to the bottom to find them. It’s a reward for actually opening and reading the email!
REFRESHER DEALS
Re-take any class you’ve taken before for half price! Contact me to get the alumni discount code. Firearms skills deteriorate without practice. Most ranges don’t allow drawing from a holster, shooting quickly, moving or shooting from cover. If you don’t practice the skills you learned in class, they won’t be there when you need them.
The Black Cat Choir performed at the Stone Cellar in Round Top in early November. Our new sound engineer recorded some videos on his cell phone. This is a compilation of the best song snippets he recorded of Superstition, All Right Now and Maggie May.
We have finalized our schedule for the rest of 2024 and are now booking the guest instructors for 2025. Even during November and December when we can’t do live fire group classes on weekends, weekday live fire private lessons will be available.
Upcoming classes with space available:
SEPTEMBER
Guest Instructor Force on Force Scenarios – Sept 29 (Causey & Cypert)
BUY ONE GET ONE – HOME DEFENSE SHOOTING SKILLS CLASS
Special offer for our October Home Defense Shooting Skills class. Buy one, get one free. Use code KROCT24 when you sign up both people to get 50% off each entry. You have to bring a friend to get the 50% off. This class is intended for people that have a pistol and/or long gun (rifle or shotgun) in the home. No holster required. No carry permit required. Class will focus on getting the gun from a table or box, moving to cover and getting effective hits on targets from 3-15 yards. Class can be taken with pistol, rifle or shotgun. Class will include one live fire shoot house run with pistol or pistol caliber carbine (we will have loaner pistol caliber carbine). We are also offering the handgun Skill Builder class that afternoon (a short 2 hour session) for those that want more handgun shooting coaching and practice.
SHOTGUN CLASSES OCTOBER 6
On Sunday, October 6, Dave Reichek (Rangemaster-certified Advanced Shotgun Instructor) will offer two half day shotgun courses. Shotgun 1 is suitable for anyone with any shotgun and is an introduction to defensive shotgun basics. Shotgun 2 is suitable for graduates of any of our previous shotgun courses – and if you’ve taken any of our full day or level 2 shotgun classes in the past, you can re-take the October Shotgun 2 course for half price!
DPS 2, LOW LIGHT 1, DPS 3 and LOW LIGHT 2
October 12 and 13 we will run the classes that many need to earn their Defensive Pistol Skills Program challenge coins – Defensive Pistol Skills 2 (Saturday afternoon), Low Light 1 (Saturday evening), Defensive Pistol Skills 3 (Sunday afternoon) and Low Light 2 (Sunday evening). On Saturday, our friends from Immersive Training Solutions will be bringing out their VIRTRA video simulator and students in the Saturday classes will get runs on the VIRTRA system.
DISCOUNT CODES
I have collected up all the discount codes we have set up with vendors we recommend. Alumni of KR Training classes will find them in the monthly e-news email. You’ll have to open the email and scroll to the bottom to find them. It’s a reward for actually opening and reading the email!
PRIVATE LESSONS
I am available for private weekday training. Doug Greig is also available for private weekday and some weekend sessions. Contact us for details.
REFRESHER DEALS
Re-take any class you’ve taken before for half price! Contact me to get the alumni discount code. Firearms skills deteriorate without practice. Most ranges don’t allow drawing from a holster, shooting quickly, moving or shooting from cover. If you don’t practice the skills you learned in class, they won’t be there when you need them.
TOM GIVENS NEW BOOKS
The Collected Wisdom of Tom Givens, Volume I and Volume II are now available. Rangemaster, 1808 James L Redman Parkway, Plant City, FL, 33563 for orders. From Tom:
I can’t have these printed by the thousands like a book publisher. To keep costs down to my proposed $20.00 price point, I broke the material into two sets, Volume I and Volume II. Both are about 130 pages each of selected articles from the past few years. Volume I is available now, and Vol II will be available in early October. Cost delivered will be $20.00 in print form, and $15.00 in pdf format.
Right now I am only accepting orders paid by personal check or money order. Put a note with your check as to which volumes, print or pdf, and address or email address. Shipping might be slow since I am on the road so much, but I’ll get them to you ASAP. I plan Volume III for early 2025. Thanks!
BLOG O RAMA
Many bloggers that are part of the KR Training family have been writing a lot recently.
The Black Cat Choir performed at a private party near Giddings in September. Our new soundman recorded some videos on his cell phone. This is a compilation of the best song snippets he recorded.
Legendary trainer Dave Spaulding recently posted about a new drill he had received from Ken Hackathorn (inventor of “The Test” aka 10-10-10, the Wizard Drill and many other widely known and used pistol standards).
Half Cup Drill
Stage 1. 3 yards. On signal draw and fire 1 head shot in 2.0 seconds….STRONG hand only.
Stage 2. 5 yards. On signal, draw and fire one head shot in 2.0 seconds freestyle (both hands).
Stage 3. 5 yards. On signal, draw and fire 2 rounds to the body, 1 round to the head (failure or Mozambique Drill). 3.0 seconds
Stage 4. 7 yards. Start centered up on silhouette, Place a marker one yard to the left and right of the start position. (line marker paint is ideal). On signal move while drawing to the outboard of the either left or right line and fire 1 round, move to opposite line fire 1 round, move back to opposite line fire 1 round and again move to opposite line and fire last shot. 4 rounds total. Time his 10.0 seconds.
Stage 5. 10 yards. Draw and fire 1 head shot in 3.0 seconds.
Stage 6 10 yards. Start with only 2 rounds in the weapon. On signal, draw and fire 2 rounds to slide lock, perform an emergency reload and fire 2 more rounds. Time is 7.0 seconds.
Stage 7. 10 yards. On signal, draw and fire 1 round STRONG hand only to the chest, switch to WEAK hand and fire 1round. Time is 5.0 seconds.
Stage 8. 15 yards. On signal, draw and fire 2 rounds in 3.5 seconds.
Stage 9. 25 yards. On signal, draw and fire 2 rounds in 5.0 seconds.
Commentary from Ken:
“I recommend using the IDPA Silhouette. Easy to source. Note for scoring purposes only shots in the 3” head circle and 8” chest circle are scored……any shots out of these circles are misses ( -5 points.) 75 points or higher to Pass, below 75 is a fail.
I recommend starting with 12 rounds loaded in the gun if capacity allows, spare magazine of 8 rounds. Stage 4 I give credit to you (Spaulding). Movement should be part of any qual especially at distances where it really matters.
Next time you go to the range give this one a try. I know that times on Stage 4 and 7 are one second longer than you would probably use, but remember you are not the normal copper or private sector Joe.
Why the name ‘Half Cup? If you fail, your cup is only half full. If you pass it is only half empty.”
Demo Video
Last week I went to the A-Zone and shot the drill. I used a shot up IDPA target but the drills on the video were cold, first takes. I canted the gun a lot on that first strong hand head shot at 3 yards, and pulled it outside the head circle. That was my only miss giving me a possible 95/100 on this 20 round drill.
As KR Training assistant instructor Uncle Zo and I have looked at more courses of fire, particularly ones we’ve shot in classes and at matches, we have determined that the “100%” times, particularly for distances past 10 yards, need some adjustment to more realistically evaluate handgun skill. Many of the times were derived from shot by shot analysis of the high hit factors on USPSA classifiers, where the “hero or zero” approach can lead to some faster-than-repeatably fast times.
3 yards draw and fire 1 head shot strong hand only. A 3 yard head shot is basically equivalent difficulty to a 7 yard body shot, and taking one hand off the gun slows things down a bit more. So the original formula indicate 1.3 sec as a fast par from concealment two handed, and 1.5 sec par for concealment at 15 yards. I’m gonna use 1.5 sec for this one and rate that first string as 75% of our 100% standard.
5 yards draw and fire 1 head shot 2 handed. Again working from concealment 1.3 sec. The standard for Gabe White’s Turbo pin tests is 1.5 sec (open carry) for a 7 yard head shot with .25 allowed for concealment. So call this one 1.5 sec again so 75% of 100% standard.
5 yards 2 body 1 head. Gabe’s Turbo pin time for this drill at 7 yards is 1.7 with .25 added for concealment, so 1.95. Using our standards it would be 1.25 draw + 0.20 split + 0.5 transition so 1.75 for 5 yards. Using 1.75 makes this one 58%, using 1.95 bumps it to 65%.
7 yards with movement: We don’t have data in the table for “time to move 2 steps and acquire new target” or for “draw with 1 big side step”. 10 seconds would be 2.5 seconds per shot. 8 seconds would be 2 seconds, 6 seconds would be 1.5 sec per shot. Rough estimate of this one is 60%.
10 yards one head shot. A 10 yard head shot is roughly the same as a 20 yard body shot, and our table shows 1.8 as the 100% time. The Modern Samurai Project “black belt” time for a 25 yard body shot is 1.5 sec. Using 1.5 sec as max time makes the test’s 3 second par a 50% drill, using 1.8 makes it 60%.
10 yards 2 empty gun reload 2, 7 seconds. Ben Stoeger’s Four Aces (2 speed reload 2 at 7 yards) has a 2.6 sec 100% time. Add .25 for concealment, another 0.25 for slide lock vs speed load, another 0.25 for drawing the mag from concealment and the max par becomes 3.35. Maybe add another 0.15 for the target distance difference from 7 to 10 yards and that gets us to 3.5 seconds making this one a 50% difficulty string.
10 yards, one strong hand only, transfer, one weak hand only. 5 seconds. That gives 2.5 seconds for shot 1 and 2.5 sec to transfer and fire shot 2. Because it’s 10 yards and one handed everything slows down compared to 7 yard two handed shooting times. The closest analog might be one of the strings of the Greybeard Actual 3-4-5 drill, where you get 3.45 seconds to do the same kind of thing, on a 3″ circle at 5 yards. Matt gives .25 for concealment, so 3.70 is a pretty good estimate of a 100% time. That would give this string a difficulty level of around 75%.
15 yards draw and fire 2 rounds in 3.5 seconds. The chart from our book says 2 seconds – 1.5 sec draw and 0.5 split, giving this string a 57% difficulty level.
25 yards draw and fire 2 rounds in 5 seconds. Our book chart says 1.8 + 0.6 = 2.4 seconds. This shooter ran 25, 40 and 50 yard bill drills (but did not shoot them clean) in this video
His 25 yard time was under 3 seconds, indicating that a clean par might be slower. Using the rule that a good Bill Drill par time should be 2x the estimated draw speed gives us 3.6 seconds for 6 shots, or 1.8 sec for the first shot and another 1.8 for the remaining 5, or a split time of 0.36 sec between each.
Calculating 100% times for drills past 15 yards based on data for closer drills seems to be non linear (it doesn’t scale easily). I’m going to use 3.0 seconds as the 100% time to call this one a 60% difficulty string.
That makes the cumulative difficulty of this drill somewhere in the 60-70% range. That means a USPSA B class shooter or IDPA Master or similar level shooter should be able to shoot at least 90% points on it, from concealment with a carry sized gun. For someone working from open carry with a non-retention holster and a full sized pistol, the difficulty level should be cut by 10%.
Using the Half Cup Drill
I like short, low round count multi string drills that test a wide spectrum of skills. They allow quick isolation of weak spots. This would be a great drill to shoot as the first task of a practice session, tracking performance on each string (looking at hits or scoring the target each string), so that the next phase of the practice session could be used improving performance on the strings the shooter didn’t pass.
As Ken points out in his commentary, even if you pass the drill, your cup is still only “Half Full”. There’s always work to do to be more consistent, particularly on cold drills, faster and more accurate.
