As part of the KR Training Historical Handgun project that teaches the history & evolution of defensive handgun skills, I’ve been purchasing specific guns and holsters associated with specific times in handgun history. The guns will be used in demoing the drills shot in the Historical Handgun course. The S&W 459 According to Ed Mireles’ book, …
COOLFIRE & WALTHER PRODUCT DEMO & EVALUATION KR Training, in collaboration with Dvorak Instruments, Walther Arms, and Paulus Consulting, offered students an opportunity to evaluate the Walther PPQ M2 pistol and the CoolFire Trainer simulated recoil system. The event held August 4th, from 9-12, was a beta test for a possible new research study, evaluating …
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MAG-180 AFTER ACTION REVIEW by Tracy Becker Thronburg The Massad Ayoob Group’s MAG-180 was held Sunday June 24 through Saturday June 30, 2018, in Ripon, Wisconsin. MAG senior staff instructor, David Maglio, hosted the event. This was the first time the MAG-180 (formerly known as LFI-4) had been held in eleven years. The MAG-180/LFI-4 is …
The Rangemaster Northwest Regional Tactical Conference was put on by Tom Givens and the Rangemaster crew, in collaboration with Marty Hayes and the Firearms Academy of Seattle, July 27-29, 2018. I’ve been a part of the Rangemaster conferences since the early 2000’s, and Tom invited me to present both the 4 hour classroom and 4 …
Continue reading ‘Rangemaster NorthWest Regional Tactical Conference 2018 – Day 3 AAR’ »
The Rangemaster Northwest Regional Tactical Conference was put on by Tom Givens and the Rangemaster crew, in collaboration with Marty Hayes and the Firearms Academy of Seattle, July 27-29, 2018. I’ve been a part of the Rangemaster conferences since the early 2000’s, and Tom invited me to present both the 4 hour classroom and 4 …
Continue reading ‘Rangemaster NorthWest Regional Tactical Conference 2018 – Day 2 AAR’ »
The Rangemaster Northwest Regional Tactical Conference was put on by Tom Givens and the Rangemaster crew, in collaboration with Marty Hayes and the Firearms Academy of Seattle, July 27-29, 2018. I’ve been a part of the Rangemaster conferences since the early 2000’s, and Tom invited me to present both the 4 hour classroom and 4 …
Continue reading ‘Rangemaster NorthWest Regional Tactical Conference 2018 – Day 1 AAR’ »
In early July I offered a summer session of the Beyond the Basics: Pistol class that sold out so quickly that I added a second session, scheduled for Sunday July 22. 11 students undeterred by heat advisories and predictions of triple digit temperatures attended the course. BEYOND THE BASICS: PISTOL The Beyond the Basics: Pistol …
Continue reading ‘Beyond the Basics: Pistol 7/22/2018 AAR’ »
I recently purchased an S&W SD9VE to test and evaluate. I’ve gotten questions from students about this gun model, and other shooters and trainers have mentioned it as a decent option for defensive handgun buyers on a limited budget. Some early observations: 1) It fits in my daily carry holster (Raven “Morrigan“) made for an …
Back on July 4th, 1988, two Austin-area USPSA competitive shooters, Randy Johnson and Don Davis, took a relative novice/ target shooter out to the Hill Country Rifle Range and introduced him to the 1911 .45 ACP pistol, and the fundamentals of practical shooting. Over the next few months they coached me, as I learned skills …
Each year at the start of summer I offer a small gun oriented defensive pistol class. The intent of the course is to provide an opportunity for people to practice with the smaller gun that is more convenient to carry in the hot weather. Use of pocket holsters, purses, fanny packs, and any other mode …
Continue reading ‘Defensive Pistol Skills Small Gun class AAR – May 2018’ »
Found some pictures I took from the Rangemaster instructor class that we hosted back in April 2018. Shooting the Casino Drill Awards to top shooters in class Post-class Coaching A few people didn’t pass the instructor course due to falling short of the course required on the shooting tests after 2 attempts. Tom allowed me …
Continue reading ‘Rangemaster Instructor class, April 2018 pics and follow up’ »
Blunt Force Trauma Lethality The following is derived from a presentation to the January 2018 MAG Deadly Force Instructor class by Ed Vinyard, based on the December 2015 ACLDN article Understanding Blunt Force Trauma Lethality, An Interview with Dr. Robert Margulies by Gila Hayes and input from Dr. H. Anthony Semone and Dr. Ben Weger. …
I recently purchased two of the new Smith and Wesson EZ380 pistols. I reviewed them in this recent blog post. Since that review I’ve used the EZ380 in several private lessons, working with shooters that had small hands or limited grip strength. My appreciation of this gun continues to grow as I work with it. …
Continue reading ‘Smith and Wesson EZ 380 Gun Review part 2’ »
I recently purchased two of the new Smith and Wesson EZ380 pistols. Historically I have discouraged students from carrying or purchasing pistols in .380, because the caliber’s generally poor performance in actual shootings, and its failure to meet FBI minimum test guidelines for defensive ammo. Greg Ellifritz has a good summary of those issues on …
In a previous post I gave an after-action writeup from the 2018 A Girl and a Gun Conference. There were a lot of great pics that I didn’t get to use in that AAR, so here they are. Range Safety Officer Course General Conference Pics This pic is one of those “you had to be …
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I made a quick trip to the NRA Annual Meeting in Dallas. The NRAAM has basically become a copy of the SHOT show that’s accessible to the general public, combined with a lot of seminars and meetings related to various NRA programs. The event usually draws more than 80,000 attendees over the multiple days. Admission …
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Team KR Training is back from the 2018 A Girl and a Gun National Conference, held at Reveille Peak Ranch in Burnet, Texas, April 2018. 350 A Girl & A Gun Members 65 Brilliant Instructors 40 Generous On-Site Vendors 16 Dedicated Staff Members 12 Hard-Working Range Donkeys 67 Event Sponsors 35 Simultaneous Training Sessions 185,000 …
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We built the KR Training A-Zone Range back in 2001, with grand opening on 02/02/02. Pics and info from the grand opening event are still saved on the archive.krtraining.com site. After 16 years of regular use on the range, we had the lead from the berms extracted, and the berm faces rebuilt. We pulled more …
Over the past year I’ve been developing a new course for KR Training, Historical Handgun, that teaches the history & evolution of defensive handgun skills. Part of that effort has been seeking out and reading old books on shooting, purchasing copies signed by the authors when possible. Newhall Shooting – A Tactical Analysis – Mike …
Continue reading ‘Book Review – Newhall Shooting (Mike Wood)’ »
\From March 16-18, 2018, several of us from the KR Training team (myself, Dave Reichek, and Tracy Becker) attended the 20th annual Rangemaster Tactical Conference, held at the Direct Action Resource Center near Little Rock, Arkansas. This is part 5 of a series of posts about sessions I attended and taught, the match and products …
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