Hackathorn’s Half Cup Drill

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 …

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Rangemaster Professional Pistolcraft Instructor Course May 2024

In late May 2024 I attended a 3 day Professional Pistolcraft Instructor course taught by Tom Givens of Rangemaster. This was Tom’s 4th level instructor course, intended for those that had passed his Master Instructor class in the past. After 50 years as a trainer, and a student of the history of handgun instruction, Tom …

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Jeff Cooper’s Three? Rules of Gun Safety

From Bob Hanna of my historical handgun research team, a 1978-79 era document from Gunsite & Jeff Cooper listing his three rules for gun safety. Three? Conventional wisdom within the firearms training community is that Cooper’s “Four Rules” Shall Not Be Questioned, as I did in an older post about reducing his Four Rules and …

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The Mexican and Yaqui Defense Courses (1964)

Another find from my Historical Handgun research team: a 1964 Guns magazine article written about two self defense shooting drills. Back in that era they were likely shot using the classic Colt target (NRA B-21). Jeff Cooper wrote about both of these drills, and Bill Wilson created an IDPA-ized version of the Mexican Defense course …

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FBI Practical Pistol Course (1946)

A definitive article, from the FBI’s newsletter, explaining their Practical Pistol Course in detail. I’ve written about that course of fire in multiple previous posts Thanks to Chris Baker of Lucky Gunner for finding this gem and sharing with me so I can share with you! The FBI PPC course was widely used in law …

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The Wisconsin LEO Pistol Qual Course

Someone recently sent me a copy of the current Wisconsin state law enforcement pistol qualification course of fire. The summary version of it is here I shot a reduced version of the course and put the videos out on Instagram. Analysis and Discussion I like a lot of things about this course of fire. The …

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The Shirt Target from 1929

Another find from my historical handgun research team. This is an article from 1929 about a “shirt” target designed to look like a buttoned uniform shirt. It’s still a basic bullseye design but with scoring zones having more anatomical relevance than a classic circular style. The 6 point zone in the middle is almost like …

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The New and Improved New Jersey Carry Permit Shooting Test (2023)

Back in August 2023 I shot the New Jersey carry permit shooting test (aka the “Civilian Carry Assessment and Range Evaluation”, or CCARE), and documented it with video and in this blog post. The test was complicated and poorly designed, including many skills that were essentially irrelevant to concealed carry, with time limits that were …

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1941 Pistol Combat Course

My historical research team sent me this article from a 1941 issue of American Rifleman magazine. It details a “pistol combat course” shot using a silhouette target w/ center bullseye and a scoring system that is a distant cousin to the Time Plus scoring using in IDPA and the Comstock scoring used in USPSA. The …

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Shooting the Stephenville PD Qualification Course

A KR Training student recently sent me the qualification course of fire used by the Stephenville, TX, police department. It uses the CSAT (Paul Howe) target, which is basically a USPSA target with a 6″x10″ A zone. Officers are not given a specific load out to force a reload during a specific string of fire. …

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Shooting the LAPD Combat Qualification

I recently read Claude Werner’s excellent book “Real Shootouts of the LAPD, Volume 1”, which is a collection and analysis of shooting incident reports released to the public by the Los Angeles Police Department. One section discusses OIS (Officer Involved Shootings) In and Around the Home, another section discusses animal shootings (in and around the …

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Shooting the New Jersey carry permit qual course

In response to the Bruen decision, the state of New Jersey has revised its carry permit program, including the training and qualification requirements. The official document, titled “Use of Force Interim Training for Concealed Carry” includes an outline of the topics to be covered in classroom lecture, and Appendix B has the details of the …

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Fairbairn “Shooting to Live” drills

At the 2023 NRA Annual Meeting, Claude Werner (The Tactical Professor) handed me a print copy of his edited version of Fairbairn’s famous “Shooting To Live” book. I wrote a full review of the book on this blog (Linked here). It includes his “editor’s synopsis” of the Shanghai police recruit training program. When I get …

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Kauai Carry Permit Qual

Back in September 2022 I was able to get a copy of the carry permit shooting qualification course for Kauai, Hawaii. Penny and I had just visited there and made friends with a couple that owned an outdoor range and taught classes. Here’s the course of fire, with some videos of me shooting it, with …

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Wilson’s Comprehensive Handgun Proficiency Drill

I saw this new drill from Bill Wilson online the other day, so I set it up and shot it. He calls it the “Comprehensive Handgun Proficiency” drill, which aligns with our interest in minimum competency and standards generally. It includes a concealment draw, emergency reload, engaging targets at 7 and 12 yards with 12 …

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Texas DPS 25 yard course of fire (Jan 2021)

Here is a course of fire, dated January 2021, used by the Texas DPS in their handgun training program. I’ve been shooting it in my practice sessions over the last month and I thought I would share it here. It’s intended to be shot on the giant B-27 target, scored like the Texas License to …

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Small Gun Class 2022

Each May I run a session of our Defensive Pistol Skills BUG (Small gun) class, as temperatures rise and people are more likely to carry small guns, often in a pocket or in other non-belt-holster methods. In each class I collect performance data comparing small gun skill to skill with a larger gun carried in …

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Texas Handgun Association 2022 conference

I just got back from attending and speaking at the Texas Handgun Association‘s 2022 conference, held at the YO Ranch hotel in Kerrville, Texas May 13-15. The Texas Handgun Association was originally the Texas Concealed Handgun Instructor Association, and I was one of the organization officers (vice president) in 1997-1998. Growth of my business caused …

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Relative Performance Measurement

One of the classes I offer, my Advanced Handgun Road Course, focuses on measuring student performance and comparing it to known baselines. I use a sequence of 18 different drills, ranging from 25 yard group shooting and B8-centric exercises like the 5 Yard Round Up and The Test, to USPSA/IDPA standards like the IDPA 5×5 …

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Book Review – The Book of the Pistol and Revolver (Pollard, 1917)

In 1917, WWI veteran and British gunwriter Hugh Pollard published “The Book of the Pistol and Revolver”. Pollard wrote for magazines and authored shooting books from 1912-1945. He was a soldier, possible spy, firearms expert, widely published author, sportsman, social butterfly (son of a surgeon), forensics and ballistic expert, historian and collector. This particular book …

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