12 Oct 15
Pyrotechnics!
We ran a Live-Fire Scenario Class in WV last weekend, using a building mock-up, cars, and pyrotechnics. Targets, and non-targets, were dressed, foam mannequins with faces. Bombs and smoke everywhere!
We tested students’ heart-rate before and after each scenario. As expected, students responded excitedly, even to our artificial/manufactured stress!
We were at the wonderful Echo Valley Range Complex in Highview, WV, where we can shoot 360 degrees, and late into the evening.
The Course consists mostly of free-play scenarios, where students can engineer tactical challenges any way they want. We used both handguns and rifles.
We’ll be doing another in the same place on the weekend of 7-8 Nov 15.
This Course is not for beginners.
When you want to join us, contact Pat Troy at patrick_troy
A side note:
One of our students used a Beretta PX4 (rotary barrel) pistol in 40S&W. This pistol has a traditional, external hammer and a slide-mounted, two-stage decocking lever. It ran fine for the duration, but my student wanted to know if he would be permitted to manually cock the hammer immediately prior to shooting, when a difficult shot was necessary. I indicate that was okay, so long as the pistol was correctly decocked prior to holstering.
He did manually cock the pistol’s hammer several times for long shots. Other times, he stroked the trigger through in the conventional, trigger-cocking mode.
What he discovered, and is usually the case, manually cocking the hammer offers no speed, nor accuracy, advantage over firing in the trigger-cocking mode!
My advice with these pistols is to never touch the hammer. The gun is fired via the trigger, and decocked via the decocking lever. Everything the hammer needs to do, it will do by itself, without the operator ever touching it.
In my opinion, that is almost always the best way to run this gun. At the end of our Course, my student concurred!
/John
