Last week I was invited to a birthday party at front sight, NV. Front sight is a firearms training facility. Forty individuals were invited to attend a 4 day defensive handgun. The class was a four day course that starts on a Friday and ends on a Monday. The classes started at 8am and ran to 6 pm on most days. One day it ran to 10pm for a night shoot.
The cost of the course is listed as $2K. Since we were invited as guests, we were only required to pay the background check fee of $50. Front sight is located near a small town called Pahrump, an hour north west of Las Vegas. The actual facility is about a 20 minute drive outside of Pahrump in the desert.
There aren’t a lot of good things to say about the city of Pahrump. The food was cheap, the residents were weird, the hotels were ok (3 stars) and most shops were empty. I asked a woman working at one of the stores why the place was so empty, she said “People get paid on the 1st, by the 8th, there isn’t much money left”. I can’t see how people can live like that, but that’s a different topic.
We ended up staying at the saddle west hotel. I found it to be a decent hotel, especially for the price we paid of $50/night. It included a free buffet in the morning (for front sight attendees).
The description of the course is as follows:
“Regardless of your experience prior to entering this course, upon completion, your gun handling, marksmanship, and tactical skills will be better than they have ever been and you will be able to safely and easily draw your weapon from a CONCEALED holster and fire two,sighted shots to the center of a target 5 yards away - all under 1.5 seconds! That`s right, from a concealed holster in 1.5 seconds!
You will understand the principles of tactics and have multiple opportunities to use your acquired skills under the stress of simulated, lethal encounters. This course is a must for anyone who chooses to own or carry a handgun for self defense.
Lecture Topics and Firing Range Drills:
As outlined in Two-Day Defensive Handgun with added emphasis on Concealed Carry; Low Light and Night Shooting; Tactical Training Simulation using Realistic Reactive Targets in Shoot/No Shoot Scenarios; and Target Engagement from Arms Length to 25 yards under Time Pressure. Course also includes Evening Supplemental Lectures on Shotgun and Rifle topics with Staff Social, Single Elimination Shoot-off, and Distinguished Graduate Skills Evaluation. “
I want to start off by saying that I had an absolute blast.
When you arrive, the first thing performed is a weapons and ammo inspection. You are required to bring 800 rounds of ammo with you to the class. You are required to keep you gun holstered unless asked by the range master to remove it from the holster. They require that the gun be unloaded when moving around the facility. The facility features more than 8 ranges, each about 200 yards long. Each range had a range master and 2 instructors. Our range master the first 3 days was Jay or self titled “Evil Jay”, the assistant range master was Dave Champion (a friend of our birthday dude).
In our range we had 44 students and it felt a bit crowded at times. The students were organized into 2 relays. The relay not firing was required to coach the second relay. This wasn’t the best approach as the second relay really wasn’t experienced enough to make corrections. Most corrections ended up being made by the range instructors. Twenty of the targets were on a turning target system where the instructor had the ability to rotate the targets on demand. Turning the targets applied a lot of stress to many of the drills. Some drills had a mere 2 seconds to un-holster and fire 2 rounds into the target.
There were over 800 attendees at front sight. I would estimate that 95% of the students attending were Caucasians. We did see one black guy and a few Asians. Most of the people were from the west coast, with a few people from the east coast visiting.
It was quite a culture shock for me to see everyone wearing a gun on their belt. Everyone from 14 year old kids to 80 year old men and women. Even after 4 days of attending, it was still weird to see everyone carrying a weapon. It almost felt like the end days, or maybe what it will feel like if Obama is re-elected for a second term. I am not sure I am mentally prepared to handle a world where everyone is armed. One thing I will say is that everyone was very polite to each other while attending.
The class gave a lot of important skills from handling the weapon, clearing malfunctions, firing, standing, concealing, to dealing with legal and moral issues. I found the class room training to be a bit boring. It went to some very odd tangents and scenarios. We spent a total of approximately 7 hours in the classroom, and the rest of the time at the range. The range time was great, the instructor was very personal, and the staff was friendly.
I brought with me a Glock 21 SF, that shot 45 ACP. In the class I conservatively fired about 550 rounds of Wolf ammo. My thumbs were bruised and sore from reloading. I had 2 malfunctions while in the class (both failures to eject). I found that to be quite low compared to Springfield Armory guns.
The class was a blast, my favorite moments were the simulation, the night shoot, and the hostage situation.
The simulation is a simulated house where you must enter the front door, peek around corners and fire rounds at images. You have to analyze each picture as a friend or foe. An instructor walks carefully behind you and does the voices for each image. Some examples are a woman with a pocket book, a kid holding a gun, a man holding a woman hostage, a man with a knife… etc. For some reason, this simple scenario applies a level of stress that shows how you tend to relax the simple skills you easily performed when not under stress.
The night shoot teaches you how to hold a flash light, approach targets and fire. In one session, we were taught the tactic of 2 to the thoracic cavity (chest) to stop, if that fails to stop its followed by one shot to the (cranial cavity) head. The teacher asked the class why a shot to the cranial cavity would fail to stop. A few people had the right answer: a missed shot, a shot that failed to penetrate the bone to brain tissue, but then some wise guy threw in “Zombies”. Supposedly one of the young kids attending whips out a zombie paper target and asks if he can use that for the night shoot. Supposedly it was a young women in a bikini with a zombie face. I didn’t get to see it, but laughed hard when I heard about it. At the night shoot, all lights are required to be out on the range except for the small hand light that you are carrying. Jay got a bit crazy and started flipping the targets rapidly and randomly, calling out “zombie drill… head shot”, then giving an eerie laugh. We all ended up unloading our entire clip and then some. Click-click.
The hostage situation was part of a single eliminations shoot off. The front steel figure was the hostage, and the outline of a head behind the first figure represented the terrorist. When shot the terrorist would swing around. After shooting the terrorist there were two other steel targets that were to be knocked off stands. Each representing two other terrorists in the background. In the class there are some real sharp shooters that nailed this test. These guys either had a lot of off practice, or have attended this class many times. I thought I would do well, but ended up shooting the hostage right in the middle of the for head with the first bullet. I hate the glock’s stock sights, they suck. I lost on the first round to James.
The class was fun, it was probably the most fun I have had in a long time. It was more fun when they weren’t pushing their memberships and you could enjoy yourself. The memberships are crazy expensive ($5K - $100K), but I guess if you plan to attend frequently it may pay for itself. I don’t think I will sign up for anything….ever. I just can’t see myself driving or flying to Nevada frequently, or taking 4 days off of work frequently. Although, one day I would like to attend like the 4 day practical rifle course.
Difference between a 9mm and a 45 ACP
Doors course
In front of targets
Getting some instructions
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