Review of Engage Combat Handgun August 12th 2012

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  • peacemaker181

    Member
    Feb 6, 2010
    8
    Hello everybody, I thought I would take a couple minutes to share my experiences on Engage Armament's first Combat handgun course. I don't frequent the forum often, in fact my number of posts are zero, but I will log on more to answer any questions anyone might have. So lets get into it!

    I first heard of the course through facebook, sent a few personal messages and secured myself a spot for the shoot. We would require a pistol, at least 3 magazines, 400 rounds of ammo, appropriate attire,safety glasses, ear protection, $200 for the course and lunch would be included. With a decent amount of shooting ahead, I did a little bit of practicing; drawing from the holster, clearing failures, reloading, etc. I am glad I did so and I would highly recommend doing so before a class, but as I would find out, no amount of practice at home beats time on the range.

    We arrived on a private range in somewheresville MD and the weather couldn't have been better. The range itself is a big hole scrapped out of the forest, with dirt walls on all sides of the range at about 15 ft high or greater. Thus it was very safe, my only concern was some large rocks coming out of the dirt walls, but everything proved to be just fine.

    First and foremost we were taught range safety and range rules, which we carried through our entire class :). Next, we had a short lecture on the fundamentals of pistol shooting, talking about stance, breathing, trigger control, etc. We were reminded to be mindful of these principles while we began our shooting. But just before we starting making loud noises and holes in paper and cardboard, we practiced drawing our unloaded guns from the holster to get a feel of our guns, the range and of each other on the firing line.

    Not wasting any time we moved onto live firing drills starting with trying to shoot 5, 1 inch targets in 4 seconds, while drawing from the holster. Now... if your like me, and you don't shoot nearly enough, that is a lot to do in only four second, all the while trying to maintain your pistol shooting fundamentals. But that is an aspect of the course itself; you get pressure put on you right out the gate to test how exactly are you going to do. This first drill really set the pace for how we participated in other drills, whether it was time constraints, reloading during drills, clearing the weapon of malfunctions, continuing to run the course despite a silly user error, etc. An added pressure for me personally, was as the day progressed, the rear sights on my handgun kept having multiple problems that ended up blocking my front sight and my sight picture at times and they would even drift to the left too. We would correct the drifting, but the point is, the pressure is on in this course and its completely ok if things go wrong, we want things to go wrong on the range, so that if/ when they go wrong off the range you can fix the problem quickly.

    We had multiple drills that day, what most of them are I do not know, but it included:
    -Proper way to draw from the holster, pull into workspace with gun pointed downrange, push out to firing position, finger on trigger while pushing out, bang- bang- bang, back into work space, check surrounding, if safe holster (Done on every drill).

    -Shooting 5, 1 inch rings in 4 seconds.

    -Techniques for advancing and firing on a target.

    -Stances for shooting; standing, kneeling, urban prone and how to recover.

    - Making use of barricades and opening to one's advantage.

    -Advancing on a target while firing, rate of fire increasing as distance between you and target closes.

    -Advancing with others, moving the fire line up with each other.

    -Explosive movements for advancing on targets, advancing to cover.

    -Reloading during drills including tactical reloading.

    There are probably more that I am missing, but it was an eventful 7 hour class that ran onto 11 hours! :party29:

    What I liked:
    -I really enjoyed being able to move, draw from my holster and fire many shots in succession. Frequenting public ranges in MD, those are things I always miss out on because every range has super tight rules about drawing from the holster, firing more than one shot at a time etc, it's really no way to gain any proficiency in your firearm.

    -Instructors were knowledgeable and friendly. They didn't mind me asking questions, practicing my techniques while they were speaking, during break periods I could ask them about a certain aspect of shooting or to show it to me or head back onto the line on my own to continue practicing my technique. They also kept a close eye on me, critiquing how I preformed through various drills- i even got called out for accidentally sweeping my hand with the muzzle when I was checking the loaded status of my handgun in my workspace (thanks guys!).

    -Lunch! When I read/ hear that lunch will be provided, my immediate after thought is I better provide my own. But wow! We were really fed well with many different kinds of sandwiches, chicken, fruit, cookies and other goodies. It reminded me of the super bowl minus the beer :)

    - Plenty of water and Gatorade was provided too, staying hydrated on a range can be very important.

    What I didn't like:

    - Starting us new guys off with a timed drill bothered me at first because I felt that with so much to bear in mind while shooting, we would make bad habits and not be concussions of the bad habits we were making. However, as I put before the instructors are very good, i got a hold of them and told them how I felt. They were quick with a reply, letting me know that it was all part of testing us, seeing where our skill level was and how we cope.

    -We ran out of ammo/ time/ daylight :envy:

    -This is a personal thing that falls under things I don't like and additional details, but it is important to note. When your shooting for pretty much the entire day, you can get tired, dirty, thirsty and you can go on autopilot. I had to catch myself doing this once, where you run through the drills without even thinking of what your doing (similar to driving on the road, then 15 minutes later you realize that you haven't been paying attention and you wonder where you are). Just be mindful if you feel as though your mind is heading in that direction and if it is, wake your self up with a slap to the face or water to the face or what ever. Its not safe for you and your mates and you didn't pay to mindlessly go through a course.

    Additional details I can give:

    -Bring as many magazines as you can, as you will have to reload many times, especially 1911 fans and wheel gunners. If you have a reloading tool bring that too, your thumbs will thank you.

    -You may want to bring knee pads, the range in basically a big hole in the ground and its a bit rocky. I hit my knee doing an urban prone exercise and I got that darn funny bone feeling for a couple minutes.

    -YOUR GUN WILL GET DIRTY. Fingernails on a chalkboard don't bother me... but the sound of dirt and sand in my gun as I rack the slide back does! Running through drills that require you to get low, like ones that involve urban prone, and fire rounds off that low to the dirt, will kick up dirt, some of will get in your gun. But don't worry about that, you need to test your self and your equipment!

    -Coinciding with my last point, you will or should take your gun apart and clean it out goooooood! I myself have never took my handgun apart aside from field stripping and cleaning, but after this course I have successfully stripped most of the frame down, gotten all the dirt out of all the hidden mechanisms, re lubed them and put them all back together correctly! My gun functions great again! Youtube is a great resource for taking your gun apart for maintenance.

    -Watch out if your brain is heading for autopilot.

    Well that's about all I gots to say about that. I had a great time, things went very well for a first class of its kind. I am a happy customer! Thank you to Aj and all the guys at Engage Armament for offering the course, giving us the resources and the opportunity to do some fun, practical shooting and a have a darn good learning experience :)
     

    mikec

    Ultimate Member
    Dec 1, 2007
    11,453
    Off I-83
    One thing I learned during a different instructors class, if they say bring 400 rounds, bring 750-800. If they say three magazines, bring a minimum of six. If you only bring three, what do you do if one gets damaged?

    Your class sounded like a good safe time. Have to check these guys out.
     

    MindOOB

    Active Member
    Jul 6, 2012
    164
    peacemaker if your the same person as I think you are in the class. Those "eyes" you had on were priceless.

    +1 for Engage Armaments advanced class.
     

    Engage Instructor

    Active Member
    Industry Partner
    Oct 27, 2011
    257
    we try to run a cycle (Basic and combat) every month. Of course business and personal plans can change it for better or for worst. If you want to be constantly updated just shoot me your email and I will add you to the list!
     

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