I was excited to see this class announced because I had been trying to find my way into a Hackathorn handgun class for years. To have the opportunity to take an “advanced” class with Ken was a rare opportunity and I jumped on it as quickly as humanly possible. I had exceptionally high expectations for the class.

I was not disappointed.

TD1

Day 1 began with a lecture from Ken on the realities of using a handgun for its intended purpose…namely serious social interaction with people who want to hurt you. The information in his lecture was based on decades of experience with that subject area and countless hours of research and analysis of real life incidents to find lessons that can be learned. The main points are highlighted on the target seen here. I’ll briefly flesh out the outline presented in the picture:




I.Most gunfights happen at ranges of 10 yards or less, with a heavy emphasis on the “less” part of that statement.

II.Most fights involve between 1 and 3 bad guys.

III.There are two types of incidents traditionally classified as a “fight”:

A.Shootings – a situation where generally only one person fires shots. Generally this involves one party producing a weapon and shooting on average between one to three shots. These incidents are more common than gunfights and generally carry a higher risk of legal liability than true gunfights.

B.Gunfights – a situation where gunfire is being exchanged between at least two actors in the fight. These situations generally see the involved individuals shooting their weapons until they are empty. These incidents are much more rare and generally carry a lower risk of legal liability as the incoming gunfire makes it pretty clear that the outgoing gunfire was the only reasonable alternative left to the good guy.

IV.When bullets start flying, people start moving.

V.The vast majority of shootings and gunfights happen in conditions of low light. Note that “low light” can be at night at the ATM or inside a parking garage at noon. Bad guys tend to use the cover of darkness to prey upon others.

VI.If you watch video of actual shootings you will see that often even relatively well trained shooters fire their weapons one handed under stress.

Given that these are the realities of how fights work, it is Ken’s belief that training should be structured to reflect these conditions. Much of what is considered “training” out there does not live up to these standards.

Ken spent the first chunk of TD1 working on the basics. It wasn’t necessarily to teach us the basics as everyone in the class already had the benefit of a solid foundation in the basics…it was more of an instructor development segment showing us how to teach the fundamentals to others. Ken showed us several tips and tricks to communicate important fundamentals like trigger manipulation, sight management, grip technique, and other basic manipulations. Ken ran us through several drills giving standards we could use to assess both our skill level and the skill of any students we might teach. I won’t describe the drills in detail as I’m sure others will do that for us. Ken mentioned that when he goes to various places to train he is often told “My guys are good!” The drills and standards he showed us helps to quantify what “good” really is so people have a good read on where they really are.

We were given heavy doses of shooting on the move in this course, which is a reflection of his earlier lecture points. Ken outlined the importance of being able to shoot while moving in *any* direction. Some out there are convinced that if they aren’t part of a SWAT team or a Tier 1 military unit that they will have no need to ever shoot while moving forward toward a threat. This is, of course, utterly silly. The box drill and the figure 8 drill (different than the figure 8 wobble drill) are excellent for teaching and practicing shooting on the move. The drills can be changed up to get people used to moving in all directions.

After returning from dinner we did some low light work focusing on using the light in a tactically sound manner so as to avoid being prolifically perforated by some bad guy out there in the dark. Ken even took us through the shoothouse in the dark to give us some opportunity to apply the lessons on light use taught earlier in the evening. Yet again my previously lamented training scar of charging targets manifested itself in the Fort Harmon shoothouse.

The weather was wet and rather cold and the hours were fairly long…but it was a most enjoyable day despite all of that.












TD2

Day 2 started off with Ken taking us back through the shoothouse correcting the errors seen the previous night as far as defensive CQB tactics go. He also demonstrated the advantages of switching hands in a CQB environment to minimize how much of yourself you expose to a potential lethal threat on the other side of that corner. Ken related that a lot of GSWs to arms, legs, hands, and heads from Iraq and Afghanistan happened as a result of folks exposing too much of themselves while trying to deal with a corner. Switching hands (or shoulders with a long gun) helps minimize exposure, which could be of critical importance in a real fight. The important distinctions between defensive and offensive CQB were laid out, as was the importance of working angles to your maximum advantage.

After the shoothouse lesson we went through more drills which I won’t attempt to list because I’m pretty sure I have them out of order and I have some of the standards wrong. Drills from TD2 that I’ll definitely be trying again are the Triple Nickel drill and the pistol permutation of the 1-2-3-4-5 drill, as well as “The Test” which is a favorite I was first introduced to by Larry Vickers. (Who credited Ken for teaching him the drill) The last drill before lunch was Todd’s F.A.S.T. drill, which some people performed rather well on. That was my fifth time shooting the drill…and while I did fairly well on most of the drills we shot over the course of the weekend (generally passing the standards Ken laid out, sometimes by a considerable margin) this attempt at the F.A.S.T. (my fifth time shooting the drill in total) was…well…ugly. Once more the lesson that you have to look at the sights AND properly manipulate the trigger to actually get a passable score on that drill seemed to escape me.

After lunch some of us went to an adjacent range where Rob Haught gave us a quick and dirty explanation of his shotgun technique and some demonstrations of its effectiveness. I only fired 3 rounds using Rob’s technique, but I’m a believer. During Rob’s demo someone noticed what appeared to be a dead raccoon laying out in the open on the range…only it was breathing. This is, of course, rather abnormal behavior for a raccoon, leading us to the conclusion that it was sick. It’s not sick any more.

After the shotgun demo we went back to more drills working on accuracy, speed, movement, point shooting, and even one where we had to shoot someone else’s gun.

Later on in the day Ken ran us through the shoothouse but this time with a twist: We were only allowed one magazine for our weapon. Those of us who had more than 15 rounds in our mag had to download to 15. Each bad guy target had to be engaged with a minimum of 2 shots. There were enough bad guy targets to make sure all of us would run out of ammunition at some point during the clear. Ken told us ahead of time that there were 3 weapons left in plain sight inside the shoothouse that we could pick up to finish the problem.

I went through the shoothouse using my weak hand as Ken had instructed with little problem. Shooting left handed was slower than using my strong hand and required more mental attention than shooting with my strong hand, but it wasn’t too bad. Inside the shoothouse I had some rather disturbing experiences.

Now if you had asked me if I was under any stress inside the shoothouse I would have told you that I wasn’t experiencing anything close to stress. After all, I’m not exactly a stranger to being inside a shoothouse…but while in the shoothouse I didn’t see any weapons. Ken said there were three in there in plain sight, but I got through the first two rooms (expending most of my ammunition) without seeing any guns. As I approached the third room I was worried about my ammo situation. I did a quick check on my ammo supply and wouldn’t you know it? Empty magazine. I only had the round in the chamber. Then I noticed my first pickup possibility, some sort of single-stack pistol laying on the ground inside the third room. I continued clearing the room from the hallway and managed to get all but one corner. I was reasonably certain that there was a bad guy in that corner, as it was the most awkward to clear and it required actually entering the room to see it. I quickly formulated a plan…shoot that guy in the head with my last round, chuck my M&P and pick up whatever the hell that gun on the ground was and finish the job. I executed my little plan quite well, I thought. One to the head with the M&P, tossed it, and then I picked up whatever the weapon on the ground was, racked the slide, and put two more in the bad guy’s head. Turns out the weapon was a Tokarev. I didn’t really notice what the weapon was until I had already shot the guy. I finished the house with the Tokarev.

The disturbing phenomena during this run:

1.I didn’t see the other two pistols in the house, despite the fact that I damn near stepped on one of the unseen ones. Even right now at this moment replaying the shoothouse in my head I can see everything…the targets, my sights, even the bandannas jumping when I hit one of them…everything  except the other pistols laying on the ground. I didn’t know where they were until Ken pointed them out.

2.I didn’t notice that someone was in the house filming my run. Granted it’s everybody else’s job to say behind the guy with the gun so as to avoid safety issues, but I did enough looking around that I should have seen him at least well enough to know he was in there filming before he actually told me as much later on.

3.I didn’t know what I had in my hand until after I’d already shot the threat target with it. I know what a Tokarev looks like. I know what a Tokarev is…but in that moment I had no clue what sort of pistol was and I kept trying to engage a safety that wasn’t there. It “felt” sort of 1911-ish and as such I was trying to run it like a 1911.

These all could be the result of a blond moment…but I think it’s more likely that they were induced by stress. The number of times “That’s never happened before!” gets said in a training course is so high it sounds almost cliché, but…well….That’s never happened before.  

We finished up TD2 with more movement drills and hung around to watch Ken and Todd hit a milestone with Todd’s H&K P30. That was entertaining. All I’ll say is that in important moments one’s ability to function with equipment that they are familiar with tends to go downhill whether it’s a handgun or a camera.

Philosophy:

I wanted to take a moment here to cover something Ken said that I think deserves a spotlight:

Under stress you will not do anything you are not confident in your ability to do.

This means that if you haven’t trained on it to the point where you are reasonably certain you can pull it off, you will NOT do it under stress. Todd said this should be referred to as Hackathorn’s Law. I think that’s a splendid title.

I’m sure I’ve heard Ken say similar things in past training experiences, but for some reason this time it seemed to hit my brain different and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

Equipment:

My M&P ran great, as usual. During the low light section I was thoroughly pleased with my Warren 3 dot sights. We did a considerable amount of shooting without the aid of a light, using only our night sighting references. I was continually amazed at the accuracy and speed the Warren 3 dot sights gave me. I was shooting better in the dark than I was in the daytime. It was unreal. What misses I had I could easily attribute to the big black hole at the center of my vision from the hideous muzzle flash provided by my American Eagle FMJ practice ammo. After a few shots I was literally unable to see my target. I could barely make out my front sight enough to make another shot. The shots where I could actually see a bit of the target and make out my sights were all very good…usually tightly clustered high in the chest of the target. I bought the 3 dots on a lark a while back and every time I use them in low light I am more and more impressed with them. They are fast, easy to use, and incredibly precise.

Lasers are, of course, the heat. As good as my Warren sights are, I used another student's M&P (equipped with the CT unit) with more speed and accuracy than my own pistol. That’s a “clue”. I’ve put off buying a laser for my M&P too long.

Conclusion:

It’s impossible to fit everything I got out of this course into an AAR or to quantify all the great aspects of the course for the reader.  

My fellow students were all exceptionally good shooters and generally just good dudes overall. We were all eager to learn and willing to have some fun, which, when combined with a pretty high skill level, made for a most pleasant learning experience.

Ken is a phenomenal instructor. If you don’t walk away having learned something that changes the way you think from a course like this, then you just weren’t paying attention. There’s a reason why everybody in the industry calls him the “Tactical Dali Lama”. Having Rob along to act as AI and at times class participant was a great bonus. It’s the first time I’ve met Mr. Haught, but hopefully I’ll end up in one of his shotgun classes in the future.

...oh, and if anyone has a line on a Tokarev in good condition at a good price, let me know. I'm obsessed now.

This was one of my favorite classes when I took it a few years ago.  Ken is the best, focused on the practical thought process.  Its not one of the e-commando fantasy camps that are so popular now where you burn through ammo like you are training for a SEAL team.  


 Maybe I missed it, but did you guys do the snake drill?

Ken is someone you absolutely *must* train with if you have the opportunity. The number of open enrollment classes he is doing is winding down over the years. If it's at all possible you should jump all over the Arizona class. He's also doing one in New Mexico in the near future.



This actually came up during the class during one of the breaks to load mags and grab some hydration. Ken's philosophy is that most people are only capable of really concentrating for about 400 rounds per day. Beyond that they tend to lose focus and start aimlessly launching bullets. Larry Vickers holds the same philosophy. I tend to agree. i've been in the high round count classes many times and there was a definite degradation in performance for most of the students (including myself) beyond the 400-500 round mark. The current ammo situation has introduced some sanity to the training biz as far as round counts go, as those who have advertised insane round counts are now dropping the ammo count because they can't fill seats. The ammo is just too scarce and too expensive. Hopefully this will lead to more emphasis on the quality of the rounds fired rather than the quantity.

All of that being said, this was an exceptionally high round count class for a Hackathorn class. Students went through 750-900 rounds on average. That was a function of having a small number of students who were all superb shooters. We were able to move from drill to drill to drill with little fuss, leading to a higher round count.



Yup.