Anyone take one of his classes? I just signed up and paid $800 for the D5 carbine course in Park city utah. I have always liked his youtube videos and Had his DVDs from back when he worked for magpul. I met him at shot show this year and we talked a bit about taking a class. This is a huge chunk of money. Anyone take one of his classes that could give me advice? OR a carbine class at all? This will be my first Big class and I am going in blind

Yes, I’ve taken pistol and carbine with him.

Travis is one of the most intelligent and articulate instructors with real world experience.

It is a large sum of money, but in my opinion it was well worth it.

Take notes and enjoy.

Do you think I will be bored with the D5 class/ I want to maximize my experience and learn all I can. I have been a competitive shooter all my life and have quite of bit of experience. However I have never taken a "real" class like this before.

You'll be amazed at what you learn. I've seen competitive shooters, who are pretty good shooters, but with no formal training, attend courses from good instructors and they usually have an epiphany.

I explain to them that they really don't know, what they don't know.

Some go on to be much better shooters, some can't shake all the bad habits they've accumulated in just a  2-4 day course.

While I've not trained with Hailey, I've heard good things about his courses.

Nick nailed it.

Set some  expectations in your mind of what you hope to accomplish.

Competition  and tactical training can be vastly different as I’m sure u know.

Be open-minded and ask questions...I wouldn’t hesitate to take another Haley class.

Be prepared for lots of $5 words ending in "ology" and plenty of bro science.

So my only complaint is this is normally a 3 day class but they only got the range for two days so now it’s a two day class for the same price. That kinda makes me mad but the person on the phone I talked to said everything will still be covered in the two days. Is this something I should be mad about? I kinda feel screwed since this class cost $800

I took a 2 day carbine class from another instructor and honestly the whole thing could have been done in one day.  Was still good to be at the range for two days and out of the house.

That would be fine too but it’s $800 for the class. Same amount for the exact same class on the 3 day schedule.

Keep an open mind.  Even if something is different, make the effort to give it a solid try, not the fake it to get through try.

Be a good student.  Check your ego at the door. You are more receptive to learning, the instructor has an easier time facilitating the learning, and you aren't a distraction to other students.

Keep your focus on not just the "how" of a performance objective, but the "why".

Have fun.

I would not stew over it. I took a 3 day class that could have been run in half of the time also. These classes are built to compensate for shooters with different skill levels and experience. Zeroing could be a adventure within itself.  Shortening the class to 2 days means less bullshitting, and less wait times between blocks of instruction.

I always have my rifles zeroed. Would that mater at all when going to the class? Seemed I would already be good to go

Any instructor that doesn't have students zero/verify zero is crazy.  It's a (mostly ) quick and easy exercise that helps remove a common barrier to effective training, and allows the instructor/AIs to observe thier students in a low stress/easy environment.

Just because you may be prepared doesn't mean Joe blow next to you is.

It sounds like you are getting kind of worked up about this class.  You need to relax about it.  You signed up with one of the better instructors available for public courses, who is well known for creating a great learning environment.  You are in good hands.

I guess I'll go against the grain and say that if you paid for 3 days of instruction, you should get exactly that or get offered a price price break. There's got to be good a reason the class was originally designed to be 3 days rather than 2. Trying to learn a lot in a short period of time makes it had to absorb all the info, at least it does for me. Just my .02

Although the change from a 2 to a 3 day course kinda sucks.
It’s a lot of money to throw down for a few days. But it’ll be well worth it in the end if you stay proficient afterwords.

Now if you sign up for a tactical response class.
That’s when you should start to question your decisions.

All jokes aside. Every class I’ve taken I’ve always learned something new, regardless of the quality of the class/instructor

I'm been to 2 carbine classes, both one day. Each was entirely different after the first hour or so of basics. One class was a clone of Magpul DVD the other was totally opposite with no team moving or speed reloads but a lot more shooting from different cover and 100+ yd offhand.
Both were fun and educational. I think 3 days would be tiring but I'm an old semi fat guy.

Plan to be safe and have fun and stop stressing.

Another question. How many people wear body armor for these classes? I kinda want to get used to my plates. Plus I have a hydration bladder on the back too. Over kill?

I would forget the body armor and focus on the fundamentals.

Class starts tomorrow, right?

Let us know how day 1 goes.  Stay hydrated and fed.

I say weareit otherwise why have it.   I would bring another set up as well just in case you decide to ditch it half way through.

My war belt set up is my primary I use during  competitions. The PC would just be  supplemental

1st class the instructor wore it but I would only do it if your in good shape

I used to wear soft armor when coaching/teaching on pistol ranges.  People seem to be fairly good to go with rifles but throw a pistol in there and people loose all sense of muzzle awareness.  Especially Reservists who may only get to qualify once every few years with a pistol.

If your PC is something you think you would use in a situation like this then I say by all means wear it and train in it.  It's the only way to know how you will shoot with it.

1911XDM,

Where is the class being held in Park City?

Thank you.

It’s at the pmaa range

How'd it go?

Or under-eat so you don't have to poop at the range, unless it's one with a bathroom.

Sorry about the long awaited update. I ended up doing both the rifle and pistol classes. So five days of shooting.
I was a little  discouraged on day one because we spent the first half of the day in the classroom doing power points then it look three hours for the students just to zero their rifles. So not much time left in the day for drills. I had my rifle on point with a perfect zero right on with the first shot. Day two was a different story. Tons of drills and tricks. I don’t even shoot a carbine the same any more. I am faster and  more accurate too. Travis was the only instructor for the rifle class with 20 students. which was a little slow and annoying because he mostly worked with the people who needed more help. He did not spend much time on my side of the line. I learned a lot in the time we had.

Pistol class was the same story. Learned a better stance, none of that push pull crap. We did a lot of the same drills as carbine plus quite a bit of barrier drills. I ran a beretta 92a1 and 92fs. Everyone was giving me shit including Travis. But I held my own and was very fast and accurate. I have always shot weekly at my local range so I had doubts about learning and improving much but I have gotten better in the last five days of class. Yes it’s exspensive but we’ll worth it. Travis had another instructor with us for the pistol class for the 25 sudenfs we had.

Go take one of his classes. He is a great guy. Easy to talk to and very smart, well worth it. 9.6 out of 10.

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Good AAR and its good you learned stuff.

20 students is too many and you experienced the reason why. The poorer performing students get all the attention. Most really good instructors limit class size to 12 or even 10, but the profit motive is powerful for many instructors.

I took a course a few years ago from a very popular, big-name instructor. It had 22 students (with no assistant). It took place on a range designed for about 8 shooters. Needless to say it wasn't a good experience. The excuse I got was that both the instructor and his "agent" were booking students and neither communicated with the other.

Now, I always ask the instructor before signing up how many students he limits his courses too.

I can't understand students that show up with a rifle not zeroed.  Had one at my last class, wasted everyone's time because he also had a junk red dot.

One of the first carbine classes I took had about six women from A Girl and Gun enrolled as a group. Now I'm all for women shooting but they were a hot mess. Zeroing went on for way too long, and a couple never did get zeroed. And the worst part out of the six only one was halfway a looker.