freetheeagle
Shooter
I and 3 friends attended a self defense training class at Elite Arms in Lumberton, MS this past Friday. When I went to bed Thursday night the NWS was still forecasting mostly sunny with a high of 44. As you know we didn't even get close to that and had light sleet and occasional snow flurries instead.
Even with that we had a great class and a lot of fun. It was definitely a self defense course and while they worked with all of us on fundamentals like grip, sight alignment, and trigger control it was clearly aimed (no pun intended) at the basics of handling a threat situation. Most everything was done from a holster and the exercises that weren't were designed to enhance your ability to acquire a target once the weapon was out of the holster. We did simulated and real drills on clearing malfunctions and changing magazines. Some of the later exercises used enough rounds that a mag change was required to complete it so we got a chance to do them in real time. We shot steel targets exclusively and most drills involved multiple targets some with varying sizes and ranges. We did some one hand only shooting including use of your non-dominant hand. We had some exercises involving moving from the start to a point, acquiring the target and registering the required number of hits, then moving to the next point and repeating. We also did some shooting while moving. This was a basic class so we only did so while moving forward and backwards and no sideways movements. It was a lot to take in and I can guarantee you that accuracy deteriorates a lot versus shooting paper targets at your leisure.
Jack and Judy Ragsdale are the owners and instructors. They are both retired from the Tampa police force where Jack was one of the firearms instructors for over 20 years in addition to his other duties. He is also a competition shooter and has held a couple of national records along the way. They are both excellent teachers and their personalities fit in well with our group. They teach a number of different handgun courses from basic CCW to advanced and also conduct carbine and shotgun classes. With a group of 3 or more they will hold a private class for the same cost per person as an open class. Their facility is clean, well maintained, organized, and suits the purpose very well.
If you or anyone you know are in the market for firearms training at any time I highly recommend them. Our group is already talking about scheduling another class after we have had some time to absorb all that we covered and practiced and hone those skills a bit. Next time we will pick a warmer month though!
Even with that we had a great class and a lot of fun. It was definitely a self defense course and while they worked with all of us on fundamentals like grip, sight alignment, and trigger control it was clearly aimed (no pun intended) at the basics of handling a threat situation. Most everything was done from a holster and the exercises that weren't were designed to enhance your ability to acquire a target once the weapon was out of the holster. We did simulated and real drills on clearing malfunctions and changing magazines. Some of the later exercises used enough rounds that a mag change was required to complete it so we got a chance to do them in real time. We shot steel targets exclusively and most drills involved multiple targets some with varying sizes and ranges. We did some one hand only shooting including use of your non-dominant hand. We had some exercises involving moving from the start to a point, acquiring the target and registering the required number of hits, then moving to the next point and repeating. We also did some shooting while moving. This was a basic class so we only did so while moving forward and backwards and no sideways movements. It was a lot to take in and I can guarantee you that accuracy deteriorates a lot versus shooting paper targets at your leisure.
Jack and Judy Ragsdale are the owners and instructors. They are both retired from the Tampa police force where Jack was one of the firearms instructors for over 20 years in addition to his other duties. He is also a competition shooter and has held a couple of national records along the way. They are both excellent teachers and their personalities fit in well with our group. They teach a number of different handgun courses from basic CCW to advanced and also conduct carbine and shotgun classes. With a group of 3 or more they will hold a private class for the same cost per person as an open class. Their facility is clean, well maintained, organized, and suits the purpose very well.
If you or anyone you know are in the market for firearms training at any time I highly recommend them. Our group is already talking about scheduling another class after we have had some time to absorb all that we covered and practiced and hone those skills a bit. Next time we will pick a warmer month though!
