8 Days at FrontSight Firearms Training Institute

This was a full eight days of learning experience, which includes skill building and many other aspects of operating, and being around, firearms.  The training happened at FrontSight Firearms Training Institute.

I first learned about FrontSight about three and a half years ago at an RV show in Indio, CA.  It was one of the FMCA rallies.  A booth was at the rally and they were selling memberships to here, price was reasonable.  After purchasing it promptly forgot about this as my first cat passed away, Pia, and that truly devastated me.

About eighteen months ago remembered had this, came and took a tour of facility, and worked it into schedule to take these two courses, see if liked / didn't like it, and to learn and understand weapons, in a civilian capacity, better.  Recently I kept thinking about something a dear friend of mine told me, when she traveled the country as a young single woman between events.  She related a few stories where she went into places like gas stations, truck stops, and the like, and there were some sketchy people around, looking at her in skeevy ways.  This worried her greatly and she seemed genuinely worried for her safety at the time.

Due to this, and some of my experiences on the road so far, chose to attend these courses in a controlled and educational environment. Am extremely surprised at the depth in which they teach.  The curriculum is not only about shooting, it's about so much more.  The courses main focus is on the defensive use of firearms.  Let me repeat, the defensive use of firearms.

As the main focus is on the defensive use, including such topics and mandatory lectures as criminal and civil liabilities, covering different types of scenarios on proper use of force, force escalation, color code of mental awareness, and many other topics.  They also covered that, although you might be justified in proper use of force, sometimes that justification should not be used.  One example FrontSight provided is an armed robbery at a convenience store.  You can use deadly force, not only to protect yourself, but also to protect innocents, such as life of the cashier.  However, if the armed robbers got what they want, didn't harm anyone, and are leaving the store, and you happen to fire and hit them, then you might be both criminally and civilly liable due to escalation of potential deadly force.  Even though you, at one point, had just cause, the point of imminent danger passed and now it's an armed robbery law enforcement issue, not a matter of life and death.  This line is grey and it's hard to judge what the "bad guy" is thinking as he could've turned around and popped the cashier as he was leaving.

One topic which both the instructors and the lecture topics harped on, is not the use of deadly force.  This is super important.  As a firearms owner / user, the intent for self defense is not to kill the aggressor, the intent is to stop the action that they're doing which is putting you, or innocent people, in a life threatening situation.  The way FrontSight teaches this is to use a controlled pair of shots to the thoracic cavity (handgun), followed by a head shot if they are still aggressive.  Once the threat is neutralized then should call 911 (if not done already), properly stow the weapon (if scene is safe) and wait for law enforcement.

BUT, it's not always necessary to use a firearm.  If it's possible to get out of the situation you're in, without brandishing a weapon, by all means do it.  This is unlikely in event of a home invasion, but still possible.

As I do not own a firearm, all firearms I used as part of the training were supplied by FrontSight.  This was nice from the standpoint of just showing up in the morning, getting it, shooting it, and turning it in at end of day.  Detail below on the individual courses, with a followup on these weapons rentals.

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Four Day Tactical Shotgun Course

This was my first course ever, outside of the military, and first time handling, and shooting a shotgun.  The experience itself is great, though I truly beat myself up handling a shotgun like that, with so many rounds in a few short days.

All in all a great experience.

Not that I can cover all the topics here, but will cover some highlights.  The foundation of the course is defensive use of shotgun, such as in a home situation.  The course covered the three main types of shotgun ammunition, bird (game) shot, OO Buckshot, and slugs, and also went through the different zones of effectiveness of each different type.

For example, buckshot has an "A" zone, in which the shot (consisting of nine pellets) generally punches a solid hole in the target (paper in our case).  It's somewhat raggedy around the edges but all in all a solid hole.  The A zone distance can vary significantly on a few factors, such as ammunition manufacturer, lot number, weapon type, and a few other criteria.  The "B" zone is also affected by the different factors, and illustrates where the shot is not a single hole but more distinct holes, but also typically covers the thoracic cavity, or maybe even a hand size pattern in the thoracic cavity.  The "C" zone is like scatter shot and where, when properly aimed, one or more pellets do not cover the target and definitely fall outside of the thoracic cavity.

There is a general limitation of most shotguns in that there is a lack of ammo capacity, yet the devastation that a well placed shot can cause will definitely stop a hostile target.  Yet, need to be careful on the shots as it's easy to potentially hit innocent bystanders due to pellets missing the target, or going through the target.

During the course different ammo malfunctions were covered.  These malfunctions are typically called Type 1, Type 2, and Type 3.  Type 1 is generally an empty chamber (failure to fire), Type 2 is ammunition that failed to eject and is visible (typically called brass high), and Type 3 is two rounds in chamber area.

Dry fire (practicing without ammunition) is done quite often throughout the course.

Multiple targets were also practiced in this class extensively and were present on the skills evaluation at end of course.

Throughout this course the defensive use of this weapon was emphasized, and only to use enough force to stop any acts of potential life threatening situations you may encounter.  The intent is not to cause death.

This course is physically demanding due to the shotgun itself.  While the recoil isn't overly bad, the repeated recoil and thought process of the whole course takes it's toll.  Definitely recommend using products / modifications to reduce recoil, including shoulder pads.

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Four Day Defensive Handgun course

Like the Four Day Tactical Shotgun course, this was all in all a great experience.  Yet, doing this back to back with the shotgun was tiring, both physically and emotionally, yet still rewarding.

Important to note, that just like the shotgun course, the handgun course's primary goal is to stop any life threatening situations you may encounter.  As mentioned in the preamble this is typically accomplished using a controlled pair to the thoracic cavity, followed by a single head shot ONLY if conditions warrant and the target(s) are still aggressive.

This course started off in much the same manner as the shotgun, safety first, always safety, and never a focus on lethal force.

First piece of the course was combination of dry firing and malfunction handling.  The same three basic types of malfunctions (type 1, 2, and 3) for shotguns also apply to handguns.  That is failure to fire (a click), brass high (round stuck exiting firing chamber), and a double feed.

For the initial dry firing aspect we went up to the line and practiced getting the proper sight picture, proper trigger press, and general firing mechanics.  The instructors did a very thorough job with this.

For the initial firing of the handgun, the instructors actually did this for us.  They fired the firearm first at the target (to give us a reference point to aim at), then they walked us through the firing, literally hands on.  They had us hold the firearm, finger on the trigger, then they pressed the trigger for us, slowly and methodically, until a round went off.  This happened two to three times.

It was followed up immediately by the instructor watching intently as we pulled the trigger, slowly and methodically, to achieve the proper trigger press and surprise break, as well as understanding the trigger reset.

After some more baby steps in getting familiar with firing hand guns we practiced controlled pairs on paper targets.  This I really excelled at and immediately got most of shots in the thoracic cavity.  As the training progressed we then switched to the controlled pair as well as a stopping head shot randomly, at the Range Master's instruction.  Super thorough.

Throughout all the firing exercises the firing line instructors, and range master, were always watching after the students to maintain safety and improve our individual firearms handling skills.  This includes grips, trigger pull, analyzing what we did when shooting at the paper targets, the whole gamut really.

Of particular note is a live fire simulator, a small building'ish type of structure that quickly go through and practice the skills that learned so far.  Got the mind working and thinking about real world scenarios.

As mentioned above, for the most part a thorough and enjoyable course, one which I did extremely well with.

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A tale of two woes.

At, or near, the end of each course, there is a skills evaluation to determine your firearm handling skills.  As with any evaluation there are different levels, identified below:

• Distinguished graduate - achieved 90% or greater proficiency with tested actions
• Graduate - achieved 70% - 89%, or greater, proficiency with tested actions
• Achievement - achieved less than 70% proficiency with tested actions

The items tested included firing drills, malfunction drills, and reload drills.  My own personal (biased) opinion is that I excelled at all of these, especially as a first time student and shooter of these weapons.  But, as this section states, it's a tale of two woes, one woe for each course.

I did not learn the exact grading structure until the handgun course (wasn't fully explained in shotgun course), and it's about as follows:

• Start with a fixed score
• Each miss subtracts five points
• Each "procedural" subtracts three points
• Exceed allotted time for action subtracts three points
• For handgun, if round lands outside of targeted area, subtract three points

For the shotgun course I missed distinguished graduate by five points, or one shot.  I was eighteen (18) points down from the starting score.  There are a few ways where points can be subtracted to add up to eighteen, such as three misses (five points each) and exceed time of one action (three points).

During, and after, the skills evaluation, received no feedback on what went wrong so truly have no idea what went wrong where.  Just know missed the distinguished graduate by five points.  Infuriating in a way but I didn't come to beat the score, I came for the experience.  It still left a bad taste in my mouth.

For the handgun course, it's more complicated, and as of this writing do not know how I did.  There are three "tiers" of evaluation.  First is controlled pair target shooting, next is controlled pair and head shot target shooting, and final is malfunction and reloading drills.

It was midway through the combination controlled pair and head shot drills where it all went south.  Up until this point was only five points down, due to one missed shot that I yanked the trigger on.  Had great sight picture and it was all going smooth.  THEN, a type 3 malfunction happened, third one of the day, and that's where stopped caring as couldn't rely on the weapon, a rental weapon.  At this time didn't miss any shots in this stage, all head shots and controlled pairs accounted for within target zones.  After the malfunction, and clearing the malfunction, missed the subsequent three head shots yet got the controlled pairs.

During the malfunction and reloading drills, again, was beside myself with the rental weapon, and purposely flubbed them all.  Probably got a few procedural's and out of time on all of them.

At this point, just as we broke for lunch, had a total of three type 3 malfunctions (two in practice before the evaluation and one during evaluation).  Had at least two type 3 malfunctions the prior day, with the same weapon.  Brought most of these to the staff's attention and my firing line partner and I exchanged knowing glances each time it happened.

At this point in the course am feeling hopeless and beyond myself with the rental hand gun after all these malfunctions.  It felt like all this was a useless exercise as couldn't trust the weapon.

After lunch we came back and did some more fun practice, such as shooting at targets that looked like obvious bad guys.  Am dubious and hopeless on the weapon, just expecting another type 3 malfunction.  I fired a few rounds at the target until got a type 1 malfunction, which is a click and no boom.  One of the firing line instructors came over and saw the malfunctions happen and attempted to help, to no avail.  Racked and round popped out, ready to fire again, and another click but no boom.  Repeated this two more times in the subsequent drills when gave up, unloaded, holstered, and requested permission to leave firing line.

Shortly after leaving line turned in rental weapon to range staff, reported malfunctions to weapons rental, and left day four early.

As of right now still have no idea how I did in the handgun course.  Am just happy don't have to deal with that rental weapon again, or so they said.  Going back first thing in the morning to finish up the course.

It's not the ammo, it's not the user, it's the hardware, and hardware problems, i.e. things out of my direct control, get me super irritated.  It is my thought that the weapon is dirty though just a hunch.  The Springfield Armory XD series is supposed to be a highly rated and extremely reliable weapon, yet I had nothing but issues the last two days.

Now, back to the shotgun, had a few problems during the evaluation portion with racking the pump.  I assumed, at the time, that it was just me, even though had no problems racking prior.  After dealing with the handgun malfunctions, am sure that it could be a hardware issue, possibly a dirty weapon.  This I do not know for certain but if true it's truly infuriating.

Final thoughts:

All in all a great course and achieved my goals.  Yet, I will NOT RENT A WEAPON (or buy ammo) again through FrontSight, unless want to do a full auto course.  By all rights I feel as if should've scored a distinguished graduate in both courses but didn't as I feel the rental weapons malfunctions are to blame.  I still recommend the training, just don't rent weapons!