Refining skills in the best single-day training ever!

In December 2022, I took the opportunity to attend the Pistol Range Day at Paulden, and one of the instructors recommended that I have my pistol’s iron sights modified to include a red dot sight. Fortunately, I was able add an electronic sight — having selected a model that allows me to utilize either a green dot, or green dot and reticle (which experts recommend for older adults). Attending the first Pistol Range Day in 2023, I ran into the instructor, Chris Currie, who recommended the red dot sight a month earlier. The learning curve is pretty steep with utilizing a new, fundamentally-challenging piece of electronic gear to a pistol I’ve owned about 19 months. Here’s my point: please don’t miss it. Chris worked with me to properly utilize the electronic sight… and it was a total game-changer for me. With a little practice, I was drawing my newly-modified pistol from the holster and putting two rounds in the middle of the head box, at first in a little over three seconds, but within our drills that hour, brought the time down to less than two seconds… a significant change, reducing my response time by more than 30%. Chris took me from the skill level, equipment carried, where I was when he started with me and, working with what (little) he had to work with, brought my skills to a point where I was drawing from a holster at 15 yards and putting a round in the center of the head box in just over 1.4 seconds. Chris is that good… but they’re all that good. I found out that day that the “trick” isn’t finding the best instructor — but doing whatever the instructor (no matter who he or she is) states, following their instructions exactly the way they stipulate until I master the skill they want to impart to me. My ego fights the challenge, but it’s more important to me to make the most of every minute I’m on a gun range (or in the classroom). Chris is an excellent instructor, and so are the others at Gunsite: each brings their own experience and skills to the table — yet the results are remarkably very consistent, and produce improvement. Pistol Range Day has proven to be worth every cent, every second, expended. You owe it to yourself to attend one or two — and see if you don’t observe improvement in your skills.

Thomas Young, Pistol Range Day, March of 2023, Gunsite, Paulden, AZ

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