Improving Our Pistol and Carbine Skills

Classes from Runenation

​Since we like to learn new shooting techniques, improve our skills and challenge ourselves - we try to take various classes throughout the year. In the past month we have been fortunate to be able to take two classes taught by Ian Strimbeck of Runenation; one for pistol skills and the other for carbine skills.

​Functional Pistol Application 2
Functional Pistol Application 2 (FPA2) was a one day course that included advanced shooting drills that pushed the students outside their comfort zone to improve their chance of survivability in situations where lethal force is the only option. In addition to pistol fundamentals, the class also taught the students how to deploy their pistols from various concealment options and compressed/retention shooting positions, and included exercises that raised their heart rates so that they could see how their shooting would be impacted in higher stress situations. 

Image from Runenation

The course covered the following areas:

• Mindset
• Dynamics of violence
• Fundamental shooting stance
• Emergency reloading
• Integrating movement for survival
• Dealing with multiple aggressors
• Malfunction clearing
• One handed shooting; Why and how
• Methods of concealment: What works and what doesn't work
• 4-Count drawstroke
• Pistol deployment with and without concealment
• Shooting from retention: Why and how
• Optimization of defensive tools and modes of carry
• Processing information: How to be more than just a shooter
• Stress shooting

Image from Runenation​

​Functional Carbine Application 1
Functional Carbine Application (FCA1) was a one day course that covered the core principles and fundamentals of using a defensive carbine. The class also taught the students how to utilize a defensive carbine in the context of a worst case scenario such as home defense. 

The course covered the following areas:

• Defensive points of contact with the carbine and a fundamental fighting stance
• Defensive accuracy
• Carbine setup
• Precision and speed shooting with a carbine
• Primary and secondary aiming techniques
• Carbine reloading and manipulations
• Shooting in varied positions
• Multiple threat engagement
• Shooting in and around cover

​Both of the courses were well taught and very worthwhile – especially since they both focused on moving, thinking and shooting from a wide variety of distances (from up close to 40 yards) – instead of stationary target shooting. Because of this dynamic you had to manage several different things during each drill: determining a course of action, moving from point to point, drawing, prioritizing targets, aiming, shooting, reloading, and malfunction clearing (if that occurred). This aspect made the courses both more challenging and more rewarding since they clearly enhanced your skills.

​One of the most interesting aspects of the Pistol course was the “Shooting from retention” drills. Although I’ve shot many times from close distances (e.g. 1 foot), this was the first time I recall shooting targets while touching them to replicate what it would be like if you were actually physically holding onto an adversary while you fired your weapon. Needless to say, you need to have the proper technique to be effective and avoid shooting yourself.
 
The other thing that I really liked about both courses was that they made you think, focus and then shoot while maintaining accuracy – rather than just shoot. In fact, during many of the drills you didn’t know which target, or how many shots you were going to take, prior to starting the drill since Ian would call out that information while you were moving around the range. Some of the drills even included the “Stroop Effect” where the name of a color (e.g., "blue", "green", or "red") is printed in a color which is not the same as its name, as shown in the picture below. In these drills you had to examine the colored targets and then shoot the name of the color that was shown to you on a flip card once you arrived at the shooting location instead of the color that the name was written in.

​If you have a chance to take any of Ian’s courses (since he travels around the country in addition to teaching at his home base in New Hampshire) I would highly recommend that you sign up since Ian’s classes are a lot of fun and will definitely help you improve your pistol/carbine technique, speed and accuracy.
 
You can find out more about Runenation, and the classes that they offer, on their website:

            https://www.runenationllc.com/