2015 PDN Training Tour Update #4

Rob Pincus here, and I am at the Big Spring Shooting Complex. This is owned by Brownells, and it's one of my stops on the tour every year for the last several years. It's a great range, a great place to train. This is a fourth class we've done here in a row. I've got one more class in Iowa, then I'm off to Colorado to start some classes there, and then eventually head up into the Pacific Northwest.

We're a little more than halfway through the 2015 Personal Defense Network training tour. And this is one of my favorite places to train. We've done advanced pistol handling for the last couple of days, we've done a rifle class, we've done two combat focus shooting, fundamental defensive shooting classes. And I've got another rifle class tomorrow. We've got a lot of great students here, a lot of return students, and we've got Cedar Valley Outfitters as our hosts, helping with the operations here along with the great staff that Brownells puts out here at Big Springs.

So again, this is a highlight of the tour for me. I've been having a lot of good times, we've had John Johnston here from Ballistic Radio, and we had a chance to talk to him about his experience here, what Ballistic Radio's all about. And the 1911 that he brought through the class, almost flawlessly. We've been friends, I've been on his radio show, why don't you tell everybody a little bit about what Ballistic Radio is? So Ballistic Radio is a nationally syndicated radio show, deals with the topics of self-defense, to a lesser extent gear and firing.

But mostly the things that you like talking about with the Personal Defense Network, with the DVDs and things like that. Actually, a lot of your contributors have been guests on the show. Yeah, we've had, I know Claude Werner, I know Tom Gibbons, Caleb Causey, Craig Douglas. Craig Douglas. William April, we've had a lot of guys who you've seen in Personal Defense Network, and even some of our Personal Defense Network training tour instructors that have been part of Ballistic Radio.

Mike Seeklander. Mike Seeklander. And one of the interesting things is you really don't get into politics, and it's really awkward for the social, the media to think: "Wait a minute somebody who doesn't talk about politics, and he's a gun guy?" Yeah, yeah. But I love it, 'cause obviously PDN, we try to stay away from the politics as well, and we really talk about the training and the gear and the issues, and the theories. And that's why I love the fact that what you're doing with your show, which is nationally syndicated.

So, not only can you listen to it on the radio all over the place, but podcasts as well. Yeah, podcasts as well, on iHeartRADIO also. iHeartRADIO. Talk to me about your experiences here. Now you just came into a class that was a full class, we had a wide, diverse range of shooters and skill levels.

You certainly were at the top of the class with your experience as a shooter, and your experience training probably equaled some of the other guys. But I definitely think that when it came to raw shooting skill, you were the top of the class. How did the class do for you? What do you think people should expect? What were people gonna here from you if they listen to your radio show about a Personal Defense Network training tour, CFS class?

Well, I think that there were a couple of things that you talked about that I actually really liked a lot. One of the ones that stood out was the balance of speed and precision, speed versus precision. I think the other one too was that setting your performance goals so that you can be the best who you can be. I do a lot of timer drills, and we could have a long conversation about that, but at the end of the day, I'm just trying to be the absolute best that I can be. And, and you talked about that quite a bit that I thought was refreshing, to me at least.

Yeah, I think it's important that we remember that competency is a subjective and individual trait, right? Trying to chase down an arbitrary number, or do as well as some other guy did in some drill might motivate you, but I think you're truly passionate and motivated to be the best who you can be, then you compared to you yesterday, is a heck of a lot more important than you to some arbitrary standards. Right. Your standard performance as a marksman, as a shooter is very high. The application of that skill is really what the combat focus shooting course works on, things like the wind sprint drill the figure-eight drill, some of the other things they teach them, the psychological factors.

Hopefully from a training model standpoint, take that to the next level. Yeah, yeah, It was, it was nice to see a little bit more thought incorporated into some of the things that you did, versus static drills on the range. From a mechanical standpoint you can argue either way, but they're not very good thinking drills most of the time. And that was something I actually really liked about the class, I liked your explanation of speed versus precision was one of the better ones that I have heard from anyone. Which was a very nice surprise.

You know, overall it was just a very interesting to me class. It was different than what I expected in a good way. Good, all right, well I'll take it, good deal. Now talk to me about the gun you brought through here, 'cause people aren't used to seeing a lot of the 1911 style guns on Personal Defense Network, and I know it's generally not the kind of gun I recommend. But this one, I gotta say, if I had to have one, I certainly wouldn't mind having this one.

This one performed very, very well. I'd only had one hiccup through the class, and we've kind of recreated it, we think. Yeah, it was me. Possibly it could've been operator-- You're being very nice, it was me. This is a Wilson Combat Protector Professional.

It's their four inch, full-size grip. They just came out with this last week, four inch nine milometer, actually. Right. This one's got a few extra upgrades done to it, but if you're in the market for a 1911, and if it makes sense for you and your resources, it's pretty much the best one I've found so far. Like I say, I was impressed with it.

We don't have many guns that make it through without any hiccups, there's plenty you can read on the Internet about. The fact that we'd had a lot of 1911 failures, this one really impressed me, it's a great gun. You are a great shooter, you're a great student, and a great asset to the firearms training community. Well I appreciate it, Rob. Thank you.