After Action Report – 2-Day Practical Performance Pistol
Who: Tim Herron of Tim Herron Shooting
Tim is a Grand Master in USPSA and has won many titles in the competitive arena.
www.timherronshooting.com
What: 2 Day Pistol Course
Where: OOPS Range – Osceola, Iowa
When: June 12/13, 2021
Why: After the crap show of 2020 with Covid, wanted to get back on the range and training. I have understood the reasoning for individuals to compete in the shooting sports and since it has been many, many years since I have competed in IDPA, I wanted to have firsthand knowledge of the “why” behind USPSA shooting. Not to mention that Tim is well known and one hell of a shooter.
Class Makeup – 11 competitive shooters of varying levels and one LE – me.
Gear:
I shot the course with my Staccato DPO topped with a Trijicon RMR 3.25 MOA with a Surefire
x300u. I ran my tac rig, a Wilder Tactical padded belt, with AWS belt, and retained mags with the Wilder Tactical Mag Pouches. I used the Safariland 6390RDS holster on the NCP-E Plate.
Students in the class had a wide variety of firearms from Atlas Gun Works, STI, Springfield, CZ and more. Their gear was of the competition variety to provide the quickest and efficient movement as possible. There were a couple issues with guns during the course. A couple could be chalked to ammunition a cleaning a magazine body. Others, a VP9 had extraction issues and was replaced
with another VP9 to continue with the class. A CZ started having light strikes and was quickly fixed by another student with a vast knowledge of the pistol.
TD1 – We started out shooting a stage that was 27 rounds and set up by Tim. During this stage, there was no instruction on how to complete the stage. I got a couple quick pointers from the other students to help me get through as this was all new to me. Let me just say this first run was, well, not as good as I thought it should be but again, this is why I am here. During this stage run, Tim watched every shooter and took notes so he could provide feedback and instruction to us all.
After completing the stage, we all huddled up for introductions and what we wished to get out of the course. Tim then offered the pointers and critique of our stage and made the promise to work on each issue throughout the course. This was followed by a medical and safety brief.
Once hitting the range, we conducted some basic slow fire shooting for groups so that Tim could see each of our styles and potential flaws that could be improved upon. Tim then broke down his version of the shot process and why he believes most people mess up a shot. This was based on the fundamentals of marksmanship to much emphasis on one or another to create confusion. He demonstrated the whys behind it and then went on to cover his version of the fundamentals and shot process.
TD1 continued with various drills and exercises to increase the fundamentals taught along with increasing our ability to see/process information, decrease deficiencies in our mechanics along with diagnosing what we could do better. Tim explained and demonstrated every drill, course fire or string that he wanted us to shoot showing both the correct way and the wrong way and explained how to correct it.
TD2 – Started out with a focus, pace range style drill with targets at 7, 15 and 25 yards. This drill had multiple teaching points that Tim focused on from target transitions to pace up close verse far, sight picture and acceptable accuracy given the situation and more. This drill was shot on a timer as were drills during TD1.
This day also contained an actual Match that each student participated in. There were 5 stages ranging from varying distances, obstacles, steel and paper, and the drill we shot prior to starting the match, became a stage. This match was a local match for Osceola Organized Practical Shooters and had 24 shooters total. For my first time, I was pleased with a 10th place finish overall.
Following the match, we continued with drills like TD1 that increase our proficiency in all aspects of shooting. We worked on movement and how to prep ourselves for movement, movement to a shooting position to increase our time to target with accurate hits. This led to a competition on the drill which was a good time had by all. Each run was timed with specific instructions from Tim. At the end, it also showed that each shooter increased their ability to move and shoot by a half second or more.
The final drill conducted was Tim’s Barrel Drill. Tim awards a patch to the shooter that meets the requirements. At the time of this course, only 12 people have claimed the patch. The 13th was claimed at this class. This drill was excellent and created some mental anguish to the shooter. Would love to tell you the details but you need to take a class with Tim.
The 2-Day Practical Performance class was outstanding. Tim does and excellent job of teaching to each of his students and personalizes the training to each student. As we did shoot a match and did complete some stages during this class, the class is not geared towards just the USPSA shooter. It is a course for every type of shooter. Therefore, Tim calls the course “Practical Performance.” This course is exactly that. Practical use and methods in the use of the pistol. It can apply to defensive situations, law enforcement and obviously the competitive shooter.
The goal of any course of instruction is to take away more than you knew before. Sometimes this information may be something small in nature or large depending on your skill level. This course is for all skill levels. I took away many nuggets of information not only for defensive shooting, but items I can take back to officers at my agency, ways to explain the why behind certain lessons learned and more importantly, to improve my overall abilities as a shooter and instructor. I have always understood that competitive shooting benefits towards the “defensive shooter” but think I may have started a little addiction to USPSA.
