I just returned from a two day tactical shotgun class at the Tactical Defense Institute near West Union Ohio. I have been wanting to go for a number of years, after someone I used to work with told me about this school. I finally followed through and went. I am glad I did.
When I was younger, growing up in rural Defiance County, Ohio, it was pretty common to learn how to shoot at an early age. When I was young, I learned how to shoot a 22 rifle, but was a little intimidated by shotguns. I never had any formal training, but my friends and I used to setup targets, cans, bottles, etc. and see if we could hit them. I just never got around to the shotgun.
I currently don't own a gun, but if I was going to pick a home defensive weapon for a home with small children this would be it. From some of what I have read, I can limit over penetration by using the right defensive load. Sending rounds through the wall into an adjacent room is a big concern for me in a home defense situation.
Since I am settling on the idea of owning a shotgun, I decided that rather than go buy one and then figure out the right way to use it, I would spend the money to learn how to use one first. I am so glad I did.
The best description of the Tactical Defense Institute is at their website which is
www.tdiohio.com. The school has been in operation over 15 years, and is run by John Benner, who is a Vietnam veteran,a veteran police Lieutenant of 37 years, and spent 25 years with the Hamilton County Police Association Regional SWAT Team. I will let the TDI website explain the rest of John's many credentials.
I have read a number of reviews on TDI, and the one common thread was how there was a good student to instructor ratio, and how the instructors were constructive in their criticisms. In the tactical shotgun class, there were 23 students. I cannot recall the exact number of instructors, but I would estimate that on the first day at the lower range, there was no more than 2-3 students per instructor. On day 2, when we were doing some of the other exercises, it was one instructor working with one student at a time.
The first day was spent at the lower range. The hours were from 9:00 AM until 5:00PM the first day. Night shooting training ran from 7:00 PM until 9:30 PM. TDI suggests arriving at 8:45 AM, which allows time for filiing out the waiver, taking care of payments, etc. The students all met in the class room by the lower range where John Benner introduced himself and about ten instructors. Safety requirements were explained which included safe muzzle direction, keeping the finger out of the trigger guard and parallel to the gun barrel when not shooting.
I was the only student that did not have a gun of some sort to bring. A number of students had multiple shotguns. I saw a good collection of Remingtons, Mossbergs, Benellis, etc. There were a lot of different mods from stocks to rails, sights, etc. One student even had an interesting high capacity magazine that I had never seen before. There is a line on the application to the class that asks whether or not you need to borrow a gun from the school for the day. This was great, since I would have likely bought something that might not have survived the first day. I did not know enough about what to look for in a shotgun, and considering the amount of ammo required for the class (300 birdshot, 25 buckshot and 15 slugs), a cheaper gun might have not made it.
I asked Mr. Benner at the start of the class about using a gun, and he asked me if I preferred a pump action or an auto loader. I picked the pump, figuring this might be the type I would eventually purchase based on a number of factors (including cost). I was presented with a modified Remington 870, 5 shot, with a Vang Comp barrel. It belonged to one of the instructors, and was a great gun for the first day.
The first day consisted of lots of range time, timed drills, and some shooting on the move lessons. One of my favorites was the team competition where five team members start by shooting one round down the line in order, and then two, then three, with the last round of five shots. After each member shot, they had to try and load as many as possible to be ready to shoot the next quantity. It was a good drill for working with loading. I was fortunate to be in a team with some skilled members. We managed to have the lowest time in this drill.
I had my share of problems. I failed to lean into the gun throughout the day, which helped to make the right shoulder a bit sore. I was reminded each time by an instructor, and I think by day two, I was starting to catch on. I occasionally forgot to put the stock to my cheek, and I neglected to sight the gun properly. I never felt that I was being left behind. I had the least experience in the class, but the criticisms were constructive, and my mistakes pointed out where my weaknesses were. I failed to reload regularly, and ran out of ammo a few times. We had some drills that forced us to shoot and re-load, that helped me with this.
In the evening, we learned about using a tactical flashlight. Since I did not come with a gun, there was no point in buying a gun mounted light in advance. I used a handheld light with the pump action Remington. It was a bit cumbersome to work the action with the light, but this served as a backup plan drill in the event that my weapon mounted light (if I had one) failed. For those that follow gear, I used a Coast LED Lenser LL8836TS, which can be weapon mounted. I used it as a hand held. It had decent illumination and used AAA batteries, instead of the coin type.
Day 2 started again at the lower range with some good lessons on quickly deploying the shotgun from the hip or held out in front. I was given an 8 shot Benelli auto-loader, which was a great gun to work with. By extending the left arm fully, I found I could shoot pretty accurate at close range with no sighting of the gun. We ran though some more shooting on the move exercises, which helped me learn how to shoot while moving forward, backward or sideways. The proper technique really allows for proper control of the gun while on the move.
I learned how to shoot slugs on the rifle range. We tried shots at 25, 50 and 75 yards. I had some trouble steadying myself in the kneeling position, and working the sights, but some pointers from the instructor (David Bowie) helped me improve as we went through this exercise. I could use some more practice, but this was a good lesson for understanding the sights that I had on the Benelli.
We briefly covered the room clearing tactics for working around corners, and minimizing our exposure while sighting a potential bad guy around the corner. This came in handy later in the live fire house.
The live fire house was the chance to put to use all of the previous drills in one place. Keeping my finger out of the trigger guard was important here, since some of the silhouette targets were friendly, and some were not. The best part was when the instructor (Jeremy Decker) debriefed me at the end and walked me back through the rooms. He pointed out my mistakes, and offered some great tips on utilizing the space in the room to my advantage. I hesitated on the last target, which was a hostage being held by a gunman. The instructor who was behind me acted as the voice of the gunman. I tried to give verbal commands, which failed. I took the shot with 00 buckshot, and managed to only hit the gunman on the target. I hesitated too long under the circumstances, but it was a good test of quick decision making and staying cool enough to be able to take the shot when needed. Much better for me to learn these lessons here in the class. I could have done a better job of moving through the rooms, and not exposing myself. I also need to work on my left side shooting. I had a tendency to flip the safety on the Bennelli back on when trying to shoot from the left. This exercise gave me a lot to think about for a long time to come.
The "Jungle Lane" exercise was an observation exercise to help with identifying targets while walking down a wooded path. I did not sight the gun properly a few times. I managed to hit whatever I shot at, but I failed to sight the gun as I should have. I might get away with that at close range, but this mistake seemed to be one of my worst bad habits. I also missed some secondary targets. I would shoot the first, and lower my gun, missing a second target that was a little further back. I seemed to be more concerned with moving forward than indentifying the targets properly. I would have done better, if I had taken more time as I moved down the trail. I also failed to keep my gun running loaded, and ran empty right at the end. When I finished I got to follow the next shooter and instructor. This was great for reinforcing some of the things I needed to work on. The shooter I followed missed spotting a target, but kept his gun running loaded, and was more careful about getting down the trail.
The last exercise at the upper range worked muscles I did not know I had until I tried to get out of the car two hours after I left the school. On the upper range, I learned about shooting and loading behind cover, shooting on the move, then loading from cover, etc.
I am the farthest person from a "shooting expert". I considered myself a raw novice coming into the class, who still has lots to learn. What I did learn was invaluable, and money well spent. I feel like I have a basis for continuing down this path I started. I would recommend the Tactical Defense Institute to anyone interested in learning how to use their shotgun with the best technique. I learned more in two days than I could have figured out on my own in how ever many years I have left in this world.
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