Front Sight Firearms Training Institute- Tactical Shotgun Course

This past weekend I had the opportunity to get out and partake in the Tactical Shotgun Course at Front Sight Firearms Training Institute in Pahrump Nevada.  This is a course that takes you through the ins and out of owning a shotgun and having it available and ready to use in the extreme case that you need to defend yourself and your loved ones.

 

I have been a gun owner for as long as I can remember.  And with that, a trained gun owner who takes ownership very seriously.  I have always felt that if you want to be a gun owner, you need to be a responsible gun owner.  And a responsible gun owner is one that goes through the proper training, physical and mental, in order to be safe.  I am very comfortable around firearms and have been shooting competitively for a couple of years in the USPSA.

Front Sight Training Institute in Pahrump Nevada was founded by Dr. Ignatius Piazza back in 1996.  It has grown tremendously in the few years that I have been a member, and continues to grow.  In fact, they just finished the construction on an additional 25 ranges bringing the ability to train over 1,500 students per day.  They offer many training courses, at a variety of levels from very basic, to the ultra advanced.

The course I took this past weekend was the Tactical Shotgun Course.  As I stated previously, the course walks you through your shotgun.  Working you through various techniques including malfunction clearances, ammunition choices and gun choices.  You get a great opportunity to go out and get comfortable with your firearm, meet some great people, and get a little dirty in the process.

Your weekend starts out arriving at the facility at about 6:30 am and heading straight to check in.

Once you get all checked in, you grab your firearm and head on over to weapon inspection.  At weapon inspection, they check your firearm for functionality as well as check the ammunition that you will firing over the weekend.

Once you get all checked in and pass weapons inspection, you head to your first seminar of the week.  This is the overview seminar where you get all of your paperwork filled out and run through the weeks procedures.

You will also meed back up in the above or below room for various seminars throughout the weekend.

With the growing amount of students attending these classes, they have had to expand their facilities and add more and more temporary areas.  These are all air conditioned and quite nice as well.

After your first set of seminars you head on over to your assigned range to meet up with your class.  My class had 52 students and 4 range masters.  Ample instructors per student.

In these classes you are taught about each technique, then right away you practice what you learned and put it into use.  You grab your firearm and head right on over to the range area.

The “red gun” is the solid training gun that the instructors use to train you.  These have no moving parts and are very safe to manipulate and demonstrate with.

At Front Sight, you spend a lot of time on your feet practicing what you learned.  This is key.  In learning good technique, it is all about muscle memory.  At this two day course, you go through close to 300 rounds of ammunition of various loads.

Each student is paired up with another student and they work as a coaching pair.  As one student steps up to the line, their coaching partner watches and corrects what they see needs improvement.  You go through dry firing drills, then move to actual ammunition.

Standing is what you do most in the firing drills, but you also learn various alternate platforms such as kneeling, sitting, and prone positions.  We all shot slugs from the prone position from 50 yards out.  That was a pretty fun experience.

Front Sight puts a tremendous amount of focus on proper techniques and safety including proper hearing and eye protection.

There are students that come from all around the country.  We even had a pair of students from Canada in this class.  Front Sight makes it very easy for you to attend classes.  They have a full rental facility for firearms and accessories.

As well as the “Ammo Bunker” where you can purchase your ammunition for the week.  As of this writing, the law was changed and you can no longer bring ammunition over state lines.  So purchasing in Nevada has become a necessity.

There is also a full pro shop at Front Sight in case you should need any other necessities, logo’d shirts, or even high end ear protection.

This course was a two day course.  They offer some one day courses that are classroom bases, two day courses, four day advanced courses, and even CCW courses. With the tremendous growth that Front Sight has seen over the past few years, there are even plans to expand and add a hotel type resort on the premises. That will be a handy option for sure.

Your ultimate goal in going through these courses is to gain the confidence you need and the knowledge to safely own your firearm.  I have been through several courses on multiple platforms at Front Sight.  The instructors are all very knowledgeable and helpful if you should have any questions.  Be prepared through if you should sign up for courses as Dr. Piazza will email you different sales pitches multiple times per week.  You can always block those though, so no real issue.

Once you complete the two day course you will get a certificate of completion as there is no testing.  As you get to the higher level courses you will also get the same certificate, but you want to achieve Graduate and Distinguished Graduate.  The more advanced classes, as well as four day courses have timed testing at the end.  This is how you achieve the different graduate levels. Once you “DG” you can move on to more and more advanced classes.  DG is a pretty nice accomplishment, and I have achieved several.  Here is the basic two day certificate.

Overall I find Front Sight Training Institute to be a great place.  You really do learn a lot and gain quite a bit of comfort with your chosen firearm.
For more information on Front Sight Training Institute please click here.

Happy Shooting!
Davey

 

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