Hi Folks,

It's great to see this forum up and running. ITTS runs some great classes as I'm sure you know. Having had the pleasure to attend a few I thought I'd post a few class reviews that I had previously posted else where. My hope is that it may give some insights into some of the great training days I've spent at ITTS.

A little bit about me. I've been employed in the firearms industry here in southern California since 1983. I served as a paratrooper/parachute rigger in the US Army way back when. I have a back ground in competitive shooting and have worked part time in executive protection.

I have attended numerous firearms courses and have had the privilege to train under the tutelage of Louis Awerbuck, Bill Jeans, Randy Cain, Jeff Gonzales, Steve Tarani (edged weapons), Front Sight and others.

I look forward to learning from you good folks

Vehicle Defense Course.

We day started off with a lecture block on some of the classic gun battles that have occurred in and around vehicles. Scotty has a wealth of knowledge in this area. He pointed out what went right, what went wrong, and how we can learn from the experience of others.

We started off the days range drills seated in folding chairs and engaged multiple pepper poppers with both hands, firing side hand only, and support side hand only. The drills were then repeated from inside of vehicles. The morning was rounded out with team drills (driver/passenger) while seated inside the vehicle on multiple targets.

After lunch the curriculum ramped up.

We did several deployments using the vehicle for cover while shooting into and through various parts of vehicles. One of the days eye openers was how easily bullets can be deflected. Several grazing rounds bounced off a padded dash missing the targets completely.

Next up was shooting from moving vehicles. We soon found that driving and shooting at the same time was quite a challenge. Shooting from the passenger seat was less problematic. One drill had us standing on the bumper of a pick up truck firing one handed as the truck drove a U shaped course firing as the targets came to bear. Great fun! We also engaged the high speed mover from inside of the vehicle.

We wrapped up the day with penetration test of various pistol, rifle, and shotgun rounds through sheet metal, glass, and interior structures. The most impressive rounds were the 12 gauge slugs and the 308 caliber rifle. Buck shot was the least impressive.

Scotty fired several different rounds through the wind shield from inside the vehicle. Don't try this at home! Atomized glass sprays back into the shooters face (spalling) and can cause severe eye damage.

We ended the day with a mad minute expending our remaining rounds into the vehicle. When the smoke cleared I had eight mags at my feet. While this may not fill a tactical niche it was great fun.

Take care.

Fred Darling

[This message was edited by Admin on February 04, 2003 at 04:08 PM.]