I recently completed some training from
Reliance Arms and thought I would do a review. They're based out past Emmett, it's a bit of a drive from Boise, but not as bad as you might think. From my house (just over the highway from the airport) it took me about an hour and 10 minutes without speeding.
A few things I really appreciate about formal training, and even informal training with other people is being forced to practice things I wouldn't practice on my own, or have not thought of practicing on my own. I also appreciate the fact that having others around will allow them to observe/point out issues that I can't detect or remember on my own. I had some footwork issues pointed out to me that I would not have realized on my own.
GearGlock 19 - This is stock, with some Trijicon night sights that were installed at the factory.
Eagle Double Magazine Pouch These pouches are actually intended to be worn on something with MOLLE webbing, but I find it works just find on your belt. It has kydex lining so that the pouches won't collapse, and you have the option of closing the flaps if you want the extra retention, I happen to like them a lot. I find it fairly easy to reload back into the pouches when I want to retain a magazine, and with 15 round magazines I can carry 30 rounds on my belt, and rotate magazines to keep my gun topped off and then reload magazines during breaks. It worked out really well.
G Code OWB Holster I typically use my Comp-Tac MTAC IWB holster for most of my shooting, competition or otherwise, it's the holster I carry with. This is a kydex OWB holster, it has no active retention but you can adjust how tight the holster is, in situations where I don't need to draw from concealment, and don't need active retention it works great. It's also not terribly expensive, and if you get the RTI holster, you have the option of attaching the holster to different belt options, I have one that keeps the holster straight at belt level, and another that drops the holster down a few inches which clears any gear you might have, such as a vest, but without the disadvantages of a drop leg holster that might push your gun really far on your leg.
US Peacekeeper Pack I picked this up from Jeff the other day, I have a MidwayUSA bag that is great for putting a ton of stuff in, but I wanted something smaller/easier to carry for things like IDPA matches where I have to drag a bag around from stage to stage. The only criticism I have for it so far is that it's a little on the small side, but it worked great. I carried all of my ammo, 4 magazines and various small things like sunscreen/baby wipes and such, the AR magazine pouches on the front are actually great for holding boxes of magazines, they would both easily fit a 50 round box of 9mm which made it easy to carry around enough ammo for the entire day without having to restock at the car. It's also unobtrusive and comfortable to carry around.
Wilderness Instructor Belt This belt is great, it's very sturdy, it's also very adjustable since there are no holes, you can tighten it to your exact comfort level and it's secured with velcro. I had no issues carrying a double magazine pouch, holster/pistol, a magazine in the gun + 2 in the pouches, an extra magazine in my pocket, and a lot of spare ammo in a back pocket. I also used the belt for racking the slide.
Pistol Skills 1This is a beginners course aimed at people with minimal to no experience shooting a handgun. The course is very semi-automatic pistol oriented, I would be hesitant to show up with a revolver, however it's very possible that the instructors removed any revolver content as everyone had a semi-auto gun. I initially signed up for these training courses since I had a friend attending, so that he wouldn't have to go alone. Reviewing the course content on their website before attending, I was a bit apprehensive that the course would be too dry/boring due to my skill level (I would describe myself as average for shooters, above average for the general firearm owner). The great thing about the courses is the instructors will modify the content of the course on the fly depending on the skill level of the class, we ended up finishing early despite being able to add in extra drills due to the general skill level of the class.
To quote from their website,
The class starts by covering safety, safe gun handling, shooting fundamentals, and other basics. Range work begins with fundamentals and a series of drills. As the drills progress, students are introduced to advanced trigger control methods, multiple targets, malfunction drills, tactical and combat reloading, and close quarter shooting incorporating movement and shooting. The class also covers awareness and self-defense concepts. The last exercise is a man-on-man drill on our new steel target range.
Even as a shooter with a bit of experience, I've done carbine matches, IDPA shoots in addition to shooting/practicing on my own I thought this was a good refresher. I would caution that while talking about the course with the instructors at the end of the day, we were able to incorporate drills/not spend as much time on some of the basic stuff due to not having as many beginners in the course. One attendee had attended this course before, and described this run through as much better. If you have gun handling skills/fundamentals, you might be bored and want to skip this class. Talking to the instructors at the end of day two, you are able to go straight to Pistol 2 if you can demonstrate to the instructors that you have the skill and safety skills for it.
I picked up a few tips from the class, most of what I got out of day 1 was that I need to work on clearing double feeds, and some good tips on home defense/security and such. I don't have a lot of experience clearing malfunctions (thank you Glock 19), we went through clearing failures to fire, failures to eject, and double feeds. I have a lot of problems remembering to tap and rack, my problem is I tend to go straight to the rack.
Pistol Skills 2
This class was a lot of fun, I felt like I got a lot out of it. It was a bit more shooting intensive than the first day, and similar to the first course we were able to incorporate some extra shooting due to being ahead of the schedule. The drills incorporated a fair amount of shooting on the move, including shooting while walking laterally, I only have practice walking towards/from a target and I found that I really need to work on my footwork when walking left or right, I cross my legs without realizing it. I've also never shot a pistol from the ground, or any gun laying on my back and found this useful. We also did weak hand draws from the holster, and reloads/malfunction drills with our weak hand only. I've never had to do this before, as IDPA weak hand stages I've always started with the gun in my weak hand. I feel much more confident about a situation where I only have my weak hand, and actually had to clear a double feed that I caused by seating the magazine hard enough for the slide to drop, but it got caught up on my pants. A few things I really got out of the weak hand draw/shooting, is that I sometimes have issues releasing the magazine with my finger, and that sometimes I had to rotate the gun in my hand so that I could use my thumb to drop the magazine. I also attempted to go straight to the knee hold with the gun, and release the magazine and pull it out of the gun, but I found this very slow. The only time I would do this is if I had to retain the magazine. I also was able to drop the slide on the gun by inserting the magazine with enough force, which did save me time by not having to rack the slide on my belt, but if you're not careful and your pants retard the movement of the slide, you can cause a malfunction which happened to me once.
The instructors are very big on remembering to assess the situation when you're done shooting, and to assess the situation on every height level, if you're prone, assess before kneeling, assess at the kneeling level, and then assess when you're standing. It makes a lot of sense, in almost any situation you're going to be able to see different things at different height levels, and more importantly, opponents won't necessarily be able to see you at certain height levels. There's also an emphasis in remembering to assess the situation behind yourself, which made me realize when I scan the area in say a parking lot, I never remember to look behind me. There's also a lot of emphasis on remembering to step off of your starting position.
I also got some practice laying down on the ground from standing, and it was pointed out to us that depending on how you lay down, for me (right handed), you saved on your movement if you shot around the left side of cover first, since you start in that position.
The Good
Cost - At only 100$ per class, I think this is some really affordable training, considering all of the stupid things I'll spend money on, this money was spent very well.
Class Size - The first day we had 10 students for 2 instructors, I felt this was a good ratio. On the second day it was 4 students for 2 instructors, I think you'd be hard pressed to find very many training classes where you'll get such a low ratio.
Doing What Works For You - I was a bit apprehensive when we showed up, that we would be forced to do things the instructor's way, even if we have a method that works better for us. Contrary to what I thought, the emphasis was learning how the instructor did it, but being able to do it your way if it works better for you. Their method of retaining a magazine on the reload (which I actually learned from Scarecrow and had some practice doing) I have difficulties doing, since I don't have huge hands and have space issues. I really appreciate being able to do things my own way, especially if I have prior practice in doing so.
I can't think of a name for this - We did some lecture/round table discussion in the beginning of the day, at lunch time and at the end of the day, and I felt that the instructors were very open to allowing the students to talk/give advice from our own experiences which I appreciated.
The Bad
Driving Distance - The facility is a little off the beaten path, I had no issue making it in my car (some of the road is gravel), and it took me about an hour and ten minutes to drive there.
Time - I really hesitate to call this a con, it's a pro and a con in that you get a ton of training time, but be aware that this really is an all day course, leaving Boise at 7am on Saturday, we didn't get back to Boise until almost 12 hours later.
Criticism - We talked about this in the after meeting with the instructors, but if anything the instructors were a little too critical, this will vary student to student, but I would prefer to be called out for every little thing.
To summarize in a few sentences if you don't want to read a huge post, I thought the training was great, it was worth the money and I took notes while everything was fresh on my mind for things to pay attention to and to practice later. I signed up for the Pistol 3 course for the beginning of July and am looking forward to the class.
