Bennie Cooley Rifle Pistol Class

[SinistralRifleman]

This class was great. Bennie is a great instructor and worked all the students hard, the better students he pushed even harder. Students included Law Enforcement, Military, Tactical Firearms instructors, top-tier 3 Gun competitors, and citizens with substantial prior training. I believe everyone learned multiple things to increase their performance in whatever role they will be using the pistol and rifle. I now have a lot more things to work on practicing. This course was truly challenging.

Bennie's combined experience as a special operations officer with the DOE and a top level competition shooter showed through in his curriculum. Bennie broke down the mechanics of how the body, eyesight, and nervous system interact with the gun and showed us how to drive the gun more efficiently and faster. Efficiency, Speed, and Mental Conditioning were key elements of this class.

If you think you are a competent shooter, or you think you know how to fight effectively with firearms, I really recommend that you take a course from Bennie. You will find out exactly where your weaknesses are and how much you really didn't know.

Bits of wisdom from Bennie I particularly liked

1) If you don't shoot competitively you will never reach your potential as a shooter

2) When you practice tactics, you should already have the shooting skills to do so, so you don't have to think about shooting and can focus on the tactics

3) Doing something simply "because I was taught to" without good reason, is foolish

4) If you are serious about training, shooting and fighting, don't let techniques designed for people who will not or cannot improve themselves hold you back.

5) You should constantly be thinking and making the best decision appropriate to the circumstances. There is no one right way to do everything, every time, everything is a compromise. Whatever decision you make, make it so that it gives you the most advantage.

6) Just because some technique or equipment works well for someone, doesn't mean it will work at all for you.

Reactionary Speed Testing with shot clock:

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/008.jpg

Retention Shooting with Pistol:

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/036.jpg

Action Vs Reaction Demonstration. Bennie plays the bad guy who decides to raise his gun at you after you are already on target. Shots were usually fired simultaneously. The time between deciding to shoot and pulling the trigger is usually 0.20-0.25seconds when already on target.

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/047.jpg

We also learned it is faster at certain distances to simply hit your attacker with the gun rather than transition to another weapon or try to reload/get the gun running again. Simply being shoved in the sternum with the muzzle was surprisingly painful.

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/018.jpg

All guns used for takeaway/hitting drill were unloaded, verified unloaded, bolts removed or slides locked open.

Multiple target engagements were frequently part of the drills. How to transition from target to target faster was taught.

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/081.jpg

Our class of 14 students was broken into 2 relays of 7. This helped the class run more efficiently as when one group was up the other loaded mags and drank water. This also allowed for greater one on one instruction, and more complex drills with more targets.

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/097.jpg

Final Drill of the pistol portion of the class. Each student had 3 targets they were expected to engage in sequence as called out by Bennie.

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/107.jpg

For the Rifle Portion of the class we spent as much time shooting support side as we did shooting strong side. Bennie emphasized the need for ambidextrous abilities with the rifle to shoot and fight with it effectively. Also most of the rifle shooting was at 75-100 yards on steel flash targets.

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/198.jpg

Using the body’s mechanics to maximize shooting effectiveness was a major emphasis in the instruction:

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/236.jpg

Retention shooting was also taught with rifle:

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/264.jpg

Weapon take-aways were taught to show the student how easily it can be done, thus showing how if you have a gun out, someone coming at you meaning to take it is a deadly threat:

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/260.jpg

Moving and shooting was taught, explaining how to use the body’s mechanics and timing to shoot during the most steady part of moving:

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/279.jpg

We were taught that crowding cover is generally not good, unless you need to to set up for a more stable shot:

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/300.jpg

I didn’t get any pictures of it, but we also did a relay race of two teams, where each student had to complete a series of shooting drills hitting the targets and run back before the next shooter could go. Team 2 (which I was on) won, and Team 1 had to buy donuts for us the next day.

The final day of the class, we had another stress inducing drill where you had to move down the series of barricades shooting left and right side. If the shooter behind you overtook you, you had to start all over again.

Full Gallery here:

http://www.cavalryarms.com/training/2007-BC/BC-1.html

I have videos of some of the drills I will post later.