TAC-CON 2023

[Paladin]

Day 1 of TAC-CON 2023 is over. There are tons of activities of all sorts going on simultaneously, but this is what I did:

Rain slowed things down in the morning, but I still got about 3 hours of training in with Gabe White. Gabe is very competent and capable instructor. It was a large class of 24 students. We shot on Rangemaster targets and covered "Up drills" from ready and the holster, failure to stop, distances from 5 to 15 yards, the fence, side stepping, transition from holding an object in our hand, appropriately halting fire on command, responding to hand, knife, and gun threats appropriately. I didn't use the entire 200 rounds I had allocated for the course, but we did mix in some dryfire.

Met Chris Baker from Lucky Gunner at lunchtime. He's a sharp guy.

Mas Ayoob did a legal briefing in the afternoon. He's a legend at this point and he did a great job discussing a vital topic. Primary takeaway is to get legal coverage. It's worth it.

John Hearne, Lee Weems, and Erick Gelhaus did a joint briefing on the latest studies that have application for the civilian self defense world. They hit the ball out of the park. Their briefing was well worth the price of admission. They discussed the best approaches to training and how good is good enough. Current studies suggest that the skill level of USPSA-C is adequate and skill beyond USPSA-B is probably unnecessary. This shouldn't be totally surprising because units like SFOD-D train to approximately USPSA-B levels and there are no questions about their proficiency. Apparently Karl Rehn and John Daub have updated training suggestions in their new book. I plan to score a copy.

The discussion included talk about teaching skills in an integrated way. Specifically Scenario or Force-on-Force training is an ideal way to train skills in an integrated fashion. Ideal rates of fire were also discussed, as "outrunning your headlights" in a gunfight can have negative consequences.

[Paladin]

Day 2 is finished.

Did fundamentals of marksmanship with Wayne Dobbs in the morning. We worked on 10 inch steel plates at 10 yards with a goal of hitting the 1 inch bolt in the center. It was a first time for some working on steel. Practice on steel is really important. Wayne emphasized the importance of grip. He is absolutely correct. He broke down the proper technique into pieces, both dry and live. Later we did ball-and-dummy and trigger reaction time drills.

The highlight was Craig Douglas's Experiential Learning Lab. I played a guy escorting a coworker to her car. The woman was going thru a nasty divorce and had a restraining order against her husband. Naturally he shows up, sneaking up on our 5 O'clock. He ignored my verbal requests and commands to stay back, ignored that I told him the police were on the way, ignored me dialing 911 on my phone and when I asked that the two make some space between them he pulled a sim-pistol on me. I put my hands up, told him my mistake, backed off and told him i wouldn't interfere... as I moved to his 7 O'clock, drew and shot him 3 times in the back. He went down, was no longer threat so I re-holstered and re-concealed. Craig did a nice debrief with me.

[Paladin]

There were 15 of us who got to run Craig Douglas's scenario. Newbies to TACCON. I didn't get to watch everyone, but all the guys I saw got shot. Generally when they tried to draw against the drop or did some furtive movement which prompted the badguy to draw and shoot.

The ladies survived, but one did so by simply running away as fast as she could... another wisely sought cover and called the police... a third wisely sought cover and shot the badguy from cover when he pulled his weapon... unfortunately this action prompted the woman she was protecting to charge her. It ended with our hero backing up until she fell to the ground.

Most of the shooters have good firearms skills, but it was surprising that so many new to TACCON have such poor tactics. One guy stood out in my mind as he stood in the middle, at contact distance between the arguing couple and put himself into a no win scenario that he somehow believed his firearm could solve.

I also attended a TC3 seminar by Dr. House. There was some discussion about what the civilian medical priorities are and the importance of proper medical gear and regular medical training. Very much agree. Especially with the training.

[Paladin]

Today Karl Rehn and Caleb Causey did Force on Force Scenarios with Medical. It's the kind of training that every advanced practitioner should be spending the majority of their time on. Karl does a great job of testing your decision making, because outcomes can vary widely depending on the decisions you make. You win fights by operating inside your opponents OODA loop and very little of the OODA loop is about shooting. And the shooting skills have to be executed in context. Force on Force scenarios are the place to test your integrated skillset.

Was nice meeting Caleb. You can totally tell he was an Army medic which has a soft spot for me. Medical training is easily worth every penny and it was awesome to see it in the context of Force-on-Force.

I pretty well crushed the Good Guy scenario I ran. During a natural disaster where the police are unavailable a buddies daughter didn't return from her trip to the store. We went to go look for her and found an armed Badguy was in the process of attacking her. We wisely used the doorway to pie the room and verbally convinced a gentleman who shouldn't have been there to leave on his own... However the Badguy, holding a pistol, was behind the daughter. Only his face was visible... just next to the daughters head. I had a possible headshot, but instead talked the Badguy into dropping his pistol and surrendering. We found out later that the Badguy's pistol was unloaded... which is why he surrendered so easily. While I secured the Badguy and his weapon, my buddy performed medical treatment on his daughter. Great stuff!

The scenario training on Day 2&3 were easily the highlights of the weekend.

Tom Givens did a Home Defense briefing, which was standing room only. Most of the advice was solid and explained in a way to motivate people to be disciplined about home defense. My house doesn't need that, but I do wish there was a video to show some of my friends and family who need it way more. Mas Ayoob had a book written on the subject decades ago, which while dated, I though was actually better. Mas and I have owned Great Danes and they are both awesome pets and awesome for home defense, but Givens poo-poos the idea. He has some totally unsupported idea that large breed dogs are no benefit to home defense, LOL. Clearly he has never owned one. My Great Danes were hugely popular with all children, naturally loving and protective towards the family, and just the sight or sound of the Dane could turn unwanted people around. I am not talking fear... but terror. One saved my mother-in-law from a car jacking... and well any burglar who ever rang my doorbell realized really quickly that my home was not going to be an easy target. To boot the dogs are more observant and diligent than any soldier I ever had under my command.

Sadly John Murphy couldn't make the event, but Bryan Eastridge filled in with a course on Skill Building: The Fundamentals in Context. I've heard of Bryan, but knew nothing about his training. I was a worthwhile time, and I got the bonus of Wayne Dobbs as my relay partner/coach. Bryan's drills and approach were interesting. He is very big on accuracy. I was greatly amused that we both favor 1 inch dots on our custom training targets. He also uses a 3x5 card and B8 bullseye... which are not exactly unheard of in my training curriculum either. I was pretty exhausted by that afternoon and while Bryan is a true professional at running a firing line, his commands were different that what I am accustomed too, which confused me in my state of exhaustion. But things got better as we went and I ended up out-shooting Wayne on the final 5 shot slow-fire precision drill. Paul Howe thinks very highly of Wayne, so I'll say perhaps it was Wayne's coaching! The guy next to me shot even better and ended up taking home a patch for his good showing.

All and all I think it is an event that intermediate and advanced shooters should attend at least once. You get a sampling of instructors that you wouldn't get anywhere else. I scored a copy of Karl Rehn and John Daub's new book for only $10, and can't wait to follow up with more scenario training from KR Training and Shivworks. Will also continue to build my experience in medical training as that area has a ton of practical value.

[Paladin]

More info on TAC-CON 2023:

[Paladin]

The author of this article also played the badguy in the 2023 Experiential Learning Lab: Experiential Learning Lab (Force-on-Force) Observations from the 2022 Rangemaster Tactical Conference

Many of the same lessons apply.

I forget the exact number, but Paul Howe indicates that once your firearms skills are solid, your training should switch from primarily firearms to primarily scenario training. The massively high loss ratio during the Experiential Learning Labs is an indicator of why scenario training is so important.