Central Committee Range Day - 9-6-08 in Winton, CA

[Mad Geek]

What an awesome event! There is no way I could say better than what has already been stated by PoogsDad and sealbeach:

Another Great Day at the Range!!!
CalCCW Central Committee Range Day, another great day at the range!!!

Thank you QuietPI and MadGeek for coordinating this event. I know a lot more work than has been taken credit for went into this.

Thank you CCWInstructor for making the badges, first class as always.

Thank you to all of you who were able to make it to the event. It was nice to finally have a face to go with the user names, though in my case, according to QuietPI, I look exactly like my avatar. Personally I do not fully agree with this. My ears are not quite that pointy!!!

Most of all, thank you to Safety First Shooting Association (SFSA) for providing a first class venue staffed by first class people.

What I initially envisioned as a Casual Meet and Greet event turned out to be a great training event. Thank you SFSA for putting the training together. It was well above and beyond anything I was expecting. I am sure we all came away with far more than we brought.

Regardless of how formal or informal, rudimentary or comprehensive, long or short a training event is, it is, not only, what the student takes away from the training, but also how well he or she is able to integrate some, if not all, of that training into their personal and professional toolkit that is the true measure of it’s effectiveness. By this metric the training provided was very effective.










Many of you know that I have full time access to an excellent training facility and spend quite a bit of time training and practicing on my own. While I came away with a great deal of good information and ideas for additional training, there were two things in particular that I value the most:

1. Since I train and practice by myself most of the time, it became very clear that I have developed many bad habits that I readily see in others but have overlooked in myself. These bad habits were readily apparent to everyone in attendance. I am both humbled and appreciative that they were brought to my attention. I definitely need more formal training in a more formal setting.

2. I have participated in scenario-based force on force training previously with both a Law Enforcement focus and a Military focus. Until this event, I had never participated in force on force scenario based training with a CCW focus. I had no idea how difficult it is to transition from a LEO mindset to a Legally Armed Civilian Mindset.

I am very pleased that I was able to participate in the 1st CalCCW Central Committee Range Day. It was a long trip for me but well worth it. I am looking forward to the next CalCCW Central Committee Range Day.

Thanks again to all who provided, contributed, or attended. I appreciate your efforts.

PoogsDad
__________________
United States Army, Retired
Life Member National Rifle Association
Member United States Concealed Carry Association
Member Single Action Shooting Society

Finally got home and kids to bed. This is just a short post, but I will put more details and pics online ASAP.

We got there LATE, a combination of late start, heavy traffic (because of the late start!) and our normal navigational-issues-with-ranges woke up MadGeek and Poogsdad at 1:00am who helped us setup our tent in the middle of the night, thanks guys!

This was a fantastic weekend! Our most sincere thanks to Quietpi and his club and the ranch owner for putting this on! The "Safety First Shooting Association" really treated us like royalty, they hosted an action packed day of shooting and training, eating and talking, much learning took place!

Those guys are totally organized (they even had BADGES!) , we had a morning meeting to plan the day, introductions, and safety overview. Dived into sessions on psychological aspects of CCW, did ballistics tests with ballistic gelatin, practiced "shooting from unusual postions", ran through multiple real life "what if this happened to you, a CCW holder??", learned about "slicing the pie" (how to use cover defensively) and defensive tactics to keep you alive (astounding).

Throughout all of this we were keeping it safe, and lots of RSO's were on hand to make sure things stayed safe!

The club supplied targets and great instructors--they even setup the kids with their own lanes, targets and ammo for .22 shooting, had more kids shown up, the plan was to do some trap shooting, hopefully we have a bigger bunch of kids next time.

A big BBQ helped round out the day, all in all a great time. (Oh, did I mention we played golf? True "Shooting a round of golf", it was fun!)

The weather was quite hot, but we had lots of shade and a wonderful grassy area covered with huge oak trees, what a great place to go camp, visit and shoot, we had a blast! Our kids had a great time too, blasted their way through LOTS of ammo, the 5 year had her first time shooting ever, and she LOVED it.

MANY MANY THANKS to the Safety First Shooting Association for their great hospitality and for all the folks who helped put this together!

Now comes the part where I have to challenge my processes to get pictures posted, but thanks to Lone Wolf on CalCCW (who just happens to be the webmaster for Safety First Shooting Association, the group that sponsored us for this range day), we have have pictures of every aspect of our event. Here's just a few examples. I have to figure out how best to let the pictures tell the story:

PoogsDad, sealbeach PirateQueen and family and Mad Geek camped out Friday night under the oak trees, and shared "cowboy coffee" Saturday morning, courtesy of sealbeach.



CA PI discussing the OC situation with sealbeach at the CalCCW Member gun table while I listened intently.



More to come.

[Mad Geek]

CA PI, Mad Geek, sealbeach and PoogsDad. Sorry, should have used this one last post.



Facing the camera, L-R; EM2 from Fresno County, PoogsDad from Humboldt County, Mad Geek from Madera County, sealbeach from Orange County, and extreme right in the "Boonie hat" is Quietpi from Stanislaus County.



This appears to be the briefing on "shooting from unusual positions"



Drawing and engaging a target from a seated position:



After being knocked to the ground:



Even upside down. These positions allowed us to see that you can successfully engage a target from something other than "10 toes on the line".



More to come...

[CCWInstructor]

How can you tell if Poogsdad looks like his avatar when he's wearing a hat all the time?

Nice photo's, next time pick a date more people can attend.

[PUNK]

VERY COOL

[Poogsdad]

Originally Posted by CCWInstructor

How can you tell if Poogsdad looks like his avatar when he's wearing a hat all the time?

I was "Under Cover"?

[Mad Geek]

The idea here was to hit a balloon inside a box covered with a t-shirt and suspended by a string. When you hit the balloon the box would drop and you'd move to cover to engage the next target.











More still...

[Mad Geek]

EM2 from Fresno County killing latex:





And PirateQueen from Orange County:









More still...

[TaxMan]

PQ is getting pretty close to the piranha.

[Mad Geek]

Here we experienced being able to engage a target without exposing ourselves by "slicing the pie" until you were able to verify and engage your target but still not be seen.



As slim a profile as someone can display, this method of engagement can still give you an advantage.



Force On Force gave us real life scenerios where we had to make split second decisions that license holders might be expected to make, to save their own or someone else's a.. uh, butt.

[Mad Geek]

And yes, there was an opportunity for members to shoot 18 holes of golf toward the end of the day. Who says golf is "a waste of good range" ?



And we also had the Cleanup Crew from Orange County.



Everyone got to play



These are just a very small amount of pictures provided by Lone Wolf, and "Thank You Paul" for giving us a way to share the day with the other members. I'm certain that when sealbeach and Quietpi have a chance there will me more added.

[Mad Geek]

Originally Posted by CCWInstructor

Nice photo's, next time pick a date more people can attend.

Yes, Lone Wolf did an EXCELLENT job taking pictures!

You of all people, CCWI, know how difficult it is to pick a date that will work for everyone that would like to attend. My larger concern is that the mark has been set pretty high for another Central Committee gathering that will compare to what this group put together for us, and all on their dime. All we had to do was show up and take it in.

Major Kudos go out to Safety First Shooting Association , their board members and staff, at River Oaks Range in Winton, CA.

[CCWInstructor]

Originally Posted by Mad Geek

You of all people, CCWI, know how difficult it is to pick a date that will work for everyone that would like to attend.

Fine, I'll be more blunt than polite like I was.

PICK A DATE THAT WORKS FOR ME TOO!!!!

[EM2]

Awsome pictures.
The force on force scenario was an eye opener. Things are not always as they seem. I really learned a lot for one day and will be practicing some of the learned techniques this weekend.
I do really appreciate the Safety First Shooting Association (SFSA) for allowing this get together at their facility. They are to be commended for the first class set up they have.
Once again thanks to all who put in their own time to make this happen.

[sealbeach]

These are great pictures! Thanks LoneWolf and MadGeek for putting them up! What a terrific weekend!

BTW, the Safety First Shooting Association is hoping that this becomes a regular annual event, they mentioned that training and education is one of the cornerstones of their organization, the ranch owner and the club all consider that to be a fundamental aspect of their organization. If we do this next year, you guys should try to go--the drive is well worth it.

[Lone Wolf]

Wow Mad Geek. I never post comments under my pictures. But you make them come alive by doing so! Glad I snapped a few that "captured the moment". I never know what I got until I get home and hope for the best. Then think about all the ones I missed when I wasn't ready.

I can't believe you stayed up posting pictures after you got home that night from Atwater. I just went home and finished off my beer and headed for bed. <grin>

Personally, and on behalf of River Oaks Range (Safety First Shooting Association). Thank You for all the kind words and thank you for coming up here and participating in what we could muster up to offer you. I learned some stuff myself just watching.

Paul (aka Lone Wolf)