Hurley's Gold

Any outdoor Handgun SD courses north of Houston?

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  • Ioannes

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    Howdy folks! I live in Arizona, going to visit some family in College Station in early October and my wife was wanting to do an all-day defensive handgun course while we were there as a "date".

    There are some indoor ranges in the BCS area, but I was wondering if there were outdoors type/ shoothouse ranges where defensive handgun training was available?

    My wife shoots very rarely, about 1-2x a year and is thinking about carrying concealed in our state, but she wants to train more.

    Any recommended places or trainings in the area? Ideally no more than 1-2 hours drive from College Station.

    Thank you for any leads!

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    Lynx Defense
     

    zackmars

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    Howdy folks! I live in Arizona, going to visit some family in College Station in early October and my wife was wanting to do an all-day defensive handgun course while we were there as a "date".

    There are some indoor ranges in the BCS area, but I was wondering if there were outdoors type/ shoothouse ranges where defensive handgun training was available?

    My wife shoots very rarely, about 1-2x a year and is thinking about carrying concealed in our state, but she wants to train more.

    Any recommended places or trainings in the area? Ideally no more than 1-2 hours drive from College Station.

    Thank you for any leads!

    Sent from my SM-G970U using Tapatalk

    Its at the far end of how far you want to go, but you could get in touch with viper weapons training. He's based out of league city, but the range he uses is in Galveston. If you can't find anything closer, might be worth looking in to
     

    Ioannes

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    Its at the far end of how far you want to go, but you could get in touch with viper weapons training. He's based out of league city, but the range he uses is in Galveston. If you can't find anything closer, might be worth looking in to
    Thank you so much for the tip! Maybe an excuse for us to visit the beach as well!

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    Dougw1515

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    Myself and my daughter experienced out first, of three, days of tactical weapons-pistol training. This is an outdoor course. Neither my daughter nor I have/had experience with handguns. I've had some but it was decades ago. Yesterday we stood/fired at metal targets @ 10-20 yds. We had several iterations of that firing anything from a single round to five rounds. Later we started doing walking/firing drills. These ranged from firing while walking towards the threat straight in to walking parallel to the threat then turning and firing while advancing towards the threat to a diagonal walk/turn.

    The course lasted 3 hrs., 10am-1pm. These were private lessons and were quite costly for the training we received. The instructor, a retired SEAL, was friendly enough but it didn't seem like there was any real "structure" to the course. We'd empty 3 mags and we were instructed to reload. When ask "How many rounds? "He'd think...Mmmm... put 5 in this time." We shot only at metal targets which provided zero feed back on where our shots were going. We'd see dust fly but no way to tell left/right. Daughter shot low pretty often and that was obvious.

    When we started my daughter went first. I had inform the instructor that my daughter had an incorrect stance, and her grip needed to be addressed. I made several "suggestions" to the instructor that were simple basic firearms training issues that he missed.

    During one of the breaks he ups and grabs an AR15 and walks on the range firing at targets. I would guess he was less that 20 yards from the targets - and missing. When he returned he said "What you saw was a lack of practice!" Well.... I didn't pay $500.00 to watch him practice. Though is sure appeared he could use some.

    That was the negative. The positive is we got to shoot some rounds. Daughter found out she actually like the S&W M&P Shield - recoil is very manageable. I got to look like a total novice - which I am. I used a loaner P226 MK25 which was fine. The level II holster created problems as I simply had no "time in the saddle" so my finger was not trained to locate the release button. I do like the P226 MK25 and it was pretty comfortable, more so than the P229 Airsoft I'd used trying to get ready for this day.

    If you're more interested in just sending rounds down range with minimal over-sight this is the place for your. They open at 10am. Located off of County Rd. 388 in Cleveland - Hell'ov'a lot closer than Galveston to College Station/Bryan. Google maps indicates it's 2 Hr. 1 Min. via Hwy. 6 to Hwy. 105.

    Disclaimer: Having had no "formal" training I have not a clue what is "normal". The training we received yesterday may be the standard, I don't know. I just know it wasn't quite what I had anticipated. But the fault could well reside with me for expecting something different than what was delivered. OH Well.... today is day 2 of three. Show starts at 10am.

    I'm not sure of TGT policy on advertising so I'll send you a private link to their web site....
     

    Dougw1515

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    Kinna wish you hadn't done that. They very well may need "slammin'" but I reckon that'd be my call to make as I'm the one experiencing the courses. I want to give them a chance to step it up. Yeah, I agree shouldn't need to do that.

    I have no intention of slammin' them as I don't know what's "normal". That was day one with two very inexperienced first time handgun shooters. I plan to discuss my disappointment with the instructor before we start today to see if some adjustments may be necessary to meet my expectations. We did accomplish some of my goals. Got my daughter used to pulling/aiming/shooting. She is comfortable with the "BANG" that happens when you pull the trigger(most of the time... unless the gun is empty... which we both discovered to be fact at different times yesterday!)

    Her Shield has a manual safety. She got very good at thumbing the safety off as she transitioned from the holster to the high ready position. She developed the habit of looking the pistol back into the holster when finished shooting. Unfortunately I was the one that had to instruct her to do that - not the "Instructor".
     

    Ioannes

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    Kinna wish you hadn't done that. They very well may need "slammin'" but I reckon that'd be my call to make as I'm the one experiencing the courses. I want to give them a chance to step it up. Yeah, I agree shouldn't need to do that.

    I have no intention of slammin' them as I don't know what's "normal". That was day one with two very inexperienced first time handgun shooters. I plan to discuss my disappointment with the instructor before we start today to see if some adjustments may be necessary to meet my expectations. We did accomplish some of my goals. Got my daughter used to pulling/aiming/shooting. She is comfortable with the "BANG" that happens when you pull the trigger(most of the time... unless the gun is empty... which we both discovered to be fact at different times yesterday!)

    Her Shield has a manual safety. She got very good at thumbing the safety off as she transitioned from the holster to the high ready position. She developed the habit of looking the pistol back into the holster when finished shooting. Unfortunately I was the one that had to instruct her to do that - not the "Instructor".
    Good luck on the training and thanks for the tip and review. 500 for instructor and ammo is reasonable for 3 hours with a good instructor. Since they are private lessons he should be watching and correcting yours and your daughter's every move.

    That's a good bit closer. I'd drive to Ft. Worth of I could get clases from Jack Wilson.

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    zackmars

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    Thank you so much for the tip! Maybe an excuse for us to visit the beach as well!

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    No worries. I've taken a class with him, and he's a good dude, great shooter. Retired Air force and is a ret. counter terrorism officer/instructor.

    Can't say I'm shocked to hear that about AWATT, not the first time I've hear something like that
     

    BuzzinSATX

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    Maybe none of my business, but you live in AZ and you want handgun instructions in TX on vacation?

    The best civilian firearms training facility in the world in in Northern AZ at Gunsite! Yeah, it’s pricy, but they are absolutely top class all the way....instructors, facilities, training, etc.

    YMMV
     
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    zackmars

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    Maybe none of my business, but you live in AZ and you want handgun instructions in TX on vacation?

    The best civilian firearms training facility in the world in in Northern AZ at Gunsite! Yeah, it’s pricy, but they are absolutely top class all the way....instructors, facilities, training, etc.

    There are a others in AZ that are top quality as well, including Suarez International and Fieldcraft Survival.

    YMMV

    Saurez? Why? Want to learn how to challenge random people to gunfights in South America, how to commit workers comp fraud, or how to nearly shoot up your old police station?
     

    andre3k

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    I haven't taken any of his classes, but Karl Rehn at KR Training seems to come highly recommended from several good shooters that I know. He also host great instructors like Ben Stoeger, Tom Givens and Mas Ayoob several times a year. His range is just outside of the Austin area I believe.

    www.krtraining.com

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    Jon Payne

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    On TGT? Absolutely.

    And while l would love to hear his take on this, I couldn't blame him if he didn't want to get involved.

    Whether it be a private class or open enrollment class, I have a lesson plan etc.
    Sounds to me like the OP paid for his daughter and himself to “hang out” with their instructor.

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    toddnjoyce

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    Saurez? Why? Want to learn how to challenge random people to gunfights in South America, how to commit workers comp fraud, or how to nearly shoot up your old police station?

    Doh. You went there, except forgot the part about getting your wife to take the fall with you for worker’s compensation fraud.

    I have no idea how that guy has such a loyal following.
     

    zackmars

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    Doh. You went there, except forgot the part about getting your wife to take the fall with you for worker’s compensation fraud.

    I have no idea how that guy has such a loyal following.


    As one who got challenged to a gunfight in South America, i have to go there. He also told me that he hoped that one of my family members (along with another commenters) would go crazy and try to commit a mass shooting at a place he was at, so he could kill them. This was over me making fun of the name of his "tier 1" ar15 upper on TFB, if you want context, but most comments have been nuked. He also tried, and failed, to find my facebook page.

    The dude is fucked. To top it off he has the balls to go around and talk about how "Jesus came and spoke to him, and saved his life". Clearly he didn't get the entire message
     
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