Attention RevolverGuys! Mike will be teaching a one-day, Defensive Revolver class in Northern California, at the end of October, under the LMS Defense banner.
If you’re interested in attending, please check out the course description here. It would be neat to have some readers in the class!
Author: Mike
Lieutenant Colonel (Ret.) Mike Wood is a bonafide revolver nut, a certified law enforcement instructor in handgun, shotgun, patrol rifle, less-lethal, and diversionary device disciplines, and the author of Newhall Shooting: A Tactical Analysis, the definitive study of the infamous, 1970 California Highway Patrol shootout in Newhall, California. Mike wrote the "Tactical Analysis" column at Police1.com for 8 years, and enjoys teaching both armed citizens and law enforcement officers.
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Come to Utah one of these days.
Maybe someday, Jeb!
Seems like fine way to spend a day. Alas, I haven’t lived in California for many years. Looking forward to an after action report.
Thanks Michael, will do!
Very cool that you’re doing this, Mike. I hope you fill the class! That’s a very reasonable price for the quality of the training day I know you will provide. Revolver guys that live close: go spend a good day with Mike!
Thank you Sir! I’m looking forward to it!
Always glad to see more revolver training happening, and especially closer to my part of the country. Have you guys considered becoming involved in the “Pat Rogers Memorial Revolver Round-Up” annual event @ Gunsite?
I’ll be attending for the first time this year, Hammer. I’m very excited about it and expect to learn a lot. Will I see you there?
Good to hear, Mike! Yes, I’m registered and planning on being there as well. Looking forward to it!
Consider gun friendly Texas as a future location for offering your course. God Blessed Texas!
Michael, I hope to teach a class in America someday. For now, I’ll have to stick with training the partisans behind enemy lines. 😁
That looks like a great class, unfortunately it’s 2,840 miles away from me here in Lower Slower Delaware. And, on Friday the 13th in October I’m signed up for Greg Ellifritz’s Snubby Revolver for Concealed Carry somewhere down in North Carolina, but it’s only 435 miles from me.
I too look forward to reading the AAR and, hopefully, a subsequent class somewhere closer to Lower Slower Delaware. Good luck with it.
Dave, I know you’ll enjoy Greg’s class very much. I’m envious! Write back and let us know how it went.
Signed up yesterday and looking forward to it!
Outstanding! Looking forward to meeting you, Sir!
I’d love to attend, especially being relatively close in Vegas, but I’m all booked up for the year! I’ll keep an eye out for you at Revolver Roundup, and my ear to the ground for when/if you do another one of these next year.
Look forward to seeing you at the Roundup, Dan!
I would very much like to see something like this offered in North Texas one day ( i.e, D/FW metro ).
I’d like that too, Bart. Maybe someday we can make it happen. You’ve got some of the best revolver instructors on God’s green Earth operating in your area already, though—-Wayne Dobbs and Darryl Bolke, of Hardwired Tactical Shooting
Hey Mike, I appreciate the opportunity to attend the class as a reader over the past few years. I’m driving up from Arizona and am looking forward to it.
Is there a definitive location for the class? I’m looking to book a hotel soon
Wow! That’s super! I look forward to meeting you, Sir!
The class will be held here: Sac Valley Shooting Center
Folsom is a good place to stay, around there. About 25 minutes north of the range.
Looks like I get to meet some of you at the Revolver Roundup in November! Looking forward to it. I was at Gunsite last year for the first time for their 260 shotgun (which was excellent). While I’ve done some pistol and rifle training, I’ve never had revolver instruction. If you have any pearls of wisdom to drop to get the most of out of this event I’d love to hear it.
Thanks!
Looking forward to meeting you Wayne. First time for me, so I’ll be happy to hear tips as well.
Your article spurred me to seek Revolver training classes in my local area (South Central Texas) and I came across your piece detailing other training opportunities – got all excited until I realized that piece was from 2018…. :-(.
Sorry for the head fake, Paul. The good news is most of those trainers are all still in the game. Check out their current calendars. Grant isn’t teaching classes right now, that I’m aware of, but the rest are still active. Hardwired Tactical shut down their website, but are still on social media with class announcements.
Maybe you can come to Houston some time!
This was an excellent class! I wasn’t surprised by the Mindset > Tactics > Skills > Equipment pyramid talk during the intro section, but I was surprised and delighted about how well that was integrated into the overall class structure. An aspect of mindset was discussed, then tactics coming from that, then the skills needed to execute that – this is where the drills came in.
The approach to drills was structured like the very best martial arts classes I’ve ever had – the pressure and complexity kept increasing, but not so fast that you just fell apart and failed, but enough to push you, and reveal where you will need to work some more.
Looking at the ammo I brought home, I believe we fired 130 rounds, but including all the dry fire in there, I probably had around 500 trigger presses or so. There was no point where it felt like we were just running up the round count – every round fired was a learning opportunity. While I know there are classes out there with several times that round count, I don’t believe that any increase would have added much – the way dry firing was integrated into the class made me realize that dry firing isn’t only a placeholder for when you can’t shoot live ammo, but is actually a training tool that can teach you things that are harder to learn with live ammo.
The safety lecture was well-done, and again, the approach to safety throughout the class was disciplined and well-thought out. In fact, “disciplined and well-thought out” might be a good summary of the whole class. Mike as a trainer is exactly what you would expect from Mike as a writer – detailed, focused, relaxed, good humored, but with no filler or sense that he’s just making it up or coasting.
My fellow students and Josh from LMS Defense (as the assistant to Mike) were also great. I was pretty clearly the least-skilled attendee there, which would be a bummer if this was a competition, but was great as a student – I probably got to learn more than anyone else. Thinking about it today, and going over my notes, I will be completely revamping my daily dry fire practice, and my next few (or many) range sessions. I have a lot to work on from this class!
TLDR; go take a revolver class from Mike if you get the chance. Highly recommended.
Tyson, I’m humbled by your generous description of the class, and very happy that I was able to make it worth the long drive for you. Thank you Sir! I look forward to training with you again! Be safe, my friend.