Advertise here Click image to view supporting site

Front Sight Tactical Scenarios

Here we are outside one of the shoot houses we used during several of our day #2 scenarios.  For this portion of the course, we typically had one or two people in the "home" as the home owners.  The owners would go into the house while the remaining students were briefed on the rest of the scenario.  Something along the lines of a brother-in-law comes into the house very late at night (remember, don't shoot the family members) and then you hear another bump in the house....hmmm....burglar?  While investigating the noise, you come across the cops (seems as though the neighbors saw something suspicious and called them) who think you are the bad guy....oh yeah, you can see how this might unfold.  And yes, there still is a bad guy something on the property.  This was one of many scenarios we ran which ran the gambit and included car jackings, street muggings, armed robbery in a fast food restaurant, apprehending a fugitive in the desert, muggers on a hiking trail, and so on. 
 

Did I mention we spent several hours as tunnel rats?  What I mean is that we ran a number of scenarios in the Front Sight storm drain system.  You can see a paper target laying at the opening to the drain system.  The facility has a LOT of these buried underneath it and large grates allow the ranges and parking lots to drain off rain water. 

It took me about 20 minutes for my eyes to adjust to the near absolute darkness.  Talk about a low light shooting scenario setup.  We ran a number of "find the bad guy" and "everyone against each other" kind of scenarios.  The last scenario we did had Gary and I as the two "good guys".  Our task was to clear the storm drain system of all the bad guys (there were four of them hiding out).  While our adversaries were getting situated, we took advantage of the 5 minutes we had and threw together our "team tactics strategy".  Basic hand signals and firing zone coverage were worked out.  We eliminated the first three assailants without taking any damage.  The last bad guy (Ed) got me (I was the point man) and it pretty much got down to a stand off between Gary and Ed at that point.  I believe Ed got the final shot in and we called it over. 
 

This shoot house was fun and we ran a number of scenarios in it.  The house is essentially 4 little apartments with interconnecting doors to each adjacent apartment.  There are four doors, one at each corner, to allow entry.  With a minimal roof to deal with, a raised platform in the center of the house provides the instructor with a birds eye view of all participants.  This greatly aided in the scenarios debriefs that we always conducted upon completion. 

The debriefs were great and might very well have been the best learning part of the course.  It was hear we heard why things were done (by the bad guys and the good guys) and explored a wide range of alternate possibilities.  Eric, our instructor, brought a TON of real world experience to the course.  He is a professional bodyguard and teaches security and tactics in this profession.  Discussing the many issues surrounding an armed robbery event with a person who has been held at gun point on two occasions while being robbed makes for an interesting learning situation. 
 

So....that, in a nutshell, is what the Front Sight Tactical Scenarios training course offers.  Please don't get turned off by the possibility your getting a couple of paint ball hits.  This course was, in my opinion, the closest thing you will ever get to the real deal.  Short of being in a real car jacking or convenience store holdup, these scenarios are the best thing to motivate you to stay in condition yellow when you are out and about.  All of us were amazed at how fast things could go from good to bad. 

You need to be a graduate of a Front Sight handgun, rifle, or shotgun course (notice I did not say you just completed it).  This course is not about teaching gun handling and getting hits on target.  If you are below the curve in these areas, you are going to get dead a lot of times during the two day course. 

One last thing.....this course also opened my eyes as to the need to take open hand and/or edged weapons training.  Most of our "shootings" occurred at very close distances.  In many cases, distances so close that you could touch the other person.  At these distances, you won't have time to draw your concealed handgun.  You'll need to increase time and distance to make that happen and that might very well mean you are in a physical fight with the bad guy.  Eric also teaches open hand and edged weapons courses at Front Sight.  I look forward to the opportunity to take both of those courses.