American Handgunner May/June 1977

making the improvements that our classhad demonstrated should be made. As aresult, I have not attempted to break upthe training sessions into what would ordinarilyconstitute Basic, Familiarization,Advanced, Elementary, Special Tactics,Special Tutorial and similar normal designations.I will discuss and possibly showall of the potential instruction and coursesof fire without further comment.From the classroom we drove west pastthe barn, turned abruptly north at thecamping area and moved down across thewide slope of the hill beneath which theSquare lies. The Square is an intriguinglayout that is deceptive in its simplicity.Each side of the Square is 25 yards, insidemeasurements. The north and south wallsare 10 feet high and each contains twosteel 16" discs welded on the top to a 1"steel bar, thus enabling the discs to swingwhen struck by a bullet. The west side hasa low dirt backstop, then behind that afour foot wide channel to take the rails forthe moving targets and behind this a 10foot high dirt backstop. The east end isopen to permit 60 yard firing. The groundis hard packed fine gravel. This is an excellentchoice and proved to be the finestsurface I have ever shot on. Because all ofus fired Colt .45 ACP pistols we were constantlypicking up fired brass that was alwaysvisible on the ground. We could runand turn and move and stop easily on thissurface.The first thing Jeff teaches students isthe four part draw. Once they have masteredthis they move into turns from rightto left, left to right, front to rear. They aretaught to watch the front sight The frontsight is the key to hitting which brings usto the Weaver stance with its two handedhold. All these things are blended togetherso that within a short time the student canturn, go into the Weaver stance, fire andhit without thinking. Before long the studentis drawing, turning and hitting thetwo steel plates on the right wall, swingingand hitting a target on the west end andagain turning to the left to ring both steeldiscs on the south wall. And it's not yetlunch time the first day!Speed is secondary at this time.Smoothness and confidence are far moreimportant. Then comes reloading the pistolwith Cooper pounding a few specificfacts into everyone's head. Then we getinto turning, firing, reloading, firing,dumping the magazine, reloading, firing,stop and holster. It is constant basic repe-