July 2026 Recap

On Monday, July 13, 2026 I taught a half day revolver course during a private lesson at Defensive Training Solution’s Range near Troy, Ohio.  The student was making a training circuit, and thought he was come see us on his way through.  After breakfast where we talked about the role of the defensive revolver, we talked about revolver fundamentals before getting into live fire drills that forced the student to hone their marksmanship and gun handling skills.  He brought a Smith and Wesson 586 in .357 Magnum, but shot .38 Specials in it.  The gun had no issues during the nearly 200 rounds the student put through it.  I demonstrated drills with my Smith and Wesson 64-3 .38 Special. 

On Saturday, July 18^th, I taught Defensive Handgun 2 to two students at Darke County Fish and Game.  Guns in attendance were all 9mm pistols, a Glock 19 and a Shadow Systems MR920.  I demonstrated drills with my Smith and Wesson M&P 2.0 Metal with a Holosun 509T green dot optic.  This pistol is my issued duty pistol and the pistol that I have decided to teach with all year long in 2026.  The only pistol that had issues were the Shadow Systems.  The pistol had more than a handful of failure to feed stoppages.  During a conversation with its owner, I learned that the student had not shot 500 rounds through it as Shadow Systems owner’s manual recommends before carrying it for serious use.  Both students shot well earning their advanced certificates.  One student accomplished this with only his right hand.  Devin ended up taking top shot winning a shoot off with a concealed draw to hit at 8 yards in 1.9 seconds.  The other student was faster but missed the 8-inch square plate.  Hits win gunfights and top shot patches. 

On Sunday, July 19, 2026 I taught MOVE! Pistol to three students at Defensive Training Solution’s Range near Troy, Ohio.  Guns in attendance were all in 9mm.  Students brought a Glock 19, Glock 43X and Smith and Wesson Shield X.  I demonstrated drills with my Smith and Wesson M&P 2.0 Metal with a Holosun 509T green dot optic.  This pistol is my issued duty pistol and the pistol that I have decided to teach with all year long in 2026.  The only issues to speak of were operator error.  Magazines that weren’t properly inserted fell out of both the 43X and Shield X a time or two.  A weak grip with the non-dominant hand caused a few failures to eject out of the Shield X.  An aftermarket magazine extension on a Glock 19 mag from the Glock Store caused issues when its owner fit one round more than what it was designed to hold.  All three students were defeated by the difficult final test, but even so, I was proud of all the progress that everyone made. 

On the same day, while I was there, I requalified two retired law enforcement officers after MOVE! Pistol was over.  During this, one of the gentlemen let me shoot a variety of his pistols.  His PSA Micro Dagger was nice and reliable, but had a heavy, double action feeling striker fired trigger.  His Ruger RXM on the other hand, shot very nice out of the box and now this pistol gets my recommendation.  Both students qualified on their first attempts as both have requalified with me for a few years.   One of them took MOVE! Pistol right before qualifying.  If you are a retired law enforcement officer and you wish to qualify under The Law Enforcement Officer Safety Act every year, we can make that happen for $80 per person.  We even mail you copies of your qualification records and brand-new ID’s every time you requalify.  It’s our way of backing the blue.