TACTICAL DEFENSE INSTITUE, LEVEL I-III HANDGUN

By Tom Hilliard

This was a 3 day class, covering 8 hours training per day, which included, mindset, technique, tactics and live fire drills to prepare for a gun fight. The following is a brief description of the day to day activities.

Day 1: We covered the legal aspect of a shooting and what most likely will happen in the after math of a gun fight and what to do. The mindset one will need, the willingness to engage, and the need to win decisively, so you can protect yourself, your loved ones, and anyone else that you feel that you need to protect.

From there, we proceeded to cover the fundamentals of safe firearm handling, the grip of the firearm, posture, sight alignment, and getting solid hits onto your target, along with drills to acquire these skills.

Day 2: We covered more firearm handling skills, which included magazine changes, clearing weapon jams, shooting close in, moving and shooting simultaneously.

Day 3: The first shot of the day we timed in to see how we would do with a cold bore, then onto changing hands with the firearm,  searching through structures, how to deal with hard corners, doorways,, shooting around barricades, recognizing threats, more moving and shooting, combinations of all the above, coordinated with seeking cover. All this was done with strong and weak hand, and then a live fire house with shoot and no shoot targets to test our recently acquired skills.

Summary: John Benner and his staff at TACTICAL DEFENSE INSTITUTE was top notch all the way. Everything was in a well thought out progression of skills and drills that would be needed for the next skill set taught. All of the skills taught, took some time to acquire, so that after the weekend was over, we would be able reproduce these drills on our own with some skill and proficiency.

At anytime during the weekend, we were able to stop and discuss issues with any of the knowledgeable staff. I did so several times, and received an answer immediately.  When I applied this information, my shooting improved.

The instructor to student ratio was approximately 1 instructor to every 2-3 students in attendance. All the instructors where very knowledgeable, and skilled with firearms, and several where beyond skilled, and just damn scary in their proficiency with a firearm.

All in all, this was a very good experience, I learned a lot from the instructors at TDI, and I will definitely be going back for further firearms instruction. 

TACTICAL DEFENSE INSTITUTE is located in Adams County, Ohio, 2174 Bethany Ridge, West Union, OH 45693 and can be contacted by calling 937-544-7228, or by FAX'ing 937-544-2887.

John Benner givng advice to one of the many students at TDI for Level I-III handgun, June 27 - 29, 2008.

Some of the students taking time out to reload.

Students preparing for live fire drill with reactive steel targets.

Some new found friends from TDI.

Giving Bad Ass, a whole new meaning.