Sighted fire has widespread appeal and point shooting is put down as voodoo science, I think because every aspect of sighted fire can be quantified and explained. Point shooting is more ambiguous, but I can tell you that within its envelope of effectiveness, point shooting is accurate, and more importantly, FAST. It really shines when the shooter is behind the reaction curve and have to deal with a bad guy who has intitated action. Funny, that sounds like what most private citizen shooting scenarios entail.

The class will dispel a lot of myths that are circulating around. "Point shooting is no good at distances further than arm's length." "You can't point shoot while you're moving." "Point shooting is spraying and praying."

Point shooting is a controversial subject in the shooting community, and having experienced it firsthand, I am ready to make my own controversial statement. Ready? Here it is:

Point shooting is not for p@#$#@

There, I said it. Now let me explain.

What does this mean? It's not that the "techniques" are only for HSLD secret squirrel He-Men. It's not that there's some secret, that once revealed, will be so shocking that your hair turns white and your heart will stop in three days. What it means is this: the key in owning this and doing your best using point shooting as taught in this class is pure aggression. If you take this trying to learn techniques, or taking each exercise as only a drill to sharpen skills, it will only take you so far. However, if you apply it by taking the fight to the enemy without thought you will achieve almost superhuman feats.

Okay, now I sound like I've joined the Point Shooting Cult. All I can say is that the targets don't lie. Matt was trying to clarify the statement that point shooting was "instinctive." As a twist to that, in light of what I said above, I would add that point shooting is primal. You can't think about. You can't be timid about it. Put on your warface and just do it. Can I get an AMEN?!?!?

This was a revelation for me in this class - the essential, heartfelt attitude that I WILL KILL THIS SONOFABITCH NO MATTER WHAT - EVEN THOUGH I MIGHT DIE IN THE PROCESS, I WILL NOT FAIL. Unleashing this primal, controlled fury is the heart and soul of combative point shooting. It's not about punching nice, small groups in a target from a distance - it's all about KILLING YOUR ENEMY BEFORE HE KILLS YOU. Even though your enemy might be represented by a piece of paper, you still unleash the beast within and KILL YOUR ENEMY.

Once Matt finally kicked the Modern Technique out of me after Day One, I shocked myself by squaring off on a photo target at about 3 yards and watching a hole appear as if by magic when Matt blew his whistle - right in the heart where I was focused, and I didn't care where my sights were. It got even better when I planted several more shots within 3 inches of the heart, shooting one-handed from 3/4-hip, at 7 yards.

But, what was really cool was watching Gojira357 drill his target one-handed, again and again, two shots sounding like one, all the way out past 12 yards, WITHOUT USING HIS SIGHTS...ALONG WITH 6 OF 8 OTHER SHOOTERS ON THE SAME LINE.

You can learn the exact same material that Matt taught us from reading Fairbairn and Applegate, and you can try it for yourself within the restrictions of your local range...and you might get disappointed because your groups are so much bigger than your sighted-fire groups, and give up on combative point shooting. Matt will not let you give up, and he will instill the attitude of focused aggression in you, and you will succeed in hitting without using your sights in positions, situations and distances that you never imagined you could have before.