Last Sunday I attended a Gun For Hire Simunition Survival Day, the course description is:

 

"Push yourself to your limits with Gun For Hire's Simunition survival day. The Simunition survival day is 8 hours of non-stop force-on-force training using the Simunition FX marking cartridge. The students will be put into several scenarios that will push themselves to their limits. The scenarios will range from active shooter scenarios to street robberies to car jackings. As a bonus each student can think of one real world scenario they would like to put themselves in and push themselves to the ultimate breaking point.

 

This class is not for the novice or beginner. All students must be graduates of the Gun For Hire Level 1 Simunition course to attend this class. This class will be conducted at a 42,000 square foot heated office building making the scenario possibilities endless. "

 

The course description is a good reflection of the day and for those who have already taken the FonF Active Shooter then think of this as "Active Shooter on steroids". There were 9 students, 4 instructors. The day started with a brief recap of safety and techniques before moving into the scenarios. In all I believe we played out around 8-10 different individual scenarios including an office active shooter, bank robbery, grocery store hold up, leaving a cinema, domestic dispute and car jackings to name some. For each scenario run-through the students would play one of 3 roles.. an innocent unarmed civilian, the armed civilian, or one or more of the agitators with the scenarios being played out one time for each student as the armed civilian, so there is no real sitting around waiting for your turn and in total well over 60+ run-throughs were covered during the day.

 

The scenarios and structure work well, giving the opportunity to see how others tackle similar situations (albeit Jo/Chuck/Mac made changes within each scenario so every student had different situations to deal with).

 

We had some amusing moments with the highlight being a Miami Vice style roll across the floor to reach cover. It also helps show the positive/negative implications of how you carry with a student racking the slide of an already loaded Simunitions firearm as they drew from their holster as the student typically carried with the chamber empty.

 

Overall an excellent day, it continues to reinforce the challenges facing a legally armed civilian, questions such as:

• How can you spot a potentially escalating situation
  
• How can you keep aware of what is happening around you in an escalating situation
  
• How can you defuse a potential escalating situation without using your firearm
  
• When do you decide to draw your firearm
  
• When do you decide to shoot
  
• Who do you decide to shoot (particularly if there could be multiple agitators)
  
• When other civilians are around how do you ensure you are not perceived as a(nother) aggressor
  
• The risks to an armed civilian when unarmed civilians are panicking around them
  
• What happens when the Police arrive
  
• etc
  

I wore my heart rate monitor to gauge how my pulse reacted in one of the scenarios. My normal resting heart rate is 64 bpm, while awaiting outside the room for a scenario to start my heart rate increased to between 110-130 bpm and during a scenario my heart rate peaked at 164 bpm. That in itself was interesting as it matches a hard cardio workout at the gym.

 

So far the best Simunitions training day by far and my thanks to Joe, Chuck, Mac and Pilar (and the other students).

 

TheWombat

Informative review , thanks for sharing! I can't wait to do these classes ! Have to wait for college to break so my sitters are available..some kind of whining about needing to study for exams

 

Did you take any hits this time? I remember you describing a stinger or two from your last course .

 

Will you be at Cedar Grove for any training this weekend ? Pete will definitely be there , if i can get a sitter we'll both be there.

Informative review , thanks for sharing! I can't wait to do these classes ! Have to wait for college to break so my sitters are available..some kind of whining about needing to study for exams

 

Did you take any hits this time? I remember you describing a stinger or two from your last course .

 

Will you be at Cedar Grove for any training this weekend ? Pete will definitely be there , if i can get a sitter we'll both be there.

 

I had a few more "pain penalties" this time over, although most of the more significant ones were received when I was a 'bad guy' on one of the scenarios!

 

I'll be on the Low Light 2 this Sunday, so hopefully see you both. Will you be bringing the 1911 or something else?

 

TheWombat

Pete will be at LL2 , I may be there as well depending on a few details kid related.

 

And noooo , I won't be shooting my .45 . When I shoot it well and do not ride the recoil it ejects hard onto my forehead and eye protection. I would borrow Pete's PX4 Storm . I'd rather his CZ 75 but I'm sure that is what he would like use

 

I'm bringing the .45 to the gunsmith next week , and picking up an M&P .40 pro next Friday . Looking forward to that one !

Wombat, once again a great review from you! Sorry I couldn't be there, as I was attending a two day Target Focus Training course in New York. (I'll be happy to provide details when I see you, if you like.) Sounds like it was a pretty intense day!

 

I'm hoping to make it to LL2 on Sunday, so I'll look forward to catching up with you then.

Wow. Really sorry I missed that. Must get back and check the schedule of coming events. Thanks, W!

 

Best, G

His sounds interesting. I would take this course even as an Leo. Never can have too much training

In my experience the Simms courses are good practical experience, whether LEO or civilian. If you have never done one, and are looking to carry a firearm or understand how to handle a home invasion situation then I highly recommend trying Simms out.

 

The initial level 1 class that you need to do prior to Active Shooter or Simms Survival may not have the more advanced scenarios, however it is still very worthwhile.

 

TheWombat

Wow. This course sounds fun. I can't wait to take it. I need to take the level 1 classes. I plan on taking it next week on the 9th.