2011 is done, and it was an exciting year for pistol-training.com.
The website had over 1.8 million visits in 2011, bringing the site’s total visits above 3.5 million since it began back in 2007. Almost 4,000 comments were left over the course of the year.
Thanks to the tireless effort of some incredible friends, we launched pistol-forum.com. We’re still tiny compared to some of the giants of the gun-forum universe, but in less than a year it has grown to over 2,000 members and established itself as one of the premiere spots on the internet for professional, technical discussion of handgun-related issues. I know I speak for everyone on the forum staff when I say thank you to all of the members who have participated and made PF exactly what we want a forum to be.
From a teaching standpoint, this was the first year I had to operate under the total blackout/ban from M4Carbine.net, which is one of the biggest and most popular forums among students and potential students. Last year they deleted my account and then all of the class reviews (AARs) that had been written by students over three years. For 2011, they’ve deleted any pistol-training.com class announcements or AARs that get posted. There was a real question as to whether a training business like mine — which had essentially come to life at M4C back in 2008 and never would have existed without M4C — could survive without that valuable resource.
Luckily, 2011 proved to be my busiest year yet in terms of teaching. I taught more than 20 classes, almost all of them sold out. In a year when many well known instructors were curtailing their training, canceling classes, or being forced to teach small classes of just 3-4 students, PTC classes kept me plenty busy. To all the folks who came back for another class in 2011, and all the students who came to their first PTC class, thank you all!
Along similar lines, 2011 proved to be a great harbinger for the New Year. There are already seventeen classes scheduled for 2012 in twelve different states. Some are already sold out! There will be two new classes added to the pistol-training.com lineup: Aim Fast Hit Small (aka “AFHF-2”) which will be taught in three venues and Concealed Carry Skills which will get a test run late 2012.
The 2011 endurance test certainly got off to a very rocky start. Someone even went so far as to accuse me of faking it all as a publicity stunt! But as the year went on and others suffered from the same issues, PTC found itself at the vanguard of the Glock gen4 problem. As 2012 begins, we’ll see if the fixes to the recoil assembly, ejector, and extractor have been enough to get the gen4 9mm Glocks out of the doghouse. The endurance test gun, at least, continues to run well and is with me every day.
Tom Jones and I announced the Gadget here and at pistol-forum.com, and then promptly fired over 50,000 rounds through prototypes. It’s been incredible watching an idea become an actual manmade piece of equipment that works exactly the way it was intended. All hail Tom!
To everyone who has helped make pistol-training.com a success, thank you! Happy New Year to everyone!
Happy New Year, hope to take another class this year. AFHF was a good one!
Todd –
Just wanted to give a huge THANKS from this relative newcomer for the great content and the outstanding forum. Wish I had found this place a year ago, I would have saved a ton of money on a few bad firearm purchases, and I would be a year ahead in knowing how best to protect myself and my family with a firearm. I’m looking forwards to being able to take one of your classes, perhaps in 2013 when my time, budget, and skill level allow it.
J.Ja
Good luck in 2012, Todd!
Congratulations Todd. And thank you. And btw, at the Dec 10-11 class in TN, Ken Hackathorn emphasized at least three times to the class that your Aim Fast Hit Fast was the class to take to find another gear in one’s shooting performance. He promoted the FAST as a test to measure one’s progress and he even incorporated the same twist to it he added to the El Presidente . . . the reload and four high prob shots were done on the move and the goal was to run at nearly the same time as static. Higher praise you cannot receive! Now it’s off to the range.
I must have missed the M4c ban! Is there a link to read what happened there?
Thanks, everyone!
JHC — Every time Ken tells me that, it makes my head spin. It’s like Bizarro World.
jellydonut — Nope, and trust me the drama isn’t worth your time or mine.
Happy New Year, everyone!
Huge thanks to you for this website, Todd, and to all the contributors on the forum. As a relatively new shooter, it’s helpful beyond words to have a place where you can read the opinions of actual experts, not just internet experts. I’m looking forward to attending one of you classes someday.
Congrats Todd! You have a small but growing following at my agency and I continue to send my guys to your site for professional development. Keep up the great work!
Excellent.
Thanks for both websites! I can measure the improvements in my shooting mostly due to the information and drills I’ve found here. Thanks and looking forward to a great year!
Best to you for 2012 This blog and M4C are the two main sites I hit daily. It did make me sick when I noticed the ban status under your name there some time back.
But you’ve clearly made this blog and your forums an outstanding success.
I credit this site, and even moreso Todd’s outstanding instruction for making me realize my potential as a shooter. To say that AFHF was an awakening would be an understatement.
Thank you Todd both for what you’ve taught me, and the opportunity at PFC.
Happy new year Teach.
Congrats! And best wishes for even more success in the coming year.
Hi Todd,
I am trying to register for the forum but your firewall software seems to not like my e-mail addresses. Can you help?
Thanks for all the Fish… 🙂
Todd,
Im glad to hear all is well. You deserve it, you’re a great instructor. I honestly feel your “Drill Of The Week” on the forum is the best thing going on the internet to motivate folks to get out there and shoot with something structured to follow.
I hope to get you out here to IL. this year for a class. I will be in contact….
Stay safe,
Nick
George, post the first 3 dot separated numbers of your IP address and we;ll get you squared away. Like 23.123.123
@LittleLebowski:
66.177.94
This is the first three of my cable modem. I appreciate your help!
Thanks!
George
George, that is not banned under our IP addresses that have been manually entered. Please post the screen name you are attempting to register under and the exact (verbatim) error you are seeing.
I am using George as the username and I get this message:
vBulletin Message
Registration denied, this forum runs an active policy of not allowing spammers. Please contact us via the “Contact Us” page link if you believe this is in error
The e-mail address I’m using is from Yahoo!, so I’m not sure if that is causing the problem.
Todd:
Congrats on your success. Any idea when the Gadget will be available? You need to get one in Massad Ayoobs hands as soon as they are available.
Marty
Comgratulations on a successful year Todd! Loking forward to taking AFHF in March.
The M4C drama is a shame as it seems they want to only allow worshippers there and no “competition”. It makes their site weaker for it.
George — I just created a PF account for you and sent the details to your email address. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Todd,
I found this site early 2011. A few months ago I became a member. I learned more about gear, how to carry a firearm better. I was told that I needed to carry a small gun with me like a 380 or a 38. Now I know I can carry my Glock 27 or G22 concielled. I have been trying AIWB carry. And I like it. I also lreaned a lot about the Glock gen 4 and the M&P. I am looking forward to see what happened at PTC.
Thanks for a cool sites.
Todd,
Love to take one of your classes if you come out to Oregon or Washington. I know I’m not alone.
Regards,
Jim
Todd and Staff,
Thank you guys so much for all the effort put into this site and the forum. I think it’s a huge success. Since becoming a member of P-F I find myself ignoring the other forums I previously sought for info.
2011 was my first taste of actual, professional training: with Todd and Ken Hackathorn. AFHF was my first class experience and it was great; awesome instruction and excellent fellow shooters. I think that the like-minded folks here make the community that much greater. Keep up the good work, it is appreciated by many.
THANKS.
P.S. – Any Culpeper,VA classes in the works? Didn’t see any on the schedule.
Came 2012…
Can you test the CZ Shadow?
Congratulations Todd on a great year and may 2012 be even more successful. I’ve followed your website since 2008 and took AFHF in Wilmington in 2011. Your site has more wheat and less chaff than any other firearms site/forum I’ve visited. Your training is also top quality.
Greg Perry
Can we expect to see the Gadget in 2012?
I also forgot to mention, congratulations on your success. Hate to say it, but, sometimes things that force us to go independent are for the best.
You’ve certainly become an authority for when I look for wisdom on handguns. I appreciate what you’ve contributed and how hard you work.
I look forward to your conclusions on the Glock.
First of, belated Happy New Year! Second, congratulations on a productive year. Third, best wishes for the 2012. I am happy to see you develop new classes and curricula. One can’t stay competitive in any arena without continuing development and innovation. Hopefully, New Year will bring new ideas, new places to go and new friends to see.
Congrats on the successful year. When you started the forum, I thought, “meh, just another gun board.” But it has been surprisingly good.
And very glad the M4carbine nonsense didn’t slow you down. Every time I see a photo of that fat mod I have to chuckle.
Congrats Todd,glad things are going so well. I knew the M4c fiasco wouldn’t slow you down. All the Best.
Happy New Year, Todd! Congrats on 2011 and I look forward to stepping up the practice in 2012 with a couple of goals to include earning an Advanced score on FAST and attend another class with you.
Cheers,
Pk
Thanks for coming to Connecticut in 2011 to put on a successful an AFHF. Also, thanks for becoming a resource for me on a varity of shooting related topics. I appreciate your help and look forward to more of it in the future.
I guess I too missed the M4C drama and I spend an awful lot of time over there. Lots of “Type A” personalities there for sure, but I never saw the hinted at controversy. Curious minds are dying to know.
Unless there’s some confidentiality agreement in place there’s no reason to bring it up in a major year-end post, get everyone all spun up with wonder and then provide no details. I’ve been following your site for over 18 months now and eagerly read each new entry, so c’mon, level with us and let us evaluate things for ourselves. Looking forward to taking your AFHF class this summer. Thanks, and keep up the good work.
Thanks to You,Your staff and to all the people here, and at pistol-forum, who have given Me great advice,excellent practice drills and answers to my questions through the last couple of years of me coming to these sites.
Hopefully I can attend one of your classes in the near future.
Thanks again and Happy New year!
Marty & BWT — We certainly hope (and have no reason to think otherwise) that the Gadget will be available in 2012. As I mentioned on the forum, I had some things come up last year that resulted in the delay.
Field testing continues and the prototype Gadgets are doing remarkably well. It’s a good feeling to have the original idea and design so thoroughly validated.
Billy — Ask Jason Falla… He announced yesterday on his Facebook page that he would no longer be with Grey Group and by some odd coincidence his AARs are being deleted on M4C as I type this.
Yet more AAR deletion. Fantastic. Proof that the last round of this nonsense was not the result of mistakes, but of deep and troubling deficits in character.
Not the first I’ve heard of troubles with GG.
Lo and behold, the AARs are now just-as-coincidentally reappearing. Methinks perhaps Grey Group and M4C didn’t want a repeat of their performance when they zapped all of mine. Glad everything worked out.
ToddG- You are a Godsend to a sea of non-believers who are ultimately non-performers… Elevated thinking = Elevated shooting. Congrats on your continued success, and thanks for what you do!
Kind of makes you wonder why this was posted?
The reason given is far from what I remember you telling me in person.
http://www.m4carbine.net/showthread.php?t=96117
I guess it’s all your fault Todd… 😉
It is obviously all my fault. Was there ever any doubt?
Todd,
Starting following your posts from the M&P gun test and found great information here on your site. I hope to get to one of your classes soon. Good Luck in the New Year.
Del
Todd (and others) this is an excellent, seasoned non b-s forum, with a very high caliber of oversight, participants and participant contribution quality. Thanks-and congratulations!
Best, Jon Stein