No Fail Pistol

Presscheck Consulting, a training company owned and run by Chuck Pressburg, offers a class called No Fail Pistol. Given a title like that, I had to go check it out. Actually, I have known who Chuck is for many years. After all, I don’t live under a rock. A good friend at RTK nightvison company took some of Chuck’s classes a few years ago and raved about them. Combining that with what I know of Chuck’s background and experience, three friends and I signed up for it.

The class was held at the Meadhall range, a very nice private outdoor range. The weather started out a bit rough. It’s tornado season in Oklahoma and one came through the area the night before class started. This killed the power and water at the range, but by mid-morning it was warm and sunny. By day two, the water and power were restored, though none of us suffered without them. On top of the weather, two of my friends had to bail a few days before the class started. It was unfortunate, but we made the best of it.

I’m not going to do a blow-by-blow account of the class, but the basic premise is that we needed to be able to deliver a high standard of accuracy with both hands, or either hand alone. Chuck did not cut us slack simply because we only had one hand on the gun. It might take longer to get a good hit, but only good hits count. The accuracy standard was the tried and true B8, a much-favored target here at Pistol-Training.com. Some of the drills involved shooting the B8 for score but many used the entire black as an acceptable hit area. Accountability for every round fired was stressed over and over and in several different contexts.

Chuck also stressed that looking at it as a B8 was not very helpful and he wanted us to view the black circle as the heart of an adversary. This is something that many people seem to not understand. I don’t care what the shape of the target is, or how it looks on a flat range backer. You have to imagine looking at the real thing no matter what. It was nice to hear Chuck reinforce this concept.

Given the shooting standards, you might expect to see a lot of 1911s on the line. This is 2023 though, so there were no 1911’s, but a lot of 2011’s — well over half the class in fact. More than a few pistols had comps, and almost everyone had a red dot. The rest of the class was a mix of Glocks (2), P320 (1), FN’s (2), M&P (1), and my favorite, the LTT P30L. A notable addition to the class was Pistolsmith Joe Chambers. At least a couple of guys were shooting his creations, including Chuck. My P30L performed perfectly, though my left hand got quite the workout shooting double action as much as I did. More than half my rounds for the entire class were shot DA, a much higher percentage than I normally shoot.

We spent half a day shooting the B8s with two hands, half a day with our strong hand, and half a day with our support hand only. Chuck left no doubt as to why that level of accuracy is needed. No shots were fired closer than 10 yards, and in case you haven’t gotten the hint yet, this was not a basic pistol class. It covered basic pistol skills but they were executed at a high level. I consider this class to be one of the more advanced classes I have attended, as most “advanced classes” really aren’t. This one was.

Chuck demo’d every drill and did so at a high level. There is no “fighting” happening on a live range, but this class was a true fighting class. It taught and emphasized techniques that are relevant to the real world, taught by a man who really understands the material. At the same time, Chuck did not disparage competition and encouraged students to shoot some for the benefits it provides.

Three half days of B8 shooting left us half a day to shoot a bunch of other stuff, like multiple targets on small steel, the falling plates stage of Action Pistol (commonly called Bianchi Cup at Chuck’s old outfit), shooting on the move on small steel, shooting a smallish moving target, as well as a few other competitions. There was very little downtime in the class, and we spent 8 hours each day on the range. We had a 30-minute lunch break and Chuck gave us a few minutes as needed in order to load up on bullets and water. Total time each day was over 9 hours.

I shot 800 rounds, and though I am always happy to shoot more, we really covered a lot of ground. Chuck was clearly invested in our training and gave it his all the entire time. I won’t tell his stories, as they are his, but I will say that he is a very motivational instructor who really cares about his students. He came across as a very mature man, who is not afraid to be honest in front of others. Sadly, this is absolutely not the case in much of the “cool guy” training world we see today. Chuck talked about uncomfortable topics very frankly and admitted to thinking things that most men are too embarrassed to admit to. This takes a serious amount of strength, and it only reinforced to the class that they had picked the right instructor.

The experience was well worth my time and money. It is one of the best classes I have ever taken, especially in recent years. My buddy and other students I talked to felt the same. Many of those students had previously trained with Chuck and intend to continue doing so in the future. I came away from the class very impressed with both the course and Chuck as an instructor.

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Here is a link to a moving target drill we did. The stationary target backers represented hardcover, and Chuck advised us to not get caught exposed to the threat with an empty gun. Reload when you want to, not when you have to was a refrain heard throughout the course. My very slow reloads in this video were a result of knowing the target had a few seconds down time at each end of the track. I should have simply reloaded at full speed for the practice.

Now to the part where I ask you for support. Chuck and many other veterans did hard things while serving our country. Leaving the service did not always make things easier. SKD Tactical joined with Chuck to produce a version of their famous gloves, and 30% of the proceeds go directly to Warriors Heart. I helped beta-test the PIG gloves way back in the early days and have not yet found a better pair. Instead of buying them on sale throughout the year, next time I will buy the Presscheck version and hope you do the same and help to spread the word a bit more about this great charity.

If you already know how to handle your gun and can shoot a respectable group off hand at 25 yards, I highly recommend this class. You will find it challenging and you will work on some weaknesses, which will only make you better. I plan to take No Fail Rifle in the future and would like to repeat No Fail Pistol at some point as well. I can’t endorse an instructor or class more than that.