Symtac Consulting Shotgun Skills

As I’ve mentioned before, Rob Haught is one of the guys I listen to when it comes to the “Gospel of the Gauge”, a phrase he coined some time ago. This past weekend I was able to train with Rob and Matt, as well as Bob Mefford, who came out to lend a hand.

The class was full of good people and good, safe shooters. Some of them were guys I’ve trained with at recent schools, including Justin Dyal’s class in Dallas last year, and Tom Givens’ class in MO earlier that year. A new face for me was Sam, from The Wilderness, a company that has equipped me for 30 years. She makes some of the best gear and trains with it too.

Rob has taught the shotgun to serious users since the 1980s, and Matt grew up around his dad shooting, teaching, and competing. They know how to run a good shotgun class. Since the class was at the Mead Hall Range in OK, the facility was well-suited to handle the changing weather we were handed, and Bill and his wife always go the extra mile to ensure that the students and instructors are well-fed and hydrated. We will present our flagship course, On Demand Performance, at Mead Hall in June.

I shot my newest 1301T during the course. Rob is using it to demo in the top picture. It held up very well, though occasionally it allowed a round to escape from the magazine tube and end up on the deck. With numerous people watching, we could not figure out what was happening, though we assumed the shell catch was asleep at the wheel. It only dropped a few rounds over the two days, but it was a mighty vexing event.

The course took a building block approach to shotgun skills, and by the end of the class, students were loading, shooting, reloading, and controlling recoil very well. Controlling recoil is really what Symtac is known for, and they do it better than anyone else I have seen. They also teach short-stocking, a technique used in close quarters with a shotgun that reduces its length. The two techniques work together to allow for fast accurate hits at all distances and positions that are useful with a shotgun.

Once students understood the basics of hitting and controlling recoil, we moved on to shooting on the move and some friendly competition. We also tested for the Skills Gauge coin, a test of shotgun shooting based on the FAST coin. Unlike FAST, the skills gauge is shot cold. In my case, very cold. I injured my neck pretty badly 2 weeks ago, and have not been right since. Combined with the colder weather, I was shivering and my neck was locked up pretty well. So, for a guy who makes a big deal about on-demand performance, it was not my finest hour. I have a video of the test on our Youtube site if you want to give it a shot.

After shooting a bit more, the weather warmed up and I did as well, so I managed to do well in the shoot-off, winning a very nice bag of shotgun goodies from The Wilderness. I did most of my loading for the class out of a Vang Comp “side saddle”, using a Wilderness dump pouch to store spare cards in. Overall, seeing Rob and Matt and meeting Bob and the other students was great. If you want to brush up on your shotgun skills, I highly recommend Symtac Consulting. As soon as they post an advanced class, I’m signing up!