Presscheck’s No Fail Pistol

Every shooting class has a tone.  Some shooting classes are very lighthearted and friendly, creating a jovial environment.  There are far fewer classes on the other end of that spectrum – serious classes for serious people engaged in the direst of circumstances.  This relentless focus on consequences is what separates the pistol class offered by Chuck Pressburg of Presscheck Consulting from most others.  Known as “No Fail Pistol” for open enrollment offerings or “Hostage Rescue Handgun” for police-only audiences, this class is the ultimate deep dive into making the shot when you absolutely must.

The lead instructor is Chuck Pressburg.  Pressburg is uniquely qualified to develop and teach this material.  He is a 26-year military veteran, having spent almost all that time in Special Operations or Special Mission Units.  Chuck was a member of our nation’s foremost military group, formed to be an elite hostage rescue unit.  Pressburg has extensive combat experience, which he weaves into the class to highlight critical lessons without devolving into a collection of war stories.  He has been teaching his material since 2015. That time has allowed him to fine-tune his material and teaching skills to a masterful level.

Meadhall

This course was held at the Meadhall Range near Oklahoma City, OK.  Meadhall is an amazing, privately owned training facility featuring an impressive infrastructure, including a top-tier classroom, a shooting simulator, a 300-yard range, turning targets, moving targets, and a shooting tower.  Pressburg speaks highly of Meadhall and has encouraged attendees to visit this venue to access its moving target system.

No Fail

“No Fail Pistol” is founded on a simple principle: nobody cares what your problems are when trying to make a shot.  Nobody cares if you were exhausted, scared, couldn’t establish a good grip, only had your support hand, etc.   People only care about the final resting place of your bullet or, as Pressburg called it, “wound tracks in cadavers.”

To teach this class, Pressburg follows a distinct path.  The first day starts in the classroom.  Here, Pressburg offers an engaging and frank lecture on his worldview and the role of the pistol within it.  The lecture is not a discussion of the fundamentals of marksmanship or firearms safety, but about the situation where you’ll need those skills and the proper mental framework to deliver them.  To ensure accountable delivery, marksmanship is heavily emphasized, and the B-8 bullseye is used to quantify accuracy. Pressburg explains the unique value of the B-8 bullseye and, most importantly, the ability to scale up or down the accuracy demands of a given shot based on how the target is scored.

Beginning

The next portion of the class is spent on the range and begins with a cold assessment shot at 25 yards on a B-8.  Pressburg is generous and allows us to have both hands on the pistol for this.  We then spent time shooting various drills from 25 yards to 10 yards.  Each drill has a clear purpose, which Pressburg shares with the students.  Pressburg’s discussion of the purpose behind the drills was especially useful.

While not billed as an instructor class, Pressburg’s deliberate pauses to discuss the “why” were invaluable and added much-needed information.  Pressburg would also pause to discuss certain subjects, such as target analysis or visual acuity.  These insights often went beyond what is offered in most instructor courses and added a whole level of value to the class.  I would be remiss if I did not mention that Pressburg demonstrated every scored drill in front of the class and candidly assessed his own performance.

Dominant Hand

After this intense level of work with two hands, Pressburg realized we were feeling good about our performance. Then, we moved on to the dominant hand-only portion of the course.  The remainder of the first day was spent repeating many of the same drills that had been fired with both hands.  While this may seem redundant, shooting the same drills allowed for a very direct comparison of our skill levels with just one hand on the gun.  What we found was that the same levels of accuracy were possible with just one hand on the gun, but it required more time to accomplish.

Support Hand

The morning of the second day was primarily spent on support-hand only shooting.  True to form, Pressburg didn’t just demand that we shoot support hand only.  The potential importance of support-hand only shooting was covered extensively and viscerally.  At the start of this block, Pressburg also examined the different variables in grip that could be changed to improve performance.  We were encouraged to try different changes and evaluate them to see what worked best for each student.  Once we had determined what worked best, we shot the same set of drills from the previous day, allowing us to better understand the performance effects of having only the support hand on the pistol.  To finish up the morning, we shot a test that incorporated two-handed, dominant-hand, and support-hand only shooting under time pressure and with movement.

Play

If the first day and a half of the class were diligent work, we spent the afternoon “playing” with and better understanding the skill we had developed.  The B-8 targets went away, and steel targets saw heavy use.  Besides shooting one of the current evaluations for Pressburg’s former unit, we worked on wide target transitions and moving targets.  Mirroring the earlier pattern, Pressburg didn’t just explain the drill but delved into the purpose and underlying philosophy.  The class concluded with a very powerful discussion of the lasting real-world consequences of using these skills.

Final Thoughts

It is hard to say enough good things about this course.  It is a serious course for serious people, and this reputation tends to keep away the unfit and unworthy.  If you have reached a plateau in your shooting development or want to better understand how to apply your skill in a high-consequence environment, this is the class for you.

Presscheck Consulting