You won’t be working on shooting itty-bitty groups in a Dave Harrington class.

It always bears repeating: If you're going to take a class, bring a reliable gun. You should have yours de-bugged before arriving. Otherwise you'll be holding back the class as you struggle to catch up. Be familiar with whatever gun you bring (I arrived with a 1911) and bring a spare.

Once we'd shot a few groups to make sure our handguns were sighted in (and I'm sure to let Dave see if someone was in over his head), we did a variant of the "step-back" drill. Unlike the classic, where you take a step back after each successful hit, Dave had us jumping back in 25-yard increments.

I was quite glad to have my Wilson CQB with me, and to have spent a lot of time at the club plinking at 100 yards because I was still hitting steel out to 125 yards. After that brief test we were almost always in a lot closer, and most of our shooting was well inside of 25 yards. Some exercises had us starting arm's length from the targets.

In a Dave Harrington class, you'll work from the holster. Have a sturdy, comfortable holster you can wear all day long. You'll do lots of shooting, so bring lots of ammo. And to avoid downtime, bring all your reliable magazines. Once the preliminaries are out of the way, and Dave has a handle on the skill level of the class, he jumps right in.

Shooting while in close proximity to others is not something you’ll encounter in controlled conditions like a match.

Shooting and moving? Of course. But not just moving away from the target. You'll learn how to move in all directions, while shooting with two hands or one, right or left.

The real world doesn't always present you with a neat, clean movement pattern. While match designers go to great lengths to make sure things aren't too difficult, Dave makes it more so. How about moving from left to right across the range, walking backwards, shooting one-handed? No match organizer would have you do that.

My bet is that sometime in the past--in some grimy third-world hellhole--Dave had to do just that, because this wasn't even the hardest thing he had us doing.

Why bring lots of ammo? Because Dave is not a "controlled pair" kind of guy. I think it came from more of that "travel to interesting places" part of his job in the Army. As long as you are engaged with the target and you're hitting, he wants you hammering the steel or cardboard.

If you're missing, you're shooting too fast, and Dave will tell you so. You can count on lots of verbal, public feedback on your efforts. Be big boys and big girls and learn from it.

One aspect of modern gunfighting overlooked or ignored by many is that the world is often a crowded place. In a match it will be you, the targets and the range officer with the timer. In a Dave Harrington class, you'd better get used to shooting while standing close to other people. And having them shoot while you're standing close by.