Old guy here didn\u2019t have his best day of shooting, but at the awards ceremony was living vicariously through his students.\u00a0 In the men\u2019s division, all four of the top finishers were my graduates, and so were three of the four who topped the women\u2019s division.<\/p>\n
Gabe White<\/a> was the overall winner. He had taken my class back in the early 2000s when I was still teaching for Lethal Force Institute.\u00a0 He ran with the ball, studying with master shooters and working and researching furiously to improve his own skills.\u00a0 Gabe has become legendary in our field as the first (and still, to my knowledge, the only) person to shoot a perfect score on the extremely difficult Rogers Shooting School Advanced<\/a> class test, drawing from a holster concealed beneath his shirt.\u00a0 <\/em>Gabe has gone on to become one of the most sought-after instructors in the business.\u00a0 Having had a four-hour taste of his training at the Conference, I can see why.\u00a0 Congratulations, sir!<\/p>\n In second place was Will Parker, who had just taken my MAG-40<\/a> class and the Active Killer Interdiction<\/a> course at the Firearms Academy of Seattle.\u00a0 Will was so confident in his skills that he shot the MAG-40 class mirror image (that is, as a southpaw despite the fact that he is naturally right-handed) and finished with a very credible 298 out of 300-point qualification score.<\/p>\n Third place went to Chris Harold. Chris had taken MAG-40 in 2015, and had also shot the qual mirror image, hitting a perfect 300 out of 300 possible score. Rounding out the top four was Karl Rehn, a graduate of both MAG-40 and the Deadly Force Instructor course I do with Marty Hayes.\u00a0 I enjoyed heck out of Karl\u2019s presentation on law enforcement shooting qualification courses over the years<\/a>, which he presented at the conference with four hours of classroom history and four hours of live fire, from pre-WWII 1911 .45 qualification through the tough new course adopted by the Austin, Texas Police Department.<\/p>\n In women\u2019s division, champion Martha Hoelschen is not <\/em>one of my graduates, and that\u2019s more my loss than hers.\u00a0 However, second through fourth place have been through my classes, some more than once. They are Darla Steetle, Belle McCormack, and Gail Pepin.<\/p>\n Congratulations to all.\u00a0 We trainers can\u2019t take credit for our students\u2019 accomplishments: in the end, the determination and skill with which they won was theirs and theirs alone.\u00a0 Nonetheless, it warms the hearts of their past trainers to see it, and to offer our pride and admiration.<\/p>\n Champion woman Martha Hoelschen is flanked and congratulated by Lynn and Tom Givens.<\/strong><\/em>![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Martha_HighLady.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Gabe_Champ.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"