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Last Saturday September 19th, I attended the course at O.F.A. just outside of Brownsville, Oregon.

The class had I think thirteen students, and at least five instructors working the line. So lots of hands on help.

We were all thankful that the first part was classroom only. It poured down with rain, and we were hoping it would ease off.

The classroom lecture was all you ever want to know about shotguns, ammo, limitations, patterning, shot selection etc. I have been to O.F.A. before, and as with the other classes there is a professionally put together course book for each student. Along with this, we made some recommended notes.

No luck with the rain stopping, but off we went out to go over range safety and location of first aid equipment. O.F.A. is the only range I have been to that has such a detailed first aid emergency plan. From first aid trained to combat medic, and supplies from ouch bandaids to full advanced trauma kits, air evac landing zones already mapped out.

After that, it was on to shotgun function, loading, unloading(admin and combat and tactical), sights, sling use and set up. There was a mix of Remington and Mossberg in different lengths and mag capacities. Using two relays, we shot steel from a safe distance, and slugs and buckshot for patterning on cardboard out to about twenty yards. Part of the lecture had been how every shotgun is different in how it groups with different ammo. With even the same shotgun make and ammo brand not giving the same results. It was evident by our groups , that this was certainly the case. Having patterned my Remington before I took the course, I knew my Remington slugs, and Federal Tactical 9 pellet OO buck should do well. I must say though, three students brought 14 inch Remingtons loaded with Federal's Flight Control OO buck. Wow!! Just about one big hole and very consistent.

After lunch the rain had eased off and we continued into shotgon to handgun drills. What do you do if you have an Oh S--T moment and you are out of buck, or there is a malfunction with your shotgun. Safely using our various slings, we tried it out, both non firing, and then live. With lots of instructors helping it was extremely safe.

We then did multiple targets using steel and birdshot. Amazing how fast you can be with all but one shooter using pumps. The other was a Remington 1100.

After this, and towards the end of the day we did Rolling Thunder. Six steel targets, with birdshot. Six to seven shooters, shooting one, then two then three etc. moving down the line. You have to be there. It was fun, but a learning experience also. How fast can you accurately hit the targets, and then do a fast reload as you turn comes up again pretty quickly. We were encouraged to go to our handguns should we run out of shotgun ammo or have a malfunction. Everyone did well.

The end of the day was clean up, and classroom for final thoughts. And of course the "musical" handing out of a certificate and pin for course completion.

No complaints from this shooter. Everybody learned a few things, and had fun doing it. And it was safe. Having extra staff on hand allowed instructors to do one to one when needed, help fix gun problems, and if they couldn't be fixed, hand you another shotgun so you could carry on learning while they fixed the problem.

When I go on courses I want to learn and be challenged, as we all get rusty. What I got at O.F.A. was also fun, trained armourer to fix problems, first aid trained staff, and also important, value for your training dollar. There is nothing worse than saving up for a course, buying ammo, and in my case travelling a great distance and paying gas and hotels, to be left feeling like I wasn't challenged and learned little. You will never get that at O.F.A. based on the courses I have attended. Two thumbs up!

Peter
 
As always Peter, it was great to see, train and visit with you again!!

Glad I was able to help out with that minor "fix" to your Rem. SG
and get it back to you asap.

Thank You and hope to see you again soon! Safe travels!

-Zippo Joe
 
A fine review. After reading it I want to take the Defensive Shotgun class at OFA. I took Defensive Handgun 1 this fall and give it an A+. Just got a couple of defensive shotguns and need some good information on the best way to set them up.
 

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