Student Review: Defensive Concealed Handgun (DCH) – June 2021

I recently attended the June 2021 MVT Defensive Concealed Handgun course and want to share my review of it so that others may see the value of this training and take advantage of the opportunity to learn from dedicated professionals to improve their skills.

Our class consisted of 9 people (7 men & 2 women) with varying backgrounds and levels of experience with handguns. Some of us had trained with MVT before and others were first timers. The instructor is incredibly experienced and has a great manner of reviewing the Basic Rules of Firearms Safety for less experienced students in a way that is engaging to everyone regardless of their skill level. Next was a review of range rules to ensure everyone’s safety while training. There was also some great information exchanged about equipment such as holsters, gun belts, mag pouches and so on before moving on to reviewing the steps of a concealed draw.  Moving to the range, the instructor continually monitored each student and provided ongoing instruction and correction to help students develop familiarity with their pistol and movements in order to develop confidence and become more comfortable through each exercise. A good part of Day 1 is work on the draw motion while shooting single or multiple rounds with additional focus on improving the combined motions and overall marksmanship. There is also a thorough review of the types of malfunctions that can occur with handguns and how to recognize and resolve each one.. 

Following that, we broke for dinner and our entire class returned just prior to dusk for the night fire session where instruction included shooting under low/high beams and hazard lights illumination along with a review of flashlights and the positions to hold a light while operating a handgun.

Day 2 continued with more marksmanship drills as well as anatomy review to better understand how to place rounds effectively on an assailant and more marksmanship drills. Barricade shooting drills followed along with discussion and review of how to use cover.  One of the last exercises we did was the Tueller Drill. This allowed each student to better understand their radius of safety in a given environment.  

Throughout the exercises, the instructor offers frequent breaks from the range where discussion includes reviews of scenarios as well as legal considerations for multiple scenarios.In summary, I found the training experience from this class to be invaluable, as I did with a HEAT 0.5 course I took last year, and my primary takeaway from each was the same:  There is a huge difference between going to a comfortable indoor range and shooting the same target over and over versus really knowing how to smoothly and reliably operate your firearm in a myriad of circumstances when necessary. This class helps students develop the ability to operate their handgun smoothly and confidently when needed. I have recommended this course to friends & family already, and I look forward to Defensive Concealed Handgun 2.0 one day!