If you’re a shootist, trying to stay sharp and on your game can be difficult. If you’re a gun owner who leans on a firearm for self-defense, or if you just want to improve your shooting, going to the range at least once a month is important. Are you someone who’s looking for new and different ways to test yourself and train? The book “Pistol Practice,” by John Kolis, might be for you.
It’s a book, not a substitute for training
The first thing that I think is important to bring up is that this is a guide to help shooters practice. Books, in general, can’t be a stand-in for in person, hands on, training. Even asynchronous training is going to give more than just diving into a book.
That said, if you’ve already had formal training, have gone through the exercises that your instructor laid out for you, or you just want to spice things up, a resource like “Pistol Practice” has exercises and games that should help hone your skills.
Practice does not make perfect, but perfect practice does
One of the challenges when looking into any product that’s going to help you become a better shooter is that practice, when done properly, will improve your skills. There are a ton of dry fire systems and gizmos out there, inert faux guns, laser cartridges, etc. And all of them, if used properly, will help increase the quality of one’s skills.
I look at “Pistol Practice” as one of the many systems and products that’s out there which – again, if used properly – will help improve your shooting.
In the first exercise, Kolis pulled a page out of the NRA Marksmanship program. The exercise is shooting at 9 inch paper plates or the 8” circle targets from a PDF he includes as a download.
If you focus on the fundamentals and practice them properly while executing the strings of fire recommended, you will be practicing properly. The paper plate exercise is a good way to warm up for forthcoming exercises as well as evaluate how you are shooting as a baseline.
That baseline data will be great to look back on. In the future, if you’re able to split a playing card, as Kolis encourages his readers to try out while going through his program, you’ll be able to track your growth.
“Pistol Practice” is more than just a book
“Pistol Practice,” in its third edition, is a spiral bound, lay flat guide that you take with you to the range. The 6” x 9” book is compact and perfect to slip into your range bag. Included with your purchase of the spiral bound edition is a PDF of printable targets and score sheets. The book has 83 pages with ample room for note taking.
If the book is not your style, Kolis has a three hour e-version of the material available. The course is broken up into four 45 minute volumes that cost $19.99 each, or all four can be bundled for $59.99. The e-version(s) also includes PDFs with printable targets and score sheets.
It’s important to note that “Pistol Practice” is not over laden with jargon and is not difficult to read. The text is loaded with high quality color images and it’s easy to follow.
101 information
Right in the introduction Kolis lays out who the book is for, “This book is for the new shooter, the recreational shooter and intermediate shooting enthusiast. It presents a series of fun and challenging exercises from which you will learn how to practice effectively and become a better target shooter.” Kolis continues by setting the expectation that readers “have a basic understanding of the five fundamentals of pistol shooting….”
In the appendices, Kolis included some useful information for his readers. There’s a simple explanation about the fundamentals of aiming and getting a proper grip. The second appendix covers some of the commercially available targets on the market. The importance of dry fire exercises and the utilization of a SIRT pistol is in the third. Other information Kolis put in the backmatter included things to keep in your range bag as well as a bonus exercise created by friend to this site and future contributor, Toby Leary, the co-founder of Cape Gun Works.
“Pistol Practice” does have some great information for the beginning shooter, however, as noted, it’s not a stand alone guide for those new to firearms and shooting. There are plenty of other guides and books on the topic of 101 level shooting on the market.
The exercises
The book is loaded with 19 different chapters (and a 20th), with each having its own exercise. As noted, the first exercise or chapter is built around shooting at standard 8” circles, or 9” paper plates. The games change as you progress through the book, with each focusing on something else, or intended to act as a benchmark of sorts.
After working your way through the 19 different games, the 20th chapter talks about adding variation to what you’ve just done. Things like low light and moving and shooting being added to the prior 19 exercises will give them new dimensions.
“Pistol Practice” in the field
I haven’t gone through and shot every single exercise in the book/program yet. Instead, I’ve read the book, cover to cover, got the gist of the exercises and programs, and played around with some of them. For me, what’s going to make this book valuable is, as Kolis points out, it’ll remove the mindlessness of just shooting at the same plain static targets.
I’m going to be keeping my copy of “Pistol Practice” in my range bag, and each time I go to the range to throw some lead, I’m going to do at least one of the practice sessions Kolis outlined in his book. Regardless of what other marksmanship motive I might have, I’m going to incorporate this into my repertoire, and track my progress.
I went through the e-course
E-learning is a big thing today. Kolis was smart to put his program out in an online video style form. The programming behind what he produced is pretty high quality and the content comes off great in that setting. What you get with the e-course is almost exactly what you’d get with the book, but just via a different teaching/learning method.
There seems to be some issues with the audio that I’ve noticed. Gunshots and some of the conversations on the range are not loud enough to hear. I’m not sure if a user will miss anything because of that, I just found the lack of noise to be distracting when I expected to hear some.
The modules flow well and there were no glitches when I went through the course. This is not just some thrown together online class that had no thought put into it. It’s intuitive and does not require any weird rituals to make it work. I did run through modules on a desktop computer, laptop computer, tablet, and cell phone without issue.
In fact, the mobile version of the e-learning module for cell phones was laid out really well. You can tell that Kolis took his time to make sure the content was well delivered on what’s probably the most common web surfing tool used today.
I’m not sure how I feel about it being broken up into four different parts. As noted earlier Kolis does offer them as a bundle. However, I see no reason why it shouldn’t be one product by default. I do think there should have been some bonus material that you don’t get with the book in the e-learning module.
Let’s talk about the price…
Here at The Square Reviews, we’re Capitalists. We could probably say we’re staunch Capitalists. That being said, I’m not the type to stand in the way of someone making money. I do have some commentary here.
The price for a copy of “Pistol Practice” is $29.99 – $59.99 for the e-version. In my opinion, that’s steep for only 80 or so pages of material. I could also see the e-version knocked down quite a few bucks.
The book is handsome and in color, and that does increase the cost. Being spiral bound also increases costs. However, I’d love to see a monochrome version in exchange for a significant decrease in price over the color.
I understand that potential customers would be purchasing into a system and an ideology on practicing, not “just a book.”
Pairing the book with some of the electronic options and or other perks to drive the price down, I could get behind. Other incentives or semi-perpetual coupons are things I’d like to see.
When I say drive the price down, I mean way down…
Looking forward
This is a decent product. Kolis put together a system that will entertain and train. After experiencing what Kolis has produced, it left me wondering what’s coming in the future? I hope that there are plans to expand his offerings of e-courses. I think there’s a big market for that, and I’d like to see Kolis tackle some more in depth material. Already added to the e-learning library are three free mini courses. There’s also a 35 minute introduction to handguns course, and a class on real estate agent safety.
Same with future books. Now that he’s cut his teeth on “Pistol Practice,” what other books are we going to see? I think there’s some potential here and I’m sure Kolis won’t be relegated to being a one trick pony. What else do we have to look forward to?
In any event on what comes out in the future, we’ll be there to check it all out. We look forward to giving Kolis’ next project a test read/drive – whatever it may be.
The quick and dirty
Pluses: Simple and easy to understand. High quality printing and full color. Gives novice and intermediate shooters a chance to mix things up and work on specific skills.
Minuses: The $29.99 price tag is steep, as is the $59.99 for the e-learning course.
After spending some time with this book and product line, I can say it’s good. I think that having a guide to help work on skills is an important thing. Kolis’ book does just that.
If I were in the market for a system to help me practice with different exercises or games, would I purchase this? Yes and no. I would be more compelled to buy it if we were looking at half the price it’s being sold at – but that’s just me. If a friend or family member was looking for this type of system, I’d recommend it, but I’d also urge them to read this review to fully understand what’s between the pages.
“Pistol Practice” by John Kolis is a decent product and is worth exploring to see if it’ll fit your needs. For 10% off your purchase, use the code THESQUAREREVIEWS You can learn more about the book/module and order them at PistolPractice.com
