Gunsite's Advanced Tactical Pistol Problems--An After Class Review

October 2026: I completed Gunsite's Advanced Tactical Pistol Problems (ATPP) class at the Gunsite facility in Paulden, Arizona.

I attended the Gunsite Vehicle Defensive Course offsite in Tennessee in 2016; however, this was the first Gunsite class I have taken in Arizona since I completed 499 in 2012. The Gunsite facility is world class and they have added many improvements since I last attended.

The Gunsite ATPP is a three-day class that concentrates on simulators, shoot house runs, square range drills, and force on force. You must complete a 250-pistol class with a grade of “Marksman” or higher as a prerequisite to attend. 

We had a large class with 16 participants which is apparently much larger than normal. It probably helped that the Gunsite 50th Anniversary Alumni Shoot was two days earlier.

A large class that that focuses on individual runs will often have a lot of unavoidable down/waiting around time unless the instructors ensure that does not happen. Pete Feeny (the Rangemaster) and his assistant instructors Dave Bahde and Vince Morgan did a great job of minimizing the down time throughout the class.

The student skill set ran the gamut from reasonable intermediate to very skilled. Most were shooting some variation of a full-size pistol with several having compensators. Several Staccatos, Glocks, and one SIG P365 Fuse. Since I carry a standard P365 often in the summer months, I took the opportunity to use my P365 standard pistol in the class. All were shooting 9mm.

Training day #1 (TD1) is a square range refresher in the morning (which also lets the instructors evaluate the students), and both indoor and outdoor simulators in the afternoon and a shoot-off competition on steel.

Since we were such a large class, Pete broke the class into three groups on TD2 and we rotated between outdoor simulators, shoot houses, and the square range. TD2 included a low light shoot, conducted on the indoor and outdoor simulators and the urban scrambler.

TD3 featured force on force in the morning, square range work, the school drill for a score (for the student's use--this was a non-graded class), and then we conducted the final class shoot-off on steel. This class stressed one-handed shooting with the primary hand in both the modified school drill and one of the outdoor simulators. We did not do any non-primary hand shooting.

I took advantage of the optional square range time that popped up during rotations, etc. and shot about 1,000 rounds of ball and 150 rounds of frangible over the three-day class. My P365 performed flawlessly and did not have a single malfunction during the class. I placed 2nd in one of the shoot-off competitions, beating a classmate who was a new Gunsite instructor and another who placed in the top ten overall in the GAS match who was shooting a compensated Staccato. 

Several students had issues with frangible rounds fracturing at the case mouth with ammo they had purchased in the Gunsite ammo package. I had never heard of that particular brand. I personally used Norma frangibles and had no issues.

We had one remarkable occurrence on the square range where a magazine falling from a pistol during a reload landed on the base and remained standing upright. I would never have believed it if I had not seen it and reminds us that something that can happen, will happen.

I drew from concealment for most of the class with the exception of the modified school drill where a concealed draw simply was not conducive (for me at least) to making time and accuracy on the head shots. Gunsite has always been open carry, and many drills reflect that philosophy. Some students did experiment with drawing from concealment; however, most simply open carried. Students starting from concealment always lagged behind on some drills when compared to their classmates.

As I mentioned earlier, it has been ten years since I took a Gunsite class and one of the more notable changes has been the standard paper target. The Gunsite standard paper target no longer has an eight-inch circle in the upper chest area, but rather has an appropriation of the lung and upper aorta area (see pic above). That is an improvement and will help train students to make anatomically correct hits. During the Short Range matches I conduct, I use an anatomically correct target covered with a t-shirt. I can always tell when I have new shooters in the match because there will be hits below the down-zero scoring area. New shooters often aim for what they imagine is the “center of mass.” People who shoot the match regularly, know better and aim for the upper chest. For more information click here.

For the most part, I enjoyed the class and the instructors and facilities were top-notch. I was not enamored with several of the outdoor simulators due to the difficult footing and skipped one altogether that required you to move down a seven-foot or so slope that had loose dirt and rocks. I believe more involved shoot-house scenarios and increasing the force-on-force scenarios and shoot-offs are more valuable to the current student demographic than outdoor simulators in dry gulches.

If you meet the prerequisite, I would recommend the Gunsite ATPP class.  You will not learn anything "new" per-se; however, you will hone your pistol skills and there is always value in shoot houses, force-on-force, and shoot-off competitions.