The 2000 model M-Class won't be out until fall, but the order guide is out, so we know what the changes will be.
First, some colors have been changed. Cypress Green replaces Brilliant Emerald. Bordeaux Red replaces Ruby Red. Inside there are 3 interior colors, Charcoal, Ash, and Java, replacing Grey Cloth, Grey Leather, and Sand Leather. Charcoal is available in cloth and leather.
The M1 "Luxury Package" has been modified: It consists of Leather steering wheel and seats, heated 8-way power front seats, Privacy glass for rear doors, rear quarter windows, and lift-gate glass, Burl Walnut Wood trim on dash, console, and door. M1 is $2,850 on the ML320, standard on the ML430.
A new package, the M2 "Convenience Package" has been added. It consists of Power seat memory, both front seats, Trip computer, lockable Safebox under front passenger seat, Power folding side view mirrors, auto dimming interior and driver side mirrors. It's $995 on the ML320, and standard on the ML430.
The M3 "Convenience Package" adds additional convenience features to the ML430-power seat memory, both front seats, Power folding side view mirrors. It's $495 on the ML430 only.
All packages require either the Sunroof, code 414, or the Skyview Top, code 417.
The "Off-Road" package will be available with polished stainless steel (M4-$1595) or black painted stainless steel (M5-$1495) finishes (grille guard and side rails. The packages also include mudflaps and a skid plate.)
An outside spare tire carrier will be available in black stainless steel (U55, $750 on the ML320, $850 on the ML430), or polished stainless steel (849-$795 or $895).
Xenon headlamps and washer system will be available on Sport Package trucks only, $950.
The Sport Package, M6, available 4th quarter 1999, will consist of Chrome Exhaust tips, body cladding, 17" EVO II wheels, and 275/55 R 17" tires. It's $3,350 on an ML320, and $2,950 on an ML430.
ML55
Due out in January 2000, the ML55 will feature unique muscular styling, exclusive interior features, styling, and trim, and over 340 hp. and 380 lb. ft. of torque. The 0-60 mph time has been conservatively estimated as "under 7 seconds."
Exterior
Integrated bumper mounted front fog lamps
Body color bumper and trim.
Rear bumper blends with lower hatch trim.
Fender flares.
Dual chrome exhaust tips
Performance Equipment
AMG-modified 5.5 liter V-8.
Lowered and tuned suspension
18" AMG alloy wheels
285/50WR-18 high performance tires
Exclusive Color:
Bourbon with Charcoal Leather interior. In addition, Black, Black Opal, Cypress Green, Azure Blue, Bordeaux, and Brilliant Silver will be available.
Standard Features:
Charcoal Leather interior trim and upholstery
Unique Burl Walnut dash and console trim
Sunroof
Xenon headlamps and washer system
Heated power seats with memory
Privacy glass
Safebox
Trip computer
Autodimming mirrors
Power folding side view mirrors
What vehicle sold in the U.S. is involved in more rollovers per number of miles driven than any other? Land Rovers? Suburbans? Jeeps? Explorers?
None of the above. The Chevrolet Corvette rolls over far more than it should. All of those tippy-toed top heavy vehicles don't come close. But they do roll over on occasion, and they've offended the Sierra Club and other Country Club Liberals who want to deflect attention from the Oral Office hijinks and attack a vehicle type they don't like.
So naturally the gumment is upgrading the warning label for SUVs. They're not upgrading SUVs. They're not saying, "hey, Mercedes can make an SUV which won't roll over in level flight, why can't you?" They're putting in more colorful labels.
The new label has an illustration of a vehicle leaning to one side on two of its four wheels for the benefit of the victims of the U.S. public education system who can't read. "Warning: Higher rollover risk. Avoid abrupt maneuvers and excessive speed." Says the text which will be placed on the sun visor or driver side window.
"Gee, I'm sure glad I saw that sign. I was about to try a U-turn at 94 mph, but I saw that sign and saved my life. Of course the sign did block my vision and cause me to pull out in front of that semi, which explains why I'm at the pearly gates at age 23."
The tendency for sport utility vehicles to roll over was highlighted in recent gumment crash research when three SUV models rolled during side-impact tests.
Duh, wouldn't that be considered a failure to pass the test?
National Highway Traffic Safety Administrator Chief-Incompetent Ricardo Martinez said the agency was still examining the need for new rules or a further consumer information program.
He said the agency might change roof crush standards or mandate advanced side windows among other things.
Excuse me, but if the vehicles roll over, why don't you change ROLL OVER standards?
A Mercedes M-Class may be pushed through an autocross course at maximum cornering speeds including S-turns, max braking into decreasing radius turns, etc. Another SUV taken through the same course at the same speed will roll over. Does the other SUV need (a) a new roof, (b) better side glass, or (c) a suspension redesign?
(Several M-Class owners are autocrossing their trucks at MBCA events. Don't try this with your live-axled tippy-toed SUV.)
The new label stresses the use of seatbelts. In 1997 1,088 of the 1,482 SUV rollover deaths involved occupants who were not using their seat belts.
Personally I feel this is Darwinism at work. Anyone who won't wear a seatbelt in the late 90s after all of the research and real-world results show how many lives they save probably is wading in the shallow end of the gene pool and shouldn't live to reproduce. The gumment requiring new window glass is not the answer.
The vehicles which rolled over during crash tests were a Honda CR-V, an Isuzu Rodeo, and a Kia Sportage. (Well, duh, again. KIA means Killed In Action. That should tell you something.) The makers of these deathtraps, er, excuse me, these fine SUVs stressed that the vehicles had performed well in protecting the occupants in side-impact crashes, the objective of the test. The fact that they were killed in the rollover wasn't relevant.
Save your pennies. Buy the Mercedes. It takes a lot to roll them over. They have a VERY strong roof and VERY strong side protection so if you do put it on its head after crossing a ditch sideways at speed, you'll be able to 1) brace yourself 2) release the seatbelt, and 3) open a door and walk away.
Curt, what about this European test of an ML that resulted in a rollover in a "moos avoidance test?" I thought Mercedes was supposed to make safe cars.
The vehicle which rolled over in the moose avoidance test was an A Class, a small econobox not sold here. Mercedes immediately stopped production, modified the vehicle with wider tires and wheels and standard ESP and cured the problem at the expense of millions of Deutschemarks. This has NOTHING to do with the M-class, but that doesn't stop unscrupulous sales reps of lesser brands from spreading malicious lies.
I read with interest in your newsletter your thoughts and descriptions of the C43, E55, and ML430. As an owner of a C43, I would like to add or embellish on a few of those thoughts.
First let me say that the one thing that the prospective buyer needs to understand of the C43 is that it is a true performance vehicle. It is not a luxury car in the sense of a standard Mercedes. Despite its innocuous appearance, it provides all the soul-stirring performance of an elite sports car. It has the same amount of horsepower as a Porsche 911 or a Ferrari 348. IT IS A VERY FAST CAR! I can tell you that when my wife drives it, she always comes home with a hair raising tail of having her head snapped back into the headrest when she least expects it. The C43 is definitely an enthusiast's car.
Unfortunately, much of the time in Houston traffic, one cannot experience this exhilaration because one is sitting in bumper to bumper, stop and go traffic due to a stalled Pinto in the center lane. This is where I believe the true beauty of this car can be experienced, because unlike other high performance cars, the C43 behaves like a gentleman in those situations. It is always amazing to me how that high performance engine performs so civilly even in the most obnoxious of traffic. It is interesting to note that the new model 996 Porsche 911 is touting some of these same benefits as the main upgrades to the 993. However, after driving both, I truly believe that the C43 has mastered not only the ability to provide sports car-like thrills but also urban transportation within the same package.
Again, it was interesting to read your letter. I hope you find these insights helpful.
Mark A . Schusterman, M. D.
Very helpful. Do note, folks, that the C43 is an innocuous
looking four door sedan that Dr. Schusterman was comparing to no less than
a Porsche 911 and a Ferrari 348, both exotic, expensive, hard-to-live-with
sports cars.
Superb Book! It has changed my driving habits and moved me into Condition Yellow on a constant basis. Like you I am a combat veteran. I raced a Mustang back in the late 60's, but bad driving habits undid a lot of what I learned in those days. Your book has tightened up my driving and made me very aware of the stupidity surrounding me on the road. I have recommended it to all my friends. I refuse to loan it since it is a text that needs to be reviewed regularly.
Gene Kriegsmann
(this from an Arizona cop who owns an ML. I assume his department doesn't have MLs. They would be great cop vehicles for a municipality with money.)
You brought up a very good point in your February Newsletter, when you said the ML is a very good Urban Survival Vehicle (USV from here on ).
I think it is the best USV, by a large margin. Here in Arizona, the only place the ML can't outrun all other off road vehicles is in some of the boulder fields. We do have some places that a little more ground clearance is in order, which out here means a very modified jeep, or a hummer. I've not had the pleasure of getting any real off road time in the hummer, but a friend drives one for one of the local desert tour companies, and we've had a chance to compare the two vehicles on some rather nasty trails. On most of the trails, the ML is faster, by a lot. There are quite a few places that the trail will let the ML through, where the hummer doesn't stand a chance of fitting between the rocks. Any of the boulder patches that stop the ML give me enough places to dismount and shift to the offensive mode from behind outstanding cover. I've yet to find a place that would stop the ML that I wouldn't get to with enough lead to safely dismount and get behind cover, taking my duty rifle with me. After that, well, fight's over in short order. They had their chance to backoff.
When it comes to onroad, there is no competition that cannot be outrun by judicious use of curbs, speed bumps, and other handy urban car stoppers.
I enjoyed Drive To Survive, as an old Formula Ford Driver and Bill Scott School Grad I approve whole heartedly. The only suggestion I can make refers to the drawings showing apexing. While I found them clear, my SO couldn't figure them out until they were scaled up and explained a bit further.
Is there a quantity discount available ? I think the book is important enough that I'd like to have it in stock for my CCW and Personal Protection Classes. I've been giving out the info, but I'd like to have copies on hand for students. It's one more tool we can use to get people thinking.
Keep up the good work,
George Olmsted
Drive to Survive! is going into its second printing.
Admittedly Motorbooks International didn't print that many to start with,
but it is selling much faster than their usual titles. So far 5 saves have
been reported. If your haven't read it, you can get it from motorbooks.com,
amazon.com, 1-800-826-6600, or directly from me, autographed, at $14.95
+$2.00 shipping. If you have loved ones, you'll need multiple copies.
Underwater with laminated side glass
The new S-Class and the new Volvo S80 both have laminated side glass, the Mercedes as standard equipment, the Volvo as an option. The purpose is to stop smash and grab break ins, both of unoccupied and occupied cars. This has brought up, "But what do I do if I'm underwater? How do I get out?"
Considering the number of people who wind up in cars underwater not put there by the Mafia (in the trunk), vs. the number of cars broken into by breaking the side glass, this seems a poor allocation of priorities. But I suppose a lot of people have a fear of water.
Years ago when Volvo stopped doing roll-down windows a lady was incensed that she wouldn't be able to get out if the car was underwater. I gallantly didn't comment that since she weighed 300 lb. if she weighed an ounce, the likelihood of her being able to get out the window was slim.
You can't open the windows if the electrical system has shorted out. You can't open the door when the outside pressure far exceeds the inside pressure. So how do you get out?
You have to wait.
1. Unfasten the seatbelt. Use your non-dominant hand (left for a righty). Slide your hand under the seat belt. Unlatch it. Take the latch and stow the belt in the retracted position. The reason to do this is to make sure you are completely free of it. Practice this. This should be the way you unfasten your seat belt all of the time. When it becomes unconscious, you'll do it that way under stress. It must be the FIRST thing you do, and you must do it the SAME way all of the time, making sure the belt is firmly stowed out of the way. You do not want to become tangled up in it.
2. If the vehicle is on the surface and sinking, you'll probably be able to open a window and get out while it is still on the surface. If this is the case, don't wait. Get out without panic now. Don't hurry. Work with deliberate speed.*
2. With all of the windows up water will come in, probably slowly, until the pressure is equalized. Air will be at the top of the vehicle. If the vehicle is standing on its nose or upside down, where the air stays is where the top of the passenger compartment is. You have to get to this area until the door can be opened. If the vehicle is on its side, you have to go to the high side. If you're disoriented, go to the air.
3. Think. Is the water deep? 50-100 feet? Or is it shallow. If it's deep you'll have a survival swim when you leave the vehicle, beginning with an out of air ascent, one of the scariest things a scuba diver does when getting certified. If it's deep shed your shoes, your jacket, any bulky clothes. Make it easier on yourself. Use what little air is in the car to breathe while you do this and wait for the door to be openable. You'll test the door. If it won't open, don't panic. Keep waiting.
4. When it looks like the door will open, take a deep breath, assuming there's air and it's breathable. Don't count on the latter. It's often contaminated with gasoline vapors and the like.
5. When you can push the door open, push it all the way open and kick yourself out of the vehicle. If you're at depth, EXHALE! You don't have to exhale much, just a few bubbles constantly. Your lungs have breathed in compressed air. It will expand as you ascend. If you don't exhale you can get an embolism or several other nasty things which can kill you.
6. Follow the bubbles. They're going up.
7. Look up. You don't want to hit a boat at ascension speed. At 100 feet by the time you reach the surface you'll be going fast enough you'll pop out of the water like a dolphin. Arch your back and spread your arms as you approach the surface to slow your ascent a bit. Keep exhaling until you can inhale air, not water.
8. Swim to the near shore.
Normally cars aren't in deep water. 12 feet can kill you, of course. But it's a lot easier to get out at 12 feet. The pressure will equalize earlier. The ascent is easier.
Don't panic.
If you don't have laminated side glass and haven't put a tinting film on your side windows, you can shatter the tempered safety glass with either a spring-loaded center punch or a small hammer. I keep a Life Hammer in the car for such purposes. It also has an enclosed sharp edge for cutting open a seatbelt. Several paramedics have told me they've never had to cut a seat belt. They just push the button to release it. I don't want anyone to think they'll become trapped in a seatbelt. But having something to cut one will make you feel better, and there are situations where it'll be easier to cut an unconscious person's seat belt to extract him than to push the button.
*A colonel used to tell me "Don't hurry, even in combat. If you hurry you'll make mistakes. Move with deliberate speed but don't hurry."
Then one day the 6'4" tall colonel hurried out of a helicopter to follow his 5'2" Vietnamese counterpart, and the helicopter was still settling. The colonel walked into a helicopter blade.
I didn't listen well to his lectures, but the demonstration
got the point across to me.
Houston is doing one thing right in traffic enforcement. They're putting a light visible from, say, the south, which tells a policeman sitting there, when the east-west lights turn red. No longer could a defendant claim the light was yellow. Usually this means "it turned yellow when I was 100 yards from the intersection, so I floored it and crossed through the intersection at 72 miles an hour, and oncoming traffic should have seen and heard me and known to stop for me, because I don't stop for nothin'."
Running red lights is dangerous. Most red light running in Houston is deliberate and blatant. If you don't believe that, you've never had the car behind you change lanes to run a light when you stop for it.
Put On A Happy Face
On the side door to my garage is one of the big, blue silhouette targets used for qualification for a Concealed Handgun License in Texas. As part of my practice routine I'll shoot the absurdly easy Texas course of fire, but, to give some challenge I do it from concealment and speed up the times allowed. The qualification course starts with gun in hand. Due to the blue target and black sights and my optic nerve disease I'll sometimes drop a point or two at 15 yards, but I did one with a tight group in the middle, 250 out of 250. So I put it on the door as a way of saying, "Hi." A visitor said that wasn't very friendly, so I went back to the range and did another qualification. I used the first 8 rounds to put a .45 cal. smiley face on the head, finished the qualification with the other 42 rounds in the 5 ring and put that on the wall.
NYPD Shooting
I've reported here before about a shooting by the NYPD in which 4 officers, looking for a black rape suspect, confronted Amadou Diallo, a street vendor who looked like the suspect but wasn't. He was a recent immigrant and spoke poor English and had no experience being stopped by policemen in New York. He was gainfully employed and had no criminal record. The 4 officers confronted Diallo at the front door to his brick building. The door was steel. A witness said one of the officers said, "Gun!" and shooting started. 41 rounds were fired, 19 hitting Diallo, killing him. The shooting took less than 10 seconds. The mob was calling for the heads of the officers before the grand jury finished its investigation.
But this is what isn't on the TV news. The 4 officers were armed with 9 mm Glock pistols with 15 round magazines. But in the magazines was the most inefficient, dangerous ammunition available, military spec. full-metal-jacketed bullets, commonly known as hardball. It has a reputation for poor stopping power, overpenetration, and ricochets. It is politically correct and approved by the ACLU. NYPD had switched from it because of several expensive failures. Bullets failed to stop dangerous felons from shooting/stabbing/clubbing their victims. Bullets shot through the bad guys into good guys or ricocheted into innocent bystanders. The U.S. military uses it because of logistical reasons, not because it's any good. And it does little damage, so that a person will take many rounds before going down. When the rounds overpenetrated (or missed), they hit the brick wall and the steel door and ricocheted back at the officers. The officers thought they were under fire, and the target wasn't going down. In a fight you'll shoot until your weapon is empty or until the threat stops. The threat was still standing. They were "taking fire," so they continued. Ironically, NYPD was in the process of switching to 9 mm 115 gr. hollowpoints, Winchester +P+, which has a record of not overpenetrating, not ricocheting, and putting the target down with one shot 90+% of the time. Had they been equipped with this ammunition, the daily riots wouldn't be happening, and the usual suspects of cop haters wouldn't be demonstrating. Diallo might even be alive. With proper and quick medical care one or two torso wounds might not be fatal. The 4 officers, considering the atmosphere in the People's Democratic Republic of New Yawk, will probably be convicted. But the people responsible for the tragedy are those who equipped the officers with politically correct but seriously deficient ammunition and those who failed to train the officers properly.
The attorneys for the Diallo family, including Johnny Cochran and Barry Scheck, say that the police were being racist when they interpreted Diallo's actions as going for a gun but wouldn't have had he been white. They were looking for a black rapist. This wasn't race profiling as in the Florida case below. If they had been looking for a white rapist and the suspect made a movement which looked like he was going for his gun, they would have reacted the same. If I am ever stopped by a policeman pointing a weapon at me in a mistaken identity situation, I know to show him the palms of my hands, drop whatever is in them, and, slowly, to raise them. Things can be sorted out later when the guns are holstered.
The truth is seldom that shown on the TV. Houston's own bad shooting, the Pedro Oregon shooting, is, as facts come out, being seen in a different light. There is certainly evidence that Mr. Oregon was a drug dealer, even though none were found at his house that night. The officers failed to obtain a warrant, but they were chasing Oregon's brother, another alleged drug dealer. That fact wasn't public until after the trial of the one officer indicted. He was acquitted, and it is obvious the case shouldn't have come to trial. He wasn't the leader, and he didn't fire his gun. He just ticked off the Grand Jury.
The TV did show the truth of another incident. Dateline NBC showed the tape and the trial of a Dade County, Florida Sheriff's dept. major who was stopped by a local deputy in another county for being black in a new SUV, DWB - driving while black. The official reason for the stop was the had a license plate frame on his license plate-as do most of the cars on the road, and that he went from the left lane to the right lane without signaling. This, it turned out, under the circumstances wasn't illegal because he was passing a car. The deputy was looking for drug couriers, and his method of finding them was to make "pretense" stops of enough blacks, search their cars, and make big drug busts. Of course for every drug bust 1,000 innocent citizens were harassed and humiliated. The tape clearly showed that the arresting officer's manner was insulting. The major, righteously angry at being pulled over for nothing, found himself arrested for felony charges, again bogus as the tape proved and the jury agreed. The deputy said that if the major had immediately identified himself as a police officer, he would have let him go. He was shown on the tape as identifying himself as a police officer, but not soon enough to satisfy the deputy. Let's see, it's okay to do things if you're a police officer that would get an innocent citizen stopped, humiliated, and charged with bogus felonies. Got that.
The major was convicted of misdemeanor charges and has to give classes to children on how to behave when stopped by a police officer on a bogus charge. He lost a week's pay but not his job and his pension, which would have compounded the tragedy. The DA involved remains smug and self-righteous, as does the deputy, who was promoted to sergeant. At least South Carolina fired the deputy who abused the black woman who wouldn't stop for his unmarked car in an area known for a "blue-light bandit."
Memo to southern cops: If you're going to be shown on national TV violating citizen's rights on your own video tape, lose weight first. Seeing a 300 lb. white cop abusing a black person without cause is bad for the image of the south. It takes some of us back to the sixties and a lot of bad Burt Reynolds movies.
Letter
Keep up the good work. I very much enjoy your newsletter. I love the stories about the cats, cars, and driving survival. I hope you don't retire before I can buy my 3rd Volvo or 1st Mercedes from you.
Stuart Hill
Military Funeral
Benjamin Herbert Long died recently. A member of the 82nd Airborne Division, he jumped on the night of June 5-6 1944 into the heart of German held territory in the most famous and probably most important combat parachute jump in history. Though he left the Army after the war, the U.S. Army thought enough of him at the time of his death to provide an honor guard commanded by a full colonel at the funeral. I would expect that of them. They do remember and honor their heroes in a time when the rest of the country doesn't. He was highly decorated, including a Silver Star and a Purple Heart and, of course, a combat star on his jump wings and a Combat Infantryman's Badge. Of the badges the United States Army gives out, the most prized is the rare combat star on jump wings, and the second most prized is the Combat Infantryman's Badge (or the equivalent Combat Medic Badge, both indicating prolonged exposure to enemy fire in a combat assignment. There is no Combat Armor Badge or Combat Artillery Badge, and with good reason. Infantry combat is unique.) All of the other badges are given out in schools. But the French government also sent their official condolences. He had been decorated by them as well with the Croix de Guerre. He jumped again on June 6, 1994. He said he liked it much better this time. It was in daylight. He didn't have 65 pounds of gear strapped to him, and no one was shooting at him.
I've jumped out of a few airplanes, none while anyone was shooting at me. I was always glad to see the chute open and gladder to stand up afterwards on solid ground. Jeff Cooper thinks the term "hero" should be reserved pilots who land on carriers at night. I will add to that list men who have jumped out of perfectly good airplanes over enemy territory under fire. Mr. Long died of natural causes, another example of the fact that you have nothing to fear in this life.
One of the rules I've lived by for a long time is "do dangerous things very carefully."*
Most people do dangerous things, but they prefer not to think about it. They're afraid, thus they don't dwell on it. Driving is an example. It's dangerous. We have, in a normal lifetime, an 86% chance of having a serious car accident. The odds are going down, i.e., in our favor, but still, you would think that with such odds you'd try to avoid it by getting advanced training from one of the high performance driving schools. But it doesn't happen. Most people just ignore it and hope it will go away.
Then when they have THE one incident which alters their life forever, they don't know what to do. If they survive they either realize they have messed up big time and get training and/or buy a safer car, or they blame someone-the other person, airbags, seatbelts, the auto industry, the city road department, anyone but themselves. That's the way things work in the U.S. You become the victim and whine a lot, and you get sympathy. But it won't bring back your loved ones or ease the pain of your injuries which could have been avoided had you studied driving a bit more or learned situational awareness.
In this violent day and age the odds are you'll have to defend your life or your family sometime. The odds are you won't do so successfully, and, if you do, you will face either criminal or civil court action. For this reason I took Massad Ayoob's "Judicious Use of Deadly Force" class, a grueling 18 hour seminar guaranteed to give you nightmares.
Odds are pretty overwhelming if you're attacked by someone using deadly force, a mugger, carjacker, home invader, rapist, etc., you won't know what to do. If you do survive, with our screwed up court system there's a good chance you'll go to jail/prison for defending yourself. If you don't, the werewolf's family will sue you and bankrupt you, if the criminal defense didn't bankrupt you already.
For those who think anyone taking such a course is just looking for a fight, my suggestion is to take it. Afterwards you will be so afraid of using deadly force to defend yourself you might have a tendency to sell all your guns, kitchen knives, baseball bats, and garden tools and just put a sign on the door which says, "take what you want."
But once you realize that you can't do that. You do have a responsibility to protect your family and yourself from the werewolves of the world, you'll take the lessons of the class to heart and prepare to defend yourself both from the werewolves and the legal system.
The seminar is normally the classroom part of Ayoob's LFI-1 , LFI standing for Lethal Force Institute, lest anyone be in doubt about what it's all about. The rest of the 40 hour school is basic handgun marksmanship techniques, including a method of shooting called Stressfire, designed to operate when the body is full of adrenaline, and designed for people without a whole lot of training, in other words, people who want to defend themselves but aren't shooting enthusiasts. But that school is normally given in New Hampshire. Were it a bit more convenient to this Texian, I would take it though I know how to shoot a bit. But I've never made it all the way up there. Those who want to learn defensive handgun techniques living near Texas can go to Thunder Ranch. Their basic Defensive Handgun 1, available in a 3 day form or 5 day form, is intense and enough to get one started. Kerrville police officers get the 3 day course. The money man behind Thunder Ranch has paid for the training of over 150 police departments in the last several years. This might seem like a strange way to allocate charity dollars, but the number of lives saved is probably immeasurable.
After I took the deadly force course in beautiful downtown Kerrville, I spent 3 days at the ranch taking one of the advanced courses, High Intensity Tactical. It utilizes the one-of-a-kind simulators to get as close as possible to real world situations without having the targets shoot back (a more advanced course, Defensive Handgun 3, does that, using Simunitions, primer-powered paint-bullets, and live opponants). There is a 6 story building called the Tower, with stairs to contend with, and two one-story buildings with enough variations to do 400 different room-to-room simulations. You will learn enough to avoid house-clearing situations at all costs unless there is no option and let the police do it. But a typical situation was, "you've just arrived in your driveway, and your wife called you and said she heard someone breaking in. Then the phone went dead." So you clear one room, one corner at a time. Along the way you meet Fred, a neighbor, armed with an electric drill. If you've been listening in class, you don't shoot Fred but question him instead. Then you meet a neighborhood kid, also unarmed, who was looking for your wife to get paid for mowing the lawn. Then you meet the guy who broke in, armed with a revolver and not amenable to negotiations. He starts "shooting." If you "survive" that encounter, you find your wife and the simulation ends. In another simulation you were on the roof and had 4 minutes to make the exit door on ground level before a bomb placed inside would go off. Along the way were people determined not to let you out of the building alive. It was exciting. Some of the students had taken it before. Two immediately signed up for future classes as it is a great refresher. I'll probably take it again for that. I enjoyed it, but then I don't claim to be normal. I'd rather do that than take a golf school of the same duration.
Clint Smith, the man in charge at Thunder Ranch, is an ex-Marine infantryman with two tours in Vietnam and a Purple Heart. Like Jeff Cooper, he has had to kill in battle. So he teaches survival in fights. Massad Ayoob is a cop with no military experience who has spent his career trying not to kill anyone, and he teaches that as much as how to do it when it's necessary. This is important because the judicial system considers the death of a drug dealer/murderer/rapist killed in the act of raping a 3 year old child the death of a citizen. If you have a gun in the home, or if you have a Concealed Handgun License, you should take Ayoob's Judicial Use of Deadly Force and either his shooting school or Clint Smith's DHG 1. Ayoob will be back in Kerrville next year in conjunction with Thunder Ranch. Thunder Ranch is open all year and has all kinds of courses, several on the pistol, some on general rifle, precision rifle, and urban rifle. There's even a Pre 1900 class for Cowboy Action Shooting aficionados.
I can't recommend either school enough.
*The other rules include: "You can't fall off the
floor," "It is useless to step on the brakes if your car is upside
down," "There are no red headed angels," and all of the variants
of Murphy's Law, especially Cole's Law: finely shredded cabbage.