posted 01-05-2000 17:26               

How does this school compare to the other handgun schools out there? Thanks!

posted 01-06-2000 00:22               

I have heard good things about their program and know one of their lead instructors. He's very highly skilled and an excellent instructor. The head honcho has big plans for the Nevada site but for now it's pretty much bare bones.

posted 01-06-2000 07:48               

Ignatius Piazza, the self annointed Guru of the operation, is a former student of Chuck Taylor. At the last GAS match he shot at Gunsite, he came in dead last. They gave him a certificate for a free basic pistol class.
Like many other self annointed Gurus, he has no street experience, no gunfights, no hard time in the real world. He has ellegantly reinvented the wheel, and called it "Frontsite".
All he has is an astonishing ability as an aggressive self promoter, and a couple of decent instructors along for the ride and the view. He looks really good in Armani, too.

In the meantime, there have been a lot of people that seem to get burned by him financially. He has made a lot of promises and taken a lot of money from people, but delivered very little.
Chuck Taylor and his entire Instructor cadre walked out on Piazza en masse when Piazza screwed them, and also attempted a really flaky stock manipulation inside of the company so as to come out on top.
They were wisely having no more of it, and dumped him flat.
I also have some personal experience in getting lied to and burned by him, so this is not just hearsay.

Patronize him if you will, but I feel that flakes like that belong in religious cults, jail, or a pine box; NOT in the shooting industry.

posted 01-09-2000 22:44               

Second of all, you forgot about the free food.

Third of all, rather than the T-shirt, I am more interested in "Been there, done that, got the extra line on my resume"

posted 01-10-2000 10:45               

I would say I spent about 800 rounds throughout the course of the day. My rangemaster was Brad Ackman; he ran a tight range. Any trigger time for me (esp. that on someone else's dime) is good.

Apparently, FS recently procured some new select fire M16s and Uzis for their classes. This should make the classes a bit more fun.

The free food consists of breakfast (coffee, juice, bagels, muffins, etc.,) and pizza for lunch/dinner. Not too bad.

Tim

posted 01-10-2000 15:34               

If I may, I'd suggest that a trip to one of the upcoming "Master's Series" classes at Gunsite would be money better spent and the training will surpass many times over.

posted 01-10-2000 23:01               

I tend to agree that any free ammo is good ammo. Besides, Several friends from around the country will be there, so I'm sure it will be a good time.

Randy,

I have no doubt that you have a stack of worthless certificates, I've seen your "instructor credentials" page on your website, but I was being somewhat facetious. The fact remains that in the eyes of my dept I will be less of a liability risk with an Uzi or UMP because I will have 8 extra hours of "Submachine Gun Training". Also, I might get chosen for the SRT because I have one more school than the other guy. I am not saying it is right, but it is reality. bureaucracies are ugly things to be trapped in, but the only way up is often to play the game. So, I'll take all the good training I can get, and more importantly, I'll train realisticaly even when no one is signing off on it, but I'm still going to take every certificate I can get along the way and use them for what they're worth.
Please email as soon as you get the details together on the free "masters series" classes that Gunsite will be offering.

This is probably a topic worthy of its own thread in some places, but here at TF I think we'd just be preaching to the choir.

-Rob