Shooting the STI VIP, which has strong design cues from the 2011 pistol, made us recall our enjoyment of the Practical Shooting game. It also made us recall one of the best teaching videos regarding Practical Shooting.
The Burner Series, $230, is a ten-VHS-tape set covering virtually every aspect of the popular run and gun sport of Practical Shooting. This collection is so named because the lessons are designed and performed by one of the most prolific champions of all time, Jerry “The Burner” Barnhart. Lessons are one on one, unless you bring friends over to watch with you.
Each tape is divided into a classroom study and a live-fire study at an outdoor range. The opening action sequences on each tape are the same, featuring stunning performances over difficult courses of fire. We could tell we were learning because each time we saw the same opening footage on each successive tape we could recognize more and more of the smaller techniques that makes Jerry’s blinding speed and precision possible.
Straight lecture portions of the tape include advice on diet, physical fitness specific to the sport and an approach to the mental aspects of competition. Jerry relates his personal experience as evidence to support the conclusions he has drawn. Barnhart takes the viewer from fundamentals to developing self-knowledge wherein the shooter can predict elapsed time by simple arithmetic.
Barnhart’s ability to simplify the subject in a scientific manner is mesmerizing. A special camera setup is used so the gun can be fired in “first person” where you see the target, the sight alignment and the hits. This segment which illustrates how to call one’s shots is undoubtedly the clearest explanation of the technique on record. Released in 1994 very little of this material is dated nor will it (with the exception of newer optics) ever be. Barnhart also reveals the depth of his personal involvement in shooting, which began when his father, a Marine rifle instructor returned home and used shooting as a vehicle to reconnect with his children.
Set against his vast knowledge and commanding oratory it becomes evident that the Burner Series is not just an academic work but a passionate opus by a brilliant man dedicated to the sport he loves. Tapes are available singly for $29.95 as well as overview tapes ($39.95) specific to optically and open sighted pistols. A complete set is $230.
Contact Tactical Shooting Technologies at (248) 628-6557.
