Iron Sights

Iron Sights
  • 4.8 (108)
  • Fitness
  • Updated Weekly

Welcome to Iron Sights podcast hosted by Scott Howell. This podcast candidly seeks to create opportunities and deliver impact by sharing the experiences and wisdom of successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders who unapologetically aim to WIN in health, fitness, business, and life. Welcome to old school meets new school, tradition meets innovation, and imperfection meets excellence. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.

  1. 1d ago

    #213 After Dark: From SMU to Law Enforcement Training: Zack Harrison on Building Real Capability

    This time I sit down with Zack Harrison, founder of Ascension Training and Consulting, and the conversation goes exactly where you'd hope: deep, honest, and unfiltered. Zack's name had been popping up for years across ranges and in conversations with law enforcement officers, always attached to the same kind of feedback. This guy cares. He slows down and makes sure you understand the why. Zack walks through the whole arc: growing up, the call of service after 9/11, navigating the 18 X-ray pipeline into Special Forces, deploying to Afghanistan in the early years of the war, and then making the gut-wrenching decision to step away after a decade in. The transition wasn't clean. There were real and unexpected challenges and no plan waiting on the other side. What came out of it was a training company built on the same principles that made him effective in uniform: know your curriculum cold, show up prepared, and never let a student leave without understanding the why behind everything. The back half of this episode is where it gets really good. We dig into the real friction points in law enforcement training culture: the failure to share lessons learned across agencies, the emotional attachment to tactics that blocks honest evaluation, the cop out of 'we can't do what you guys did,' and the uncomfortable truth that commitment, not resources, is often the actual limiting factor. We talk about what separates the people that elevate themselves with from the ones who stay exactly the same year after year, and why piecemealing instructors works for shooting but absolutely does not work for tactics. This is one of those Iron Sights conversations that earns a second listen. Whether you are in law enforcement, transitioning out of the military, or just trying to understand what serious training culture actually looks like, Zack Harrison is exactly the kind of practitioner this show exists to put in front of you. In this episode: • The 18 X-ray pipeline explained. • Why Ascension's curriculum starts with a diagnostic on day one. • The cop out of 'we can't do what you guys did': Zack argues this is usually a protection mechanism for an underlying skills gap, not a genuine policy concern. • One battle drill, not two speeds: Ascension training philosophy and methodology. • Why piecemealing tactics instructors backfires: Zack contrasts a team he has worked with for five years against teams that swap companies every time leadership changes, and explains why continuity of instruction builds SOP integrity that a rotating cast of trainers cannot • Commitment as the real variable: the officers who are genuinely capable all made personal sacrifices of time and money beyond what their agency provided. • Teaching people how to teach is the missing investment: both agree that a fraction of the budget spent on ammo or equipment, redirected toward instructor development, would produce compounding returns across an entire department's capability • Standards are what make trust possible: shooting standards, PT standards, and tactical standards give teams an objective frame to evaluate themselves honestly rather than defending the baby when it's ugly Chapters: 0:01 Intro: The Capable Standard teaser 2:25 Episode opens: introducing Zack Harrison 3:02 How Scott and Zack connected at TTPOA 10:40 Ascension Training and Consulting: what they do 15:22 Zack's background: Richmond to the 18 X-ray program 21:12 Breaking down the 18 X-ray pipeline 28:49 Transition out of the Army: the hard truth 44:12 Military vs. law enforcement: the 'you can't do what we did' myth 57:50 One battle drill: why Ascension teaches one aggressive standard 1:13:13 Five years with one team: the case against piecemealing 1:30:25 Academy training culture and changing the system from within 2:01:40 Ascension's future: West Coast, Texas, and what's next Mentioned: Zack Harrison — Owner and founder of Ascension Training and Consulting, former 18B Green Beret and SMU operator, and the primary guest of this episode. Matt Pranka — Was on the live TTPOA podcast with Scott Howell and fielded questions from the audience alongside Brandon Hernandez. Brandon Hernandez — TTPOA figure who Zack Harrison recognized from the live podcast recording at the TTPOA conference. Kim Pastore — Referenced as 'Kim Pastore from the Jorge Pastore Foundation,' credited alongside TTPOA for the hard work of making the TTPOA conference event happen. Tom Spooner — Described by Zack Harrison as a friend whose quote about drinking reflected Zack's own experience; Tom was also involved in training that helped Zack transition into the private-sector training world. Kyle Lamb — Described by Zack Harrison as 'the godfather of this whole industry,' credited as a pioneer in both gear and firearms training.

  2. Sep 11

    #212 After Dark: The No-Knock Debate: NTOA, Dynamic Entry, and The Conversation You Haven't Heard

    Join the waitlist: https://thecapablestandard.com/waitlist I sat down with four veteran tactical professionals at the National Tactical Officers Association Conference in Nashville to have the conversation that needed to happen two days after that 2022 NTOA position paper on no-knock warrant service dropped. At the table: Steve Mescan, Director of Training and Education for the NTOA and a 27-year Pittsburgh Bureau of Police SWAT veteran. Chris Eklund, NTOA senior instructor and retired training coordinator and team leader from the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Florida. Matt Smith, Senior Corporal and 21-year SWAT operator with the Dallas Police Department. And Brandon Hernandez, longtime SWAT team leader, TTPOA Region VII Director, and the guy who first wanted this conversation to happen. Between them, these four men have run thousands of warrant services, trained countless officers across the country, and lived every part of this debate from the inside. What unfolds is one of the most direct and nuanced conversations the Iron Sights Podcast has ever hosted. The group tears apart why the word 'dynamic' means something completely different depending on which team, which region, or which instructor you learned it from. They dig into why the Dallas SWAT data on officer-involved shootings tells a story that the position paper never addressed, and how and why teams across the country interpreted and responded to the position paper in the way they did. Most importantly, they agree on more than they disagree, and that agreement points to the real problem: terminology confusion, broken communication chains, and agencies running operations outside their actual capability with nobody willing to say the hard thing. This episode is essential listening for anyone inside law enforcement, for the civilians and professionals who want to actually understand the job, and for anyone who has ever watched a news story about a warrant service and assumed they knew what happened. You didn't have the context. Now you will. In this episode: • A 'no-knock' warrant is a judicial exception obtained by an investigator, not a tactic: it gives a team options but does not dictate how entry is made. Teams can and should still announce presence, purpose, and authority even when holding that exception. • The word 'dynamic' has no universal definition across U.S. SWAT teams: some teams use it to mean speed-surprise-violence-of-action with no processing, while others use it to mean continuous deliberate movement with throttle control, and the same team will sometimes split on the term mid-operation. • The Dallas SWAT team data inverts the assumption that dynamic entry is categorically more dangerous. • The NTOA position paper was intended to address teams running no-knock exceptions as a direct trigger for immediate silent entry, a practice seen causing 'biblical disasters' nationally, but the marketing and framing created a blanket interpretation that affected capable teams who were never the intended audience. • A centering step, a threshold assessment, a center step, and pie-ing the door can all describe the same physical movement at different speeds: the failure is not in the movement but in instructors teaching the label without teaching the 'why,' leaving officers to follow a tick list instead of solving the actual problem in front of them. • Selection is the upstream problem nobody wants to address: tactics get watered down or abandoned not because the tactic is wrong but because leadership refuses to have the hard conversation that a specific operator or team is not capable of executing it safely. • The LEOKA data used to support arguments about entry method risk is so vague and inconsistently reported, with a five-percent response rate on NTOA member surveys, that drawing hard-line scientific conclusions from it is inherently problematic, and both sides of this debate are operating with incomplete data. • Announcing presence, purpose, and authority on every warrant, even with a no-knock exception in hand, is compulsory. Chapters: 0:01 Pre-roll: The Capable Standard and The Brief 1:33 Show intro and mission statement 2:25 Nashville NTOA Conference context and guest introductions 4:59 Steve Mescan bio: Pittsburgh SWAT to NTOA Director of Training 6:44 Chris Eklund bio: Orange County SO to NTOA senior instructor 9:49 Matt Smith and Brandon Hernandez introductions 14:03 What the NTOA is, what it does, and how it fits into LE 24:51 Content without context: how social media distorts incident debriefs 27:44 Terminology breakdown: no-knock, dynamic, and why words matter 30:13 What 'dynamic' actually means across different teams and regions 33:01 Deliberate vs. dynamic: centering steps, threshold assessments, and the tick-list trap 49:29 Selection, capability, and the hard conversation nobody wants to have Mentioned: Steve Mescan — Director of Training and Education for the NTOA and retired 27-year Pittsburgh Bureau of Police SWAT operator, appearing as a guest at the NTOA Nashville conference. Chris Eklund — NTOA senior instructor and retired Sergeant and SWAT training coordinator from the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Florida, appearing as a guest at the NTOA Nashville conference. Matt Smith — Dallas Police Department Senior Corporal and 21-year SWAT operator who provides Dallas-specific data on warrant service outcomes and challenges the framing of the NTOA position paper. Brandon Hernandez — Garland Police Department SWAT team leader and TTPOA Region VII Director who initiated the conversation and pushes back on how the NTOA paper affected capable teams. John Kolman — Founder of the NTOA in 1983, described as having written approximately 200 letters with his wife to gauge interest in a national tactical officers organization. Ron McCarthy — Deceased LAPD SWAT pioneer and one of the NTOA's original figures, credited with both advocating for hostage-rescue-style tactics as a readiness tool and later raising early concerns about risk mitigation in their application.

  3. Sep 4

    #211 After Dark: Jason "Jabo" Long: Mindset, Identity, Culture Shifts And Maintaining Humanity In Law Enforcement

    Join the waitlist: https://thecapablestandard.com/waitlist Jabo Long is a 25-year law enforcement veteran, Director of Training at Guild Solutions Group, and one of the most honest voices in law enforcement. The conversation kicks off right after the Guild team wraps a breaching course in Sacramento, and the energy from the classroom and range is still in the room. If you've ever wondered what it costs a cop to show up, stay sharp, and keep their humanity through a career that was never designed to protect it, this episode is for you. Jabo does not sugarcoat it. He walks through going from a kid who told his academy class he wanted to drive fast and kick ass, and into SWAT nearly losing his spot because he couldn't shoot, to an instructor who eventually had to unlearn everything he thought made him good at the job. The through line in all of it? The failure process. The ego that has to die before the real growth starts. And the identity crisis that waits for almost every cop, operator, and first responder on the back end of a career they gave everything to. The conversation goes deep on culture, and what it actually takes to change one that has calcified around unacceptable behaviors that everyone stopped questioning. We talk trust, tribalism, accountability, physical fitness standards, and why law enforcement as an institution keeps setting its people up to struggle. If you're in law enforcement, military, or any performance culture where identity gets tangled up in a patch or a title, this one is going to land. Jabo says the quiet part out loud: what you did is not who you are. And that cuts both ways. In this episode: • Jabo failed his first SWAT weapons qualification in front of the whole team, was declared non-deployable, and had to fix himself alone because the culture at the time treated any weakness like blood in the water. The breakthrough came from removing the target entirely, focusing on the sensations of the process rather than the outcome, and letting go of the performance anxiety by training on the berm with his eyes closed. • The 'what you did is not who you are' principle runs in both directions: it applies to elite operators who define themselves by a single career achievement AND to people who cannot forgive themselves for past mistakes. Jabo uses this explicitly in his resiliency programs. • Jabo's framework for culture: a culture is a group of people with agreed-upon acceptable and unacceptable behaviors, and unacceptable behaviors that go uncorrected become acceptable behaviors. He applies this to law enforcement agencies, SWAT teams, and even to himself, noting he accepted behaviors from himself for years that he now considers unacceptable. • On changing a culture: the people most resistant to change are the ones most comfortable with how things are. Jabo's practical answer is to bring the group back to WHY, and to install a formal process for presenting new ideas so that feedback can be reviewed, discussed, put to bed, and moved past, rather than recycled endlessly. • The 'blind spot buddy' principle from two-man patrol cars: when you are driving with lights and sirens, you trust your partner to clear what you cannot see. Jabo argues that same trust is the exact thing missing in most law enforcement cultures, and that you cannot have genuine accountability or culture change without it. • Duration does not equal dedication. Jabo's line: just because you managed not to get fired for twenty-five years does not mean you were awesome. He uses this in classes to challenge the assumption that tenure is the same thing as competence or commitment. • On physical fitness standards in law enforcement: Jabo's position is that when you take the oath, your body becomes a tool of the public you serve. He draws a straight line from a cops physical readiness to their ability to perform life-saving duties, and argues that unions pushing back against voluntary fitness tests are moving in exactly the wrong direction. • The facilitator vs. instructor distinction: Jabo does not call himself an instructor. He calls himself a facilitator for learning, whose job is to arrange the date between the student and the learning. The measure of success is not whether he taught well, it is whether the student eventually knows more than he does. Chapters: 0:01 Intro: The Capable Standard and The Brief 1:45 Iron Sights intro 2:51 Setting the scene: Guild Solutions Group in Sacramento, CA 5:40 Jabo's background in his own words 10:06 Entry into law enforcement and early patrol 21:24 Defining moment: losing a friend and growing up fast 23:32 SWAT selection, shooting struggles, and learning to fail 35:19 Identity, ego death, and life after the badge 44:03 Setting new cops up for long-term success 54:54 Physical fitness as professional responsibility in law enforcement 1:06:13 From operator to facilitator: the coaching philosophy 1:38:17 Culture change, trust, and the blind spot buddy Mentioned: Shane Foster — Founder of Guild Solutions Group, whose Iron Sights episode had just been released when this conversation was recorded, and whose approach to flat organizational culture and the 'all ins, not ins, and half ins' framework Jabo references throughout. Rich Diviney — Author of 'The Attributes,' recommended by Jabo for its concept of human attributes as dials on a mixer, specifically to explain how traits like compartmentalization that help cops on duty can hurt them at home. Sean Silvers — Described by Jabo as one of his heroes and one of the lead instructors at Guild Solutions Group, credited with coining the 'all ins, not ins, and half ins' framework and the phrase about going from probable cause to prosecution. Josh Hood — Former teammate of Jabo's and now a published author, credited with the line 'knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, experience is knowing it would taste like shit in a fruit salad.' David Allen — Owner of MBS Fitness, the gym where Jabo trains back home, given a shout-out in the context of clients expecting ten years of results without ten years of process.

  4. Aug 28

    #210 After Dark: Good Dude Concepts, Rogue Targets, and Sub Second on Building Better Cops From the Ground Up

    Join the waitlist: https://thecapablestandard.com/waitlist Live on the floor of the Texas Tactical Police Officers Association conference in Round Rock, Texas, April 2026, we've got another full crew around the table: Chris Kuras of Good Dude Concepts, his partner Franco, Kevin Selent from Rogue Targets, and Tom Marchitto of Sub Second. Before a single product gets mentioned, the conversation lands exactly where Iron Sights always does: the people solving problems that their agencies were never going to solve for them, doing it on their own dime, on their own time, while still actively serving on agency teams at multiple capacities. The session digs into three specific problems and the products born out of frustration with each. Kevin Selent breaks down why every conventional paper target on the market may be presenting PID flaws in training, and how Rogue Targets' real-model, background-free, anatomy-based silhouettes force genuine processing speed under stress. Tommy Marchitto traces Sub Second from Jeff Thompson sewing belts in the barracks of 7th Group all the way to the patrol-focused Exigent Response course that exists because body cam footage kept showing the same training deficiencies over and over. And Chris Kuras walks through the full origin of the BRB, from cutting targets with a knife in a dark abandoned mall, to a year of garage prototyping, to a real-world vehicle rescue that saved two small children. Running underneath all of it is a trend that keeps pulling back to the surface: the shift happening right now in the law enforcement training space, where officers still on the job are refusing to wait for agencies to catch up, are sharing curriculum instead of hoarding it, and are building collaborative networks, not competing fiefdoms. The conversation covers processing speed, training time lost to bad setup, the politics of progressive use-of-force policies, what game film from other agencies actually teaches, and why rising tides lift all ships. In this episode: • Conventional paper targets have borders and backgrounds that let shooters see the target before fully processing PID, risk assessment, and the processing speed required for both. • Rogue Targets uses real-model casting calls to produce subjects in multiple positions, skin tones, clothing colors, and threat postures, including seated and ground-level targets, because real warrant service is three-dimensional and bad guys aren't brown cardboard standing in the center of a white wall • Sub Second originated when Jeff Thompson started sewing belts in the barracks of 7th Special Forces Group; the name came from a sub-second draw on the range that day, and the company evolved from common tactical belts to a patrol-specific belt with full MOLLE and no D-ring after agencies pushed back on the buckle • The BRB mounting solution places the bar on a rare-earth magnet behind the pistol on the belt rather than on the vest, solving two problems at once: spalling risk from solid metal against soft armor, and the practical reality that patrol officers need both hands free to breach and then immediately transition to a primary or secondary weapon • Exigent Response for Patrol course was titled deliberately to get past administration, because the phrase 'hostage rescue for patrol' got rejected outright at multiple agencies, even though the actual content is about giving patrol officers the minimum viable skill set to act in the minutes before a team arrives • A neighboring agency incident where a female was stabbed over 100 times validated the BRB in the field: an officer on a regional part-time team used the BRB to break and rake a rear window and pull two small children to safety before the suspect could reach them • The collaboration model running through Good Dude Concepts, Rogue Targets, and Sub Second is explicit: open-source problem solving, no gatekeeping of curriculum, cross-promotion on social media, and a Good Dude scholarship fund where revenue is redirected to sponsor officers to attend training classes • TTPOA stands apart from other law enforcement conferences because the vendors are also the instructors on the live training days, meaning officers are being trained on products by the same people who designed them from field experience, not by admin staff checking a procurement box Chapters: 0:01 The Capable Standard: Scott's new project 1:51 Iron Sights intro 2:34 Live at TTPOA: setting the scene 3:52 Chris Kuras and Good Dude Concepts 4:54 Franco intro: SWAT and canine handler 5:54 Kevin Selent and Rogue Targets 7:30 Tommy Marchitto and Sub Second intro 33:47 Why conventional targets may not be optimal in the shoot house 37:38 How Rogue Targets was born 55:55 Sub Second origin story 1:00:17 BRB mounting solution and spalling problem 1:41:39 Where to find everyone and closing shoutouts Mentioned: Chris Kuras — Owner of Good Dude Concepts, full-time SWAT officer and instructor in South Florida, creator of the BRB breaching tool. Franco — Police officer on SWAT and canine handler in South Florida, colleague of Chris Kuras who attended TTPOA to help with the Good Dude Concepts booth. Kevin Selent — Owner of Rogue Safety Group and creator of Rogue Targets; DHS federal SWAT team member based in Miami with over 16 years on a federal tactical team. Tom Marchitto — Patrol sergeant, K9 handler, and part-time SWAT member from Connecticut, member of the Sub Second team alongside Jeff Thompson. Jeff Thompson — Founder of Sub Second, who started sewing tactical belts in the barracks of 7th Special Forces Group. Devin — Attending TTPOA to help staff the Sub Second booth while Jeff Thompson managed a warehouse move. Kim Pastore — Founder of the Jorge Pastore Foundation, credited with pulling together the Iron Sights recording setup at TTPOA. Paul Costa — Firearms instructor at Achilles Heel Tactical, cited as an example of an instructor whose delivery of information is as instructive as the shooting content itself. Craig Douglas — Founder of ShivWorks, praised for his instructor development style and the clarity with which he delivers information. Scott Oates — Appeared alongside Craig Douglas and Brian Frias at the Combative Summit episode Scott recorded about how to deliver training information. Brian Frias — Appeared alongside Craig Douglas and Scott Oates at the Combative Summit; BJJ black belt and ShivWorks instructor. Tony — Friend and trainer in South Florida who connected Kevin Selent with Chris Kuras by suggesting Kevin Selent call Chris on the day he was testing his first targets.

  5. Aug 21

    #209 After Dark: From SWAT Cop to Coffee and Tea Entrepreneur: Anthony of In The Black on Training Culture, Engineering Mindset, and Building Something from Nothing

    Live from the 2026 TTPOA conference with the TTPOA Podcast hosts and Anthony, a nine-year law enforcement veteran, SWAT officer in the Houston area, and founder of In The Black. From getting washed out of combat controller selection at basic training, to walking mail routes, to finding his lane in USPSA competition and eventually building a coffee and tea brand out of his garage, Anthony's brutally honest story is proof that the American dream is still very much alive for guys willing to do the dumb, hard, embarrassing work it takes to figure things out. The conversation goes deep on what challenges law enforcement training, and Anthony doesn't pull punches. Teaching cops to show clear on an imaginary 50-yard line instead of building critical thinkers, spoon-feeding answers during shoot house runs, and confusing range safety with officer competence are all on the table. Anthony and the crew break down why that approach is not just inefficient but potentially dangerous, and what it looks like when a team actually commits to changing the culture. But this episode is just as much about building something outside the badge. Anthony talks through the full origin of In The Black: starting with loose-leaf tea because nobody in the tactical space was doing it, pivoting to coffee after burning batch after batch on a home roaster, and finding his name in Jeff Cooper's color code system applied as dark humor during a brutal SWAT selection process. The creative energy behind the brand, the viral video that crossed a million views, and the role his wife plays in keeping the whole operation from burning down are all fair game. If you have ever felt the pull between the job you were trained for and the thing you want to build, this one will hit home. In this episode: • Anthony explains why law enforcement departments training officers to 'show clear on the line' instead of building critical thinkers is not just inefficient but actively dangerous: when a real incident happens and officers are isolated during the investigative process, they realize they were never taught how all the pieces connect. • The speed-accuracy balance in USPSA competition directly translates to tactical work: running reloads between positions rather than standing static on a line mirrors the reality of nearly every officer-involved shooting video in existence. • Anthony's framework for teaching firearms is simple: make guys uncomfortable, show them exactly where the discomfort came from, then repeat the basic stuff far more times than anyone thinks is necessary before adding complexity. • In The Black got its name from Jeff Cooper's color code system, specifically the unofficial fifth color 'black' that Anthony's SWAT team used to describe going full chaos mode during selection, turning a symbol of failure into a brand built on humor and self-awareness. • The coffee line launched after Anthony burned every single home-roasted batch trying to listen for first and second crack while being partially deaf from years on the range, eventually outsourcing to a specialty roaster, where flavor profiles are locked into a system so he just pushes a button. • Anthony's viral million-view video was built on three things: a French competitive shooter doing something bizarre on the range, Moe in a skin-tight shirt matching the moves shot for shot, and a Roxbury song edit that made it look like ballroom dancing with zero hits on target. • The leadership problem Anthony identifies in law enforcement is a status play: people in senior positions avoid hard decisions because they are protecting their next promotion, which cascades all the way down to the individual officer who never gets pushed to think critically. • Running In The Black entirely from his house while working full-time in law enforcement means Anthony wears every hat, from packaging and heat-sealing bags on a scale like a drug dealer to using ChatGPT to code the website, with his wife as the one constant 'yes' behind every idea. Chapters: 0:01 The Capable Standard: intro and waitlist pitch 2:25 Live at TTPOA: setting the scene 3:36 Introducing Anthony and In The Black HQ 4:41 Anthony's background: military, mail routes, and law enforcement 11:19 Finding the shooting journey through TTPOA and USPSA 18:41 Training culture, critical thinkers, and what real firearms instruction looks like 28:39 Why siloed training fails officers when it matters most 38:39 Joining In Extremis Performance and developing as an instructor 45:04 The origin of In The Black: tea, coffee, and the entrepreneurial leap 53:49 The meaning behind the name: Jeff Cooper's color code and SWAT humor 56:18 The viral videos, creative process, and social media presence 1:07:05 Building a business from home, wearing every hat, and the support system behind it Mentioned: Jake Labhart — Founder of In Extremis Performance, described as a brainiac on human movement and a doctor who invited Anthony to come on as an instructor, and introduced Scott to the TTPOA community. Gabe Rivera — Instructor and active LEO who competed at the match the day of recording and was referenced for shooting 500 rounds at steel on the last day. Brandon Hernandez — Referenced as the person Jake Labhart texted when making introductions, described as wearing a sequin motorcycle helmet when Scott Howell first met him upstairs at the Kalahari. Ben Stoeger — Referenced as a competitive shooter so mechanically consistent that Anthony describes him as 'not human' and 'a robot' after watching him shoot. Jeff Cooper — Originator of the color code system of situational awareness, specifically the white, yellow, orange, and red levels that Anthony's department extended with an unofficial 'black' designation. Kim — The only American to attend tea college, located in the Houston area, who became Anthony's tea supplier and mentor for the loose-leaf side of In The Black. Dana — Anthony's wife, whose coffee preference was narrowly his number two pick in the taste test and whose unwavering support he credits as the foundation of everything he is building. Rebecca — Person in the fitness industry getting into the tactical world, mentioned walking by during the recording at the TTPOA conference. Joel — Person in the fitness industry getting into the tactical world, mentioned walking by during the recording at the TTPOA conference. Preston — A Texas LEO Anthony has long looked up to as one of the guys getting after it in the competitive space. Sal — A Texas-based LEO Anthony trains with and who appeared in an In The Black HQ viral video wearing a wig while doing a skit. Kolton — A Texas LEO Anthony looks up to, mentioned alongside Preston as someone he was surprised to be invited alongside when Jake Labhart brought him into IEP. Matt — Anthony's videographer and editor for In The Black content, referenced both in the context of the video production process and as someone Anthony texts with random creative ideas.

  6. Aug 14

    #208 After Dark: Training In Isolation Defined: Structured Firearms Training and Why Cops Are Finally Leveling Up

    This is a conversation about the gap between checking the box and being genuinely competent and confident when it counts. Bryan Williams, Chancey Pogue, Matt Pranka, and Dustin Mowery walk through the real roadmap: why the stigma against competition shooting is rooted in ego and not evidence, why the qualification score is one of the most useless metrics in law enforcement, and what training in isolation actually means when you strip away the buzzwords and get honest about the work. Dry fire is the thread running through the whole episode, and not in the vague, post-it-on-Instagram way. You'll hear what to focus on, how long to go, when to stop, how to marry it to live fire when you only have 50 rounds to your name, and why grip and vision are the only two things that matter until you have truly mastered them. The principles are simple. The work isn't. But if you understand why you are doing it, the framework and roadmap becomes clear. If you've ever said, "I can't do that at my agency" or "I'm not trying to be a GM," this episode is specifically for you. The guys lay out exactly what it looks like to start wherever you are, eliminate the excuses, and build the kind of skill that holds up when everything is moving fast and the stakes are real. In this episode: • Law enforcement qualifications are a box to check, not a measure of skill: shooting at seven yards on a line with no time pressure is not a test of your ability to run a gun under stress, and anchoring your identity to that score is actively holding you back • The stigma against competition shooting comes from ego, not evidence: the best shooters in the world are practical shooting competitors, and the 'targets don't shoot back' argument falls apart the moment you realize no targets on any LE range shoot back either • Peer pressure inside a ranked department is a more powerful culture driver than any mandate: when officers can see exactly where they rank in ability, the bottom of the stack starts climbing, and culturally the whole group shifts upward over time • Grip and vision are the foundation that everything else is built on: if those two things are not dialed in, every rep of dry fire and every round of live fire is reinforcing a flawed pattern, not building a better one • Dry fire sessions should be short, focused, and honest: when your grip pressure, visual discipline, or mechanical consistency starts to degrade, that session is over for that task, point of diminishing returns is real and ignoring it means taking steps backward • A 10 to 1 dry fire to live fire ratio maximizes limited ammo: settle grip and vision in dry fire first, then test it live, do not use your 50 rounds to figure out things that cost you nothing to figure out in your living room • Chancey's recruit class averaged 98.6 out of 100 on their qualification after eight weeks of structured dry fire with zero live rounds fired beforehand, two 30 minute sessions per week, no fancy facility required • Visual discipline and visual control are the two principles that govern the vision side: use the right aiming scheme for the distance and difficulty at hand, connect to the exact spot on the target you need to hit, and do not over confirm or under confirm, no more and no less Chapters: 0:56 Welcome to TTPOA 2026 in Round Rock 2:17 Guest introductions around the table 3:57 Setting the stage: what is wrong with LE firearms training 11:05 Breaking the stigma against practical/competition shooting 14:22 Why the qualification score is a broken measuring stick 20:55 How practical shooting culture spreads inside departments 28:36 The ego reset: your first match is supposed to hurt 40:19 Training in isolation: what it actually means 47:57 Building the dry fire habit: capturing time wherever you can 1:05:40 Chancey's recruit dry fire protocol and the 98.6 average 1:28:46 Making the most of limited ammo: the 10 to 1 rule 1:37:34 Wrapping up: grip, vision, and the two principles that never change Mentioned: Bryan Williams — Nearly 39-year law enforcement veteran, former police chief in Central Texas, one of the first five USPSA Grand Masters in the nation and the first in Texas, joins the roundtable at TTPOA 2026. Chancey Pogue — Lieutenant over the weapons range and all reality-based training at a large North Texas agency with approximately 2,000 officers, credited with implementing practical shooting and a structured recruit dry fire program. Matt Pranka — Owner of X-Ray Alpha, retired Army Special Operations background, USPSA competitor for about 13 years and GM, has spent six years working to bring practical shooting and competition-style training to law enforcement and military. Dustin Mowery — Retired Ohio police officer with 27 years of service, helped introduce practical shooting to his department's firearms unit around 2019 after connecting with Matt Pranka, now teaches classes independently and with Matt. Kim Pastore — Described as a runaway train working tirelessly through the Jorge Pastore Foundation to get the right coaches in front of law enforcement and raise money to send officers to training for free. Ben Stoeger — Referenced as having done more for the practical shooting training world than anyone, praised for his ability to reverse-engineer classifiers, self-teach to a GM level, and present foundational concepts in the simplest and most effective way. Jerry Barnhart — Legendary practical shooter Bryan Williams saw run stages at the nationals in Reno in the nineties, described as a beast whose performance was a formative, eye-opening demonstration of what is possible with a handgun. Sean Griffith — Described as a world-class shooter who teaches more cops on a day-to-day basis than almost anyone through the entity he works with, called out as a heavy lifter at the TTPOA match. Gabe Rivera — High-level shooter whose dramatic skill improvement since 2019 is highlighted as an example of the hockey-stick trajectory possible with focused training; was about to appear in the booth after the roundtable. Adrian Yun — High-level shooter praised alongside Gabe Rivera and Clay for the rapid skill development they achieved, also noted during the match for his grip awareness and in-stage self-correction. Clay B — High-level shooter nicknamed 'speed demon,' noted for shooting with the wrong hand and called out as one of the heavy lifters whose improvement since 2019 is remarkable. Jay — Person Chancey met who was highly skilled at shooting without ever having competed, described as someone whose natural drive and desire to improve explained everything about how he got that good.

  7. Aug 7

    #207 After Dark: From "Professional Class-Taker" to Director of Training: How One Cop Is Quietly Changing Law Enforcement Firearms Culture, With Anthony Coley

    In this episode of Iron Sights, Scott sits down with Anthony Coley of Aegis Consulting at the Texas Tactical Police Officers Association Conference in Round Rock, Texas to unpack one of the most detailed, honest, and actionable roadmaps for changing firearms culture at the agency level you will ever hear. Anthony walks through everything: the professional class taker problem, how competition shooting cracked open his understanding of real-world performance, and why getting bit by the PCSL bug turned into a mission to drag as many officers with him as possible. He does not pull punches about the resistance he faced from inside his own firearms unit, the admin conversations he had to be fully loaded for, and why good enough has never been good enough to him. This is the debrief you wish you could have with the guy quietly grinding in the background of every department while everyone else is doing the bare minimum. And then Kim Pastore Pastore walks in. The founder of the Jorge Pastore Foundation joins Scott and Anthony live on the floor to drop a major announcement: Anthony Coley is officially the Foundation's new Director of Training. The conversation that follows is equal parts raw and inspiring, built on a shared belief that the ripple effects of good training touch officers and families in ways you will never fully see. The legacy match, the PCSL monthly shoots at Texas Shooting Academy, the nationwide reach: it is all coming. And this episode is where it starts. In this episode: • The professional class taker trap: Anthony explains how taking course after course without deliberate instructor-mode observation turns into diminishing returns, and how flipping that lens into instructor development makes every class exponentially more valuable • Competition as a gunfight simulator: Anthony breaks down hit factor math from his first match, showing exactly why a slower shooter with cleaner hits still loses to a faster shooter with acceptable hits, and why that calculus maps directly to real threat encounters • The survey before the pitch: before approaching administration, Anthony personally talked to every officer in the agency one on one, built a spreadsheet of who had red dots, who had zero formal training on them, and compiled case law on liability before walking into the chief's office armed with an answer for every possible question • The cookie cutter problem in firearms instruction: Anthony's baking analogy makes the case that a single teaching method guarantees you will always produce students missing an arm, and that instructor development means accumulating 20 different ways to explain the same concept • Inside the Red Dot class: 400 rounds, five hard-fought hours, aggressive trigger manipulation drills starting cold with zero classroom warmup, self-diagnosis doubles, and a final volley at 25 yards where exhausted officers shoot the best groups of their lives • Building up instead of down: Anthony explains why he went to line-level officers first, then patrol shift lieutenants, then commanders, then administration, so that demand for training was already visible before he ever made a formal ask • The Legacy Match origin story: a customer service mistake on an optic plate, a single giveaway stage, 24 brands cold-called into donating prizes, and a sold-out 100-person law enforcement only PCSL match that spawned a monthly series at Texas Shooting Academy in Florence, Texas Chapters: 0:03 Episode intro and Scott's mission statement 0:59 Setting the scene: TTPOA Conference 1:26 Introducing Anthony Coley and Aegis Consulting 2:20 Anthony's background: CHP, Texas, canine, and the training gap 5:20 The professional class taker problem 9:08 Getting into competition shooting 12:25 Competition as a gunfight simulator: hit factor explained 15:35 Confidence, competency, and isolating deficiencies through competition 22:32 How the Legacy Match started by accident 26:23 Anthony's backstory: broken leg, CHP academy, and training mentality 56:07 Building the case for agency red dot training 1:28:04 Kim Pastore joins: announcing Anthony as JPF Director of Training Mentioned: Anthony Coley — Guest, law enforcement officer, canine handler, PCSL competitor, firearms instructor, and founder of Aegis Consulting, announced as the Jorge Pastore Foundation's Director of Training during this episode. Gabe Rivera — Active California LE SWAT officer and instructor at Mindset Tactical Solutions, credited with introducing Anthony to the term 'professional class taker' and referenced as an upcoming guest on Iron Sights. Rick Crawley — Founder and chief instructor of Achilles Heel Tactical, whose dinner conversation pushed Anthony to stop waiting and start shooting competitions immediately. Dave Mehulma — Instructor from Slick Training Solutions who taught the intro to competitive shooting class where Anthony was first invited to shoot a live match. Kim Pastore — Founder of the Jorge Pastore Foundation, who surprised Anthony on air to announce his appointment as Director of Training for the foundation. Jorge Pastore — Austin PD SWAT officer killed in the line of duty whose legacy inspired the foundation; Anthony had made an Instagram post honoring him that first connected him with Kim Pastore Pastore. Paul Costa — Contact who connected Anthony with Ron from Walther, helping secure demo guns for the agency demo day that eventually snowballed into the Legacy Match. Jordan — Owner and representative of Ryze manufacturer, whose accidental shipment of a wrong optic plate sparked the idea for Anthony's first competition giveaway stage. Aaron — Owner of Texas Shooting Academy, described as a big three-gun and competition shooter, who signed up for the Legacy Match and whose facility hosts the monthly PCSL matches. Eric Foss — Associated with Howitzer, running competitions and working alongside Gabe Rivera to give back to the law enforcement community in Southern California. Rafael — Prior Iron Sights guest from Northern California who competed at a Howitzer match and performed very well, helping spread competition culture in his region.

  8. Jul 31

    #206 After Dark: Moral Injury, Identity, and the Mission That Doesn't End When You Hang Up the Badge: TTPOA + ISP Collab

    On this Iron Sights episode recorded live on the vendor floor at TTPOA Conference, Scott Howell sits down for a collab with the TTPOA Podcast hosts Brandon Hernandez and Matt Smith. Their guests are Brad Ortiz, Director of Sales for the Law Enforcement Division at Silencer Shop and former officer, and Dewayne Manson, Project Manager at the American Warrior Association, to dig into the thing the Law Enforcement community has been slow to confront: the compounding weight of moral injury, and why the reactive system built to support officers is failing the people who need it most. The conversation goes deep on what moral injury actually is, how it differs from PTSD, and why the officer who has never been in a critical incident can be just as broken as the one who has. Brad and Dewayne walk through what a culturally competent clinician actually looks like, why baseline brain and blood health mapping belongs in the academy, and how the American Warrior Association's R3 program is embedding proactive resilience training directly into TTPOA's regional structure, the first partnership of its kind nationally. But this episode isn't just about mental health. It's about identity. What happens to the guy who IS the job when the job ends? Brad gets personal about his own struggles stepping away from full-time law enforcement, Dewayne shares the moment his teenage son had to pick him up after a DUI, and Scott connects it all to the broader truth that your calling and your identity are not the same thing, and that confusing the two is costing officers their health, their relationships, and sometimes their lives before and after retirement. The back half gets into the business world and how everything these men learned going through doors, managing teams, and serving their communities translates directly into relationship-based sales, leadership under pressure, and building something that outlasts the badge. If you've ever told yourself you're not capable of anything outside law enforcement, this one is going to challenge that story hard. In this episode: • Moral injury is NOT PTSD: it is the cumulative damage caused when you perpetrate something, fail to prevent something, or are ordered to act against your moral compass, and it compounds silently over an entire career without a single critical incident ever being the trigger • Culturally competent clinicians are practitioners who have lived the lifestyle or are married to someone who has: Dewayne walked out of his first VA appointment when the counselor opened with pronouns, then found a female therapist married to a 20-year infantry veteran and experienced a completely different outcome • The American Warrior Association's R3 program is building proactive resilience frameworks inside agencies, including regional resiliency coordinators, vetted clinician networks, and fully funded Warriors Refuge retreats where flights and lodging are free to eligible officers and spouses • Brad Ortiz's Sound Off program at Silencer Shop donates $2 per purchase to a vetted nonprofit fund, and every individual officer purchase routes through silencershop.com where buyers work directly with Brad and Chris • The inflection point analogy: moral injury deposits are made silently every shift, just like compounding interest, and what looks like a single critical incident blowing up is actually the hockey-stick moment on a years-long accumulation nobody was tracking • Social media pile-ons after a justified OIS caused Brad more lasting moral injury than the shooting itself, a blind spot no clinician or debrief ever addressed until he found the right cultural fit in counseling • Baseline blood panels and brain mapping done at the academy level would give officers a before-and-after reference for physiological change across a career: the greater endocrine system and brain health are being completely ignored while TRT gets all the attention • The law enforcement skill set transfers directly into business leadership: problem-solving under pressure, decision-making without perfect information, ownership of mistakes, and relationship-first sales are all things operators have already built on the job, they just don't recognize it as a resume Chapters: 0:39 Iron Sights mission statement and welcome 2:02 Introducing Brad Ortiz and Dewayne Manson 2:49 Brad's background: The Uncommon Line podcast 9:40 American Warrior Association programs overview 11:43 Resilience training inside TTPOA: the first of its kind 12:08 What moral injury actually is and why it's not PTSD 14:20 Culturally competent clinicians: Dewayne's personal story 31:52 Compounding critical incidents over a career 38:37 Social media pile-ons as a hidden source of moral injury 44:55 Identity vs. calling: challenging how officers define themselves 1:12:18 Relationship-first sales, legacy brands losing ground, and the business parallel 1:21:46 How to access AWA, R3, and SoundOff resources Mentioned: Brad Ortiz — Director of Sales for the Law Enforcement Division at Silencer Shop, former law enforcement officer and fugitive investigator, and former host of The Uncommon Line podcast, joined as a guest to discuss the SoundOff program and the AWA partnership. Dewayne Manson — Representative of the American Warrior Association, infantry veteran who served in Afghanistan and contracted there through 2020, shared his personal journey through moral injury and recovery as context for AWA's R3 program. Matt Smith — Co-host of the TTPOA podcast with 21 years on SWAT, co-hosted this live conference episode alongside Scott Howell and competed in the TTPOA shooting competition the day prior. Brandon Hernandez — Region 7 Director and Director of Training for TTPOA, co-host of the TTPOA podcast, referred to on air as the celebrity of the group when a passerby stopped to greet him. Anna Heil — Associated with the American Warrior Association, attended a TTPOA show in St. Louis and briefed other state organizations on the AWA partnership afterward. Chris — Works alongside Brad Ortiz at Silencer Shop on the SoundOff individual officer program, mentioned as a direct point of contact buyers will reach at soundsoftshop.com. Neil Noakes — Former Chief of Police of the Fort Worth Police Department, cited as an example of a career officer who, when asked how many critical incidents he had been on, simply said he had lost count. Simon Sinek — Author and speaker known for the concept of finding your 'why,' referenced when Brad Ortiz challenged every officer in the room to examine the deeper reason behind their career and identity.

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About

Welcome to Iron Sights podcast hosted by Scott Howell. This podcast candidly seeks to create opportunities and deliver impact by sharing the experiences and wisdom of successful entrepreneurs and thought leaders who unapologetically aim to WIN in health, fitness, business, and life. Welcome to old school meets new school, tradition meets innovation, and imperfection meets excellence. Thanks for listening and enjoy the show.

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  • Creator
    Iron Sights
  • Years Active
    2021 - 2026
  • Episodes
    472
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Iron Sights
  • Show Website
    Iron Sights

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