Ace Member Spotlight: Q&A with John Keys from Guns Out TV
This week, we sat down to talk with John Keys, a Marine veteran and co-founder of Guns Out TV platform, a growing YouTube channel about gun culture and lifestyle for firearms operation and ownership. We wanted to get his take on using Ace Virtual Shooting as a handgun training tool, and what skills transferability he sees using it versus a traditional dry fire training system.
Q: John, give us a rundown on your background and how you got into firearms.
John: “I’m a Marine vet, was in for 12 years, but was not a gun owner while in or for 12 years after. Then 2020 happened and I bought a gun out of necessity, as a reactionary thing, and realized how much I’d been missing in terms of being most prepared and capable, for taking care of myself and my family. I started taking it seriously and bought more guns and did more training and got to know more people in the community. That’s what really changed my perception of being a gun owner.
By the end of 2020, I’d gone so far down the rabbit hole. Friends and family suggested I start a YouTube channel. Started with a simple video from the gun range. We actually managed to get a few episodes on broadcast TV but after January 6, that got canceled. After we got canceled, a lot of prominent gun influencers started doing articles and interviews with us, we were featured on Warrior Poet Society, and the rest is history.”
“We’ve been able to achieve this with some high level people in the space - John Lovell, Taran Tactical, Staccato, Prairie Fire, and other big names. Our platform’s main purpose is to humanize firearms culture and I think we do a good job of that by showing the things we’re inexperienced at and learning about on camera for the first time. This also helps us bring new people into the community safely and sharing our experiences and other people who can teach them.”
Q: How did you first get started shooting Ace?
John: “We met at Celebrating Heroes at Staccato Ranch in 2022. We were very impressed that they created their own handset to go with the VR experience. There’s no better way to introduce somebody who might be apprehensive of shooting.
As it pertains to training and efficiencies, Ace is a very good way to keep your core skills and fundamentals intact if you can’t get out to the range. It forces you to be honest as far as your trigger discipline. It’s a really really strong part of it. It also forces you to maintain your grip.
I want to get out to the range more, but no question the next best thing you can do is get on Ace. I can’t guarantee it’s only going to be an hour, I’m at home, it’s convenient, I’m going to be on there for a while!”
Q: Which Ace handset are you using now?
John: “I’ve used both handsets, but I’m exclusively shooting the Ace Staccato P now because Staccato is mostly what I shoot, plus it works with my holsters!”
Q: Let’s talk about dry fire training. What have you used in the past and what do you use today when you can’t make it out to the range?
John: “So, I’ve used Mantis; I liked the premise of it when I first started using it, but it’s not as gratifying or engaging as Ace. With Ace, the gamification distracts you from it being a chore… for some people dry fire can be a chore. Finding the time for it is difficult because t’s not as enjoyable.
Ace bridges the gap pretty good with that. When you start to see the realism involved, you want to do better in VR, and it makes you a better shooter in real life too. That’s when you really buy in. I’m having fun and I actually see gains on the range next time I go. So I take it more seriously and that’s why it’s easy to put more time in on Ace. When you get back on the range and you see your split times have improved, your grip is more consistent, and your presentation is consistent, because all of those things are true to form in Ace, it’s really motivating to keep pushing yourself.”
Q: Speaking of the range and live fire, let’s talk about skills transferability. How do you see the skills you’re training in Ace showing up when you switch to live fire?
John: “The biggest gains and benefit from a skills transfer perspective to me is double taps and speed of transitions. When you’re on the range with live fire, you’re gonna be more judicious, more reserved, because it’s live ammo, that costs money, and because you want to keep your groups tight. You don’t want to see those shot holes in the paper be all crazy.
In Ace, you can kick the brakes off fairly immediately and work backwards, to see where you’re fastest and most effective. It shows you that you can still get a nice tight double tap group at a speed you don’t think you can get with a real gun because you've been more reserved… so with Ace you can test those limits. When I get on Ace, I’m completely unreserved to see how fast I can do something. I test myself to see if I can make my shots without picking up the dot, solely based on my grip and presentation. And then I dial it up or down, and I know I’m not wasting ammo.”
Q: Let’s talk about some of those drills. Do you have any favorites drills or stages in Ace?
John: “To be honest, I like shooting paper more in Ace than steel. I like seeing my groups on paper and testing my speed. I’m really trying to focus more on competition shooting as a whole.. I want to do more competitions and want to run more stages. I tend to run stages that have a lot of paper. I’ve been doing a lot of Mozambiques and I like Fast and Careful. I like the defensive style drills and stages have been most interesting to me.”
Q: What feedback and advice would you give to new users picking up Ace for the first time?
John: “First, make sure you’ve got some time carved out! You’re gonna be on there for a while!
So, I wanted to get my wife involved and so at first, I mirrored Ace to the TV so she could see what I was doing. She watched for a while and then she wanted to try it. Putting it up on the screen is a good way to get other people involved and interested if you have that mirroring capability.
Next, I’d say shoot everything. When I got started, I shot every stage minimum 3 times before I moved onto the next. It’s good to get familiar with the different rules and setup of each stage. It’ll help you identify your deficiencies where you’re not so good… and help you realize where you need more practice. That variety in the different drills they have is big.”
Q: Have you gotten other friends involved in shooting Ace?
John: “We use Ace a lot. We leverage it a lot. Haven’t done an Ace date night yet, we’ve both been super busy lately. Since we got Ace, two of my personal friends have gotten it, my neighbor got it, and my videographer uses it. I’ve been exposing more people to it because it’s such a smart, fun tool, you can’t help but love it.
We take Ace to our events. First one was our annual range day. Ace came and setup a demo booth and everybody loved it. You can’t help but want to try it when you see it, and there was a line at the Ace booth. We hope to have Ace incorporated at our events or shooting competitions in the future. It’ll give people in between stages something fun to do.”
Q: What feedback would you share with Ace?
John: “There’s so much room for growth. That’s what’s exciting about Ace. They’re barely scratching the surface of what this community can be. So much in terms of gamification, this is just the beginning of the Ace story. The amount of ground they’ve covered has been remarkable. I could see myself wanting to be more heavily involved in the scaling of this. The capabilities this platform can have, from a social standpoint, gaming standpoint, getting people who are non-shooters involved and competent – the sky really is the limit for Ace for what they do in the future, and I’m here for it.”
Q: Any final thoughts as we close out?
John: “Guns Out TV is absolutely thrilled to be an involved partner with Ace. We love providing ideas and feedback to Ace, and our audience has embraced the idea of Ace. We’re thankful to be able to share with our subscribers and community. We think it’s going to do a lot of good for growing the community. We’ll have Ace as part of our events and experience offerings from now on going forward.”
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