Ace Shooter Spotlight: Q&A with Neil Weidner of Active Self Protection
We had the chance to sit down with Neil Weidner from the popular YouTube channel Active Self Protection and an active Ace Club Member, to chat about his experience using Ace over the last several months. Neil’s primary motivation for his training is self defense tactics.
After his family had a close encounter years ago and the police response time to their house was 28 minutes, he and his wife realized they needed to be their own first responders.
Fast forward over a decade, and he and Active Self Protection host training classes around the country several times a year focusing on developing the most important skills needed to prevail in a deadly force encounter with a handgun.
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Give us an overview of what you specialize in and your background.
Neil: “Active Self Protection (ASP) is a content production company comprised of two YouTube channels and our own mobile apps. We have about 3.5 million subscribers between both pages. Our main channel is where we review real-world surveillance video where a self defense incident occurred and we talk about about mindset, and analyze the action. The secondary channel is about skillsets, legal issues, and actionable stuff.
We also setup shooting training events around the country, open to the public, multiple times a year.”
How long have you been shooting with Ace?
Neil: “I got it at SHOT Show this past January. Heard about it from Tim Herron.”
Sometimes VR gives him motion sickness, but after 20 minutes with Ace, he was sold. No motion sickness. The movements are natural. His wife shoots Ace too. They've even done Ace date nights and shot together. “She's a pretty good shooter. We just have fun with it,” he says.
“We live in South Dakota, so it gets cold. Real cold. We had 4 feet of snow outside and to be able to use Ace [inside] was really cool. I just love it. It's a cool product and I think they hit it out of the park.”
How often do you use Ace? Any idea how many rounds you've fired in the VR app?
Neil: We’re pretty regular users. We’re on the road a lot but usually, 3x a week minimum. They take it on trips with them and play while at the hotel.
What are your favorite 2 or 3 drills?
Neil: “I love the steel challenge drills and the more complex stages like Movers. But I’m not a competitive shooter, just to be clear!”
I tend to go for the drills that make you think with the gun in your hand; translates to self defense. The shoot / no shoot drill where the doors open and you might have a hostage or a bad guy and have to think fast.
How do you use Ace as part of your training routine?
Neil: “The drills are fun, but what I'm thinking about and my context is, how does this translate to self defense? Movement of the gun, transition to the targets, multiple targets in a self-defense scenario, or one guy moving in a self-defense scenario. I think the way you’re able to practice and improve that with Ace is next level stuff, I really do.”
Do you train with any traditional dry fire system?
Neil: “I’m "the dry fire guy" for ASP and I’ve done several dry fire challenge videos on our YouTube page. I don’t have military / LE background but we had a family incident. Police response time was 28 minutes. After that, I picked up the Mantis unit and probably have 500k trigger presses with that system. I’m a huge proponent of dry fire and making it simple.
The thing Ace brings to it - I can just sit there and pull the trigger and run my stages - and have fun doing it. “
“Ace has so much potential to help people, especially us northerns when it gets cold.”
How often do you shoot live fire?
Neil: “2-4x a month, depending on travel schedule. I try to get at least 10 min of dry fire per day. Ace just makes it easy.”
How has Ace helped you improve your self defense tactics?
Neil: “The ability to think fast and make decisions with the gun in your hand. That’s so key.”
Any advice for new Ace members just getting started?
Neil: “Lean into it. The support and customer service is really good if you need help.
Make sure your batteries stay charged because you'll run it dead. It's just so fun.
Find somebody to run drills with in multiplayer, that makes it so much more fun.”
“It makes it more enjoyable just because it's not just you doing dry fire.. dry fire in and of itself is boring for a lot of folks.. Ace gives you that sense of community.. Look at that leaderboard and maybe you'll know a couple names there. The leaderboard is a big thing for me.. when you start to see those same names over and over, you want to get up there too.”
What feedback would you share directly with the Ace team?
Neil: “I wish Ace had an HK pistol! I’m a VP9 guy, haha!”
