You can go almost anywhere and get advise on pistol shooting, including stances, how to hold it, calibers and gun types. But one thing I've not seen is this: Train the way you'll need to use it.
Go the the range sometime. Get a proper-sized target and run it down the range as far as you think you'll need to shoot.
Then put your gun on the platform in front of you in the same condition that you would pick it up if you needed to shoot it at home/work/whatever. If you keep the gun unloaded and with a trigger lock on it, have it in that configuration. If you are using a revolver and you keep it unloaded with the ammo in a box, set it there unloaded and with the ammo in the same box. If you have an automatic and you keep the magazine out, do it that way. If you anticipate having to use a flashlight to shoot, bring that, too.
Then, take a deep breath, calm yourself, mentally say "go!" and prepare your gun to shoot and fire off a round into the target. If you really want to test yourself, get a shooting buddy to time you to see how long it takes you to get a round off. You may be surprised how long it takes you (and remember that you are not doing this when half-naked and woken from a deep sleep at 0330).
You should do this because there are enough examples out there of cops reverting to how they shot on a range when they were under pressure. Back in the days of revolvers, there was at least one department which, when its cops shot on the range, the cops would reload by taking the spent brass and putting it in their trousers' pockets so they could turn it in afterwards. Sure enough, during a gunfight, some cops found that after the engagement, their pockets were full of empty cartridges with no memory of having put them there.
It happened to them. It will happen to you.
Train the way you'll shoot.
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6 comments:
I happened upon this site quite by accident while chasing down a referral. This piece is excellent advice; most people don't think enough about combat shooting. I am by nature uncomfortable with the idea of flashlight-shooting for several reasons, although the use of one might well highlight the fact you're armed.
A very nice point about saving cases when using a revolver. I'd never heard that.
Lurch,
"Chasing down a referral"?
I've heard or read references to a number of gunfights where, after the noise died down, the cops found their pockets bulging with empty brass. Supposedly there was one PD that, when their officers shot on the range, they had to line up the empty cases on the table in front of them before shooting the next cylinder load. That's just what they did in a gunfight and at least one cop got killed.
There are old stories about this. A very long time ago, I read about a border patrolman who was a handloader and always was picking up empty cases; he had a pocket full of cases after a gunfight with no recollection of picking them up.
I heard or read these stories in the pre-Net days, they may be available somewhere.
You're from the "Main & Central" blog? That's a good one, I like it a lot.
Thank you for the compliment. I look at the "Referrals" on my sitemeter stats and I was not familiar with this blog. When I saw it listed as a link to M&C I had to investigate. I am a evolved monkey. Monkeys are curious.
I can't speak much to pistol combat shooting; all my experience is with long rifles. The tendency there is to drop the magazine and forget about it. Putting out volume fire is more important that saving mags to reload. But it's true you fight as you train.
I have to read more about your aviation interests. I've often wished I could fly a plane or helicopter. It must be an exhilarating experience.
I haven't been doing this for very long, so I haven't gotten into the different things I could do to track stuff. For now, writing the blog is enough.
There is no good place around here to really work out with a rifle and, anyway, rifles don't fit too well into the "inside the house self-defense" mission, unless the only thing you have is a rifle.
Flying is indeed exhilarating. But when I sit down to write about it, I'm drawn to teeing off on Chimpy.
When I consider defending inside the house my first choice is always a 12 gauge, either an auto pump or an auto loader. And I'm a big believer in stock sleeves, too.
If, when you sit down to write, your thoughts are drawn to him, then he has achieved his secondary goal: to make your day miserable.
Maybe so, but I have things to say about His Assholiness and this space gives me room to write them, even if only a few are paying attention.
Thanks for being one of them.
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