Pistol drill #4

     The next step in pistol shooting after establishing point shooting verses making and intended shot is adding sideways movement to the draw stroke and practicing a mag change. 
     For this drill place two silouette targets 10 feet appart at a distance of 15 feet from the shooter.  Two magazines each should be loaded with three rounds.  This drill starts with both hands at chest level and a loaded consealed handgun in the holster.  One the call to fight the shooter takes one large step to the left while drawing ones pistol.  Two rounds are fired to the chest of the first target then one shot to the head.  The pistol will go to slide lock.  The shooter then steps to the left while reloading and performing the same mozembique drill on target 2. 
     Several skills sets go into this drill.  The draw stroke with movement, the transition from a large center mass shot to the precise head shot, and the slide lock reload.
     The side step while drawing is important.  Roughly 85% of the population is right handed.  Right handed shooters tend to miss to the left when jerking the trigger so the side step could make an attacker miss.  Movement also gets one off the line of attack and makes a more difficult target.  The rationale behind this has its roots in OODA loop theory.  Basically when a person is attacking you, the first observe their target, orient to it, make a decision, then act.  Moving to the left causes the attacker to start this process over and forces them to react to you.     

Blue Loctite

     Before I started my shooting school a coworker came to me saying he needed a place to shoot.  I had access to land, and he convinced me to take him shooting.  He had lead a pretty amazing life.  As Sargent in Vietnam, he had been through brutal battles and seen horrible things.  One day a RPG hit the Sheridan tank he was driving killing everyone but him.  Over the years he had bought several guns but never shot any of them.
     Being from that era, where jungle warfare and poor weapon maintenance had gotten many soldiers killed, gun cleaning was something he took very seriously.  So much so that touching one of his guns was like holding a grease coated axle bearing.  I am not sure what he used to prevent rust and maintain excessive lubrication, but firing one of them lead to a cloud of smoking petroleum products that burned ones eyes like pepper spray.  The lube did not stop at the action, and found its way into every screw holding the gun together.
     One of his rifles was a scoped Springfield M1A.  Most gun guys love the M1A.  The shape of the inviting walnut stock, the bombproof action, and the weight all inspire confidence in this proven battle rifle.  One of the drawbacks to the design is that it does not lend itself to convenient scope mounting.   The mount he was using involved a dozen screws and was a very poor design.  Every time we went shooting things would start out OK, then slowly shots would drift off target.  Eventually I would shake his scope and feel that it had come loose.  After this happened three times, I finally insisted that every screw had to come out, be cleaned of all lubricant, and coat the threads with threadlocker. 
     That experience taught me a lesson that would prove useful when I started teaching new students at my shooting school, and also working on customers guns.  Every screw of whatever optic or sighing system added to any firearm needs to have blue loctite on the threads.  Easily 80% of the shooters that came to me had their optic come loose at some point from firing.  Customers often came to me in the fall asking me to sight in their deer rifle.  I would tell them that I would do it, but I was going to do it my way.  That meant removing every screw and starting from the base up with threadlocker. 

     Guns lend themselves to be easily upgraded at the user level.  They are made to be taken apart to clean and it is all to easy to want a new grip, a better trigger, or an optic to make shooting easier.  As I have moved through the stages of gun ownership, the urge to modify and upgrade every aspect of them is a strong one.  I will go into the contents of my gun toolbox in a later post, but one of the most important items is blue loctite. 
     I was once told by a boat mechanic that "It is one thing when your car breaks down on the way to work.  It is another level of pissed when your boat breaks down on the lake."  The same goes for a fun day at the range.  It goes beyond that when the firearm is one that could be called on to save you or your family.  That gun must perform, and watching parts loosen or fall off while training causes a loss of confidence that is not easy to replace. 
     The rate at which aftermarket parts fail this way in training is very high; to the point I came to expect it.  Most people do not shoot enough to bring make these problems apparent.  As a general rule, small screws that have very short threads are the worst offenders.  Larger screws like the ones used to join the stock to the action typically have enough grip to stay in place given enough torque. 
     In conclusion, loctite is a simple and inexpensive solution to a commonly overlooked problem in the gun world. 

DMR Rifle

     In past articles I have covered the scoped .22 rifle, the full sized pistol, and the shotgun.  The weak link that all of these share is the ability to reach past 100 yards with effective fire.  Owning a semi-auto, center fire rifle equipped with a low power variable optic gives the user many options.  A rifle set up in the is configuration can be pressed into rolls such as survival, life and liberty, hunting, SHTF, home defense, a fun plinking rifle, or ringing steel at intermediate ranges.
     The DMR (designated marksman's rifle) idea started with the German Karabiner 43 and Russian SVD during WWII to fill in the gap between front line troops and dedicated sniper fire (200-500 yards).

German K43

Russian SVD

     In the mid 90's, the spec ops community came out with a special purpose rifle (SPR) Mk12 mod 0.  This gave the AR pattern service rifle the ability to work as an effective semi auto sniper rifle.  This concept spread to other services with their own versions of a DMR.  

     The versatility of this combination of semi auto fire and low power optics make it the perfect rifle for 3 gun competition as well.  There is not another platform that can go from 3 yards to 300 yards within the same breath and do both very well.  

     When one is shopping for their first AR the possibilities are endless and making an analogy to opening Pandora's Box is not far from the reality of it.  Much like the previous firearms in this series, the temptation to buy and bolt on endless crap is strong.  Among the most frequently asked questions I receive, "Which AR do I buy?" is a common theme.  Thirty years ago just a handful of companies made AR's such as Armalite, Bushmaster, and Colt.  Now seemingly hundreds of companies make them and each has so many options, finding exactly what suits ones needs in a factory rifle is not too difficult if one knows what to shop for.  

     For this article, I want to limit the search criteria to help someone new to the AR world narrow down the crowded field. The best way to tackle this is to start at the front of the rifle and work back.  Every component I recommend comes from years of mistakes, endless changes to accessories, and seeing students fail or succeed depending on their choices.  As with all things there will be compromises in every step of the process.

     For this type of rifle, I recommend a 20 inch barrel with a 1-7 or 1-8 twist chambered in .223.  The gas block should be of the low profile variety with no A-2 front sight/gas block assembly.  Choose the standard direct gas impingement system over piston varieties.  Surround this with a simple and lightweight 15" M-lok hand guard.  There is not much need for a muzzle device as the only thing I would add to a rifle like this is a suppressor.  Muzzle devices control flash, project blast, reduce recoil, or boost gas pressure for guns that wont function.  None of these are an issue with this caliber and barrel length.  

 Other guns in ones collection at this point can handle problems inside 100 yards.  The purpose of this this rifle is to dominate the area between 100 and 500 yards with aimed precise shots.  

    

     The next priority is a flattop upper with a 1 inch forward cantilever optic mount.  Luckily with the popularity of this type of rifle, options in the 1-4x optic world are plentiful.  Primary Arms or Vortex both make very high value scopes to fill this need.  With a BDC reticle or MIL/MOA lines even new shooters can make quick shots out to surprising distances with quality ammo.  

     Taking care of the lower receiver starts with tapping out both pins holding the fire control group and placing that GI milspec trigger in the trash.  Pulling one is similar to dragging a dead hooker down a railroad track.  Again one will go mad with all the options but a quality 3.5 lb two stage trigger with no over travel and a short positive reset works best for this type of rifle.

     Adjustable stocks are great, but the standard A2 stock has benefits as well.  It is inexpensive, very strong, lightweight, and it has a place to store spare tools or survival gear.  A crude cheek piece can be fashioned to get a proper cheek weld.  

     The standard A2 grip works perfect if you happen to be a 7 year old girl.  An upgrade that both fills the hand, and allows the trigger finger to land closer to the center of the first digit is needed.  

     To increase the versatility of this rifle, buying a scope with an illuminated reticle, and adding a flashlight that projects a focused bean of light makes this a potent fighting rifle regardless of conditions. 

     I feed this rifle Hornady 75 grain BTHP match bullets, and it will shoot .5 MOA with this load.  Below is a video describing some of the build components.  Choosing whether to build or buy an AR will be another post, as well as how to get the most out of shooting it.  

A video describing my take on the perfect DMR/SPR build.

        

Pistol drill # 3

     The previous drills have hopefully worked out common pistol marksmanship issues.  the mantra to achieve shooting zen should be to think "front sight ...press."  If one is able to keep shots in a fist sized 10 shot group on a target at 7 yards, it is time to establish the important difference between point shooting and making an intended shot. 
     The only differences between these two ways of shooting are focal plane and how the trigger is manipulated.  This drill requires a pistol with 4 rounds, a target at 3 yards, a target at 9 yards.  The shooter starts with arms above shoulder height.  On the fight call, the shooter draws and puts three rounds into the chest of the target at 3 yards as fast as possible.  These three shots are done with all the same fundamentals of grip, stance, and trigger control, but the focus is on the target, not on the front sight post.  The idea being that this target is so close, speed and simply sighting along the top of the pistol take priority over marksmanship.
     The difficult part comes when one must transition immediately to the far target, move focus to the front sight, and pull the trigger slow enough for a surprise breaking making a controlled, intended head shot on the 9 yard target. 

     It is important to establish this early on, as all subsequent targets will fall into one of these two modes of pistol shooting.  Point shooting is meant to save ones life in the event force is needed directly from the draw due to time and distance constraints.  The transition between point and intended distance will be different for each shooter based on skill and experience. 
     The main qualifier is the distance at which someone can not miss a human sized target.  A way to determine this is to have the shooter orient to a target while the instructor covers their face with a piece of paper and tells them to draw and point.  If after the paper blocking their vision is removed, the pistol is pointed in the center chest area, that would be an effective range for that shooter to utilize point shooting.
     This is a difficult drill for newer shooters as the normally have a great deal of confidence shooting the closer target, but are unable to slow down for the head shot and miss.  The reason for making the nine yard shot a head small is to simulate a targets that is mostly obscured by cover or concealment. 
     When planning a list of drills for a range day or training class, I want a good variety of challenges that push the shooters abilities.  This is a contrast of speed and fundamentals.  Other drills show the effect of shooting while moving verses moving then shooting.  Drills build a skill set that is later applied to sennarios one might encounter in daily life.  Most of the time people did not know what they are getting into when I took them shooting.  By the end of day they were moving while shooting at multiple targets that were also moving.  It is at that point where the pistol becomes and extension of ones arm, and all focus is on solving the problem. 

You must be a cop or in the military?

   

     One of the most common things I hear when I have a conversation about guns with someone I don't know personally is, "You must be a cop or in the military?"  This response does not normally bother me, as for the most part, it is someone who is carrying the conversation with a logical question.  The only time I take offence is when people wonder how I should be able to speak with any authority on guns when one:  I was not trained by a government agency, and two: I have never had one pointed at me in anger. 
     I should preface this with the fact that I count many people from every branch and form of law enforcement as some of my closest friends.  My career and hobbies attract both police and soldiers to the point that I interact with many on a daily basis.  I have nothing but respect for what they do and the sacrifices they have made ensuring rule of law at home and our way of life as a country.  I could not do what these heroes do.  I am also not referring to specialized units within these groups such as swat and SF units who train to a much higher standard.

     A normal conversation I have with someone from the military involves them reciting to me the few passages they were forced to memorize from the M-16A2 field manual (FM3-22.9) by a drill instructor who was walking on their back at the time.  "The M-16A2 effective range 500 meters, rate of fire 700 rounds per minute..." and "I qualified as marksman so that means I can hit anything."  The truth is that they shoot 40 rounds a year at an eight MOA target at sometimes very limited distances and have all of that scored by their buddy sitting behind them.  Hitting 23 out of 40 is a passing score. 

     Police live in a similar world but it revolves around their sidearm.  Being a police officers does not equal shooting prowess.  For some their pistol collects lint in the barrel until it is time for their bi-annual qualification, and for them, the test is nothing more than a means to an end.  The sidearm is chosen for them by someone who requested a long spongy, 13 lb trigger to prevent accidental discharges or for legal reasons.  The holster has level three retention making retrieving it a multi step process.  They are also not allowed to pick the caliber or make any modifications to the gun without permission.  The pistol for police is, first and foremost, a required piece of gear that makes their back hurt, and is only to be used in the absolute worst case to save their life or another.   
     For police and military, using ones weapon is associated with the most intense stress and mental trauma humans can experience.  The repercussions of this act are lifelong and carry huge legal and administrative penalties. 

     All this being said, shooters are different people.  When shooting is ones passion, bringing your personal skills and equipment to the most effective level possible comes from a completely intrinsic motivation.  When a piece of gear does not work or a shot goes off target, shooters will stop at nothing to remedy that.  For shooters, trigger pulling is not a means to an end, it is a way of life.  Shooters don't think in terms of a programmed eight step sequence to draw ones pistol.  Shooting is a fun challenge. 

     The Navy SEALS's are considered to be among the best shooters in the world.  One would think that the only people capable of training them would be other SEALS's.  While they do have their own training cadre, when they want to take their shooting skills to the next level, they learn from civilian competition shooters.  For long range shooting skills, special operators the world over take courses from a civilian named Todd Hodnett (AKA Sniping Jesus) of Accuracy 1st.  For CQB, 'tier one' SF units go to John Shaw's Mid South Institute.  John Shaw was a self taught shooter who went on to win or place in virtually every major pistol shooting competition. 
     The same narrative played out on the show "Top Shot" where normal people who enjoyed shooting in their backyard were pitted against a variety of military and police trained marksman.  More often than not, the champion would be a normal guy with a passion for shooting.
     When I owned my shooting school, I was often asked how I could train others to shoot effectively if I was never a cop or soldier.  I never claim to be the best or fastest shooter, but I do measure my success by being able to make bullets go where I want them to quickly, and I can teach others how to do that as well. 

     Within the shooting community there are members of the police and military that are shooters.  These people will be the first to admit that they are not at all impressed with the shooting skills of their peers.  Some even go on to say that they thought they knew how to shoot until they attempted a civilian competition, and were humbled by badly they were beaten. 

     I feel the best approach is to tap into the strengths each.  Contractors, military, and police instructors have skills like small unit tactics, communication, patrolling, using lights and night vision, legal issues, dealing with 'after the fight' psychological issues, medical skills, and a combat mindset.  In the civilian world, shooters are free to experiment with highly modified guns, gear, and shooting styles that go on to improve the gun world as well.