Author: mark luell

Improving ‘The Most Important Shot’

I don’t think it’s any real revelation to say that the most important skill in defensive shooting is the first shot from the holster. Every story you will read about an armed citizen using their gun in a shooting has one thing in common… They had to get their gun out and shoot! After the first shot rings out, the shooting problem becomes much more complicated. Shooting skills such as shooting on the move, shooting multiple targets, reloading, malfunction work, grappling in a weapons based environment, retention shooting, and a hundred others are all important. However, they all require you to already have the gun in your hand. Taking this into consideration, I spend a significant amount of time (both live and dryfire) practicing what I consider to be the most important skill in shooting. I am currently working on making this faster, more accurate, and more repeatable. I’m going to list my approach but please understand that I’m open for suggestions and ways to improve.

What are the components of a rapid first hit?

  • Clearing the cover garment. Ideally you will chose a way that works regardless of clothing choices and time of year. I do a ‘Hackathorn Rip‘ which essentially is grabbing as much jacket/shirt material as I can with my left hand, ripping it as high as I can get it, keeping my left hand high on my pectoral muscle, while establishing a full firing grip on the gun with the right hand. If you go to that link, you’ll see there’s like 12 jillion ways to clear your cover garment. In the interest of not having to remember what season it is, and whether my jacket is unzipped, I decided to just pull all that crap out of the way and get my gun. This might slow me down a bit, but I’m OK with that for the sake of robustness (H/T Gomez). It’s better than leaving some shirt material in the way to foul my draw. I like this method because the left hand is holding the shirt material and waiting for the gun hand to pass through the horizontal line of presentation so it can mate with the right hand.
  • Doing a perfect draw-stroke. I have made the conscious decision in my practice to forgo a competition draw stroke in which the gun goes in a straight line from holster to full extension (shortest distance). I have been working with a universal draw-stroke with a built in retention position, as well as the ability to stop along the horizontal line of presentation to shoot, depending on the proximity of the threat. This approach makes the most sense to me analytically, and I’ve experienced the usefulness during force on force evolutions in ECQC and in our training group. I understand that in order to shave significant time off of my draw-stroke, I may have to modify the path of my draw-stroke to a more direct line a la Ron Avery. I haven’t decided if that’s worth it or not.
  • Begin refining the sight picture and prepping the trigger as the gun presses out to full extension. Bring the gun to your eye, not the other way around. I keep my muzzle horizontal under my dominant eye throughout the draw, and the gun never goes lower than it was an instant before. I get the gun into my eye-target line as quickly as possible, and begin touching the trigger as the slide and sights become visible in the lower portion of my peripheral vision. The idea is that as the gun approaches full extension, the sight picture is refined and the trigger has a few pounds of pressure on it. The shot will break just as the gun reaches full extension and you’ll put the shot exactly where it needed to go. An alternative to this method is one taught by Todd Green of www.pistol-training.com where the gun is angled slightly up as the gun is brought from the holster and the front sight is slightly higher than the rear. As you present the gun, the front sight is driven straight towards the target as the rear sight is brought up to meet it. This method is nice when searching with a gun in your hand in an averted muzzle ready position, where you keep the gun angled up while looking past the front sight post as you move. I have given time to both methods, though I’ve never been formally instructed in TLG’s method. Here’s a clip of Gomez discussing some of these points. The relevant video starts at 2:30 or so.
  • Seeing what you need to see to make a good shot. There are countless books and videos about this, but in a nutshell it’s about only taking as much time as you need to take to make the shot you need to make. Perfecting this comes with experience, coaching, and lots of practice. It’s the part I struggle with the most. A torso shot at 4 yards and an eyeball shot at 15 yards require different levels of refinement of both sight picture, as well as trigger control.
  • Don’t be a spaz. Moving ‘faster’ doesn’t necessarily allow you to make a faster shot. For me, it just makes my sights bounce around a lot more and takes me time to correct them at the last instant. Like Avery says in that video above, trimming the wasted movement seems to go a long way in improving speed.

 How do I get better?

Step one, find a reputable instructor who teaches this sort of thing. Learn the correct way to do it, then take it back home and practice practice practice. You should also have a timer. Use either a proper shot timer, or download a shot timer for your smart phone. You’ll want to use it for par times and eventually capture actual times that you can use to carve away wasted movement. Get video of yourself shooting. Looking at yourself is different than just concentrating on how your movement feels. You might see something really stupid that you can’t feel yourself doing.

What drills can I shoot?

I’m using these two live fire drills currently:

Press Six – This drill uses progressively shortening time standards, and increases the round count. It will force you to get hits quickly and test your follow through and grip when making the multiple shot strings. I’ve started at 3 yards, and follow the instructions on the drill for when to move the target further away.

3-two-1 – This drill forces you to ‘see what you need to see’ to make shots on a given target sizes. I’m hoping this one will help me improve breaking shots more quickly when the target is larger, and keep me honest on sights and trigger for lower probability targets.

I’m doing the following in my dry fire practice:

Target is a scaled down torso with aiming spot on the high center chest. Distance varies but I try to simulate between 3 and 15 yards with the reduced size target. Please follow safe dry-fire practices and don’t put a hole through your TV.

20 – perfect and deliberate draws with trigger press. Take your time and do everything how you want to do it.

20 – 3/4 speed draws with trigger press.

15 – full speed draws with trigger press. Occasionally I’ll use a par timer and set it for 1.5 to 2 seconds. I am concentrating on finding the front sight and having the shot break as I reach full extension. This requires some honesty with myself and occasionally a video camera. Video doesn’t lie.

5- perfect and deliberate draws with trigger press. I finish with a perfect mechanics.

This is a great resource for dry fire. It’s pretty old at this point, but it keeps dry fire interesting.

 

Any tips you can turn me onto, I’d appreciate it. I’m just trying to get better like everyone else!!!
Protect the Brood,

Defensive Daddy.

Legal defense plans

I feel sort of silly reposting a post with a link to another post, but this is an important topic. One that I honestly haven’t prepared for enough. There are three fights associated with using a gun to defend yourself. The gun fight, the legal fight, and the emotional fight. Surviving the first is paramount, but planning for the legal battle is critical. Give it some thought and consider the Armed Citizens’ Legal Defense Network. It’s not as sexy as talking about new guns hitting the market, or high speed marksmanship skills, but ignoring it is folly.

Rule 4 violations

As Claude says in his article, you shouldn’t pick up your home defense gun if you don’t have a light on or near it. There are too many instances of home owners putting a bullet into a loved one. Totally preventable with a $5 flashlight and a minimal amount of training. In training courses, the emphasis of rule 4 (be aware of your target and what is around it) is placed on the backstop or people moving around the thing you intend to shoot. When I teach it, I put an emphasis on the target itself. Please make sure you identify what you’re shooting at. Don’t be afraid to use your words and verbalize. You have to practice speaking with a gun in your hand. It’s not natural, so do it when you dry fire.

Making ‘I Spy’ A Useful Awareness Game For Your Child

As my son gets older and is interacting more with the world around him, I have been trying to figure out ways to make ‘situational awareness’ a part of his life from an early age. Growing up, my dad didn’t have any particular method to make me pay attention to the details of the world around me as far as I can tell, but he did always pay attention to small details about people. He always pointed out accents, mannerisms, posture, and mood of people we interacted with. My mom always played ‘which of these things is not like the others’ in children’s books, but nothing as it related to other people. ‘I Spy’ in the car was always a popular game in the van. The groundwork was laid, but only as a way to pass the time.

In my adult life and especially after I adopted personal defense on as my primary pursuit, I was able to focus this attention to useful details that seem to allow me to see situations unfolding before others are aware of it. For instance, I notice details about vehicles, odd characters in crowds, I see friends in crowds before they see me, I notice things that are strange and otherwise out of place, or when a person’s focus changes to me in a crowd. This isn’t to say I’m a ninja, my filter is just tuned to catch a lot of this stuff. I want the same for my son because I feel it could save his life.

Spending a life staring into an iPhone is a good way to miss something important.

I was recently reading Sentinel, by Patrick McNamara, which is an outstanding book in which the author uses his military and PSD (personal security detail) experience to frame personal protection for a family. It’s a great book, a quick read, and worth the cost (especially the Kindle version). His style of writing is very to the point and has an obvious military flare, which I sort of dig. In it, he highlights a game that you can play with your kids to teach them to pay attention to small details as it relates to the world around them. He calls it The Awareness Game.

Everyone plays ‘I Spy’ with their kids. Usually it’s looking for innocuous things such as colors, numbers, cars, buildings, and so on. Instead of that, ask your children to note small details about the people, things and places you see. Here’s some examples:

  • What state was on that red sport car’s license plate?
  • What color were the security guard’s shoes? Did he have a gun?
  • Is this the same car that was parked here when we arrived? (as you exit the store)
  • What color was the truck that we parked next to?
  • What was the last mile marker we passed on the highway?
  • How many kids did that momma have with her in the grocery store line?
  • What was strange about the old man asking for money?
  • What was the waiter’s name tonight at dinner?
  • What floor did we just get out on? (exiting an elevator)

Asking these types of questions will (should) put your child’s focus out into the world instead of in their immediate surroundings. They might not always answer correctly, but if they start putting importance on seeing details it can only help them. If you make it fun they will probably start to challenge you back, keeping you on your toes. You’re building a teammate from the ground up.

The efficacy of this game is purely hypothetical for me at this point, as my son is still talking baby talk and not potty trained…but I will be playing this game with him as soon as he’s ready. I want to streamline the learning curve for him and give him the tools to live in condition yellow starting early. This isn’t just about spotting bad guys. The ability to recall details like license plates, phone numbers, a person’s description, the address of a building, a flat tire on the family car, etc, is a useful skill that can help your child avoid minor inconveniences, and possibly save his/her life. Let the games begin!

Protect the Brood,

Defensive Daddy

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