Here we go again

BY WiscoDave
5 years, 8 months ago

Well, as far as I know Herschel hasn’t come screaming out of the woods to end this little escapade so either all is going well or he’s blissfully unaware of what is going on.

We start day two in front of the Golden TCJ Keyboard with a quiet recitation of A. Shepard’s Prayer and get right into it.

Yesterday I brought up training that is available from a plethora of instructors in a variety of areas. One thing that may bring pause in consideration of actively seeking training is what value or practical use will it be. To be honest, unless you plan on developing a program that will continually refresh and reinforce what you learned the skills you paid to learn will go away. Use or lose it, so to speak. In my opinion having a plan in place to continually utilize what you have learned is just as important as the training itself.

Sometimes the training you get can have unexpected, and pleasant, results.

A very good friend has taken a few of Mosby’s classes. Now this guy is a driven animal in his approach to this stuff. His time is too precious to waste on something that he will not be willing to use and build on.

I received an email from him with regards to an “opportunity” he had to use the skills learned from Mosby. Here are his words:

“Local PD rangemaster just invited me to use their indoor range tomorrow night with whatever hardware I want. I asked about my AK w/fmj and he said sure, why not if I get tired of their Eotech’d M-4s. Methinks word about me attending Mosby’s classes has reached the right ears. Or not…”

“Okay – that was a blast and very ego satisfying. No way around it. Turns out I was being used but in a good way. Anyone surprised about that? Anyhoo, showed up as planned dressed in Dickies and a sweatshirt and a concealed G19. Shoulder bag held the day’s work clothes, work Makarov and holster, earpro, etc that I didn’t want to leave in the car.  Got met and buzzed in and greeted by two before led into a concrete maze to the range. Trip chat was them asking about my background & interest in firearms, what training and why. My views on what a man is and being prepared to solve one’s own problems seemed to go over well enough and I asked about their interest in me. They’d heard some favorable things and wanted to see for themselves.

We get to the range and I drop the bag and grab the earpro from it. Targets are man sized armed perp pics at 75 feet. They tell me to help myself and get warmed up. I notice how little direction they give me and suspect it’s a test to see how I run on my own re safety etc. Everyone’s ears are already on so I lift my shirt, skin my smokewagon and start putting rounds in and around the head of my target. They jump back and start swearing before calming back down. It never occurred to them I might be carrying and ready to go *immediately*. Gotta say that was enjoyable to see.

To my joy I’m getting good face hits at 75 feet and the misses are within 4 inches and a number of those “misses” are upper chest and neck hits due to jerking the trigger down. We’d only gone to 30 feet max with Mosby so this was seriously pushing it for me, but I remembered the training and worked the steps in order. They look at the target and say that wasn’t bad at all. Later they tell me I’m better than all but a few in the department and those equal or better are gun nuts, present company included. Turns out this is department weapon qualification week and they wanted to show the newer officers their marksmanship borderline sucks and there are civilians out there who can and will put pistol rounds in their face at 75 feet before they can draw.

Next up are the carbines, again at 75 feet. They’re all zeroed so hits are quick and easy. Eotechs are nice but irons are plenty at that close range. Easy as it is, several officers need hours to qualify and some never do (with no real consequences due to affirmative action and the union). I pointed at holes in the ceiling downrange and asked if those were what I thought they were. He shook his head and said ‘fraid so. There’s more but you get the idea. All involved made friends and left friends and a great time was had at least by me and I was given two full medbags – probably a result of my mentioning the TC3 training I got with the pistol class and how I’d spent a bunch of my money to fill out my very inadequate kit. I doubt they’d have done that if they thought I was an asshole at the end.”

So, there IS value in the training you get but only if you have a plan to keep your skills fresh and take advantage of opportunities as they may arise.

Please note the generally poor marksmanship of the department’s officers. These are paid professionals. Unless they have a personal interest in the shooting arts they have no real motivation to try and excel at it. My friend, with Mosby’s training under his belt (and his desire to excel) out shot the majority of officers on a fairly large department. He was the equal of their best.

Let that sink in.

[Sorry about the font change after the quote. Monkey just pressing buttons. I’m also forced to use my phone because I have had no luck getting my computer to work with WordPress. Sigh.

Mongo just pawn in game of life…]

Until next time.


Comments

  1. On July 31, 2018 at 6:52 pm, James said:

    Good story with predictable results.I will say it yet again,why are not ALL cops given serious training including live fire exercises and at minimum yearly updates,this would go a good way towards not having bad shooting incidents.Tis crazy to send out folks with supposed power of law and weapons and not have em well trained.You would think city/town insurances would contribute to the tab to just keep down possibility of law suits.I realize they will not all be ultra warriors but at least have them proficient in firearms and the thinking that goes into using firearms,really does not seem much to ask.

  2. On July 31, 2018 at 10:36 pm, Longbow said:

    Most cops aren’t shooters. A pistol to them is just another tool on their Batman Belt. And… most think that since they wear a Super Hero Costume and bear the Magic Shield, that expertise come with it. Hence, the “Only Ones”.

    Another thing I have noticed is that cops get real nervous and fidgety when around mere mortals, you know, “civilians” who handle weapons better than they do and have technical knowledge/skill sets exceeding their own. I noticed when I stated working Gun Shows regularly back twenty-five years ago, that most cops wouldn’t engage in conversations about firearms other than to state what gun they carried. It took me a while to grasp what I was seeing. They were intimidated. Plain and simple.

    I agree that EVERYONE should be trained with common weaponry to the highest standard he can reach. Not just cops, but every swingin’ Richard out there.

  3. On August 1, 2018 at 6:35 am, ragman said:

    Good post. I am appalled that cops aren’t required to know their local/state gun laws. Only a collection of idiots would turn our “heroes” loose without a thorough, demonstrated working knowledge of said laws. The most recent example of ignorance was the incident in Miami Beach where the cop didn’t know that it is perfectly legal for a citizen to open carry while fishing. Totally unacceptable!

  4. On August 1, 2018 at 7:53 am, James said:

    Here we go again,a court in western part of country halted Defense Distributors open source library,tis show boating/selling fear as plans/blue prints/code ect. for building firearms on the net for 10+ years.I will say till they had this huge public outcry from AG’s was followed mostly by tinkerers/hobbyists ect.,now,so public am sure folks who never gave it a thought before are downloading/mirroring info.,these Ag’s really not too bright.

    At moment this whole thing is a freedom of speech issue,now clearly in public eye.

    The crazy part is there is a lot more dangerous inf. on the net then gun plans/codes,really hope the govt. doesn’t keep this nonsense up and draw attention to that.

  5. On August 1, 2018 at 8:17 am, Ned said:

    Similar results at our local gun range when I was an RSO. We watched local LEO’s keep shooting the wrong person on the hostage target. Went something like: Bang. “Shit.” Bang. “Shit.” Another RSO asked local swat to please, please, just let him be if he was ever taken in a hostage situation.

  6. On August 1, 2018 at 8:59 am, Sean said:

    “…there are civilians out there who can and will put pistol rounds in their face at 75 feet before they can draw.” That is the LAST thing that needs to enter the warped self-saving headspace of the current police. If this were to become common ‘training’ – the current death rate among mundanes when shot by “Only Ones” will skyrocket – and since most can’t shoot well – collateral damage to those beyond 75 feet will skyrocket as well.

  7. On August 1, 2018 at 2:42 pm, Ed said:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6009103/Police-suburban-Denver-kill-resident-shot-intruder.html [the resident was a Vietnam vet trying to protect his grandson…]

  8. On August 1, 2018 at 3:15 pm, Gryphon said:

    The po-Lice have absolutely NO Incentive to ‘train to be good/safe Shooters’ Because they bear NO RESPONSIBILITY for Shooting someone, “criminal” or Not. And Yes, they are AFRAID of Citizens with Guns, for they Don’t Know who’s able to Take them Out with just an offhand Double-Tap…

  9. On August 2, 2018 at 4:16 pm, VanArtsdalen said:

    Ed, it gets worse than that. The enforcer who shot the Vietnam Vet had killed another innocent person only about a month before. Also, the enforcers were told what the homeowner (Vietnam Vet) was wearing and that the intruder was naked and still he was shot without warning.

    I have no doubt the enforcer will be cleared since he must have been “following procedures” and all.

    “Officer Safety” wins every time.

    https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/colorado-cop-who-killed-veteran-defending-grandson-from-naked-intruder-was-involved-in-another-deadly-shooting/ar-BBLpmTm

  10. On August 2, 2018 at 4:24 pm, VanArtsdalen said:

    Perhaps I should have said “shot another person” instead of “another innocent person.” The person the enforcer shot a month earlier was running, though, so couldn’t have presented much of a threat.

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