Archive for the 'Tactical Drills' Category

Found this Handgun Drill through Active Response Training. This drill is designed to increase the shooter’s accuracy and speed with a simple pass-or-fail score. A nice thing about this drill is that it requires no extra equipment. Depending on the legality in your area, it can be practiced in the backyard.

There are a lot of good drills out there. Some are designed to develop a skill, some are designed to test a skill. “Finding Your Level” I am pretty convinced as more of a test than a skill builder drill, at least if you shoot it as written. Essentially it test a shooter’s ability to get quick hits on small targets, and their ability to control recoil over a longer string of fire. It has become one of my favorite benchmark drills for basic fundamental shooting processes at speed.

Finding Your Level is not a very widely known drill despite being a really good one in my opinion. The drill originates from a user at pistol-forum.com, and I have not seen the drill used or mentioned outside of p-f.com. There are a lot of really solid shooters on p-f, so if you aren’t a member, you should at least troll the place for info, if not join up. Just don’t be “that guy”.

Photo: Priority Performance

You can find the target to use at the source, which has a table for each level. Included are specific instructions for running the drill. I’ve not tried it. Looks challenging.

This is an interesting list of mindset rules to live by. Much of it applies across any discipline or situation in life. I was taught, “one in the hand is worth two in the bush.” And I learned the hard way, don’t go where you aren’t wanted. Also, be nice; it’s shocking how well this works in conflict avoidance of all types. The clear command to obey Christ is an ongoing lesson with which I admittedly have had varying degrees of success. Avoiding the police is another, and there are others.

Making the right decisions and taking the correct actions can save your life. After a career in law enforcement and a lifetime devoted to the study of armed conflict and training others in the art of pistolcraft, Dave Spaulding has developed some rules to live by.

Following proven operational rules and guidelines is a sound practice and, over the years, I have developed some of my own. I should note, while title has a “tactical” ring to it, these rules can be applied to many situations in life — not just fighting. I can’t claim to be the originator for many of these, simply the author and steward of this distilled list which draws from many sources but has been refined through my experience. I have used these rules regularly with great success, as have my family and students.

Although street experience helps hone the danger sense, I believe everyone has a “sixth sense” that tells them when something isn’t right. If you get an “I-should-leave” feeling, I would suggest you leave.  Too many people tell themselves they’re imagining a threat, it’s called “normalcy bias” and it’s deadly! If you get the urge, what’s the harm in leaving? Never doubt yourself! Of all the people in the world to trust, you should be first on your list.

This next section reminded me of a book, The Gift of Fear, by De Becker. Get the book and read it with the intent to admit and respond to your sense of danger.

Years ago, I was teaching a female-only self-defense class when one of the students cornered me at a break. She told me a story of working late in a high-rise office building and waiting on an elevator. She waited awhile and when the doors opened, a man was on the elevator. She said, “He looked like a biker with long greasy hair and a beard. He was smelly and unkempt. Everything in my being told me not to get on the elevator, but I just thought I was being paranoid. I got on and, right after it started to move, he attacked. I had no idea what to do so I just went to another place in my brain. The only thing that stopped the attack was that the elevator stopped on another floor for another rider and he fled.”

Read the article at the link and make personal, family, or church group applications to improve your skills and mindset where necessary. Things don’t seem to be getting better right now; take the time to prepare, above all, spiritually, but also mentally, emotionally, and physically.

By Ben Findley:

Concealed Carry Drill Description

My Concealed Carry Drill is from a usual close-up self-defense distance of 3 yards and the shooter fires 15 total shots from the draw. It tests your accuracy, precision, and quickness for safely getting 3 hits each on 5 targets, using 4.5 inch, 3.5 inch, 3 inch, and more challenging 2.5 inch targets at the close-up tactical, bad-breath 3-yards distance.

3-3-3 Rule

Remember the 3-3-3 Rule: Most deadly-force self-defense encounters occur at 3 yards or less, 3 shots are fired, and in 3 seconds it is over.

This is why martial training to gain separation if grappling or in tight spaces is essential. Click on the link at the top for how to run the drill.

TCJ is not a for-profit webpage, but in the interest of honor, at the author’s request, “Col Ben’s Concealed Carry Drill” Copyright © 2019 FLORIDA HANDGUNS TRAINING – All Rights Reserved, is mentioned here.

Source:

I’ve always wanted to shoot in a competitive environment. I’ve done trap and skeet, and in the mid-2000s, some bowling pin shooting, but nothing ever really got my motor running. Things like USPSA appealed to me, but clubs were always few and far between. Imagine my shock when I found a local group called Asymmetric Solutions. They are primarily a training outfit for police officers and military forces. They hosted an Action Steel match at the end of January, and I finally dipped my toe into the world of competitive shooting.

In the first stage, I instantly began learning, and by the time the day was over, I had learned a handful of lessons that would make me a better shooter. I’m planning to pursue competition shooting in a more aggressive fashion, especially if it can keep making me a better shooter.

Preparation Pays Off

Knowing how your rifle, optic, sling, and gear are set up makes a huge difference when it comes time to start shooting under pressure. You have enough human error to worry about when it comes time to compete. Knowing how my belt was set up and where my mags were allowed me to compete quickly and efficiently. On top of that, it was cold at the range, so I wore a Propper jacket with a zippered section at the sides that allowed easy access to my gear.

[…]

I’m pretty good at a number of shooting skills that are straightforward. I never knew how bad I was with one-handed shooting until someone put me on the clock. I also could have done better when it came time to shoot from a position somewhere between standing a kneeling. I figured it out but noted that breaking out of the standard positions and working with barricades would be useful.

[…]

Competition shooting reminds me of a military operation. Not necessarily the same exact skills, but similar skills are involved. Planning and prep, fitness, weapon knowledge, weapon handling, and being able to think all matter. It’s scratched an itch I’ve long had, and I can’t wait to see what I learn at the next competition.

“The Ability to Think While Shooting is a Skill” is an interesting point. Competition shooting is a good way to mix in new skills adding to tactical training and standard handgun and rifle drills. More at the source.

Source: The X-Drill

Range: 7yd
Targets: two targets each with a head (3×5 card) and torso (8″ plate) scoring zone
Start position: holstered or ready
Rounds fired: 32

This is another variant of the Changing Gears drill. The purpose of this drill is to build realistic multiple target shooting skills, and to further develop a shooter’s ability to regulate the balance between accuracy and speed necessary to get hits against different size and distance targets.

You’ll create two targets, A and B. Each target will have a 3×5 card as a head zone, and an 8″ plate as a body zone. It should look like this:

There is no scoring listed but you can make your own with friends. Click on the source for the drill procedure.

The X-Drill

H/T “Thomas” in comments

You’ll remember the tiff between TCJ and Ammoland about a handgun drill at that site that we linked here. Ammoland insisted that Herschel delete the post. He did delete it and made these comments here at TCJ:

I removed a post made by fellow writer PGF.  I did so after receiving this note from Ammoland editor Fredy Riehl, as follows.

Hello  captainsjournal100″ (sic)

You have content from our website that is in violation of our copyrights. (here is one example, you have multiple.)

The Captain’s Journal » Self-Defense Skills and Drills, The Casino Drill (captainsjournal.com)

 Please remove all content and images you may have scraped from our domain at once and email us notice it has all been deleted and scrubbed from your domain captainsjournal.com

This is a poorly written letter with awful editing (e.g., you don’t end the sentence with a period if there is a qualifier in parentheses, nor put a period inside the parentheses, I don’t know what the ” is about at the beginning of the letter, etc.).  But I got the gist of his offense.

You’ll note by the title of today’s post that it’s the eighth in a semi-regular series with the Tag handgun drills that we’ve been posting here at the captain’s Journal.

Well, AmmoLand has now embarked on a series of handgun drill articles. I know exactly what they’ve done because I know how lawyers think. They got Herschel to delete the link here and forbade any future links from TCJ while stealing* the idea to profit from it. I know this because AmmoLand just published another handgun drill article, and that’s how lawyers work to maximize corporate profits.

Now, I’m a Christian man, and I’m not even mad about this. In fact, I’ll do three things.

First, I’ll tell you that I can’t link the article to AmmoLand here because, as Christians, when we make a covenant, we keep it. But if you go to AmmoLand and click on recent articles, you’ll find their latest drill. It’s a pretty good practice; go read it and give it a try at the range. I recommend it.

Second, I’m telling you this out of Christian love, only because I want your family to be safe from tyrants of all stripes, be they lone assailants or the government. I never intended to profit from this series.

Third, I’m giving AmmoLand the cloak off my back (Matthew 5:40) by encouraging you to go read their article, which I won’t even name but look for the bull with red eyes. I pray AmmoLand profits handsomely from their handgun training drills series of articles.

I would have loved to have helped by sending them traffic. We could have worked together to make America a safer place. Lawyers are ruining America, but Christians have a duty to make it better.

*It’s not precisely a novel idea, and I surely was not the first to consider it, and neither were they, which makes AmmoLand all the more reprehensible for their corporate lawyer measures against TCJ.

First, Ordinary Citizen shoots handgun drills at 25-Yard Reps. 1min 20sec.

That’s a goal to work toward. We’ve provided some training below to help you get there.

Next, another draw-and-shoot handgun drill:

Bill Drill, (for) Bill Wilson

IPSC target

Teaches: draw, grip, rapid-fire, recoil control, “adequate” rather than “perfect” sight picture.

Brian Enos puts master-level time for this Drill at 2.0 seconds.

Surrender Postition facing the target

With one IPSC (International Practical Shooting Confederation) target 7 yards away, start from surrender position, draw, and fire 6 shots into the A-zone. If any shots miss the A-zone, the time does not count, so the emphasis is on accuracy before speed.

Variations: for a beginner, bring the target as close as 8 feet, or start from low ready instead of holstered. Shoot as fast as you can while keeping the shots in the A-zone and keeping a feeling of control over the gun. The point is to get used to the feeling of controlled rapid fire, learning to watch the sight, and familiarizing yourself with rapid-fire recoil characteristics. Drawing from the holster helps you to learn to acquire a good shooting grip; otherwise the gun will start to feel out of control. If you are missing the A-zone, you’re making mistakes. SLOW DOWN and do it right. This Drill can be a real ammo burner.

For brand-new shooters or rusty shooters, 7 yards is too far for starting out. Increase distance from the target as improvement grows with practice while gaining confidence as you go. Also, you may want to rehearse smoothly drawing your weapon while unloaded to get the hang of it before going to live rounds.

The object is to get proficient at close range – from drawing your weapon through to proper shot placement on target. Improving the time to get the muzzle on target accurately is the goal. It’s not recommended to become static in these drills. Move to new angles, distances, and target types over time while maintaining accuracy.

This one comes from handgun law dot us. Always check with Handgun law dot us for all fifty States’ handgun carry law information.

By Primary Arms at this site.

From novice to intermediate and even the more proficient firearm owners, one thing all firearm owners should have in common is the need for continued practice and drills to improve eye and hand coordination and basic shooting skills when hunting or at the range.

Acquiring proficiency requires continued practice. Regardless of whether you spent months searching for just the right upper receiver combination and took your time putting your AR15 together just so, when it comes to hitting what you aim at consistently, the only thing that will get you there is practice.

Many believe practice and training consist of snapping off a few hundred rounds at your local range. However, there are a few basic drills you’ll want to incorporate into your daily routine that will help you advance your shooting capabilities.

Keep in mind that not all rifle training drills involve live rounds and a trip to the gun range and can happen in the comfort of your home or garage. Performing a dry fire drill is one of the best ways to hone your skills.

The article goes on to discuss two basic to intermediate training techniques that anybody can accomplish, useful for drilling the Rifleman. Read the rest at the link.

Here’s another helpful handgun drill as provided by handgun law us.

Three Target Test,  Ken Hackathorn

I have a simple test I run when checking new trainees or operators. I place three NRA five-yard bullseye centers up at 10 yards. I ask the student to fire six rounds at the first target slow fire, about 2.5 minutes normally). Next I ask them to fire six rounds at the second bullseye in 10 seconds, and finally six rounds at the third in five seconds.

Each string starts with the handgun in hand, at the ready. This is done with both hands on the gun in whatever grip or stance the student prefers. If the student cannot shoot a good slow fire group on the first target, with plenty of time for using good sight alignment and precise trigger control– guess what? The second and third targets are pretty sad.

My key point is that if you cannot fire an accurate group at 10 yards taking your time, you will be in big trouble if you ever expect to do anything well using marksmanship as a goal. Simply put, you had better learn the basics before you plan on being anything serious with a handgun.

This is excellent. I always point out that starting slow and attaining the objective is the first goal. Once rounds are on target to a satisfactory degree, then, and only then, do we increase the rapidity of the training. Don’t drill faster than you can productively hit the target because it’s a waste of time and ammo, teaching inadequate skills. This is especially important in practicing smoothly drawing your weapon to put rounds on target.

In light of AmmoLand’s lawyers pitching a fit over linked articles here at TCJ, we’ve been working on getting permissions from quality sources that don’t mind sharing praxis while driving traffic back to them. Quality training, ideas, and techniques you may not have considered, and specific instruction to get better with our tools is the goal. We’ve already posted several Handgun Training exercises. We’ll tag those and all upcoming training posts with ‘Tactical Drills and Training,’ so we’ll have one tag to use as a reference resource.

Many of the readers here will find some of these to be entry-level. However, there are some with less experience who don’t comment much. The idea is that we all teach and share, encouraging one another. We’ll have higher experience/skill level posts soon.

The first article we’ll link is handgun training from Shooty McBeardface. If you’ve never heard of him, he’s at the usual online places.

From a defensive standpoint, habitually shooting with both eyes open is vastly superior to just using the one. Here I’ll explain a simple method that works; one you can use starting today.

When any of us first starts shooting we make a point to close our off eye so that we can have a clear sight picture. That clear, unambiguous sight picture is vital at this stage because we typically have no trained mechanics or muscle memory to assist with our effort to shoot accurately. What’s more, most of us are unaccustomed to directing our focus into one eye while the other eye remains open.

All of this is to say, there’s a bit of a learning curve to proper defensive firearm technique (of which the eyes are just one component).

I say defensive firearm technique because there is little benefit in target shooting with both eyes open. This doesn’t mean one shouldn’t target shoot with both eyes open, but the point of having both open is so that your field of vision remains as wide as possible so that you don’t miss something important or deadly in a fight for life; yours or someone else’s. However, since humans are creatures of habit, it is best to make a habit of shooting with both eyes open.

Picture: Shooty McBeardface

He continues with some basics and explanatory photos, including finding your dominant eye, aiming, and encouraging you to get out there and practice your new shooting technique to build lifelong skills. Please give him a click.

How I teach folks to check for their dominant eye is to extend both hands out straight in front of the face with the back of the hands facing you, forming a triangle (pictured below). Then focus on an object 20 feet away—close first one eye, then the other. You should be able to see the object with your dominant eye and not the other. I happen to be opposite-eye dominant, which means my dominant eye is not on the side of my dominant hand.