Testing A New Gun
#wheelgunwednesday
As I work on the updated Second Edition of Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make, a chapter I’m adding is ‘Not Testing Your Gun.’ Several industry surveys indicate that the average gun purchaser fires less than a box of ammunition through it, perhaps only a cylinder or magazine. However, this is an average and many people never fire their guns at all. Legacy guns, i.e., inheritances and passed down guns, are probably even worse. Not knowing if your gun works or if you can make it work is a Serious Mistake.
One client of mine thought her gun, a S&W revolver, was broken because she couldn’t pull the trigger. When I examined it, there was nothing wrong with it. She just didn’t have the hand strength to pull the trigger. This was fortunate because she found out when she tried to do some shooting that would have been unlawful. Not knowing the laws about shooting is another Serious Mistake but that’s for another post.
Two other clients had revolvers, one cheap and one a nice S&W snub, that wouldn’t fire when they came to the range with me. This was a bit of a shock to them. They shot my revolver adequately but both had to get their revolvers repaired before they were serviceable. Yet another client had a nice S&W Model 36 but had never gotten around in four years to purchasing any ammunition for it. After an attempted burglary, her boyfriend called me to ask if I ‘had any spare bullets.’
Yesterday, I was able to acquire in a trade a nice S&W Model 10-7 snub. The first thing I did was to head to my gun club to test it. Not only for functionality but also to find where various loads hit because it is a fixed sighted gun. Different bullet weights and velocities can result in a gun hitting at very different points of impact. If the only thing someone is concerned with is hitting a full size Q target at four yards, e.g., the New York State Concealed Carry License Live Fire Proficiency Assessment, https://troopers.ny.gov/minimum-standards-new-york-state-concealed-carry-firearm-safety-training it’s not a big deal. If the target is obscured behind a car 17 yards away and is shooting at you https://www.patreon.com/posts/armed-citizen-132185205, where the bullets hit becomes more important.
There were three loads that I tested; 158 grain Fiocchi FMJ, 130 grain Remington UMC FMJ, and the last of my 148 grain lead Winchester SuperMatch wadcutters. The test protocol was my Old West Shootist’s Challenge. https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2025/02/05/shootists-challenge-the-final-word/ To it, I’ve added a second string inspired by Marty Robbins’ song Big Iron. “There was 40 feet between them when they stopped to make their play.”
The Shootist’s Challenge now consist of two strings, one at 25 feet and the other at 40 feet.
1) Six shots, 10 paces (25 feet/8 yards), Primary Hand Only, Untimed.
2) Six shots, 40 feet/13 yards, Two Hands, Untimed.
All shots must hit in the large (5 inch) square, one must hit the center (1 inch) stamp.
The Remington 130 FMJ seemed to give the best results.
As I texted to my colleague Chuck Haggard https://agiletactical.com/, “I care a lot less about Magic Bullets than I do about hitting right.”
An interesting thing occurred while shooting the Winchester SuperMatch. One of the rounds had a high primer and simply would not come under the recoil shield. This is why czeching ammo that’s intended for serious social purposes is so important. SuperMatch was considered to be a very high quality ammo in its day but here was a round that couldn’t be made to fire.
The next test was the Washington State Basic Covert Carry/Off-Duty Proficiency Course.
This is a good course for carry revolvers and is 5 shot friendly. The times aren’t particularly demanding but they’re not a total piece of cake either. A good aspect is that it requires shooting with Primary Hand Only and Support Hand Only. I’ve had a client who couldn’t pull the trigger of her revolver with her Support Hand. That’s a problem.
Finally, I shot the IDPA 5X5 Classifier.
The light was changing and as can happen, it affected where my rounds impacted. This is because it changes the sight picture.
It’s probably not necessary to test fire a gun to this extent but at least knowing it will fire is a worthwhile exercise. It’s also important to know what the recoil is like. An incident occurred in Florida years ago in which a woman had a revolver she had never fired. When she fired it, it flew out of her hand. Things didn’t go that well for her after that. I’ve had a similar experience when a friend’s wife wanted to shoot my Charter Arms .44 Bulldog. It flew out of her hands and knocked her back. If I hadn’t caught her, she would have fallen flat on her back.
As the late Paul Gomez was fond of saying, “Shoot Yor Guns!”
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Parking Lot Tactics
Greg Ellifritz recently wrote an excellent article about mitigating the risks we encounter every time we go into a parking lot. https://www.activeresponsetraining.net/five-parking-lot-precautions It’s great advice; much like my own protocols that I developed after LCDR Schaufelberger was assassinated in his car in El Salvador. https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2018/05/25/in-memoriam-albert-schaufelberger/
Two points in particular resonated with me. First,
Walk against traffic going to and from your car. … You may also be able to detect the driver distracted by texting or scrolling the internet on his phone before he runs you down as well.
Every time you go into a parking lot, you will see people who simply cannot put their cell phones down for ONE Minute between their cars and the store. As soon as they get out of the car, they start texting or talking, completely obvious to the two ton homicide machines moving all around them. When they leave the store, they continue blabbing even while they’re backing out of their parking space and driving down the lane.
The title of Colonel Rex Applegate’s most famous book Kill Or Be Killed comes to mind. Such people are ready and willing to kill you as they distractedly put their manslaughter machines in motion or they’re ready to be killed while yapping about something of no importance.
By walking against the traffic, you’ll have more chance to see the distracted driver before they run you down and then say “I’m so sorry” while you’re leaking and being loaded in the ambulance aka ‘amber lamps.’ https://youtu.be/53Bx5PLrOIk?si=zCk8BcJyDLOVFUS0&t=173 Note: in the first part of the video there “may be strong language used by those shown in the video. Viewer discretion is advised, especially for young children and sensitive viewers.”
The second point that resonated with me was:
If I do carry a shopping bag, I always carry it in my non-dominant hand. I like to keep my gun hand free for a faster draw should I decide I want to respond with my weapon.
I disagree with Greg about this. My comment on his Patreon page https://www.patreon.com/posts/five-parking-lot-138083166 was:
One point of difference. I carry the bag in my Primary Hand. During 10 years (around 400 iterations) as a role player in Force on Force scenarios, we never saw any clients drop something in their Support Hand when they were forced by the scenario into shooting. Even Rogers Advanced Level shooters would shoot Primary Hand Only. Same thing for less skilled shooters. That observation changed my mind about how to set myself up for success.
Parking lots are spaces in-between other places of relatively greater safety. Ramp up your level of awareness for two minutes when you drive into the parking lot and when you leave the store to exit the parking lot.
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The Evolution of Police Revolver Training
#wheelgunwednesday
Looking at the history of POlice training and how it began ….
Police revolver training goes back to the 19th Century and President Theodore Roosevelt. Before he was President of the United States, he was President of the New York City Police Commission from 1895 to 1897. When he began that position, New York policemen furnished their own revolvers for duty. Roosevelt was impressed by the .32 Colt New Police revolver and ordered 4500 to be issued to the New York police. Being dismayed by the lack of proficiency of the officers, Roosevelt instituted a school of pistol practice. He required officers, or ‘roundsmen,’ as they were called, to practice and qualify with their issued revolvers.
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/the-evolution-of-law-enforcement-revolver-training/
Small Gun Accuracy
#mousegunmonday
The Washington State Basic Covert Carry/Off-Duty Proficiency Course for Law Enforcement Officers includes shots out to 15 yards. This is perfectly workable with small guns like a Ruger LCP, even though it has a double action trigger.
Here’s my YouTube video of the Course of Fire.
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Man Shot by Deputy after Calling 911
#NegativeOutcome
After a Defensive Gun Use, don’t have your gun in hand when the POlice arrive.
[After the man called 911 saying he had killed someone,] The Ventura County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the man’s home in the 4300 block of Central Avenue in Camarillo around 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, July 31. The 79-year-old man was allegedly armed with a gun and the dispatcher, who was still on the line, had asked the elderly man to step out of the house.
The man was allegedly still armed and behaved in a ‘threatening matter,’ prompting one of the deputies to shoot him, according to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
Most likely after a Defensive Gun Use, a person is going to be very excited. Plan ahead of time to put your gun down before exposing yourself to the POlice. In my first class with John Farnam, he advised us to say “You might want to look over there” and point to your gun that’s in a recognizable place. Probably best for it to be unloaded to preclude the possibility of an Unintentional Discharge.
This type of incident falls into the Negative Outcome category of Undesirable Police Involvement. https://store.payloadz.com/go/?id=2617872
I had a different idea for #fridayfundamentals today but not getting shot is definitely fundamental.
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My Favorite Pressure Testing Drill
This is an old post of mine on Facebook from 2013. It was reposted today by my friends Phil Wong and Rob Reed. My thanks to them for resurrecting it. The post follows:
The concept of livefire pressure testing one’s shooting skills came up on a forum. This was my contribution.
My favorite drill is simple to set up but complex to administer. It requires comfort with an execution matrix to do correctly.
Conceptually, it’s best done with a group of about 2 dozen people or less. I’ve done it with 3 dozen, but it’s a lot of work.
It’s called ‘Everyone shoots against everyone.’ Using an execution matrix, I have every student shoot a short bout against every other student. Not consecutively, though. It’s not a mystery, I just run down the matrix and pair up names.
Logistically, all that’s required is two pepper poppers and two shoot boxes. The shooting is static. The drill is simple. Two shooters, two poppers, one signal. First to drive his/her popper down is the winner.
Where it gets difficult for the shooters is ramping their focus up and down over the course of an hour or so. Shooters do a lot of standing around and then get quickly called to shoot while the poppers are being reset. I do that timing deliberately.
When I did this for a large police department’s firearms instructors several years ago, their lead firearms instructor was the hands down favorite to win because he was easily the best shot in the department. However, that turned out not to be the case. He became complacent after awhile. The guys that had to shoot against him were jacked up every time. There ended up being no clear cut winner. The guys at the top of the winning curve were all reasonably proficient but not equal to him. Not surprisingly to me, the dedicated point shooters ended up at the bottom of the curve. One even told me he had decided to re-evaluate his philosophy because he got beaten so consistently.
At the end I commented that the amount of time they had to prepare for each bout after being called was similar to the amount of time they had from when they turned on their lights for a ‘routine traffic stop’ until they exited their patrol cars. Some of them do dozens of stops each day because they work traffic on the Interstate.
The psychology of approaching combat is as important as skill. Complacency, among other things, kills. After two years at Rogers, how students dealt with the problem mentally became far more interesting to me than the technique.
One of the difficulties of the Rogers Testing Program is that it requires students to take turns loading magazines, watching/evaluating someone else, and then standing and delivering. It goes on for over an hour, which is psychologically nerve racking. This evening, I was watching some footage of a huge firefight in Afghanistan and was struck at how similar the pacing was to the Testing Program at the School.
Close Quarters Handgun Training
My latest Shooting Illustrated article is posted.
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/close-quarters-handgun-training/
The topic is the ‘Close Quarters Handgun’ class I attended last month. It was taught by Chuck Haggard of Agile Training https://agiletactical.com/ and hosted by The Complete Combatant https://www.thecompletecombatant.com/.
Fair disclaimers up front: Chuck, Shelley, and Brian are all dear friends of mine and I didn’t pay for the class; in fact, Chuck picked up my range fee. Furthermore, I shot the class with the HK CC9 https://hk-usa.com/cc9/ that HK gave me. Chuck called it my “stubby gun,” which it is. Almost everybody else was shooting full size service pistols, most with Red Dot Sights. That said, nobody is paying me for my comments.
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Fraternity Picnic Shooting
A précis of the incident:
- Fraternity holds picnic at an Atlanta park
- Uninvited intruder wearing ski mask crashes picnic and starts a confrontation
- Fraternity members try to de-escalate the situation
- Masked intruder pulls out a gun and starts shooting
- A fraternity Brother is shot in the head and dies on scene
- Other fraternity Brothers, who have Weapons Carry Licenses, are armed
- They draw their guns and shoot the masked intruder
- Intruder is neutralized with bullets and later expires in hospital
Sad that carrying a pistol has become a necessity even at a pleasant fellowship event but I’m glad the Brothers had theirs. It could have been much worse. There are a lot of emboldened wackos wandering around. The report indicated that the intruder had been walking down the sidewalk next to the park and just decided to make trouble for an unknown reason.
RIP Mr. Pearson.
Armed Citizen Scenarios
#scenariosunday
I was nostalgic today for older style IDPA Scenarios like we used to shoot in the sport’s early days. Twenty-five years ago, there wasn’t much reloading on the clock and stages often consisted of multiple strings having six shots or less. It’s a different sport now.
My nostalgia caused me to write a new stage and redesign an older one. One is based on an Armed Citizen incident and the other on an actual car burglary and murder. The stages are called the Chicargo Practical Event and Muffler Thieves.
I finished up with the Old West Shootist’s Challenge. My Little Crappy Pistol (LCP) did just fine.
It was a fun afternoon. I’m going to do it every month, as if it was my own private match.
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Preventing Unintentional Discharges with a Revolver
#wheelgunwednesday
In my “Off-duty Shootouts of the LAPD” presentations, one section is devoted to Notable Incidents – Unintentional Discharges. The LAPD still authorizes snub revolvers for backup and off-duty carry. Unintentional Discharges occur to both revolvers and autoloaders, although there are no reported on-duty UDs with revolvers. Off-duty is when they occur. I’ve written about this before. https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2020/08/19/dry-practice-safety/
No doubt someone will comment that the correct term is Negligent Discharge. The LAPD uses the terms Unintentional Discharge, Negligent Discharge, and Accidental Discharge in very specific context, so I will use their terminology here.
A common cause of Unintentional Discharges is Impromptu Dry Practice and faulty unloading procedures. Another is attempting to clean/maintain loaded weapons. Upon conclusion of the investigation, such incidents will be adjudicated by the Board of Police Commissioners as Negligent.
NON-TACTICAL UNINTENTIONAL DISCHARGE – 040-19 UD at home
NON-TACTICAL UNINTENTIONAL DISCHARGE – 076-08 UD at hotel
NON-TACTICAL UNINTENTIONAL DISCHARGE – 014-23 UD at Rampart Station
Example Proximate Cause of UD
Officer A placed his left hand under the open cylinder and used his left index finger to depress the ejector rod, releasing the live rounds into his left hand. Officer A did not count the live rounds and placed them on top of the kitchen counter directly behind him. Officer A then closed the cylinder and pressed the trigger twice.
According to Officer A, believing his revolver was still unloaded, he placed his finger on the trigger and pressed it a third time, which caused the revolver to discharge a single round. No one was injured by the discharge.
Since my previous post, an even better solution and accompanying procedure has become available. The solution is the SafeSnap™ Training Disc for 5-Shot J-frame Size Revolvers. https://zetasix.com/product/safesnap-5/
Fair disclaimer: I was involved in the development of the SafeSnap™ but I receive no compensation for commenting about it.
The procedure works as follows. Have a SafeSnap and a twist knob speedloader such as HKS, 5 Star, or Lyman of the correct size for your revolver. Keep both of them readily available.
When you decide to dry practice or do maintenance on your revolver, get them before doing anything.
- Take the live cartridges out.
- Count and secure them in the twist knob Speedloader. If there are any empty holes left in the speedloader, the FBI calls that ‘a clue.’
- Put the SafeSnap™ Training Disc in the revolver.
- Do your dry practice or maintenance.
- When finished, don’t reload the gun.
- Do something else to occupy your mind and remove dry practice from your thoughts.
- When you do reload, say “This gun is loaded” out loud three times.
Using such a procedure will go a long way toward preventing Unintentional Discharges. Nevertheless, muzzle direction is still the Primary Safety; always has been, always will be.
The SafeSnap™ is also available for K frames and LCRs. There are other procedures appropriate for autoloaders but this post is specific to revolvers.
Other causes of Unintentional Discharges
- Administratively carrying or handling loaded handguns without a holster
- High stress tactical situations
- Drunkenness
Final note: It’s also inappropriate to dry practice using your girlfriend’s cat as a target.
https://cowboystatedaily.com/2025/04/17/brief-gillette-man-didnt-know-gun-was-loaded-when-he-shot-pet-cat-dead/ Not only will it sour your relationship with her but could conceivably lead to Animal Cruelty charges, which are a Felony in most States.
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