Failure Drill?
A friend of mine sent me a link to the Maine [POlice] “Plain Clothes Course of Fire” Pistol Qualification.
https://www.maine.gov/dps/mcja/forms/documents/PlainClothesPistolQualificationCourse2019.doc
As with many current POlice Qualifications, it includes a “Failure Drill = (2 to the chest and 1 to the head),” in this Course three times. The terminology evolved from what was originally called the “Mozambique Drill.” https://www.shootingillustrated.com/articles/2017/5/18/the-mozambique-drill-a-history-and-how-to/
Consider the “Failure Drill” as it’s currently taught and evaluated. It has been bastardized the same way the “OODA Loop” has been. The drill isn’t actually structured to deal with a Failure. The concept of Failure requires an assessment of the efficacy of the original effort. Assessing the target’s reaction or lack thereof to the first two shots was an explicit part of the drill as originally taught by LAPD Officers Larry Mudgett and John Helms.
When the structure of the drill is such that the transition from the two chest shots to the head is immediate and pre-programmed, no assessment is involved. Rather such a drill is structured to ensure the recipient is killed from the get go. It should be called the “Anchor Drill” or “Kill Drill.” That’s not to say there might not be a justifiable reason to anchor the adversary. However, let’s not have any illusions about what the object of the exercise is and call it something it’s not.
How Do I Choose Which Carry Gun?
One of my Patrons https://www.patreon.com/TacticalProfessor?fan_landing=true&view_as=public sent me the following message. With his permission, I’m going to answer it for a broad audience.
My question for you is how do you decide which gun you carry most often. … I know from following you over the years that you carry various pistols and revolvers from time to time. I’m just curious how you decide which gun you carry most often.
That’s a pertinent and insightful question.
The short answer is that I don’t change guns very often. My EDC handguns all are sufficient to deal with what I consider my most likely threat profile. Because that’s so, I don’t feel the need to scale my armament up and down.
I will change my gun to fit different mission profiles. As a professional trainer, my mission profile is based on what I’m teaching not a varying threat profile. For instance, when I was working on my LCP Project, I carried an LCP for almost a year. When I began the Snub Nose Revolvers – Hands-on Shooting program on Patreon, I switched back to carrying a J frame. During the program, I would occasionally alternate between a S&W 317 and Taurus 856 to evaluate their differences, but that was about all.
When I end the Snub Nose Revolvers program at the end of this year, I will start the Subcompact Pistols – Hands-on Shooting program. For that program, I’ll switch from a J Frame to a Glock 42 that Glock sent me for evaluation in the program. The LCP will also go back into service as another example of subcompacts.
Handguns have different triggers, index onto the target at different points, and even draw differently. The difference between where the Glock 42 indexes onto the face of a target vis-à-vis the 317 is quite noticeable. Obviously, the triggers are different, even with the NY1 trigger spring I installed in the 42.
For simplicity sake, I prefer to stay with the same system day to day. When I do change, I do an hour’s worth of dry practice before venturing out with a new carry piece. How I can make the gun perform is much more important to me than aspects of caliber and ‘firepower.’ It’s just a handgun, folks. As John Farnam says, in the end they’re all just pathetic popguns. I’m a firm believer that “It’s the ‘finest light cavalryman in the world,’ not the arrow,” even when one arrow isn’t quite as pointy as the other.
9mm in Revolvers
#wheelgunwednesday
Reposted from the Snub Noir https://snubnoir.com/ Facebook page.
One of the issues with 9mm in a revolver is that the very characteristic that makes it reliable in autoloaders, its taper, works against it in revolvers. The 9mm cartridge tapers 10/1000ths of an inch over a case length of .500. Its taper gives it a high probability of extracting cleanly from the chamber of an autoloader immediately after firing. However, we don’t want revolver cartridges to extract immediately from the chamber. In fact, we want the exact opposite to happen. If the cases self-extract (move backward) far enough, they bind against the recoil shield. When binding occurs, the friction interferes with cylinder rotation. This is a problem.
The .38 Special, like most 19th Century revolver cartridges is cylindrical (.379) down its entire case length. The taper of the 9mm cartridge allows it to move backward in the chambers much more easily than a cylindrical case will.
Using moon clips mitigates this to a certain extent because the friction of all the chambers is exerted on the one cartridge that fires. It’s not a guarantee though, it’s ammunition dependent.
Moon clip .45s work pretty well because the .45 ACP has very little taper to it. Its taper is only .003 over the .650 case length, so it’s almost cylindrical like the .38 Special.
The perils of holsterless carry
“The gun was in his waistband not holstered and loaded. The gun slipped down his leg, he attempted to grab it, and was somehow manipulating the weapon and discharged the firearm,”
Sgt. Akeem Turnbull with Lovejoy Police
Hit himself and three other people with one Unintentional Discharge. A modern day William Tell.
https://youtube.com/clip/UgkxZfZu2hpwPow-gMthA-ucaBLUnIqMPB9A
Taurus 856 – First Impressions
#wheelgunwednesday
FTC Notice: I purchased the gun and ammo with my own money.
Curious to see if the Quality Control at Taurus has gotten better, I purchased a Taurus 856 recently. I specifically did not buy the Executive Grade because I wanted a two inch snub.
My initial impression is favorable. Its trigger is good; smooth and not excessively heavy. Definitely comparable to my old S&W Model 36 no dash. The machining is good and the sights are much better than the ones on my old Model 36, although that’s not saying much.
The first live fire range session wasn’t extensive but it was good. It shot to the point of aim and grouped as well as could be expected given the lighting conditions at the indoor range I went to.
The first thing I did was to shoot the LAPD Retired Officer Qual as a warmup. Then I shot the same course with the Model 36 as a comparison. They performed comparably.
Next, I shot the 856 at 5, 7, and 15 yards to compare Point of Aim with Point of Impact. The 15 yard Point of Impact was fine. The flyer is from the shot that I fired just as the shooter next to me touched off a round from his Glock 27. Indoor range operators prefer to put two shooters next to each other even when there are only two shooters on a 12 position range. Why this is I have never been able to figure out but it’s a consistent pattern.
Taurus has apparently changed the stainless steel they use. The 856 didn’t get too hot to handle after 25 rounds the way the last stainless Taurus snub I bought 20 years ago did. It was no warmer than the Model 36 at the end of the session.
The rubber stocks were noticeably more comfortable than the splinter grips of the S&W. I’ll be putting a different set of stocks on the 36 for future range work.
HKS speedloaders for the Colt Detective Special (DS-A) fit the 856 fine. So do my Safariland speedloaders but those are quite hard to find now.
The orange safety ring included with the revolver has held up to several hundred snaps in dry practice. This is also an improvement. I destroyed the last one within a few dozen snaps.
There’s a back story on the purchase. During the bioweapon plague, some friends gifted me the funds for a pistol as a birthday present. Originally, the plan was to get a red dot equipped pistol, probably a SCCY. However, I’ve decided to return to my roots so I bought the snub instead since there are plenty of red dot instructors but not many snub instructors actively teaching. I’ll be using the Taurus for the four month Snub Nose Revolvers – Hands-on Shooting Tier of my Patreon page. Link to Patreon page That should be a good test of its durability, accuracy, and handling qualities. Many thanks to my friends for the gun, I’m really enjoying it so far.
So far so good. Next live fire session will be at my gun club so I won’t have anyone touching off rounds next to me and I can test the gun more extensively.
Gun Training from Friends and Relatives
This is a good example of why “My uncle is a veteran and he taught me to shoot” isn’t the hot ticket.
Watching the video in slow motion and looking at the track of the hits, it’s fairly clear that every hit on the roof and back of his car was created by the homeowner. Negative Outcome. There’s a hit on the side glass that probably came from the criminals and started it all.
This story was sent to me by a friend from the original tip on Gun Free Zone https://gunfreezone.net/thats-a-lot-of-dumb-luck-and-spent-brass/. I agree with this commentary.
He is very lucky to have survived and to have not been charged with a crime for filling a neighborhood with bullets.
Suppressive fire has its place in a combat zone but not in your own neighborhood.
P&S ModCast 306 – Optimal Is Not Universal
I rarely do podcasts because I don’t like hearing myself talk. But, legendary lawman Chuck Haggard talked me into joining Primary & Secondary ModCast 306 – Optimal Is Not Universal. The replay is up now. https://www.spreaker.com/user/primaryandsecondary/p-s-modcast-306-optimal-is-not-universal
The podcast mostly focused on a subject I’m always interested in, small pistols. It was refreshing to hear some viewpoints that were counter to “it’s only an arm’s length gun.” As I like to say:
It’s only an arm’s length gun if you’re incompetent.
In particular, a couple of discussion points struck home for me. The first was Chris Cypert’s explanation of how placement of gunshot wounds affects performance. Chris was a Special Forces medic and his experience with treating gunshot wounds is extensive. This segment begins at 46 minutes and is very worthwhile to listen to.
The other point I really liked was Darryl Bolke’s explanation of ‘towel carry’ for small pistols. I learn something new every day.
It was an interesting evening of discussion and many thanks to Matt Landfair of P&S for having me on.
Teaching the Snub Nose Revolver
After a decade long hiatus, I’m back to teaching the snub nose revolver. This time it will be in a virtual format on Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/TacticalProfessor/membership
The Snub Nose Revolvers – Hands-on Shooting Tier is a four month project to develop shooting and gunhandling skills for snub nosed revolvers. It will be based on the principles and techniques of the Snub Nose classes I taught for decades and the two DVDs I made about snubs. Also included will be examples of what went right and wrong in several real life incidents involving snubs.
Each Monday an overview of activities and necessary preparations for the week will be published. Three additional more detailed posts will follow each week. There will be one live fire session each month of no more than 50 rounds. The live fire will be compatible with either indoor or outdoor ranges.
Noted author and former CIA paramilitary operative Ed Lovette, who wrote the original book about the snubby, opined that information about running revolvers in general and snubs in particular is getting harder and harder to come by. I’ve shot snubs in a wide variety of formats, including winning more than two dozen IDPA Championships shooting one. Hopefully, I’ll be able to add a little to the literature and practicum by creating this Tier. I hope that those who own snubs will join my Patreon Tier and grow your skills.
I’m also pleased to announce that I will writing a short skill development shooting exercise for each issue of the Detective Gatzette, the magazine of Snub Noir, the snub aficionados’ organization. https://snubnoir.com/ Snub Noir is a unique group and those who like snubs will find membership useful and enjoyable.
VP 40 In the News
Don’t hang your gun on the hook when you’re using the facilities. This story is a good illustration as to why. Pictures this detailed are seldom available.
Imagine if you were changing your baby’s diaper at the Koala Kare station when his gun went off. Your baby might not be the only one who needed changing.
tacticalprofessor 
You must be logged in to post a comment.