Shooting to Live Methods and Results
#Fridayfundamentals
Shooting to Live by Captains Fairbairn and Sykes is one of the most mentioned books ever in the shooting community. Or at least a caricature of what the book actually said. The reality of what Fairbairn and Sykes taught in reality is much different, both in method and results, than is usually understood.
Clarifying what the two men wrote and trained other to do is not hard. Their “Recruit Training Program” is a grand total of 35 pages, which are heavily illustrated. There are 4660 words in total so it should take an average person 23 minutes to read it. That reading just doesn’t seem to be done by many who talk about their system.
One of the first demonstrations the Recruits received was of the “Extreme Speed” that a pistol without a round in the chamber could be fired at. This is a live fire demonstration of what the Recruits were shown in Dry Practice.
Note that in one iteration, I forgot to chamber the round despite being set up for the drill. Contrary to popular belief, while Fairbairn and Sykes may have “practiced their draws thousands of times” their Recruits did not. In fact, there is very little draw practice in the Recruit Training Programme other than as incidental to the drills fired from Ready and Three-quarter Hip.
The first live fire the Recruits had is demonstrated in this video. It’s quite rudimentary and most likely could be successfully taught to anyone who wasn’t afraid of gunfire with a dozen or so iterations of dry practice. Using a .22 would make it a piece of cake.
Let’s skip to “Advanced Methods.” Note where the hits are on the target. Hits in areas that are likely to have rapid debilitating effect are highlighted. The geometry of the position, being crouched down, forearm even with the stomach, and bore parallel to the ground is almost guaranteed to cause the bullets to impact below the diaphragm.
As Tom Givens likes to quip:
“What do people do when you shoot them below the diaphragm? Pretty much the same thing they were doing before you shot them.”
We need to keep in mind what Fairbairn and Sykes wrote their system was capable of, i.e., their performance standards. The hits had to be somewhere on the entire silhouette target; whether the legs were included is not explicitly stated but neither was it disavowed. The shooting distance of their Programme did not exceed 4 yards at any point and nearly half took place at 2 yards.
“The qualification we require before the recruit’s course can be successfully passed is 50 per cent. of hits anywhere on the man-sized targets employed. Time has shown this to be adequate for the purpose in view.”
Explaining what Shooting to Live was the first segment of my Patreon series on Unsighted Fire. The next segment being addressed is US Army Handgun Marksmanship Training Evolution of WWII and Beyond. It’s very interesting to leave The Telephone Game The Telephone Game and the Training Industry behind and go to the source itself. If you would like to learn more about point shooting and personal protection incidents, click on the image below.
Revolver Handgun To the Rescue
From The Armed Citizen column of the May 2023 NRA Official Journals
#wheelgunwednesday
“A 71-year-old man was walking home from a takeout restaurant on March 2 when two men reportedly emerged from an alley and attempted to rob him at gunpoint. The man pulled out a revolver and exchanged fire with the suspects, who then fled. The armed citizen unfortunately sustained a wound to his ankle but was otherwise unhurt. The suspects had not yet been apprehended at the time of our reporting. (fox29.com, Philadelphia, Pa., 3/3/23)” https://www.fox29.com/news/victim-shoots-at-robbery-suspects-north-philadelphia
According to 6abc Philadelphia https://6abc.com/philadelphia-shootout-north-phillly-shooting-10th-street-cumberland/12907827/ , “The 71-year-old pulled out his revolver handgun and exchanged gunfire with the suspects”. The defender ‘emptied’ his revolver handgun at the robbers; one story indicated he had fired five shots. POlice spokesperson Chief Inspector Scott Small indicated that victim fired multiple shots and the perpetrators had fired two shots at the intended victim.
In an interview from his hospital bed with Fox News, the would-be victim said, “At night, I would keep my hand on my [revolver handgun] in my pocket in case I have to pull it out”. https://youtu.be/fs0RTJJTuOA He has a license to carry.
The Bottom Line was that he was armed and forced the robbers to Break Contact by shooting at them with his revolver handgun. Breaking Contact (Part I)
Unsighted Pistol Shooting
“You have a large target in front of you and the natural qualification of being able to point your finger at a certain object; by handling your revolver a short time you will be able to point the barrel of the revolver as you would your finger, pulling the trigger double action as the barrel swings into line with the target. When you have accomplished this you have the principle of quick shooting at short range and quick draw will be taken up later.” —
One of the early pioneers of defensive pistol shooting, J. Henry FitzGerald, wrote that in his book Shooting in 1930. Beginning in May, I will begin a four month series on my Patreon page about Unsighted Pistol Shooting.
https://www.patreon.com/TacticalProfessor
The concept is variously described as ‘point shooting,’ ‘reflexive shooting,’ ‘instinctive shooting,’ and several other terms. They all refer to the concept of firing a pistol without reference to the sights. Some systems call for the pistol to be brought into the eye-target line and others do not.
Although the historical documents are readily available, much Internet commentary about unsighted firing is not well researched or documented. The standards of what the founders of the various systems said could be accomplished, marksmanship-wise, are almost always ignored.
To shed more light on the subject, my Patreon series will be a survey of the actual historical literature with regard to technique, training methods, and standards. There are four distinct periods that the literature can be divided into. They are the Great War and Interwar Period, World War II and its Post War Period, the Vietnam War Era, and the Post Vietnam Era. Delph (Jelly) Bryce and other famous point shooters who didn’t write about training will not be included because they produced no literature.
The cost of the Unsighted Fire Tier will be three dollars ($3) monthly. You can unsubscribe at any time and not be charged for future months.
Most widely known of the unsighted systems is Fairbairn and Sykes Shooting to Live along with US Army doctrine developed during WWII. Those will be the topic for May’s Unsighted Tier.
The second component of the series will be a separate Tier concentrating on current incidents and how unsighted fire would or would not help solve the occurrence. Integrating actual incidents into training and practice has been something I’ve focused on since the early days of IDPA, when I was a Match Director.
Each week the Incident Analysis Tier will feature an incident from the current Armed Citizen column of the NRA Journals. Many people are not familiar with The Armed Citizen column, which is a very useful start point for doing Incident Analysis pertaining to Private Citizens instead of the POlice. Part of my Analysis will be the marksmanship problem posed and what was needed to solve it.
The cost of the Incident Analysis Tier will be Five dollars ($5) monthly. It will also include all the posts of the Unsighted Fire Tier. You can unsubscribe at any time and not be charged for future months.
This will be a new type of education and instruction available to my readers. I am excited about the series and I hope you will join me for it.
Subcompact Pistol (LCP) Progress Evaluation
This is a short course I devised for my Patreon snub revolver and subcompact pistol programs. It’s based on the Nevada Concealed Firearms Permit Qualification Course. Instead of just shooting three long untimed strings (3, 5, and 7 yards), the timing is based on Lt. Frank McGee’s 3 shots, 3 seconds, 3 yards paradigm. Several additional start positions are also included.
It has some cool music too. Somewhat reminiscent of the soundtrack from the TV series Lex.
NRA Annual Meeting 2023 – Day 1
The NRA Annual Meeting was held this year on April 14-16, 2023 In Indianapolis. There is no cost to attend for NRA members. Approximately 70,000 NRA members were expected to attend. The venue was the Indiana Convention Center, a large and well-appointed facility. Midway USA was the official sponsor of the Annual Meeting. There was a wide variety of educational opportunities in addition to the “14 acres of Guns and Gear” on display. Despite being attended by many thousands of people carrying firearms both concealed and openly, there were no mass shootings at the event.
Before even entering the venue, a truck was observed with large LED signs on its sides was seen circling the building. The signs were various anti-NRA disinformation slogans targeted at both the general public and NRA members. This truck circled the Convention Center continuously all three days of the Meeting.
Day 1
Interesting items observed on Friday were:
- AimCam, a new integrated camera and shooting glasses system that allows video of what the shooter sees through the master eye vis-à-vis images captured from slightly off-center.
- The Savage Arms Stance, a microcompact 9mm pistol for concealed carry.
- A Kel-tec slimline 9mm pistol.
- Wilderness Tactical renovation of the Renegade ankle holster. WT also had an in the pocket double pouch, which could be used for two spare magazines or a magazine and small flashlight.
- A wide variety of offerings by Taurus USA. Caleb Giddings, the Taurus Marketing Manager and “degenerate revolver enthusiast,” stated that he has fired over 1,000 rounds through several Taurus Model 82s in practice and competition without failures. One of the improvements Taurus has made to the 82 is to capture the trigger return spring and eliminate the rebound slide. This removes one frictional component of the trigger action and improves the feel and weight of the trigger press. Taurus also had compact and full size versions of the TX22, new .22 Long Rifle pistol that Taurus states can be dry fired without damage.
In addition to the displays of guns and gear, there were continuous educational offerings on all three days of the meeting. https://s15.a2zinc.net/clients/NRA/nraam2023/Public/Sessions.aspx?ID=4750 The topics ranged from generally gun related topics, Dr. John R. Lott’s Gun Control Myths as an example, to theme focused classes such as Lessons Learned From Analyzing 40,000+ Real Gunfights by John Correia of Active Self Protection.
“Lessons Learned from Analyzing 40,000+ Real Gunfights [delved] into the top lessons gleaned from analyzing tens of thousands of actual defensive incidents caught on surveillance video by the national SME in that arena. Real-life incidents will be viewed and analyzed in class to highlight these lessons learned.” was the program description.
An overview of Lessons Learned from Analyzing 40,000+ Real Gunfights will be my next post.
LAPD Shooting Re-enactment
An LAPD officer, using a Red Dot Sighted pistol, was forced to shoot a hostage taker at a range of five feet in July of 2021. The Board of Police Commissioners number for the incident is Categorical Use Of Force number 041-21. Tactics, Drawing and Exhibiting, and Use of Deadly Force by Officer A in the incident were all adjudicated as In Policy by the BOPC.
This video re-creates the marksmanship problem faced by the officer. The target was moving for the officer, which this video does not re-create. The pistol used in the video is a Glock 42 supplied by Glock for my Subcompact Pistol Training Tier on Patreon.
In keeping with the LAPD theme of the video, the second part of the video contains a demonstration of a permissible variation of the LAPD Retired Officer Qualification Course, also shot with the Glock 42. This Course has value to the Armed Private Citizen as a self-evaluation of some good to have marksmanship skills for concealed carry.
The Covert Draw
Someone in my Patreon Subcompact Autoloader Tier https://www.patreon.com/TacticalProfessor/membership asked the question,
“Could you offer some insight and technique to the surreptitious, covert, or stealth draw?”
That’s a question worth exploring because of the tradeoffs involved. As Thomas Sowell has said, everything involves comparisons and costs.
There are two aspects to the drawstroke; 1) Access and Grip and 2) Present to target. Access and Grip is the most time consuming part of the drawstroke but not the most difficult. Getting the gun well indexed on the target is the hardest part. Missing the first shot is far more common than not being able to get the gun out.
A covert draw facilitates Access and Grip but complicates Present. Once the draw is complete, the gun is positioned out of the path of your normal drawstroke. If shooting is required, the first shot might actually be slower if we Comstock a bad hit.
The gun is also probably pointing at your own body in the process. While holding it at a concealed Ready, you may have to engage in dialogue or movement and remember to not shoot yourself at the same time. Given the light triggers that many people favor, that’s an unpleasant prospect.
Even if the gun isn’t visible to a potential attacker, it may be noticeable to someone at a different angle. That person may not be a hostile. A covert draw could end up as an Aggravated Assault on an uninvolved party.
And if no shooting is required, a covert re-holstering will be necessary. Some deep concealment holsters can be difficult to re‑holster without making a big production out of it.
Being able to Access and Grip in a low profile way might be a more useful way of addressing the problem. With Access and Grip accomplished, if we get the ‘Go Signal,’ we have the most time consuming part of the drawstroke out of the way. We can then use our normal Presentation, at which we hopefully have many repetitions and can execute well.
Although the Covert Draw concept sounds appealing, the tradeoffs need to be considered. The costs may be found to outweigh any potential benefit.
Can-May-Must-Should in One Incident
In a road rage incident on Sunday February 26, 2023, a gunowner who was driving erratically and then threatened another driver was subsequently shot and killed by yet a third party who intervened on behalf of the driver who threatened.
All of the elements of Can-May-Must-Should http://modernserviceweapons.com/?p=19028 are readily apparent in this one interesting incident. It also involves Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make. https://store.payloadz.com/details/2617872-ebooks-true-crime-serious-mistakes-gunowners-make.html I may have to add a chapter about Bluffing with Guns or “Don’t write checks with your mouth that your ass can’t cash.”
I’ll be writing more about this in my Patreon Personal Defense Incidents and Analysis Tier https://www.patreon.com/TacticalProfessor/membership but the essential elements are as follows.
- A 71 year old man, Alden Jones, was driving erratically and cutting off other cars.
- At a stop light, he got out of his car with a pistol, went back to the car stopped behind him, and banged on the window with his pistol.
- The driver of the third car in the incident, who was stopped behind the second car, got out of his car and attempted to verbally intervene on behalf of the second car’s driver.
- The initial aggressor, Jones, then turned his attention to the third driver and began to walk toward him, pistol in hand.
- The third driver warned Jones that he was also armed.
- Jones continued to approach the third driver.
- At “a very close distance,” the third driver opened fire, killing Jones on the spot.
- The third driver remained on scene and waited for the authorities.
- Upon the arrival of the POlice, the third driver stated he had shot in defense of himself and his wife, who was also in the car.
- Witnessed corroborated the third driver’s account of the incident.
- He was not charged by the POlice with any wrongdoing. The District Attorney’s Office will make the final decision.
The incident plays out almost in complete reverse of the paradigm’s order. Decisions always precede the technical aspects of shooting.
Should he have intervened? That’s a Moral choice; some people may have chosen to, others may not have. Must he have shot? When an angry person, whom you have witnessed threaten a third party, approaches you with a pistol in hand, your options are limited. As M5 said in Star Trek: The Original Series, “Consideration of all programming is that we must survive.” May he have shot? The POlice seem to think so. “The investigation thus far is indicative of self-defense.” Could {Can) he shoot adequately to solve the problem? Jones is dead and the third man and his wife are unharmed. The Can aspect was satisfied.
The proxemics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxemics aspects of the situation are also interesting. Since the cars were stopped in line at a traffic signal, the verbal warning was most likely door to door distance, making it less than 21 feet. A Toyota Camry is 16 feet long as a distance reference. The POlice media release indicates that the shots were fired at “a very close distance.” The distance from the driver door frame of a Camry to the front bumper is 7 feet. So the shooting most likely took place around the boundary between the Near and Far Phases of Social Space https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxemics#Interpersonal_distance in proxemics.
The report doesn’t indicate that the shooter had his gun drawn prior to the actual shooting. If this is true, then this incident demonstrates that you Can, in fact, draw against an already drawn gun. So much for the popular belief that it isn’t possible. That belief is usually based on scenarios where the person with the drawn gun knows you’re armed and are going to draw, is just waiting for your move, and has pre‑determined to counter your draw. The “real world” is often much different.
The incident also contradicts the popular slogan “Don’t talk to the POlice.” Better advice might be “Don’t get arrested,” coupled with “Don’t talk your way into Jail.”
Guns stolen from cars
In other relevant gunowner news, 217 guns have been stolen from cars in Nashville so far this year. https://www.nashville.gov/departments/police/news/more-200-guns-stolen-vehicles-so-far-year That is 76% of the guns stolen in Davidson County, the county Nashville is located in.
If this rate continues, more than 1,000 guns will be stolen from cars in Nashville alone in 2023. Some of them will end up involved in criminals activities. This one is a no-brainer; don’t leave unsecured guns in your car. If you have to leave a gun in your car when you go to work or other prohibited places, get a car safe and use it. And certainly, don’t leave your gun in your car outside your home at night. https://patch.com/georgia/alpharetta/entering-auto-suspects-stole-more-40-firearms-during-crime-spree-police
Don’t Play with Guns in Vehicles
“A student is dead after a firearm was accidentally discharged in a vehicle in the parking lot of Dalhart High School.
…
According to [Superintendent] Byrd, a student not enrolled in the district went to the high school at lunch and picked up three students when the firearm went off in the parking lot.”
Just don’t do it. Fooling around with guns in cars is a Serious Mistake that can easily lead to a tragedy.
If you have to put it in a lockbox, have a lockbox that’s big enough for the holstered gun and put the gun in the box without removing it from the holster.
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/themes/dps/mcja/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.
tacticalprofessor 
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