Practicing With Small Handguns
My latest article for Shooting Illustrated is up. This one has a good 50 round practice session for small guns such as the LCP and J frames.
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/practicing-with-small-handguns/
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Gunfighter Challenge
#fridayfundamentals
James Butler Hickok, better known as ‘Wild Bill’ Hickok, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Hickok# was murdered on August 2, 1876. https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-jackmccall/ He was one of the best known of the Old West gunfighters and his shooting prowess was well recognized. But what did being a ‘good shot’ exactly mean in those days?
The American Mercury, a now defunct magazine, published an article in October 1937 titled “The Myth of the Two-Gun Man.” In it was a first hand account of what the Old West gunfighters actually considered ‘good’ shooting. The account came from Luther North, a contemporary of Wild Bill’s, and it is a far cry from hip shooting and unsighted fire.
Frank was Luther’s brother Major Frank North, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_North another contemporary of Wild Bill’s. So the gunfighters’ test was six shots at 10 yards using the Primary Hand Only, untimed. To be considered ‘good,’ the gunman had to hit all six shots in a 5 inch square target. At least one of the six had to hit an unseen one inch square dead center of the target. That’s an interesting contrast to the mythology of the Wild West gunfight.
Put on a sheet of paper, it would look like this.
A PDF of the target is attached. This short challenge is easily shot at almost any indoor range. Try it out and see how your marksmanship compares to an Old West gunfighter like Wild Bill.
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Recoil Management and Trigger Manipulation
#fridayfundamentals
“The purpose of the drill is to practice recoil management and trigger manipulation.”
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/jim-cirillo-s-1-2-3-6-drill/
Sometimes we take things for granted. A more thorough explanation would have been that for each shot, the shooter does four things in sequence.
- Acquire an acceptable sight picture
- Press the trigger smoothly and fire
- Reset the trigger in recoil while the sights are returning to the target
- Take up the slack in the trigger as the sights settle on the target, and finally
- When an acceptable sight picture is acquired, smoothly press the trigger to fire again
If you like my work, join me on Patreon where I post more in-depth articles about shooting, marksmanship, and incident analysis.
Tightening Your Accuracy and Performance Standards
My latest Shooting Illustrated article is up.
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/tightening-your-accuracy-and-performance-standards
The New Mexico Competency Demonstration was the final exercise in my Revolver Operator Course. Those who had snubs were encouraged to shoot it with their little guns. Shooters can put variations in it to make it even more relevant for Personal Protection practice. In ROC, I made it simple; five shots with two hands, five shots with the Primary Hand Only, and five shots with the Support Hand Only. For the article, I put a little different spin on it.
Here are the images that weren’t used.
Friday Fundamentals – Terminology
#fridayfundamentals
In reply to the Back to Basics WheelgunWednesday post, a pertinent question came up.
“I was ‘hammering’ instead of firing a ‘controlled pair.’
What do you mean by hammering?”
Great question – thanks for asking. Sometimes we trainers take our subject matter knowledge for granted. Several concepts developed by Jeff Cooper have remained constant despite having been formulated nearly half a century ago.
Fundamental Terminology
- Flash Sight Picture
- Controlled Pair
- Hammer
Flash Sight Picture
The concept of accepting that perfect sight alignment is not necessary to achieve an acceptable hit. Shooters often assume that they need to obtain a perfect sight picture for acceptable hits.
That’s not necessarily the case, depending on the distance to target.
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2015/02/06/89081/
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2015/10/02/friday-fundamentals-segment-2/
Controlled Pair
Achieving an acceptable sight picture on a target, firing a shot, bringing the pistol down in recoil, obtaining a second acceptable sight picture, and firing a second shot.
Hammer
Achieving an acceptable sight picture on a target, firing a shot, bringing the pistol down in recoil, and firing a second shot using only a physical index to the target without regard to achieving a second sight picture.
Note that the term ‘double tap’ is obsolete because it could refer to either a controlled pair or a hammer and so is inadequate as a description. Others have written in-depth articles about Cooper’s concepts so I will just link to them.
Flash Sight Picture
Chris Baker
Jim Wilson
https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/sheriff-s-tips-understanding-the-flash-sight-picture
Hammer v. Controlled Pair
Jim Wilson
https://www.americanrifleman.org/content/whatever-happened-to-the-double-tap
Darryl Bolke via Greg Ellifritz
Chgowiz wins a free book of mine for asking a great question.
Back to Basics WheelgunWednesday
#wheelgunwednesday
Going back to basics occasionally helps me get back in the groove. Two basic exercises I like for the snub revolver are the LAPD Retired Officer Qualification Course and the NRA Basics of Pistol Shooting Level 1 test.
The LAPD course is described in the LAPD Manual.
“The starting position for this qualifying course of fire will begin at the 7 Yard Line. When the target faces, the shooter will draw and fire 10 rounds at a single silhouette target. A score of 70 percent is required to pass the qualification. All rounds impacting anywhere on the body and head will receive full value and rounds impacting upon the arms are half value.”
Basics of Pistol Shooting Level 1 test consists of shooting five shots into a circle that is four inches in diameter at a distance of 10 feet. All five shots must hit or cut the circle. It must be done four time, not necessarily consecutively, to pass BOPS.
For both tests, I include opening and spinning the cylinder periodically to create ball and dummy practice. In the LAPD Course, I also include a few initial dry practice draws, a la the NY State CCL Qualification, staggered loading with loose rounds during the first five shots, presenting from Low Ready, firing different numbers of rounds, and a reload with a loading device for the second five.
During my initial run of LAPD (I did four), I noticed that a couple of my shots went high. Upon repeating it, I realized that I was ‘hammering’ instead of firing a ‘controlled pair.’ That was probably the reason I had a couple of high hits during the Rangemaster Pistol Match https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2024/04/10/tactical-conference-2024-pistol-match/.
I used a target that I found on the range. The hits covered with masking tape are mine. The ones with pasters are from the previous and unknown shooter. The two hits just below the neck line were the ones probably the result of hammering.
Since BOPS has four strings, I used the opportunity to tune up with several different loading devices. One was an HKS speedloader and the others were various tools from Zeta6 that I like. All the Zeta6 devices are modified with Retention Rings. I find the Retention Ring is a handy addition for getting the device out of my pocket.
It was a nice little tuneup. The day was nice and the results were satisfying.
Tactical Conference 2024 Pistol Match
#wheelgunwednesday
I shot the match with my Taurus 856 snub.
Here’s a video short of the Pistol Match https://youtube.com/shorts/uFh9EogmeAY?feature=share
Course of fire
All strings were shot at turning targets in 4 seconds.
3 yards
- 6 shots from concealed holster (6/6)
5 yards
- 5 shots from concealed holster (5/11)
- 5 shots from concealed holster (5/16)
- 4 shots Primary Hand Only from Low Ready (4/20)
- 3 shots Support Hand Only from Low Ready (3/23)
7 yards
- 4 shots from concealed holster (4/27)
- 4 shots from concealed holster(4/31)
10 yards
- 2 shots from concealed holster (2/33)
- 2 shots from concealed holster (2/35)
5 yards
- 5 timed {3.53} face shots from Low Ready (5/40) These shot were scored with Comstock scoring.
This was my final target score. I pulled a few out of the circle but none below the belt or off the silhouette.
Rangemaster Tactical Conference 2024
TacCon 2024, as we call it, is now in the books. [link] It is an annual teaching and learning conference for those who are, or want to be, serious students of the Art of Self-Defense and Personal Protection. This is the fourth year it has been held at the Dallas Pistol Club, a marvelous facility.
The Conference is three days long. This year there were 42 trainers, who taught 69 different classes in 10 different ranges/classrooms. Topics ranged widely from shooting technique to unarmed combatives to medical procedures to using social media effectively and safely. Some classes are live fire, some are hands-on non-live fire, and some are lectures.
There is also a pistol match for those who choose to shoot it. The match is not mandatory and some attendees don’t shoot it. Not everyone who attends TacCon is a gun person, although most are. The Pistol Match consists of 40 rounds shot on turning silhouette targets at distances of 3 to 10 yards.
The presentation I gave was Off-Duty Shootouts of the LAPD. The basis for my presentation was the entirety of shootouts by LAPD officers, while they were off-duty, during the period 2005 to 2022, the last year full reporting has been published.
Since there are generally 10 classes going on at time, it’s impossible to attend them all. Some of the classes are repeated once or twice but the majority are not. Classes I was able to attend were:
Friday
Beware of… Well, Just Beware by Tom Givens
As my colleague Craig Douglas likes to ask “How do you do ‘Situational Awareness?’” Tom provided some answers to that question.
Civilian Defender Philosophy by Dr. Sherman House
The Art of Self-Defense and Personal Protection has many different facets, as represented by the wide variety of topics presented at TacCon. ‘The Real Dr. House’ presented his thoughts on how to prioritize and integrate them.
SATURDAY
Off-Duty Shootouts of the LAPD by Claude Werner, the Tactical Professor. To start the day off right, my presentation was one of the 8AM offerings.
Why study Off-Duty POlice Shootings? LAPD officers are encouraged to NOT take “enforcement action” while off-duty. Off-duty lethal force incidents involving LAPD officers are almost always Self-Defense/Personal Protection incidents much like those that could be encountered by Armed Private Citizens. They provide a thoroughly researched and documented database of shootings and the circumstances that led up to them.
Pistol Match
I finished about middle of the field. But since I shot a Taurus 856 snub revolver and speedloaders against a bunch of red dot equipped service sized autoloaders, I’m okay with that. POV video of the match will be up in a few days on my YouTube channel.
10 Tips for Teaching Gateway Students by Karl Rehn
It’s heartening to me to see how many high level instructors are thinking about best practices for teaching entry level gunowners and shooters. Karl’s wasn’t the only such presentation at the Conference but the only one I could attend.
During lunch, Andy Stanford from Surefire did a video interview with me about Serious Mistakes Gunowners Make and Guns That Get No Respect. When he publishes the edit, I’ll link it.
More about the Conference tomorrow
McGee’s Paradigm
“Three shots in three seconds at three yards.” That was Lt. Frank McGee’s iconic summation (McGee’s Paradigm) of the typical gunfight of New York City police officers in the 1970s. Lt. McGee was the head of the NYPD Firearms and Tactics Section at that time. His analysis came from the Department’s SOP-9 report, which began compiling statistics about the gunfights of its officers in 1969. Although the scope and name of the report has evolved over time, it is still published by the NYPD and available online. McGee’s Paradigm hasn’t changed much over the past 50 years.
Since most gunowners are limited to shooting at indoor ranges, learning to shoot against a time standard has always been an issue. Shot timers usually work by tracking the noise from each shot and are therefore not always useful in the indoor-range environment because of adjacent shooters. Besides this, casual shooters are generally unwilling to spend over $100 for a shot timer.
The widespread nature of smartphones and Bluetooth earbuds have given us a solution to this problem. There are several timing apps for Smartphones available online. Used in conjunction with Bluetooth earbuds underneath earmuff-based hearing protection, practicing marksmanship with a par time is now easily accomplished.
https://www.shootingillustrated.com/content/three-shots-in-three-seconds
A demonstration video is available at https://youtu.be/8kL0bUQWsfI
Here’s a target for the final 20 rounds of the 50 round session.
Snub Dry Practice Training Aids
#wheelgunwednesday
All discharges of a firearm by LAPD officers must be reported to the LAPD Force Investigation Division. Each discharge is thoroughly investigated, adjudicated by the Board of Police Commissioners (BOPC) for LAPD policy compliance, and a public report posted on the BOPC webpage.
https://www.lapdonline.org/police-commission/categorical-use-of-force
Of particular interest are the off-duty discharges. These usually involve one of two situations. First, situations of self-defense similar to what would be encountered by any non-sworn person who owns a firearm for personal protection. Or, second, Unintentional Discharges due to administrative gunhandling such as: placing or removing the firearm in a storage location, cleaning the firearm, or dry practice “to improve accuracy.” In one rare instance, both situations were involved; a firearm was discharged while being retrieved during a ‘tactical situation.’
In adjudicating Unintentional Discharges cases, the LAPD BOPC subdivides them into two categories.
A. Unintentional Discharge
The definitions for an Unintentional Discharge, both Accidental and Negligent, are as follows:
Accidental Discharge: The unintentional discharge of a firearm as a result of an accident such as a firearm malfunction or other mechanical failure, not the result of operator error.
Negligent Discharge: Finding where it was determined that the unintentional discharge of a firearm resulted from operator error, such as the violation of firearm safety rules.
Administrative Disapproval – Negligent Discharge. Finding where it was determined that the unintentional discharge of a firearm resulted from operator error, such as the violation of a firearm safety rule (Los Angeles Police Department Manual, Volume 3, Section 792.05).
From 2005 to 2023, five Unintentional Discharges of five shot revolvers, which are authorized for backup and off-duty carry, occurred. All five were adjudicated as Negligent Discharges and received Administrative Disapproval. Negligent Discharges are one category of Negative Outcomes https://store.payloadz.com/details/2617872-ebooks-true-crime-serious-mistakes-gunowners-make.html and we obviously want to avoid them.
Four of the five involved preparation for dry practice. The cause of all four was the same. Not all five rounds were ejected from the cylinder when the revolver was unloaded. One round remained in the cylinder when the other four ejected. At some point during the dry practice, a loud noise occurred when a click was expected. That universal cause reinforces my concept of how to prepare for dry practice with a revolver.
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2020/08/21/dry-practice-safety-part-ii/
Since that article was posted, Zeta6 and I teamed up to create the SafeSnap Training Disc.
https://zetasix.com/product-category/safesnap
I now keep a SafeSnap Disc in my storage box, along with an empty HKS speedloader, to make my dry practice even safer. Although I don’t carry an HKS, I find it’s the easiest of all speedloaders to put ammunition in.
I rotate the revolver so the muzzle is pointing straight up, eject the live rounds from the snub, place them in the speedloader, and then put the SnapSafe in the revolver. Holding the revolver completely vertical is an important aspect of ejecting the live ammunition. Holding it at angle and catching the rounds in the palm of the other hand is a dangerous technique and is “cruisin’ for a bruisin’.” Sooner or later, doing that will bite you in the ass; hard.
This procedure makes the possibility of having a Negligent Discharge during dry practice fairly remote. I also have a Zeta6 K-PAK2 https://zetasix.com/product/k-pak2/ with dummy rounds for reloading practice in the box. It is set up with a Retention Ring https://retentionring.com/ to mimic my EDC reload.
All the live ammunition stays in the box and the box gets closed while I’m practicing. When I’m finished practicing, I rigidly follow the post-practice safety protocols described in the above linked article.
Dry practice is a key component of learning how to shoot well. When doing it, we want to avoid having the Negative Outcome of “causing damage to equipment or injury to personnel,” which was a graded aspect required to pass the Special Forces Weapons Qualification Course that has stuck with me for the past 44 years. Having the right training aids and following safety protocols in a disciplined manner is how we can avoid those Negative Outcomes.
FTC Note: I have a relationship with Zeta6 and Retention Ring but receive no compensation for mentioning their products.
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