FBI Double Action Course
#wheelgunwednesday
Prior to the FBI adoption of the Wheaties cereal box sized S&W Model 1076 in 1990, revolvers were the Bureau’s sidearm for well over half a century. After the FBI switched to the S&W Model 13 revolver in 1981, it created a publication, FBI Revolver Courses and Techniques, for using the gun with the Weaver technique.
“Sight Alignment: During close-in shooting (five to seven yards), the shooter does not have time to acquire perfect sight alignment. The shooter is, therefore, instructed to fire with both eyes open and to bring the sights up to eye level, seeing the front sight in the secondary vision. As distances increase, the need for better sight alignment increases and trigger pull should be slower.”
One of the Courses in the publication is the Double Action Course. It is intended as a practice regimen for double action shooting. The par times are short as is the allotted time for the one reload included. All strings are fired from the holster except one string at 15 yards.
DOUBLE ACTION COURSE (DAC)
The entire course is fired using the Weaver Position.
5 Yards
6 rounds -2 rounds on each whistle (in 3 seconds)
4 rounds -2 rounds on each whistle (in 3 seconds)
7 Yards
6 rounds -2 rounds on each whistle (in 3 seconds)
4 rounds -2 rounds on each whistle (in 3 seconds)
10 rounds -Load 6 rounds, on whistle, fire 6, reload 4 rounds, fire 4, all in 20 seconds.
15 Yards
6 rounds -2 rounds on each whistle (in 3 seconds). Fired from Weaver Ready.
4 rounds -All 4 rounds in 6 seconds
25 Yards
5 rounds -All 5 rounds in 10 seconds kneeling position
5 rounds -Repeat
Scoring: 2 points each for hits in either the KS or K4 area.
100 points possible.
Firing at an indoor range where drawing from the holster isn’t permitted can be done by using a table start.
Par times can be used via ear buds underneath hearing protection muffs and a par timer app on one’s cell phone. The phone’s Bluetooth connection will transmit the start and stop beeps to the ear buds.
Although it was shot by FBI Agents on the huge B-21 target, any silhouette will do.
It’s a fun course and very practical for those who carry a weapon.
Note to indoor range owners and operators. Granted that OSHA regulations can be onerous to work downrange maintenance with. But having inoperative carriers, targets left downrange on carriers and on the floor, thousands of fired brass cases in front of the booths, etc. presents a very unappealing scenario to the public. This is not a new phenomenon. In 1919, Walter Winans devoted an entire chapter WHY PISTOL SHOOTING IS UNPOPULAR in his book The Modern Pistol and How to Shoot It about the unpleasantness of this experience.
Reliability Testing
A colleague asked me a few days ago:
“How many rounds would you say make up a legitimate ‘reliability test’ for a pistol?”
My response was 100 because that’s more than 99.9% of people will ever fire a pistol they buy. He was surprised about this answer because he thought it would be considerably more.
There’s a very detailed discussion about it in a post I wrote years ago. Most of the cognoscenti who were responded to the question then felt that 1000 rounds was the minimum desirable number. There were certain aspects of their analyses leading to that conclusion that I felt weren’t explored with enough depth.
https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2017/04/21/reliability/
Numerous justifications for 1000 round torture tests were presented to me by the cognoscenti. One of the mathematical analyses presented in the original Facebook discussion was that 5 malfunctions per 1000 meant more than one malfunction in a 17 round magazine (8.72%). My belief about that obtuse analysis remains the same.
“If I’m going to have at least one malfunction per magazine, I’ll just keep carrying a revolver.”
I’ll write a bit more about my latest revolver work for #wheelgunwednesday next week.
Hahaha. Alt Text autogenerated by Microsoft Word for the above picture:
“A board game with brown squares”
Home Invasion – Part II
and that’s the first time I realized how difficult it was to try and remove somebody’s testicles by hand.
The gentleman was very angry that his wife and homestead had been attacked and he had been shot at.
He used a 6 inch revolver to shoot back. No results, unfortunately.
And with that I went back to retrieve my own firearm. So I went to the vehicle. I had a handgun, a 38 special with a 6 inch barrel.
Quite an amazing and educational story.
Part I https://thetacticalprofessor.net/2023/06/17/home-invasion-part-i/
Home Invasion – Part I
It’s not often that we are able to listen to such a detailed narrative of how a home invasion went down. Having the victim tell the story makes it even more remarkable. This is a very brave woman and family. The overhead view of the property and accompanying explanation of the movements are invaluable.
My thanks to the creator of the video. More about the story in the next post.
Safety Notes
Don’t shoot yourself in the leg when drawing your pistol.
According to authorities, Officer Charles Hamilton was responding to a potential burglary in progress at a residence on Lind Ave. around 10:06 AM. As he approached the scene on foot, Hamilton drew his service weapon, which subsequently discharged and struck him in the right leg.
On the same page, there’s an interesting display of handguns seized during a drug raid.
And another Revolver Handgun to the Rescue. Revolver Handgun To the Rescue
Jones went into her room to get her revolver for protection. When Jones exited her bedroom, Turner advanced towards her and she fired on[e] shot out of fear for her life. Turner was pronounced dead at the scene.
I don’t understand how can anyone possibly defend themselves with a revolver handgun and kill someone with only one shot but apparently it happens.
If you are interested in more in-depth writing about Point Shooting or Personal Defense Incidents and Analysis, please subscribe to my Patreon page by clicking 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)
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.
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.
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.
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