Practice with purpose . . . I say this to my students over
and over. Do not go to the range just to
make holes in the paper. A range trip
should focus on a specific skill set, provide practice for an issue the shooter
may be having or . . . it may be just to maintain proficiency. So, let’s chat about that specifically –
maintaining proficiency. Proficiency in
what exactly???
In a number of areas that Gunsite would call the Combat
Triad – mindset, gun handling and marksmanship.
Mindset – your mindset encompasses
the entirety of your defensive skill set.
Do you take the idea of personal responsibility for your safety, the
safety of your family or someone in your charge seriously?? Do you carry every day everywhere you can
legally? Do you maintain a “Condition
Yellow” – are you observant of your surroundings? Do you understand that there are genuinely
folks out there that would do you harm given a chance? Yeah, yeah – I understand . . . we’re in Iowa
for Pete’s sake, relax . . . That is, of course, your choice . . . but Murphy’s
a bitch . . . just sayin’. As far as how
a range trip helps maintain your Mindset – the fact that you take the maintenance
of your skillsets serious enough that you do consistent range trips goes a long
way towards maintaining a Mindset of being aware and understanding that you’re
responsible for your personal defense.
Gun Handling – Can you “run your
gun”?? This includes loading, clearing,
managing malfunctions and clearing them quickly, use of a light and sling,
mounting it to your shoulder, remembering holdovers at multiple distances, us
of accessories like backup sights, your optic of choice, checking your weapon
zero, cleaning, quickly and smoothly drawing your pistol . . . honestly it’s not a long list . . . but
it is an important list.
Marksmanship . . . can you hit what
you need to in a timely manner? There is
a true balance between speed and precision.
For my range work I’ve settled on rapid single round engagements – a must
to refresh the mechanics of mounting your weapon or drawing your pistol. I spend some time on what Gunsite calls “hammers”
– two rapid fire rounds to the high center mass area. And finally some time on “failure drills” . .
. a “hammer’ followed by a single round to the head box.
As for time for me, start to finish is typically an hour to
an hour and a half. I try to keep a
modest round count – 3ea 20 round magazines for my AR and 3ea 15 round
magazines for my Glock 17 – and that is my every day carry weapon. Total round count for the trip is 105
rounds. Is this enough to learn a new
skill set?? No. Is it enough to maintain
a skill level? Yes, provided you mix in
some dry fire as well outside of the range.
I accomplish this work with a SIRT pistol in a Glock format.
Of course, I try to maintain proficiency with other weapons
as well. So, monthly, I try to shoot
courses of fire that consumes . . .
50 Rounds of .22 cal for my Ruger 22 precision rifle – I use
Eley Club
40 Rounds PMC XTAC .223 for my Ruger Predator
40 Rounds PMC XTAC .308 for my Ruger Precision
100 Rounds 9mm for my Glock 17 – usually in two separate 50
round trips
60 Rounds of .223 for my “Duty” AR that I use for personal
defense.
Here’s an image of a 3-month loadout for range work.
Bottom line it’s not a high round count annually – but it
is enough – in my opinion – to maintain a skill set.
Now, if I want to improve my skill set, or learn a new one
this will typically involve taking a course of some type typically from 1 to 3
days and typically in the neighborhood of 250 to 1200 rounds of
ammunition. That is where you learn and
cement in a new skill set. The work
listed above is where you work to maintain your skill level. The trick here – other than actually finding
enough ammunition to pull this off – is the individual discipline to actually
do the work. And, with the typical pace
of life, that can also be a challenge. Find
the time. Do the work. Maintaining this skill set is simply too
important.
The next part of this is evaluation of the work you’re doing. There are tons of ways to “score” our
targets. I score it pretty simply – if the
round is “in” or touching, it’s a hit . . . if it isn’t you “drop one”. I used a bit of a different target this time –
a standard IDPA target with two 3” “stickies” I stuck near the shoulders.
I engaged the left “stickie” from 25 yards with my AR,
single round engagements. Hanging my
head in shame . . . I shot a 10%.
Holdover is a real thing, just sayin’ . . . And I engaged the right sticky with my Glock
17 and shot a 50% - when using a combination of a Trijicon High Vis front sight
and “The Claw” rear sight (which has a BIG rear notch) it should be obvious
which rounds I took the time to get a good sight alignment on . . . and which I
did not. This is another purpose of
maintenance trips – to remind you that the details matter. If you last took a carbine class a year ago .
. . do you remember all the little details you learned??? Range trips are necessary . . . just sayin’ .
. .
The remaining 85 rounds were split between the headbox and
the High Center Mass box . . . 20 rounds for the head – I dropped 5. 65 rounds for the HCM box – I also dropped
five. I dropped a total of 10 rounds out
of 85 for a score of 88%. I accept 80%
as a minimum score on the range . . . so I’ll take it.
There was one other element I added on this day that I’ll present
as a separate post . . . but I’ve added a “battle belt”. It’s about a 6” tall, padded belt with molle loops
and a belt running through it’s center to secure it over my regular belt. It allows me to position two mag carriers for
my G17 mags, 3 mag carriers for my PMAGS, allows me to secure a blowout kit in
the center of my back and I added a SERPA holster with Molle attachments at around
4 o’clock. Honestly, I just can’t get
into tac vests . . . just not my thing.
I “grew up” with the LBE rigs of the late 60 and I found this similar
but more flexible. My reason for adding
this is that my range work going forward will include both my AR and my pistol
and this seemed the best way to go about it.
I’ve taken high volume pistol and carbine coursework before and tried clip
on mag carriers as well as using my pant’s pockets . . . and it just seemed
like it was time to move on. Honestly,
not sure how this experiment will end, but I’ll stick with it for 2021 and then
reassess at the end of the year.
So, I took a lot of words to say . . . go to the damn
range, do it consistently, be diligent, take your ability to run your gun and
hit what you need to hit seriously . . .
because . . . honestly . . . when you call 911 . . . the person that will need
to respond to the immediate threat is . . . YOU! The cops will just bat “clean-up” and put
down crime scene tape and chalk lines . . .
You, and you alone are your first responder.
Practice is the key to being able to 'function' when one needs to. And you're right, YOU are the first responder.
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