Paladin wrote: ↑Fri Jan 26, 2024 10:36 am
This study was done with law enforcement in mind, but I think has relevance to LTCs as well:
Tests Show Deadly Accuracy & Startling Speed Even Inexperienced Shooters Can Achieve
1. “Training that is focused on accuracy first and speed second is not going to cut it” in preparing officers for the realities of a gunfight, he told FSN. The emphasis needs to be on developing “relevant speed, especially at close distances, combined with precision shooting.”
Words to train by right there. I'd also throw in movement.
Since gunfighting is principally the "fighting" part, "effective" accuracy isn't something specific; it's on a sliding scale impacted by many factors. But for the real world, I think practicing slow-fire 8" torso groupings at 25 yards while never moving your feet is only marginally helpful.
Remember the Mike Tyson quote that, in a fight, everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face? In an unarmed fight, you don't want to wait until the other guy lands the first blow. No bueno.
Same in a gunfight which, most often, is going to happen at close or even bad-breath distances. I'm of the belief that, in most emergency encounters, your first shot doesn't have to be perfectly placed; it just has to be as safe as possible to any innocents and it has to land somewhere that's gonna really get the bad guy's attention.
We all know the Mozambique drill, but one I practice regularly is the Zipper. Assuming the emergency goes to Code Black at four feet or less:
- Get off the X one step sideways or diagonally
- While drawing to compressed retention-ready, lower part of the gun indexed against the side of the pectoral muscle, and
- Getting a round off, point-shooting fashion, to the bad guy's center of gravity, call it the lower pelvis to about the navel (this means the round is aimed down and a miss would impact the ground within around 10 feet or so)
- Move again, this time a step backward or diagonally backward to create more distance and get off the X you'd just moved to
- Press out just until the hands join in retention-ready and point-shoot again but at a higher POI: around middle of the torso
- Move backward or diagonally another step while pressing out to a sight-aimed shot at the pericardial cavity in a circle about 6" in size (the average human heart is about 5" long and 3.5" wide)
- If the deadly threat still exists and the guy hasn't dropped his weapon or he, himself, hasn't dropped, move again for still more distance, slow down, and take the head shot if necessary
Same three rounds as a Mozambique--which I would practice starting at a greater distance, like 7 to 10 yards--but the Zipper (so named because the shots go from low to high) presupposes that the bad guy is close to you and you see that a gun or knife is being brought into play. Objective is to move fast and get inside his OODA loop...deliver the first punch and not be exactly where he expects you to be when you do it.
The round from compressed retention-ready can be fired remarkably quickly. And the technique can be abbreviated if the distance to target is slightly greater, omitting the compressed shot and starting with point-shooting to the torso in retention-ready. In fact, most ranges won't allow shot #1 to be practiced live-fire, so you typically have to simulate the first round anyway. And since the "press-out" from compressed retention-ready levels the muzzle like you would with an old-school "rock-out" cowboy move, you can always also practice loosing a one-handed point-shooting CoM round before joining with the off-hand.
I'm no authority about this stuff, and I realize this is very different if you're a LEO and operating under departmental regulations. But it always made sense to me to practice with different distances in mind. And the amount of handgun shooting I do to 25 yards and beyond is a small fraction, like, very small. I'm not the guy who'll be attempting a hostage shot with a Glock at 50 yards.
And stuff with Gabe Suarez and others got me very conscious of that gnarly "X" and why you never want to stay there. Boxing metaphor again: stick and move.
