Training

[Uncle Buck]

A lot of people do keep weapons in the home for self defense/home defense.

My buddy and I were discussing this the other day. We primarily have our pistols for target shooting and home defense is a secondary thought. We do keep loaded pistols in our houses.

But we read an article about a guy that was awakened by a home invasion, loaded his weapon and then ended up being shot at least once. Apparently the perpetrator was shot at but uninjured. It got us to thinking about how we practice for something like this (Being awoke at a strange sound and picking up the pistol.)

We set our targets at 7, 10, 15 and 25 yards. The pistol was laid on a table, loaded. One person would blow a whistle and the other would pick up the gun and began firing, first at the farthest target and then work towards the closest target. We timed the event.

I was very surprised at the results. We are both very good target shooters, but the pressure to shoot at the targets (so we could beat the others time) caused some misses at ranges we normally have no problem shooting. Even the seven yard target was missed on some occasions.

We plan on continuing this type of practice and see if we can improve our time/score ratio.

I am a former LEO and have been in combat. It has been a few years since I have had to practice firing under stress and I was surprised at how much speed/time/coordination I had lost, despite now being handicapped and having difficulties walking.

How often do you folks train? How many rounds do you folks usually use. On a normal range session for us, it is not unusual for us to shoot 300 - 500 rounds, through various handguns.

 

[2edgesword]

At many ranges you're not allowed to do anything but fixed position shooting at a stationary target. I understand why this is the case (insurance and liability issues) but shooting 100 rounds while having stress induced (noise, multiple targets, time pressures, shooting on the move, etc.) is probably of more value then shooting 1,000 rounds in the typical fashion it's done at the range.

Unfortunately where I live I'm not aware of any range that allows for that type of dynamic training, at least not for non-LEO's. Some type of training with Airsoft is probably the next best thing.

 

[jhenry]

Do a google search for IDPA folks in your area. I found participating in matches to be very helpful and enlightening. I also enjoyed shooting against a couple of rather bombastic know it all loudmouths and whipping them good. That was the best part. In all seriousness, competition is fun and a great way to hone skills, develop skills, and work on weeknesses.

 

[Slopemeno]

Yep. IDPA/USPSA/ any "Steel" league will help. A PACT timer and you can even run stages like this solo.

I played a LOT of paintball '85 to '95, and I found the best analog to the inevitable close range barricade shoot that a game becomes is either a metal dueling tree or man-on-man falling plates. A dueling tree is *hard* under pressure.

 

[45Gunner]

You present an interesting case for timing, marksmanship, and pressure.

Like you, I was a former LEO but for a govt agency. We trained for close quarters combat. Nothing trains like a rotating silhouette target where you have to draw, acquire the target and hit it three times with three rounds.

I was seriously injured and don't have that mobility any longer. I had to make a decision as to what was more important; speed or accuracy? After much thought, I decided that I had the tactical advantage of knowing the layout of my house and that an intruder would, in all likelihood, not be familiar with the surroundings. So I decided that accuracy should come first and rapid acquisition of the target should be a very close second. All my defensive guns have night sights.

As mentioned, most ranges do not allow a shooter to draw from a holster, so I worked that to my advantage. I lay my gun on the shooting bench as if it were on my nightstand. I close my eyes and then take a couple of breaths, open them quickly, grab the gun and shoot two, three round bursts. I then do a tactical reload as my gun is 7 + 1. (I keep two full magazines next to the gun which are right next to my flashlight.) This is about as real as I can make it given the circumstances. It only works if there is no one in an adjoining bedroom that is within the line of fire. If there is, this plan may not work.