Good day for backyard drills

[GunnyGene]

It's 40* now and sunny, but supposed to be 70* by this afternoon. Yaaaa!! So time to get out and practice some pistol. Haven't pulled a trigger since Nov. and have been feeling frustrated for a month. Be fixin' that today.

[BigAl52]

Little trigger time can be good therapy. Get the 41 out Gene.

[GunnyGene]

Little trigger time can be good therapy. Get the 41 out Gene.

Might limber up the Blackhawk. Haven't shot it in over a year. That should wake up the pews at the church down the road.

[Ernie]

Hit 50 here today but was really windy and I had work to do so I stayed home.

[GunnyGene]

I feel better now. This was not a bullseye drill, but simulated confrontation drill. T-shirts make good targets. Tshirt is actually white, not baby blue .

This was a pretty std drill. Ruger 9E. Wearing usual street clothes (light jacket), OWB holster & 2 mag carrier on my belt. All shots were from 10yds (approx). Eyes wide open, clear jacket, draw, present in std Weaver, no sighting just point and shoot double tap. Safety & reholster. Repeat with mag changes every other draw, putting partial mag back in carrier. Not too terrible for an old fart, but I do have plenty of room for improvement. Total of 40rds fired - more misses than I'd like if y'all want to count the holes. Don't have a timer but I'd guess around 1-1.5 sec from draw to fire.

[Vaquero]

Looks like ya done alright to me.

RP

[GunnyGene]

Looks like ya done alright to me.

RP

Thanks, but I've never been satisfied with just "alright" with anything.

[BigAl52]

Id say that if anyone was wearing that shirt they would be in trouble

[Mistered]

Id say that if anyone was wearing that shirt they would be in trouble

Actually more like no longer in trouble.....

[BrokenolMarine]

Excellent drill. I always required my firearms students to bring an old t-shirt or three. Toward the end of the class we covered the target as you did and shot the course, then removed the shirts and scored the targets. Most still passed easily.

[GunnyGene]

Excellent drill. I always required my firearms students to bring an old t-shirt or three. Toward the end of the class we covered the target as you did and shot the course, then removed the shirts and scored the targets. Most still passed easily.

I learned before puberty that critters (2 or 4 legged) don't come equipped with a bullseye. Courtesy of 2 Marine Uncles, my Navy father, and a Marine Captain. All WWII and/or Korea vets.

You're probably familiar with this: MCRP 8-10b.3 or it's predecessors. Some good stuff in it for those interested in real life pistol handling.

https://www.marines.mil/Portals/1/Publi ... 105117-183

[BrokenolMarine]

I never saw that manual, as we were still carrying the 45 when I left the Corps, however, it does have some excellent information contained therein. I used a number of techniques to teach my officers that the target rings were not that important, UNTIL time to qualify. But, by that time, they didn't matter. I had two female officers that were notorious for failing, over and over. When I took over I tried a lot of techniques, until I fell on the bowling pin trick.

The two females were sisters, and hated the range, didn't like the firearms and didn't take advantage of the once a month open range day. I told them that they HAD to come out to the open range day the month before requal. I had a half dozen bowling pins in my truck and took them over to the SWAT range, away from prying eyes so they weren't under observation by the rest of the THREE departments using the County Range. I started them shooting the pins at about 7 yards and slowly, without making a big deal of it, started moving them back. The SWAT deck does not have the range marked on the line like the standard range, but on discrete posts virtually hidden in the tall berms that run down the side of the range. We shot a couple hundred rounds for each of them working our way back and forth between the 7 and 25 yard lines, and by the end of the session they were getting fairly consistent hits at 7, 10 and 15 yards and about 50% at 25. I pulled the B27 center out of the truck and laid the pin on the repair center... they were shocked. It was about the same size as the 9 ring.

Two weeks later, on Requal day, the one sister shot high marksman, the other shot sharpshooter. A first for the both of them, two officers who usually failed to qualify and had to reshoot on Saturday. Amazing what a little confidence will do for you. That, and shooting a game with a smaller target than the standard drills with nothing to focus on.

One of the Narcotics Officers for a Sister Department was also a fellow firearms instructor... his trick was to drag out the old Car Door mounted on 2x4s and have them shoot thru the open window from about three feet back. Same Deal. No matter how far back the target was on the other side, it focused their attention on the target by "framing" the target. On "Qual" day he just reminded them to think of the "window" and shoot thru it.

[GunnyGene]

I never saw that manual, as we were still carrying the 45 when I left the Corps, however, it does have some excellent information contained therein. I used a number of techniques to teach my officers that the target rings were not that important, UNTIL time to qualify. But, by that time, they didn't matter. I had two female officers that were notorious for failing, over and over. When I took over I tried a lot of techniques, until I fell on the bowling pin trick.

The two females were sisters, and hated the range, didn't like the firearms and didn't take advantage of the once a month open range day. I told them that they HAD to come out to the open range day the month before requal. I had a half dozen bowling pins in my truck and took them over to the SWAT range, away from prying eyes so they weren't under observation by the rest of the THREE departments using the County Range. I started them shooting the pins at about 7 yards and slowly, without making a big deal of it, started moving them back. The SWAT deck does not have the range marked on the line like the standard range, but on discrete posts virtually hidden in the tall berms that run down the side of the range. We shot a couple hundred rounds for each of them working our way back and forth between the 7 and 25 yard lines, and by the end of the session they were getting fairly consistent hits at 7, 10 and 15 yards and about 50% at 25. I pulled the B27 center out of the truck and laid the pin on the repair center... they were shocked. It was about the same size as the 9 ring.

Two weeks later, on Requal day, the one sister shot high marksman, the other shot sharpshooter. A first for the both of them, two officers who usually failed to qualify and had to reshoot on Saturday. Amazing what a little confidence will do for you. That, and shooting a game with a smaller target than the standard drills with nothing to focus on.

One of the Narcotics Officers for a Sister Department was also a fellow firearms instructor... his trick was to drag out the old Car Door mounted on 2x4s and have them shoot thru the open window from about three feet back. Same Deal. No matter how far back the target was on the other side, it focused their attention on the target by "framing" the target. On "Qual" day he just reminded them to think of the "window" and shoot thru it.

Likewise with the .45 (retired in '83), but I like to keep up with things like this. You've got some good ideas that apparently work well. Do you also run your trainees thru shooting from behind barriers, kneeling, sitting in a car, etc. (not necessarily for qual, but just for fam ) ? Or is it just standing? Reason I ask is because there are some genuine very bad dudes on the street who do get this kind of training and practice, and I'd hope that our police have better training than the BG's.

[BrokenolMarine]

Yup, and partner cover drills, weak hand drills, shooting on the move... Etc

[GunnyGene]

Yup, and partner cover drills, weak hand drills, shooting on the move... Etc

Good.

[dasmoeturhead]

I feel better now. This was not a bullseye drill, but simulated confrontation drill. T-shirts make good targets. Tshirt is actually white, not baby blue .

This was a pretty std drill. Ruger 9E. Wearing usual street clothes (light jacket), OWB holster & 2 mag carrier on my belt. All shots were from 10yds (approx). Eyes wide open, clear jacket, draw, present in std Weaver, no sighting just point and shoot double tap. Safety & reholster. Repeat with mag changes every other draw, putting partial mag back in carrier. Not too terrible for an old fart, but I do have plenty of room for improvement. Total of 40rds fired - more misses than I'd like if y'all want to count the holes. Don't have a timer but I'd guess around 1-1.5 sec from draw to fire.

That T-shirt thing is a darn good idea. Thanks for showing an old dog a new idea.

[GunnyGene]

I feel better now. This was not a bullseye drill, but simulated confrontation drill. T-shirts make good targets. Tshirt is actually white, not baby blue .

This was a pretty std drill. Ruger 9E. Wearing usual street clothes (light jacket), OWB holster & 2 mag carrier on my belt. All shots were from 10yds (approx). Eyes wide open, clear jacket, draw, present in std Weaver, no sighting just point and shoot double tap. Safety & reholster. Repeat with mag changes every other draw, putting partial mag back in carrier. Not too terrible for an old fart, but I do have plenty of room for improvement. Total of 40rds fired - more misses than I'd like if y'all want to count the holes. Don't have a timer but I'd guess around 1-1.5 sec from draw to fire.

That T-shirt thing is a darn good idea. Thanks for showing an old dog a new idea.

You're very welcome, but I can't claim it as my idea. It's been around for longer than I've been alive, and I'm 75. For that matter, the basic idea has probably been around since we were all chucking spears and arrows at animal skins.

ETA: The reason for this kind of target/practice is to retrain your brain. Shooting a bullseye target forces you to hunt down that little black dot, which takes time you may not have in real life. With this your brain simply says: "Big target, shoot it". So your time from draw to fire is considerably reduced. Once you've got that part down, you can work on a consistent presentation to reduce the scatter and get a decent group size where you want it. Don't worry about time - speed will come later naturally. Smooth and consistent is the early goal.