Handgun practice - Not as difficult as you think

For about 20 years I have been shooting handguns, always looking for a way to hone my site picture, my trigger control, my draw. Every little detail was important to me, and it was imperative that I get every detail perfected. After all in a gun fight we tend to have the motor function of a toddler. If I couldn't do it perfect on the range, I would surely perform worse under stress.

Unfortunately ammunition costs money, and these days it costs a lot of money. Finding ways to really get your monies worth out of the ammunition you use while practicing on the range is difficult sometimes. So I took some advice from a friend and did more dry fire practice. It would help me with my trigger control, site alignment, and my draw without firing a single shot. Of course, It's not quite as realistic, but it's certainly cheaper, and it DOES help. For the next 4-5 years this was my regiment, dry fire when I had spare time to keep my training as honed as I could, and when I had the spare cash or ammunition I would go to the range.

The down side to learning and practicing the defensive pistol craft is sometimes the range you attend, won't let you practice drawing your firearm, and they won't let you move while you shoot. Well since those are two pretty basic things one might need to do in a gunfight, it's pretty important to practice them. What to do next?

As the years ticked by, I found myself teaching a lot of what I did, to others. So I decided it was time to get serious about training myself and training others. Over time I developed some training methods that I think will benefit nearly every hand gunner out there, especially those that are serious about defending themselves with a firearm. It's a simple method, which is our company mantra -'If it's not simple, it will fail!'. It's very cost effective, and you won't need to go to the range to do it. There are two ways to go about this training method, one is slightly more in-depth, but still holds true to simplicity.

The training methods I am going to describe must always be done with an UN-LOADED firearm, and no ammunition should be in the room. 

Safety First!

Again - ENSURE YOUR FIREARM IS UNLOADED! Accidents happen, mental lapse, fatigue, stress, anything could cloud your judgement. If you are tired, or don't feel well, put practice off for a day. Firearms have no forgiveness for ignorance or fatigue, and they don't know who is a good guy or a bad guy. But they ARE obedient. If you squeeze the trigger it will do what you told it to do. Safety should always be your number one concern.  

Option one:

Wear your firearm as you would normally. Ankle holster, hip holster, cross-draw, shoulder holster, purse, etc.. However you carry it in real life, is how you should wear it while doing these practice exercises. If you carry spare magazines or speed loaders (and we hope you do!) wear those as well.

You will need a couch, a tv or computer, and some spare time. If you are reading this blog on the internet you clearly have a computer and most of the population has a television so there should be no cost incurred here.

Next you need a show to watch on TV or a video on your computer. Ideally it should be a show that you have not seen before, because we want a significant amount of randomness in these drills. Pick out something in the show that indicates a threat or bad guy. It could be a red car, a MAN in a white shirt but NOT a woman in a white shirt. Or it could be a WOMAN in a white shirt but not a man in a white shirt. It could be a taxi that is 'on duty' but not one 'off duty'. Literally anything could be your threat indicator. Pick out some things for no-shoot indicators. A desk in the scene could indicate you don't shoot, again it could be anything you want for a no-shoot as well. Get creative, use some imagination.

Once you are set and have decided what your threats will be, and the criteria you want these drills to cover you are ready to go! When a man in a white shirt appears on screen; DRAW! Shoot until the threat stops! Don't shoot twice, don't shoot once. Shoot until the threat has ended. It ends when the man in a white shirt is not in the scene anymore. Pick out another cue for reloads. If a white shirt man is on scene and you draw and get two 'shots' but the camera switches to another character RELOAD! It doesn't matter if you are 'empty' or not, reload and do it before the man in the white shirt is back on the screen. He's your bad guy and you gotta be ready for him!

There are literally hundreds of different scenarios you could make up with this, and it's random. You wont be prepared for a timer to beep, you won't know exactly where your target is or when it will be okay to shoot. Check the background on the show you are using. Is it ok to shoot in this scenario? Are there bystanders directly behind my 'bad guy'?

Use your imagination, have fun with it, and get some good practice in!

Option two:

As mentioned previously, wear your firearm and spare ammunition as you do in the real world. There is one difference in the source of your cue's in this scenario. You can either downlaod the the mp3's that we created when we developed this training, or you can make your own. You will need some way to play the mp3's. Again you can be as creative as you want to be, but this is how we created ours using a tone generator on a computer:

• Low pitch tones indicate the end of a 'threat'. When you hear a low tone, you should come to low ready or sol  position, scan, reluctantly holster,
• High pitch tones indicate a threat. When you hear a high tone, you draw and engage a 'target' the target could be a trash can, it could be a target taped on your wall.
• If you hear a high and low alternating tone, you must reload. It doesn't matter if it's a 'full' mag you just put in, you have to reload. This covers some aspects of a malfunction drill.
• None of the tones start at the begining of the mp3. Some have a 2 second delay, some an 8 second delay. 
• The high 'threat' tones very in length from 3 seconds to 10 seconds. Sometimes they stop for a few seconds, and start again. This would indicate your threat fell, or perhaps he was neutralized and got to his/her weapon again.
• There are some that indicate when the shooter should move to the left, right, lay down, or shoot from retention.

Download, or create your own tracks. We suggest about 10 different mp3's. Put the tracks on your player, press the shuffle button (because random is good!) and you are set to practice.

The advantages to using method two, is that you can get actual live training on the range while listening  to these tracks. Setup some targets or one target and practice. Do what the tracks tell you to do. You can't predict when you will run out of ammo unless you count each round, which is not likely in a gun fight. You certainly do not know when your firearm might malfunction.

Summary:

When you practice, make sure you are following the basic fundamentals. Site alignment and site picture, trigger control, trigger reset, consistent grip. It won't do you much good to practice if you are neglecting the basics. These practice methods should save you some money while giving you great practice. Having random things cue you to draw takes out all of the 'preparation' for shooting. You could even get an 'airsoft' replica of your carry firearm and use that with method two in your garage. But always remember safety first! If you do purchase an 'airsoft' replica to practice with in your garage; make sure it is the replica you have in your holster, and not your carry firearm!

Stay safe out there!
Jeff - Gauntlet Professional Services