Random things you have learned while training in firearms

I decided to make this thread to share random things we may have learned while training, particularly in shooting classes and shooting in non-static positions/environments (basically anything other than shooting in a booth at a range.)

I'm sure what I'm about to type is already known to the more advanced shooters, but I still consider myself a novice to shooting so these experiences were somewhat novel to me.

-Bring a backup gun to shooting classes. I took my first class about a year and a half ago. I brought everything on the checklist the school provided for the defensive handgun course (reliable pistol, lots of ammo, protective gear, lots of mags, mag pouches, food, water, etc etc). I pull up to range in the morning in my subaru hatchback and a guy pulls up next to me in some super expensive porsche (I'm not really a porsche expert but I tell the "cheap" boxster types from the 911 or g1/g2/g3 types). Anyway he was there for the class too. Fast forward to when the shooting starts and his gun starts jamming up on him consistently. He says it's a new glock 26 and he hadn't shot it very much. It was causing all sorts of problems (I can't remember the specific malfunctions now). It was really ruining his ability to do any of the drills. He didn't have a backup gun. People suggested he go to the rental area of the range and rent a gun but it was so early in the morning the rental desk wasn't open yet. So basically the entire first few hours of the class was wasted for him because the gun was causing so much trouble. When the rental desk opened he got some sort of gun and proceeded with the rest of the class.

The funny thing was, the significance of what happened really didn't dawn on me until months later. Sure I had shot my glock 19 a lot before the class and I knew it was reliable, but weird stuff happens and who knows, that could have been me missing out on valuable class time. After that misfortune happened to the other guy I should have brought a second gun on the second day of class.

Also, while it isn't completely relevant, I thought about the tens of thousands of dollars that guy spent on the porsche, but he hadn't spent a few hundred dollars more on having an extra glock, or at the very least spending a few bucks on ammo and range time with his new glock 26 to see if it was reliable before bringing it to the class.

I have some other themes to discuss/rant about but I thought I would get the ball rolling with this

 

How do you jam a Glock 26?

Put .40 S&W in it.

*rimshot*

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Practice. Turns out practice is not something you do only at the range. Practice is something you do in your living room for hours a week. In front of the TeeVee with Duck Hunt dryfire drills. On the carpet in the prone. With both hands, off both shoulders. Endless, endless, endless repetitions with your concealed carry holster and cover shirt. An '80s hero-prep montage shouldn't cover how extensively you're getting down the draw stroke, sight picture and trigger squeeze. You should wear shit out dryfiring it. Your living room carpet should be littered with empty magazines from those speed reload drills (drop mag on floor). You should never be in a situation with live ammo that you haven't practiced with an empty gun a million times.

Except that one involving your new wife and the cable guy.

Dummy rounds. If you're not using dummy rounds (I recommend ST Action Pro brand, they're the most durable), you're probably just throwing lead half the time you're at the range. Do yourself a favor and ready 8 mags with a random 50/50 ball (live rounds) and dummy load. Go to the range and watch yourself flinch, witness El Snatcho as you put too much finger on the trigger, enjoy the weird awkwardness that comes with not knowing if you've got a live round in the next squeeze even though it should be a given. These pieces of metal and plastic speak the truth, reveal your flaws.

And you're the dummy at the range with the broken Glock.

Malfunction drills. Dummy rounds are also invaluable for practicing malfunction drills at home. Keep some spent brass casings and use them and your dummy rounds to simulate malfunctions in the comfort of your own home. Sometimes I'll just practice stovepipes by closing the slide with a spent casing popping out of the top (tap, rack, bang). Or I'll lock the slide to the rear, put a spent casing in the pipe then load a mag of dummy rounds and lock the gun up to simulate a failure to extract (rip, rack-rack-rack, reload, rack, bang). Knowing how to recognize and troubleshoot malfunctions is much more useful than staring at the dead pistol in the middle of a match. Too many otherwise good shooters fumble fuck a jammed gun.

Do remember to rack after reload. It's really embarrassing.

...

I've got a million of these. I can go for days. But let's tag team this shit.

ChrisJericho. KirStang.

 

Fine, I'll go again.

ChrisJericho is off earning "Greed is Good" money and being all 1% and shit. KirStang is probably off somewhere doing El Prez on a basketball team.

...

Dummy Test Your Gear. Showing up to a $600 class with a rifle you've never shot and mag pouches you've never drilled with is a recipe for Three Stooges-style comedy. If you haven't put ten magazines through a rifle and rolled around in your fancy new hero rig, you're going to be learning that shit and missing valuable class time. Spend the time in the booth and on your living room floor with your gear. Is your weapon zeroed and reliable? Can you shoot from various positions with it and your kit? What happens if you jump several times or drop and roll around on the ground?

Have Extra Magazines. When you're paying $200+ a day in tuition, you want to spend as much time interacting with the instructor cadre as possible. The best way to maximize this time is to not be jamming magazines between drills. Bringing a large quantity of loaded magazines (with some empties for drills) to class is good way of giving yourself time to bullshit with the instructors, drink water and download the drills. If the class states it is a 600 round day, bringing 25x 30-round magazines guarantees you'll never find yourself staring into an ammo bucket that day.

Tools and Supplies. Have a plastic footlocker with basic range items in it. Bring it with you every time you go to a class. Items like duct tape, masking tape, heavy duty stapler w/ correct staples, gun oil, barrel rod, rags, screwdrivers, hex keys, flashlight, batteries, etc. So many guys go to the range and don't have the basic tools to fix things like a loose AK stock. If you don't end up needing it, you can be the hero of the day for someone else.

Wear Realistic Clothing. If you wanna be the dork in full Multicam Operator (TM) garb, know that everybody else is probably laughing at you. This doesn't mean, however, to show up in jeans and a t-shirt. The thing that always boggles my mind is that guys with $3k rifles show up in tight jeans and short sleeves for a class that requires running and rolling around on the ground. $12 will get you like-new BDU pants. You can't beat 'em. Wear long sleeve shirts. Wear a baseball cap. Consider putting something around your neck (neck gaiter) if you're doing crazy positions where brass is going to try to roll down your back. Cold weather gear. Rain gear. Extra pants and underwear for when you roll into that giant puddle and get swamp ass. Big towel for your car/truck seat. If you wear shorts and flip-flops while you CCW, shooting classes might make you reconsider your outfit.

 

Your gun is a tool capable of achieving the precision it is designed to achieve. It is not a delicate piece of equipment. If you can shoot well with off the shelf ammo, you can shoot more accurately with match rounds. If your gun can't shoot Wolf, it's broken.

 

Oddly enough, my gun was broken because I shot Wolf ammo. My hatred for the makers of that substandard Siberian jail yard concoction burns with the heat of a thousand suns.
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What I've learned: The true gun slingers out there have the humility necessary to take a hard look at themselves, identify their weaknesses and grind them out until they're no longer weaknesses. You don't get any better by practicing what you're good at.

 

Unrelated:

Wow, I forgot how hard my gag reflex is triggered whenever someone uses "gunslinger"/"gunfighter." Almost as bad as "Infidel" and "Molon Labe."

Makes me wonder if the pop culture Gun Fu fad is even close to the same level in any other country. I mean, in America we can actually own guns.

Edit: Nevermind. Google just revealed how obsessed with American ninjas young Asian guys are. So much black market Multicam crap. Yikes.

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ONE, TUBBY-TUBBY. Physical fitness is huge. That whole moving and sweating thing. If you show up to a shooting class and the instructor asks you to do 30 side straddle hops, 30 pushups and sprint 100 yards before you start engaging steel from around the side of a rusty Suburban and you find yourself unable to get out of the prone position, you probably need to sell your guns and get yourself that Richard Simmons DVD collection. Your diet of pork rinds and the Champagne of Beers is likely to do you in before a Uzi-toting gangsta ninja stab-'n-sodomy home invasion crew does.

 

Wait... ChrisJericho is trying to sell me on a Subaru hatchback.

 

What Not To Do
A YouTube Video Series​

"We do... dangerous things."



Ralph Severe is, well, he's a ninja.



You can't blame gear for your fuck-up.

 

Took the insights 3day intermediate defensive handgun course over the weekend.

Intermediate Defensive Handgun Training

Some notable highlights:

The instructor John Holschen telling us "The best way to win a gun fight is not to get shot." It's one of those quotes when you hear it you say "Well duh" but once it sinks in it changes many aspects of your shooting. Essentially he wanted us moving or getting behind cover at every opportunity. Doing a speed reload? Move 2 or 3 steps to the right or left while you're doing it. Clearing a malfunction one handed? Better get behind one of the barricades if possible.

A guy in the class showed up with a Walter PPS. His magazines were literally falling apart on the first day. Every once in awhile you would see a baseplate and spring go flying onto the ground. He said he already had sent one back to Walter and was complaining about how they cost $50 each. Additionally he said it was his "carry gun" and that "the gun works great, it's just the magazines don't work." No comment. I think they gave him a loaner gun on the 2nd day.

Everyone else was running a glock 17 or 19, except one guy who had some sort of HK .40 (either usp or uspc). The HK was having problems, he said though he's put 11,000 rounds through it and it needed a new recoil spring or something. None of the glocks had problems with the 1500 rounds fired.

 

Ah, yes... the adventures in other-than-service-pistol shooting platforms. Here's another good one you can share with your friends:

"If your off brand pistol is Just As Good As A Glock (TM), that means it'll shoot 1500 rounds in 3 days without a hiccup."

That said, anybody using a Beretta for a 3-Day class is a glutton for punishment. And Sigs are for those silly sand squids.