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Posted by Don Foreman on January 30, 2008, 5:56 am
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The one-on-one training/coaching session I had at the range
yesterday was even more fun than I thought it might be. It was an
absolute blast, pun not intentional but certainly appropos.
The name of the course/session was CQB, aka Close Quarters Battle. I
certainly have no intention of engaging in armed CQB as a senior
gentleman, but after reading about it I thought it could be a lot of
fun. It certainly was!
The coach is an excellent instructor and a very easy guy to be around.
Not much younger than I, not a molecule of bravado machismo bullshit
about him. He does not present at all like ex-military, ex-cop or
gun nut, though he is one of the few instructors in MN that has been
in some real firefights. Good sense of humor. We got on
famously from the git-go. Having a guide or instructor that is fun
is high on my shortlist, because that's precisely why I'm there: to
have fun while learning a thing or three.
The idea is to learn to shoot effectively by pointing rather than by
aiming with sights. Tackdriving accuracy is not necessary at close
range, rapid delivery can be. Rex Applegate (OSS) school of
thought. Col Jeff Cooper advocated using front sight only. I reckon
both are good techniques, the choice between them being one of
range, urgency and state of adrenaline. I can't use a sight I can't
see due to adrenaline-induced tunnel vision.
As he was finishing up with a previous class on another subject, I
was sweeping the area we'd be using clean of spent brass. He asked
me, "Don, were you a Marine?" "No, why do you ask?" "You're very
tidy!" I laughed. "Differing opinion on that is available! I'm
frugal: I intend to collect as much of my spent brass as is easy to
do without being a twit about it." Big grin.
We started with the XD .40, slow and easy. I decided to do most of
this with the XD because it is my HD primary due to ammo capacity in a
respectable caliber. I understand (and expect) that a good
instructor assumes nothing about the student and safety is always job
1. He immediately corrected an aspect of my stance he didn't like,
OK for target shooting, not for CQB. He found no fault with my
grip. Load and fire one round. BANG. Ah, he hit the paper,
didn't shoot out any lights. (The paper was 15 feet away, duh!) OK,
fire two rounds. BANG.....BANG. Both went about where the first
one had. Not using sights, just pointing. I was a bit surprised. He
grinned. "OK, fire the remaining rounds in your magazine." I did.
Another grin. So much for get-accquainted preliminaries.
We obviously were hitting it off because it went very quickly from
instructor/businessman with customer to something more like a coach
working with a protoge. "Dammit, Don, you keep drifting into an
isoceles Weaver stance. Would it help your retention if I stomped on
your toe?" I had to set the piece down for a second I was laughing
so hard. "John, please don't stomp on my toe when I'm the one with
the loaded pistol." He laughed. "Sounds like a plan!"
The rest of the session was spent with ever-increasing pressure. He
was really good at that. He told me to assume a ready position,
with my feet on a goddamned straight line and my gun near my chest and
pointed AT THE GODDAMNED TARGET YOU FULLY INTEND TO SHOOT... and then
on his command (a tap on the shoulder) extend my arms to locked-elbow
while loudly shouting STOP! ... and then fire until empty. I
recognized the shout as psychological, surprising how well that works
to enance the illusion of pressure. I don't habitually lock elbows
for target shooting because I find I'm steadier if I don't, but in
this type of shooting recoil control is considerably more important
than sight picture. There ain't no sight picture. .40 is a bit
snappy with recoil, but it's managable even for me. I prefer the
power of .40 over 9mmp and the capacity of a doublestack .40 (12+1)
over .45ACP for HD. There are certainly plenty of differing
opinions. I make no claim to being "right", it's just my choice.
After each magazine he said, "do it again, faster this time" and the
taps got more vigorous. Not enough to hurt, but definitely not
likely to escape notice and enough to slightly screw up my orientation
re target. Ever- escalating pressure. Then he moved the target out
to 25 feet while I was reloading mags -- more pressure ... and we did
that for a while. I would not have thought I could even hit a
silhouettte at 25 feet just by pointing, but the holes kept appearing
right where they should. (He used lots of targets so we could see
how things were going) He seened pleased with my progress, kept
grinning. "How much ammo did you bring, Don?" 600 rounds. He
laughed. "That should do!" He'd said the session would entail
about 150 rounds but I'd brought more than one pistol. I did the
prescribed 150 rounds all with the XD. The last three or four
magazines were really interesting. He ran the target out to 21 feet
and said, "no command this time, start firing when the target starts
moving." Moving? Suddenly the target started racing toward me.
Holy shit! BAMBAMBAM and so on. I got off 8 rounds before the
target arrived. That trip can't take two seconds, and there's my
65-year-old's reaction time from when I first sense movement. "Do it
again." On the third mag I got all rounds off (and thru COM)
before the target was 2/3 of the way to me. The holes were
elliptical because the target and backing cardboard moves on the
electric trolley fast enough that air resistance makes it tilt back
a ways. The pistol was firing about as fast as it can be fired --
and, to my amazement, the shots were all going right where they
should. It's not unusual to hear folks firing rapidly like that,
but when I look at their targets I wonder if they're just burning ammo
because it's fun -- their shots are all over the place even at 15'. By
this time I was completely unaware of the sights, and mostly unaware
of the object in my hand that was bucking away. I didn't even notice
the reports. I was totally focussed on that target. It was like the
pistol was an extension of my being, making holes where I willed it to
while firing at a rate of somewhat more than 5 rounds per second.
They don't even do that on the teevee, probably because nobody would
believe anyone could hit anything shooting like that. Wrong-o! My
COM hit rate on a smallish silhouette target (my assailant is a
midget) was never less than 80% , 100% with some magazines. The
silhouettes used were the FBI/DEA Q-T, considerably smaller than the
TBT-II's used for the MN CCW qual test and by some cop shops for
qual firing.
I noted that I'd fired 150 rounds at that point and said so. He said
he was in no hurry if I'd like to shoot some more. Well, I was
getting tired (and I have the achey-breaky flu) so I said that'd be
enough with XD but I'd like to try two other pistols. Awright! I
was surprised to discover that I can shoot the PPK as accurately this
way as I can with sights -- which I guess shouldn't be surprising
since I can barely see the small sights on that one. That's fine!
PPK is a lil' popper, definitely a short-range pistol anyway. .380
isn't much of a gun but it's a whole lot more than no gun.
Then I got out my 1911 Colt Officers' model. John seemed very
interested in it. I'm sure he's seen a lot of 1911's, but the Colt
Officer's model is a bit uncommon. He didn't care to fire it, but
he tried the trigger dryfire a couple of times and said he'd not
handled a 1911 with a better trigger. That would be in tactical
context: Looie has a heavy trigger as 1911's go, but it is very
crisp with no perceptible creep and it is very consistent.
OK, so I tried a few mags with that. He was relentless. "Do it
again!" Then we did a couple of mags with the moving target. He
looked at me kinda funny and said "Jee-zus, Don, you sure can shoot
that .45!"
Did that make my day or what? WOW!
We had Cokes and chatted for a bit out in the store area where ear
protection isn't required and we could sit for a spell. He had some
very, very nice guns in his kit that he uses for other classes. He
showed me a Sig Sauer .45 that he carries. Unloaded it, cleared it,
fieldstripped it right there on the table. He remembered that I'd
mentioned being a machinist during our first telephone conversation.
My golly, that is one exquisite piece of work! I don't think I
could bring myself to spend that much on one pistol, but I can
certainly admire. He also had an XD .40 just like mine.
Inexpensive and ugly as a mud fence, but sufficient for its purpose,
safe, simple and utterly reliable.
He invited me to come shoot again with him sometime in nice weather
when we can shoot outdoors. "There's some fun stuff we can do
outdoors that we can't do indoors." I'm certainly up for that! John
creaked even worse than I did when getting up after sitting for 25
minutes. He'd been on his feet since 9 that morning. Long day for
him!
As we parted in the parking lot, his parting comment was, "you are
good with that .45!" with an expressive roll of his eyeballs.
I can't describe how good that felt, coming from someone like him.
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Posted by Pete Snell on January 30, 2008, 8:38 am
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Don Foreman wrote:
> The one-on-one training/coaching session I had at the range
> yesterday was even more fun than I thought it might be. It was an
> absolute blast, pun not intentional but certainly appropos.
>
>
Sounds like a day well spent Don!
Pete
--
Pete Snell
Department of Physics
Royal Military College
Snell-p@rmc.ca
---------------------------------------------------------------------
A lie gets halfway around the world before the
truth has a chance to get its pants on.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965)
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Posted by Ignoramus19508 on January 30, 2008, 12:46 pm
Please log in for more thread options Sounds like an awesome way to spend a day.
I always wanted to practice shooting from the hip with something
non-destructive so that I could practice at home.
i
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Posted by Gunner on January 30, 2008, 2:23 pm
Please log in for more thread options On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 11:46:07 -0600, Ignoramus19508
>Sounds like an awesome way to spend a day.
>
>I always wanted to practice shooting from the hip with something
>non-destructive so that I could practice at home.
>
>i
Hip shooting? Waste of time and ammo
Gunner
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Posted by Jon Anderson on January 30, 2008, 3:25 pm
Please log in for more thread options Gunner wrote:
> Hip shooting? Waste of time and ammo
Maybe with modern pistols. But years ago my dad was up
visiting and we went down to the riverbed to plink. He
brought his Colt SA in .38. He grew up on a ranch just west
of Mariposa, and shooting was just a natural thing boys
learned. He'd told me storys of quick draw, popping ground
squirrels. Had no reason to doubt him, but I'd long thought
a lot of western quick draw was myth.
He didn't bring a holster for it, so I'd let it hang at my
side and mimic a quick draw, then point and shoot. Some
vagrants had left a pile of Readers Digest books, which made
for great targets. Within two cylinders worth I was popping
the books dead center at about 15 or 20 yards, shooting from
the hip.
I would not use hip shooting in a real world situation, but
at least with the old Colt SA's, it can be done with
reasonable accuracy at closer ranges.
Jon
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> yesterday was even more fun than I thought it might be. It was an
> absolute blast, pun not intentional but certainly appropos.
>
>