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USMC Immediate Action Medical Video
Developed for the United States Marine Corps,
this is an excellent overview on the basics of dealing with an "Immediate
Action Medical" sceneraio. If you are interested in being capable
of dealing with such situations, make sure to attend the last of this
year's Immediate Action Medical class on October 1st.
Watch the video here.
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Elm Fork Wednesday Night Classes
Our last Immediate Action Medical class of the year is being held at Elm Fork on October 1st.
Pre-registration is required. You can either drop a
check in the mail to our office address or pay through our online store. The fee is
$85, which includes a medical "blow-out kit" and the course runs from 6:30 PM
to 9 PM.
Our "Undercover Carry" class will be held on October 15. Students will work on drawing their daily carry weapons from
concealment and using them at "in the hole" distances. Arrive
with your your handgun(s), holster(s), 200 rounds of
ammo, safety gear, and $65 course fee. The course runs from 6:30
PM to 9 PM and pre-registration is not required.
October
29th is "Advanced CQB Carbine". Shooting and moving, 90 degree
target engagements, reloads, transition drills, and weapon strikes will
be covered. Carbine with sling, pistol with holster, 200 rounds
carbine, 5o rounds pistol, and safety gear is required. These
cost is $65, runs from 6:30 PM to 9 PM and pre-registration is not
required.
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Team Sniper Match Complete
Forty
teams competed in Tiger Valley's Team Sniper Match on September 20th
and 21st. We ran participants through four long stages on
Saturday and another four on Sunday. Many stages ran from
five to ten minutes each and we included an "identify and
kill" scenario that ran for over an hour.
Match results can be found here.
Big congratulations
to the Sommers and Long team for winning the event. Many thanks
to our great crew of Range Officers who all did an excellent job.
We will create a video for the match that should appear in the
next newsletter, so stay tuned!
There's an active discussion of the match along with additional pictures on Sniper's Hide, which you can find here.
We had an
excellent group of sponsors who contributed to the prize table for
this match. Please keep these companies in mind, as they have
gone out of their way to contribute to the shooting sports.
Match sponsors were:
Black Hills Ammunition
Cheaper than Dirt
Chosen Tactical
Jet Suppressors
LaRue Tactical
Liberty Suppressors
Louque's Precision Firearms
Martin Knives
Mystery Ranch
Predator Custom Shop
Spec-Ops Brand
Strider Knives
Surefire
SWFA - RifleScopes.com
Terry Cross - KMW
Triad Tactical
US Optics
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| New Class - Advanced Precision Rifle
At the our Team Sniper Match, many skilled shooters
complained that they never get the opportunity to shoot very long ranges and engage dynamic
targets and movers at extended distances.
Endeavoring to fill this
void we have the following training session planned on November 15 and 16. Shooting
will begin on the 1000 yard KD range. Each and every shot,
stationary, mover, bobber and stop & go will be disked for the
shooter to evaluate. You will engage targets and have your dope
to 1000 yards. Shooters can expect to fire
10 rounds from each yard line and at least 60 rounds from the UKD
range.
There
will be no classroom time and students must be familiar with their
equipment and the fundamentals of long range shooting. New
precision rifle shooters are encouraged to attend our Level I Precision
Rifle class instead.
Course details:
- Shooters on the line at 100 yards for cold bore shooting and group evaluation
- 200-yard face shots into the pits
- 200-yard movers
- 300-yard stationary targets
- 300-yard moving targets
- 400-yard stationary targets
- 400-yard moving targets
- 500-yard stationary targets
- 500-yard moving targets
- 600-yard stationary
- 600-yard moving targets
- 700-yard stationary targets
- 700-yard stop and go targets
- 800-yard stationary targets
- 800-yard bobbers
- 900-yard stationary
- 1000-yard stationary
After
completion of the KD portions of the class shooters will move the UKD
range and engage targets to 1000 yards. Shooters can expect to
engage life-like targets to include: Larue targets, T-62, scout
vehicles, building with targets and movers, steel reactionary props to
name a few. This will be a fast paced class.
Participation for both days is $300, for one day is $175. Space is limited and pre-registration is required.
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Let's Get a Grip
by Wayne Dobbs
This
month, as my 87-year old Southern mother has always said, we’re going
to get down to brass tacks! I don’t know how many times I’ve
heard her say that, but I know that when she does, you’d better listen,
because something critical is about to be discussed. The
fundamental in question this month is one that is just that “critical”
(in my hierarchy of importance) when we consider the use of the pistol
for combative use. We’re going to discuss how to grip the gun
this month and I think you’ll find it’s a lot more important and
involved than you may already know.
You may recall that in one
of the first installments in this series of articles, I mentioned that
I had watched lots of really bad shooting performances at various
ranges and matches by lots of really bad shooters. I said that
they were either ignorant of proper fundamentals or too lazy to apply
them. That statement still holds and since then, I’ve added lots
more of those observations to my collection. One failing that I
see most often in these “shooters” is that they don’t ever establish
and maintain a proper grip on their pistols. This then kicks the
door wide open for their ensuing horrible shooting performances because
you see, the fundamental of grip is one of the two foundation
fundamentals required to achieve an excellent shooting performance in a
fight. (We’ll discuss the other critical one next time, but I’m
sure you can figure it out if you’ve read all of the preceding
articles.) I’m also convinced, based on long experience, that
improper and inadequate grip establishment is one of the driving
factors in most of the horrible shooting performances you see in street
shootings by police and armed citizens where you see 80% or more of the
shots fired by our heroes completely miss targets that are literally at
“bad breath” ranges!
So, given the foregoing assertions on my part, what is a proper and adequate grip supposed to do for us?
The
first thing to realize is that the grip is one of the two interfaces
between man and tool and therefore, that interaction must be
satisfactory enough to achieve a high level of subconscious efficiency
with that tool. If and when we get into a fight that demands a
pistol for solution, life is going to be tough enough without having to
devote our conscious efforts to use that tool. We want to be able
to employ the tool, our pistol, without having to think about how we
are holding it. Lots of money is paid to lots of designers and
engineers to make sure the tools “fit” us and that field is known as
ergonomics. Most of our choices in service guns these days are
fairly well done, ergonomics wise. Some are excellent and some
less so, but most of the major brands are usable, given average hand
dimensions and sufficient training with that chosen tool.
The
first marksmanship task the grip accomplishes is to position or orient
the pistol on the target we wish to strike with our rounds. It
must do this without our conscious effort and I keep harping on that,
because if you have to spend time to fight the gun onto the target and
occupy your thoughts with that demand, you have just become a prime
candidate for a subterranean condo at the local bone orchard!
When properly gripped and extended to the target, the pistol’s sights
should align very closely to the point you wish to strike on a close
range target with your eyes closed. This kind of reliable target
index is priceless when under stress and it is easily achieved, given
proper pistol selection and proper grip establishment. How do we
verify this with our particular grip and pistol? By firing three
to five shot groups on a close target (10-15’ away) with our eyes
closed! You will be amazed how well you can do this and how much
you’ll learn if you execute fundamentals correctly during this kind of
exercise.
Next, we want the pistol stabilized against incidental
movement so that our index on target feels (and is) rock solid.
Our expectation from this well-established grip is that minor trigger
control errors at close range on average human thorax-sized targets are
of no consequence in our quest for rapid and centered hits on that
target. In other words, the properly established grip will
overcome some of your trigger control errors! Adding to this list
of demands is the ability to manage and direct the gun’s recoil and
muzzle flip in a consistent and repeatable fashion so that the weapon’s
sights realign on target in the same location shot after shot without
conscious influence from the shooter. In short, a properly
applied grip is exactly like the steering and brakes on your
automobile. The grip is perhaps the single most important control
you exert over your weapon and just like your vehicle, if you lose
steering and brakes, you’re in deep trouble.
So, we
require the grip to orient the gun, stabilize the gun and drive the gun
back on target after each shot, without us having to use conscious
inputs on the pistol. That seems like a tall order, but it’s not
if you do the job correctly. While we’re accomplishing great
things with that grip, there are several things that we must avoid:
inconsistency in the “building” of the grip, a skewed or torqued grip,
having to regrip the gun during a firing string, inadvertent activation
or depression of the slide stop, slide-function related malfunctions
and the sympathetic increase of grip pressure as the trigger is
pressed. The order just got taller, but we’re going to fill it!
Before
I start describing how a solid grip is built, I must confess
something. When I was introduced to this grip style back in
1991-1992 by T. J. Pilling, then a firearms trainer for Garland PD, and
later by Mid-South Institute of Self-Defense Shooting, I thought it was
goofy looking and odd feeling! If you’ve been gripping a pistol
like most folks do that have had little or no training you will
initially feel that the grip ain’t right! That’s OK to be
skeptical, but if you will do what I suggest and hang in for several
serious shooting sessions, you will be amazed how much better your
pistol shooting gets. To use an old saying about life: “If you
always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always
got”. For many of you, that means you’ve always been from
mediocre to downright sorry with a pistol or you’re OK for the first
few shots and then you go downhill. This lesson can change your
pistol shooting skills for the better immediately.
The
first thing we must do is grip the pistol properly in the strong
hand. We must have the weapon centered in the “V” formed by our
thumb and index finger and that centering should also align the point
of the elbow, the general axis of the forearm bones and the front sight
in a straight line. Our grip on the gun should be high up on the
rear tang of the frame and no space should be apparent between that
tang and our hand’s web. Our strong hand thumb is flagged up and
is exerting no sideways grip force on the gun. If we have a
single action automatic such as a 1911, 1935 or other design with a
Browning style thumb safety, our strong thumb rides the lever of that
safety. (See photo #1 for further on what this looks like.)
Our strong hand fingers are firmly wrapped around the frontstrap of the
pistol and the medial knuckles of those fingers form a near straight
vertical line down the front of the gun, usually on the near side of
the frontstrap of the pistol. Our middle finger is butted up
firmly against the bottom of the trigger guard and the other fingers
lay alongside with no gaps between them. The trigger finger is
straight or slightly bowed and is in a “register” position on the
pistol’s frame above the trigger guard periphery. (See photo 2
for details of this) Our grip force on the pistol will
vary from shooter to shooter, but it should be held like you’d hold a
tool that you were going to give some serious use. You shouldn’t
be quivering or trembling and you shouldn’t be holding it like it’s
delicate. Finally, our grip force vector on the pistol with our
strong hand is fore and aft, avoiding sideways torque or skew of the
weapon. If you’ve done all of this properly, you now have a solid
one-handed shooting grip. Lots of great pistol shooting work has
been (and will be) done one-handed, and if your off hand is occupied,
you are good to go just like this. If the other hand is
available, then we can really make the job easier and better by adding
the support of the other hand.
I told you earlier that I’ve seen
lots of really bad grips and bad shooting and the addition of the
second hand is usually where we run into the ditch, technique
wise. Commonly seen are “cup and saucer style” (see photo),
“wrist grabs” (see photo) and "wrapped thumb style” (see photo).
Hopefully, by now I’ve gored your particular grip style’s “ox” and we
can move on to fixing things. If we’re going to use two hands on
the gun, we should do something that makes it easier to run the gun at
speed under deadly stress. If all you want to do is shoot cans at
Granny’s pond, it doesn’t matter what you do since you have nothing
critical riding on your skill for that pursuit. If you think or
know you want to use the pistol to defend yourself or your loved ones,
you owe it to all to do it right. I’ve alluded before that there
are way too many tasks to handle in a fight and having to think about
how you’re running a weapon is not something you should have to think
about…it should be done at a subconscious level so you can think about
more important things. All of the grip styles mentioned above
fail to consistently orient, stabilize and realign the pistol under
stress shooting scenarios and they all allow way too much muzzle flip
in rapid shot sequences.
The addition of the properly
applied support hand to the grip gives us much better lateral
stabilization, much better target index speed, better overall grip
“neutrality” and drastically reduced muzzle flip. All of these
advantages combined with decent trigger control, can and will take a
shooter in a fight from missing most of his shots to somebody that
makes solid hits with most of, if not all of his shots. Following
are descriptions and photos of how we do that.
The first thing
we need to do is to get you out of the mindset of using your support
hand the way you’ve always done it. We’re going to make it work
for us as efficiently as possible and we’re going to turn it into a
brake for us. To begin, I want you to point your support hand
finger at some imaginary target and lock your wrist as best you
can. Now take your strong hand and try to move that hand pointing
the finger. You should notice that your wrist is not locked and
can’t be. Therefore using that hand with your fingers pointed
forward as the second half of your grip will never give you the muzzle
flip control and stability you need. Now, it’s time for something
different. Take that same support hand and use the thumb as the
pointer at the target. (see photo #3) Your fingers should be pointed
down at about a 30 to 40-degree angle if you’re doing this
correctly. Now check your wrist lock-up. As Gomer Pyle
would have said, “Shazam!” You’ve now learned a biomechanical
trick of how to set your wrist into a locked position. This
forward camming action of the wrist and thumb is about to change your
shooting capability. Keep the thumb of the support hand pointed
forward, the fingers angled down, and place the corner of the thumb
joint and the heel of your support hand into the opening created at the
end of your master hand fingertips and the flagged thumb of your master
hand. (see photo #4) This opening is now completely filled and the
thumbs should point forward while alongside the weapon’s frame with the
support thumb under the strong thumb. The angled support hand
fingers now wrap around the strong hand’s fingers with the support hand
index finger butting up firmly on the bottom of the trigger
guard. The thumbs are exerting little or no pressure on the gun
and the support hand fingers are gripping the gun in a side-to-side
manner. By building the grip this way, we’ve sealed an energy
leak area between our strong hand fingertips and thumb (on the gun’s
support side), we’ve placed a locked wrist on the grip to minimize
muzzle flip and we’ve created a 360 degree grip around the gun with no
place for the gun to run away from us. We also have added another
pointer finger (the support thumb) to assist us in rapidly and
precisely placing the gun on target.
Now some additional
things to consider about this. The gun should be held neutrally,
without any lateral forces at play. Imagine that it’s hanging
from the ceiling on a string and you’re simply building this grip
around the gun. When you position this grip and gun unit at the
centerline of your body, against some point along a line from your
solar plexus to mid-chest area, you are now prepared to drive it
precisely to the point on the target you wish to hit. Assume your
action stance (see the article on that) and start smoothly moving the
gun from your ready position to the target. Verify that the
sights are generally aligning on the target. Once you build a
groove, it’s simple to drive a sights aligned gun onto close and medium
ranged targets. Sight alignment starts to occur without much
effort from you and combined with good trigger management, good
hits become much easier.
Now, a couple of quick hints and
cautions. Changing old ways of doing something takes time and
commitment. You will most likely do this for a few shots and then
slide back to your old grip because it’s a habit. As you slide
back, so will your capabilities. A quick way to check yourself is
to open your support hand fingers. If they’re pointed straight
ahead, you’ve backslid! They should be angled down at that
previously described 30 to 40-degree angle. Next, look over the
top of your pistol at the tip of your support thumb and the tip of your
in register trigger finger. The tips of both should align
closely. If they don’t, you’ve slid. Next, check to see if
both thumbs are pointed forward (strong on top of support) and if the
heel of the support hand is high on the gun and filling that energy
leak gap. If all these criteria haven’t been met, you’re back to
your old ways. This grip is not a gimmick and it’s not a gaming
trick for matches. It’s a serious technique and it’s used by some
very serious folks besides the competitors (of which all the successful
ones use it too). That list is long and includes the entire
Special Operations community, well-trained LE units and their training
personnel. It works and of that there is no question. TJ’s
department adopted this set of techniques and in well over two-dozen
shootings achieved hit rates in the 90-percentile range. That’s
an astounding level of performance and we’re not just considering the
SWAT guys or gun enthusiasts in those figures.
Look at the
text, review the pictures and give it at serious try of at least a 1000
rounds of serious training. I would suggest you come and take a
pistol class with us and see if we can’t back up our assertions on
this. I bet you’ll change…
As always, feel free to send me
any comments or questions on these topics. I would love to hear
from you! My email addresses are: detwd114@yahoo.com or wayne.dobbs@yahoo.com.
(Editor's note. Click on these article titles if you missed Wayne's previous three handgun articles, "Fundamentals - Not Those Again!", "What's Your Stance", and "Oh, Say Can You See... The Sights".)
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Previous
Newsletters Available Online!
Check out our previous
newsletters for fantastic training videos, equipment
reviews, and special articles. Find them here.
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Upcoming
Events
October
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Tiger Valley LLC.
Range Address: Hwy 84 at Joe Russell Rd. | Prairie Hill, TX 76678
Mailing Address: 6309 Scottsboro Ln. | Garland, TX 75044
Cell: (972)977-9512 |
