How I improved my shooting
Convincing myself larger groups are OK. Kidding aside, it’s a discussion of why small groups, while fun on the range, may not be effective in self-defense. There’s a trade off between speed and accuracy. Some folks call it Acceptable Combat Accuracy. I prefer the term MOA (minute of asshole). That balance is the trick. I can, probably, draw and fire accurately in a bit over a second (or, more likely, a bit under two). Top professional shooters manage to do both, though.
January 12th, 2011 at 11:04 am
I doubt top professional shooters apply their skills in daily life this side of Iraq.. The rule to go by is: MCD or Minimize collateral damage. When you try to get too fast without taking aim ugliness arises… I only practice as fast as I can draw and aim. It is a balance of not going too fast but not going so slow as to give the advantage to the target. My secret is to stay calm and don’t tunnel vision… Police officers especially should practice this seeing they can empty a magazine from 10 feet without hitting the suspect…
January 12th, 2011 at 11:12 am
When I took my concealed handgun course, the instructor would have words with you if you had a group that was too tight.
January 12th, 2011 at 11:15 am
Drawing from concealment and getting hits (say, 8″ plate at 10 yards) is 2 seconds is considered good. Just over a second would be excellent.
January 12th, 2011 at 11:23 am
Coming from a rifle persdpective, leaving aside the variables of gun and consistency of ammunition, it’s all platform. Do the exact same thing every time, you will achieve the exact same result every time.
(OT: My shooting days look to be over. I’m seeing four doctors (pun intended) for double vision. Hopefully benign exophoria.)
January 12th, 2011 at 11:39 am
He’s right. Group sizes that are too small are actually as bad as ones that are too large. This is because you’re hitting the same location on the body multiple times but not doing much in the way of additional damage after the first round. In addition a larger group size can actually offset some common aiming errors over the course of multiple rounds of fire.
January 12th, 2011 at 12:25 pm
One SWAT team leader and multiple gunfight survivor I trained with told me his estimate was you would only bring 75% of the skill you had on your worst day of training to the fight. His approach was to train his guys to shoot “all A’s, all the time”, which is basically the same approach Tom Givens (tactical) and Todd Jarrett (competition) teach.
Generally those that can shoot accurately need to learn how to do it faster, within the bounds of a 6″ target zone, and those that can’t put 10 shots out of 10 in a 6″ target at 15 yards need to learn how to that first before pushing for speed.
January 12th, 2011 at 6:04 pm
To add to Karl’s comment. The whole point of the balance of speed and accuracy drills are to help you know at what speed you ‘go off the rails’ at various distances so you have an objective way of measuring your improvements as you get faster. Minute of Man may be fine but when the pucker factor needle pegs, your legs get all stiff and you feel like your wearing mittens, then all you are going to get is whatever you muscle memory gives you. I guess that’s why so many videos of close quarter pistol battle (think 7/11 robbery videos) have so many rounds fired for so few hits.
January 13th, 2011 at 4:05 pm
In self-defence shooting, if your groups are small, you’re taking too long to shoot.
Minute-of-sideplate is perfectly acceptable.