This video is not mine, but I am not aware of any copyright issues. It was filmed by Rob Pincus during a class of his, which I was in last year. (this isn't me, I was somewhere else on the line) The video solely belongs to him and I am re-posting this link to it because I highly recommend checking his courses out. He can be found at www.icetraining.us or www.personaldefensenetwork.com

This student is participating in highly dangerous, but highly supervised training that I believe is highly necessary to experience at some point in your shooting career. DO NOT just go to the range or your buddy's house and start doing this. It requires an extremely high degree of safety and a high degree of skill and should be performed only under the guidance of a highly-qaulified, professional instructor.

Experiencing shooting from a wide variety of positions is not something that needs to be done on a weekly basis at the range, but it is definitely something that will allow you to keep your training in context, and prepared you to respond to a wide variety of shooting scenarios from a wide variety of positions. Many other course include supine or some variant of prone or urban prone, but the "Advanced Pistol Handling" course from ICE allows you to experience shooting from just about any possible position. Highly recommended.

Sometimes, you just gotta wing it.

While this blog is about firearms training, it is about the "defensive" usage of said arms. While you may never need to fend off Nazi-Zombies or Al-Qaeda at your local 7 eleven, there is always the possibility of being stranded and unprepared.

Last winter, I had an important business meeting to get to early on a monday morning, in a very small town in rural Ohio approximately 3 hours from home. Though I could have driven up the morning of the meeting, I decided to leave on sunday morning, and spend the afternoon/night at a beautiful, isolated cabin nearby. I had a wonderful day on Sunday reading by the fire, surrounded by fallen snow...

Monday morning arrived with several inches of snow. No big deal. I had my vehicle with 4-wheel drive, and plenty of "kit" in my vehicle. But...with temperatures dropping well below zero in the middle of the night, my vehicle decided not to start. While I had considered myself well prepared with a week of food and water in the vehicle, boots, a Carhart, etc...It had never occurred to me that I might need to go for a very long hike through the "middle of nowhere" in a suit. I had spare food and water, a firearm, spare mags, 2 flashlights, an emergency blanket, first aid kit, a pocket-knife and many other assorted trinkets, but they don't exactly all conveniently fit in a briefcase. Especially when you need to look sharp and show up with your computer, iPad and other assorted work-related materials.

Things like snow, traversing unknown distances, freezing temperatures, and vast wilderness often present more of a danger and require more "defense" than an attacker itself. Quite honestly, I feel fairly well prepared to deal with an attacker on the street, but... I spend a lot of time hiking and camping - how often do I prepare to defend myself against a bear or other wild animal?

While "luck favors the prepared", it also "favors the guy with the messy vehicle who happens to have a backpack in his vehicle from camping the week before." While I was easily prepared to make a long hike in the snow, I was not prepared to do it in a suit. Life is often random. Someone prepared to deal with a large variety of scenarios will be better "suited" (pun!) to deal with one they may not be entirely familiar with. And... Sometimes, you just gotta wing it.

Consistency

This is part of a 3x5 index card that was being shot at by my buddy Brian while we were practicing at the range tonight. While it appears to be one 9mm round (right) and one .45 round (left), it is actually one 9mm round (right) and 3 more 9mm rounds (left). The fact that he was practicing "press outs" and firing at a fast pace makes his deadly, consistent accuracy seem scary-good.

Actually, this is somewhat of a fluke. I took a photo because I thought it was funny to have so many rounds so close together. His gun is "notorious" for doing this. I put 2 rounds through the same hole with his gun a few weeks before this, and it seemed incredible as I only fired 2 or 3 rounds and the first was double action only and the second was single action.

I can guarantee that the longer you train, the more "flukes" you will have. You will accumulate numerous funny stories about which gun magically puts rounds through the same hole, etc...

True consistency comes when you are willing to train hard and often; push yourself to your limits and have an understanding of what you can and can't do with your firearm. This target doesn't show Brian's next 3 "failboat" misses. He pushed himself to make critical shots much faster than he possibly could and sacrificed too much of his accuracy in exchange for speed (which was ridiculously way-too-fast). While it is good to constantly push your limits, it is even better to have an idea of what those limits are. How much speed should I sacrifice to get hits? How much faster can I go and still be on target?

Pushing your limits may be shooting faster than normal in order to learn the limits of your speed, but it may also be a time when you slow down to a point where you can learn the limits of your accuracy. Slowing down and practicing extreme accuracy may be necessary from time to time, yet, it is not necessary ALL of the time. A good defensive student mixes speeds, round counts, drills, distances, targets, etc... An even better defensive student mixes those things while keeping them in the context of realistic defensive scenarios.

While 3 bullets in the same hole at full speed seems like an incredible feat, it can either be a fun, puzzling moment to laugh at, or it can be a ludicrous goal (at "full speed") that is INCONSISTENT with realistic defensive training. (Because you could be shooting faster!!!)

Training with a Firearm is a Constitutionally Protected Right

The right to possess firearms for protection implies a corresponding right to acquire and maintain proficiency in their use; the core right wouldn’t mean much without the training and practice that make it effective.

Ezell v. Chicago, No 10-3525 slip op. at 35-36 (7th Cir. July 6, 2011)

From www.pistol-training.com

For the Beginners:

A beginner, looking to purchase his first firearm, was asking for some advice on new pistols. I thought that my response to him would be good advice to share with any other beginners out there. So, here, this is for the beginner:

"For a beginner, I would ABSOLUTELY recommend a striker fired or double action only pistol. Something with a consistent trigger pull where you don't need to worry about switching off a safety. It wouldn't be a big deal if you train often and train in context...if you fire a few thousand rounds a month and that safety goes off at extension and goes on at retention...but, you are a beginner. There is no guarantee that you will continue shooting a few thousand rounds a month a few months from now.

It is very necessary to take training BEFORE purchasing a firearm. You will learn a lot of things that affect how you choose to carry. You may be thinking a 1911 is an excellent gun, and you may plan on shooting only 300 rounds a year through it and carrying it. But, when you go to a class somewhere and someone explains to you what the body does under stress, you may realize that it might be troublesome in a ccw scenario. I have seen many people who carry a gun professionally (meaning, as their profession, not meaning that they do it well) have problems functioning their safeties under relatively minor stress. This is only one small example, and while it probably won't affect the guy who trains in context (safety on, safety off, every time he's firing) and puts a LOT of rounds through the gun, how would you even know to do it unless someone teaches you to? You can't learn everything from books, movies and the internet. And...300 rounds a year might sound like a lot of ammo to a beginner, but 300 rounds may be called a "tuesday" to someone else.

You MUST get quality training and then have quality practice. Most of the practice suggestions you see on this website [this was posted on www.pistol-forum.com ] are for people who have already had quality training or for people teaching quality training. You will be wasting every round you put downrange before you get quality training. Sincerely: I have active and former law enforcement and military members come through class every month or two. Nearly all of them (with the exception of a few) were never even taught how to hold a firearm properly, let alone shoot it properly. Why WASTE money? Get some quality training and THEN go about making INFORMED decisions. A gun that feels good in your hand now may feel awkward when someone shows you how to hold it properly. A while back, I seriously already owned 25+ guns and had 6-7 years "experience" (which was crap) before someone showed me how to hold a gun properly. Everything I sent downrange before that was "funtime" but aside from that was a waste of time and money."

"At least once, everyone should have to run for his life, so he will know that eggs don't come from stores, that safety does not come from police, and that 'news' is not something that happens to other people."

Robert Heinlein

Women's Concealed Carry Holsters and Methods

Here is an excellent video on Concealed Carry holsters and methods for women. There is often not a lot of information out there for women, and many methods look ridiculous and are often easy to spot. The author of this video makes a good point that methods may need to change up a bit more than usual to meet the requirements for women's clothing.

Check out Kyle Defoor's Performance Pistol Test #1. I highly recommend trying it out if you have a range that will allow you to do so.

http://youtu.be/sJtczDAUul0

I'm starting a new blog for any students of defensive pistol training. Please feel free to contact me with any questions or ideas.

-Josh Runkle