Training yourself to shoot well

This post is inspired by what I see as an unfortunate trend in what should have been a great training tool: the e-postal matches. When the e-postals first came out, I shot a few, even did well on one, but then I began to wait for what I expected would be a zinger of a match: one with good training potential and fun potential at the same time.

I have waited in vain. Maybe my standards for having fun are too high, and for me, fun is the feeling I get AFTER a productive range session, not during it. Having fun on the range seems to bother me, as I keep worrying about fun getting in the way of safety, and safety is the most important thing on the range.

If my fun standards are too high, my training standards are even higher. My background in police work led me to much range training, and the objective of all police range training is to make the cop into an accurate, safe and target-discriminating shooter.

Guess what, sports fans? That's exactly what we should ALL be trying to get out of training.

I thought I would put together what I see as some do's and some don'ts for range training.

DO: Train like you expect to have to shoot for real, to defend yourself and/or project deadly force as part of a greater military objective. That means introducing some reality into your training, such as training with the weapons which you will carry in the field. If you have a "race" gun, confine it's use to the competitions that you shoot in, and sufficient training for those competitions, but compartmentalize: race guns are NOT for defensive or offensive shooting, so set some time aside from your busy IPSC or bowling pin competition schedule to work with field weapons. Those, of course, will NOT have optics or electronic sights on them (save maybe for a Scout Rifle or sniper weapon). I don't believe in night sights either. Not stealthy. Anyone in your rear hemisphere can shoot you just from seeing your night sights in the dark.

DON'T: Don't confine yourself to standing on a range lane and shooting at 8X10 paper. It's great for weapons familiarization, but after you are familiar enough to be safe with a weapon, you need to learn to carry the weapon, draw it or unsling it from your carry, and shoot it, taking advantage of cover. You need to learn to shoot on the move, you need to learn to reload on the move, and you need to learn to move. Most ranges won't allow this, so you will have to find some place in the boondox where you can do it safely.

DO: Shoot in your practice like you shoot in the field. You won't be bringing your brass back with you from any field mission (unless there are stealth reasons, but such ops are very rare). This means shoot and reload without paying heed to the brass. If you are a real range rat, you've probably trained yourself to shuck all revolver empties into a can or a pocket, and you probably watch your ejected shells from autoloaders (if you handload, I KNOW you do this). This practice can get you killed in the field, and under stress, you might revert to it unless you stop doing it at the range. It DID get a CA officer killed in the 1950's, in a shootout. He pocketed his revolver brass in the same pocket as his reloads, and when wounded, couldn't get any good rounds into his weapon in time to kill the onrushing baddie, and was killed himself with a handful of mixed empties and live rounds in his bloody grip.

DON'T: Targets. Don't shoot at the usual bullseye target except for sighting in and familiarization. Get yourself some wide butcher paper (a couple of bucks buys you yards of it), some rattle cans, and some largish cardboard. Fashion yourself some stencils for various targets. The one I like the best is the military head-and-shoulders field silhouette (it has a designator, but I don't remember it). If you are restricted to an actual range and not the open range, make these silhouettes in different sizes, to simulate the size of an individual at various ranges. It will give some perspective to your  iron-sight shooting with rifles. Pistol practice should always be on a man-silhouette like the NRA #28, but you don't have to buy those life-size bedsheets and figure out how to hang them. Make some smaller ones, the same size as the K-5 area on a #28. I have a stencil for that, too. You don't want to hit anything out of that K-5 zone anyway, it won't be fatal and might not even be disabling.

DO: Practice cover and concealment. In a real field situation, you won't be standing tall like at your range, because if you are, you will be dead. You will be hiding behind whatever will give you protection from bullets, or at least concealment from whoever is shooting at you. I have practiced hiding behind and shooting from behind a curbstone! It's been years since a standard 6" high curb would cover much of me, but it's better than nothing, and in an urban situation, there will ALWAYS be curbstones.

DON'T: forget your physical training. In the old police training range, we used to have a little exercise: We strapped on our duty belts (and were wearing our protective vests) and assembled at the range house. On the command, we moved out in a double-time trot for about 400 yards, ending back at the 25-yard line, where we immediately opened fire on silhouette targets. You will be surprised that even with your heart beating faster, and your respirations coming harder and faster, you can still shoot at least 85% as well as you can full rested and in perfect breath control. Of course, if you jog or do other aerobic exercise, it's even easier.

DO: Practice shooting a walking-fire exercise. This is done moving parallel to the target line, with your shooting buddy calling "fire" (and the target number to be attacked) at unpredictable intervals. Very revealing, especially if he has a shot timer. Once again, this will be forbidden on most ranges, and you will have to do it out in the boondox.

DON'T: stop the world if you have a malfunction. If your weapon doesn't fire, you should "tap, rack and go" as your first and AUTOMATIC REACTION TO IT. If "tap, rack and go" doesn't clear the malfunction (it won't if you have a magazine malfunction, do a magazine change AND KEEP SHOOTING. Don't stop to examine the faulty mag, put it in a pocket afterwards. You REALLY need to practice malfunction drills. One of the best is "ball and dummy". Have your buddy take a magazine and put in a dummy round and NOT tell you where it sits in the magazine, then give your loaded weapon CAREFULLY back to you. Do a drill, any drill, even a walking-fire drill. When you get to the dummy round, you will have your malfunction. clear it and smoothly go back to shooting. If your buddy is a true FIEND (not FRIEND), he will put a round in backwards so that you get a REALLY COMPLEX malfunction. Remember, it's always "tap, rack and go", THEN lock the slide back and change the magazine while inspecting the chamber, then chambering a good round from the new magazine. Remember that all this clearing should be done with the weapon pointed downrange (at the enemy) AND preferably while you have ducked behind some cover (and if there's no cover, you better be running towards some in a low crouch).

DO: stop right after your drills and make some notes to review later. Be honest with yourself about what you got out of your range/field session. Make notes on what to improve the next time.

Well, I got that out of my system. I even have some ideas for a "Real War" e-postal, and if enough are interested, I'll put it out there for all y'all.