Marksman's Masturbation

[James Yeager]

Did the title get your attention?

This article is about you or someone you know. They claim to be a regular shooter. They shoot "X" number of rounds a month. They go to the range. Put the target perfectly square to them. Then they proceed to slow fire the box of ammo into the absolute smallest hole they can. Then they brag to their buddies they shot this tiny hole. I call the phenomenon Marksmanship Maturbation.

Why such a derrogatory term? Because the only reason you (they) do that is to make themselves feel good. We want to do things we do well. It is our nature. It is not condusive to self-preservation though. You are not teaching yourself properly. Instead of WAISTING that box of ammo shoot it weakhand, stronghand only, prone supine or MOVING. I know the groups won't be as pretty but you will learn a lot more.

If you are shooting a DA/SA pistol why don't you shoot 50 with the

long DA trigger? You know the one right? It is the one you SKIP when you

cycle the gun and start with it cocked. No shot is more important than

the first shot. I am not saying to sacrifice accuracy. Just don't dwell on it as the only thing to learn. My groups are not pretty but I can shoot them

relatively the same from any position.

Practice the things at which you are the worst. I am terrible with my

weakhand. I am concentrating on mastery. My goal is to be able to shoot

well left handed (My definition of well might differ from yours.).

Perfect practice makes perfect.

Train hard brothers.

[TGO David]

Gotta admit, I like tight grouping... but you make a very valid point. I believe the Marines use the saying, "Train how you fight. Fight how you train."

Loving your posts so far. Please keep it up!

[Guest Beefy]

Excellent Point, man.

That was one of the issues that I had with my CCW class... I thought "When am I ever going to encounter a 2 dimensional assailant who stands perfectly square to me at 20'?"

I found the shooting portion only valid in proving that the class members know the very basic points of shooting a firearm such as: how to aim and squeeze the trigger, but did little to help them actually GET in position and line up a target... that was all done for them.

Good point... Train how you fight... Fight how you train.

[Punisher84]

To many people think the permit makes them ready and that is a very sad line of thought. We preach extra training to our permit classes like crazy. I don't know how many times I've said " I don't care if you take the training here or somewhere else. Just take the training!"

[Guest Shay VanVlymen]

"I don't care if you take the training here or somewhere else. Just take the training!"

I've said those exact words countless times.

[Guest Loaded247]

On average, I shoot two or three times a week. Our training consists of LOTS of movement, of both the target and the shooter, stressed reloads, use of cover, malfunction drills, low light.....we do a lot of very fast work from arms length out to 9 feet, use a variety of reactive targets, etc.

At the same time, we augment this with Simunitions, and put our people through a wide variety of hairy situations. Basically, everything they are taught to do on the range under stress and time, we now require them to do under fire (Sims).

This year, we are going to run edged weapons defense training, utilizing a Shocknife, and Simunitions.... We also utilize airsoft for certain things, especially weapons strips, and we do weapon retention as well.

We are going to have refresher training for our guys who do Executive Protection details, and I'm planning on having all of those select guys shoot a concealed COF....probably the Air Marshals qualification (which I understand they are no longer using, as it was too hard... )....I could be wrong on that.

Another thing we do every year for each of our people is called 'Critical Testing'. Each person who wears corrective lenses has to be able to fire a qualification course WITHOUT them. Our consideration is that you could lose those glasses in a contact confrontation, but you might STILL have to continue fighting and shooting without them. We also do 'compromised' eyesight shooting for the folks who don't wear any such lenses.

Actually, we do a few more things, but I have to admit to being guilty as charged, because once a week, or once every two weeks, I will go to the range with 100 rounds, take my time, and do nothing but practice the basics, trying to keep the groups as tight as possible.

Why? Well, a few years ago, I went to my first Firearms Instructor course....it was a two week course, at the Smith & Wesson Academy, taught by Bill Porter. Well, in order to pass the S&W course, you are ALSO required to pass the Massachussetts (I think it is the state course) Police Handgun qualification. One of the guys in our class was a Swat Instructor. Now, I'm guessing if he is a Swat Instructor, then he has got to be a 'bad dude'. However, I'm sure he was hard core when it came to tactics, but his marksmanship skills were so poor, that he wasn't initially able to pass the Mass. qualification course, and he had to receive remedial training in order to be able pass it. Oh, on the speed drills that were required in the course, this Swat guy was consistently the second fastest guy in the class, so he was still capable! Yes, I was the fastest, but I also admit to being consistently lucky when it comes to shooting.

However, if you all know anything about the S&W course, at least at that time, revolver training was still part of it, and on one of Porter's drills, you had to shoot a 4 inch S&W with standard .38 Special ammo at a knockdown pepper popper 80 yards away (off-hand, of course) I kept getting lucky and knocking that sucker over with the first shot!!! (Ok, ok, I will admit, sometimes it took me two shots..).

Anyway, my belief is that the bulk of training should be on life saving 'fighting skills' skills (when you weren't able to avoid the situation altogether), but I still like to take the time to practice the basics as well. Just my own person quirk.

[James Yeager]

You can practice "the basics" shooting on the move, from cover, off hand, in low-light,.....

[Guest Loaded247]

Yes, you are right, you can, and should practice the basics while conducting combative pistols skills.

[TGO David]

There are times though when I like to just "rub one off" at the range. Isn't it safe to say that training is very important but there is also a place for just shooting for enjoyment?

[Cannon Fodder]

There are times though when I like to just "rub one off" at the range.

I tell ya, the boy an't right.