Thinking Man's Corner

Article by: William G.

I was mulling over what I wanted this month’s article to be, and then came a call from the Judge. Sunday morning, early. He said that a woman had signed up for a membership at the private club we have, and she needed help with a “qualification.” He added, he had volunteered me and told her I would be out there sometime around 3pm. I am not enthused about being voluntold to report anywhere, and had planned range maintenance that afternoon. But, since the Judge asked, and the woman was some type of law enforcement, I simply said “Yes, Sir” (a phrase that has served me well over the years with the judiciary. )

My partner and I were about an hour into tearing down old target stands, and cleaning up debris when a car pulled up. The young woman came over and introduced herself without hesitation. I was impressed, not because she was a woman, but because that particular range is in the middle of no where, and if I did not know the area so well, I would not be the most enthusiastic about going out there in the middle of a Sunday to meet two strangers, no matter how well armed I was. 

It turns out she didn’t need to qualify for agency/state mandate, but was rather trying out for her agency’s special operations unit. We discussed her background, training, and equipment, and then her concerns. Usually when I get these calls it is because the person has a hard time qualifying, and waits until the last possible minute thinking that several hundred rounds will improve them spontaneously, or that I am a miracle worker (sometimes, I am, but that is a different story). In this woman’s case she consistently shot in the low 270’s, and wanted to shoot perfect 300’s. She was determined to make it happen, and was ready to learn. Jeff Cooper and I corresponded a lot by letters. One thing he pointed out was it was harder to train the LE community because the key ingredient of desire was often lacking.  He has been proven right so many times in my experience. This woman did have the desire, and it made a huge difference. 

She worked for an OSA, which is like an OGA but not. (Three people understood that reference, and two laughed at it.) I was not familiar with their course of fire, but she had it on her phone. She also showed up with targets, ammo, PPE, her primary and off duty, and an extremely enthusiastic and willing attitude. It impressed my partner and I so much, we just stopped range maintenance and worked as a team to prep the range for the shooting. 

I generally start off by asking the student to demonstrate basic gun handling. (Proofing the gun, showing me the draw, showing me a dry press, etc.) After that, I have them load up with 5 rounds, go to 3 yards, and fire a single round in the target, holster, rinse and repeat until all 5 rounds are expended. I ask them to shoot at the speed they think they should if someone was trying to kill them from 3 yards away, and also to get the rounds as close to each other as possible. This simple 10 minute audit tells me the plan for the rest of the day, and thanks to a combination of Jeff Cooper/Louis Awerbuck/Randy Cain/Dennis Martin, I can diagnose, dissect, and come up with a plan for them that quick.

Her issues were: draw, cadence, trigger press at distance, and a need for speed that slowed her down too much. Count 1 (literally, and as a clever pun) was to rewire her presentation. She had never been instructed in the 4 count draw (though I still prefer the 5, I find with the younger people, the 4 works a little better, especially since most do not carry a 1911; which is very sad, and evidence of the decline of our civilization, though I hear the Yankee Fist is making somewhat of a comeback.) As I walked her through the counts, I sensed she was having trouble puting them together, so I pulled out the old Cooper method of words instead of number. 1=Grip, 2=Clear, 3= Smack, and 4-Look…Press. That one worked and you could see the lightbulb go off. 

Next was a micro break down of the holster. I would say I have only seen about 10% of the LE community that actually knows how to draw properly from a SLS/ALS holster. After I showed her the correct technique, she shaved half a second off her draw time, and also had the gun quit binding in the holster. (She was trying to pull up too fast, before fully defeating the ALS, which actually made her slower. Also, not knowing the timing or thumb placement hindered as well.) Once she was shown the right way, she was very happy, because she saw measurable, immediate progress. 

She shot the course as called, and had two mishaps. One was on the reload, she hesitated because her slide did not lock back. I just told her to fight through it, and she racked the slide, and continued. At 15 yards, she dropped a single round, shooting a 298/300. She asked me to tell her what happened, and fine tune her skills. I asked why she didn’t rack the slide without me prompting her on the reload. She told me that she thought the guns was supposed to lock back on empty, and thought she may have misloaded, or something was wrong with the gun. I explained to her that when springs became weak, the shooter’s hand was too small for the frame, the shooter’s hand was fatigued, or the gun was dirty or dry, that it could cause the slide to fail to lock back. The problem is exasperated when an agency puts a large, heavy optic on the gun (ACRO or 509T) and a flashlight on the front, especially on the Glock. She said no one had ever told her these things before, which was becoming a theme of the day. 

I explained that we should always expect the unexpected, and have a plan to fight through it. If it happened again, don’t try to diagnose, move to remedial action without hesitation. Just rack the slide, and if a spare round came out, it didn’t hurt as much as getting a click on target. 

For the single shot she pulled, I observed she had shot the entire course at pretty much the same cadence, and that the further she got the longer her splits should be, yet all rounds required the same concentration regardless of distance. I observed she was also trying to read her target, and that was costing her time when she had plenty of time to execute the fundamentals, and get solid tight groups at speed. 

Big surprise, but no one ever taught her cadence. I asked her where she practiced on her own, and was told 7 yards, because that is where the majority of gunfights happen at. Seems that the “instructor” that forgot to actually teach her like her life, or the lives of the public, depended on adequate skills at varying distances, was really good as spouting a lot of outdated dogma…..

We discussed that the average gunfight was not at 7 yards but was 0 feet to 50+ yards, and you will never know what hand you are dealt until the dealer calls. We worked on cadence drills with a target at 2 yards, 12 yards, and 40 yards. We worked on a 5 round chasing the bullet drill, and then a few more reps of the proper presentation. 

This time around she shot a perfect 300 under time with a tighter group. First time she ever shot a 300, and she was literally jumping up and down happy she had proven to herself she could do it. At the end of the day I was happy I had spent a few hours to help this peace officer improve her skills, and build her confidence, and I can come back and take care of the rest of the range maintenance later. 

I’m writing this on a plane as I fly across the country to do some firearms testing for an agency in another state. So, I have had a good bit of time to think about the random occurrence in a swamp in South Georgia on a muggy Sunday afternoon. I’ve been working on an article that talked about firearms instructor ego, some administration’s demonic obsession with the almighty dollar, and putting one’s faith (and life) in the hands of false idols. This particular case involved two of the above. People get to be firearms instructors for many reasons, some of them the wrong ones. When an instructor ceases to learn, or refuses to change their ways (when another is proven superior), or when they have no real experience, but regurgitate what they have heard from others without having a solid basis to know what is a good practice, and what just sounds good at the time, and when they let the ego of the title/position get to them; in those cases we have huge problems. 

Yet, they are not fully to blame. Someone higher up put them in that position, allowed them to stay, and did so for various reasons. Whether it is the higher up thinks that they know better, they see it was a mistake, but are too scared to admit they picked wrong, or they simply don’t want to deal with it and bury their heads in the sand (and hopefully it is just their heads that are buried, and not the officer or the citizens they failed….) So many reasons exist that I will have to talk of them in a different article, and what can be done (if anything) to fix it. 

As an instructor, even if it is your day off, if at all possible, help someone when they ask for it, and are willing to come learn. You never know if you are the only one that will or can actually help them. You never know if that brief time will make a difference on a really bad day that we hope never comes. You don’t have to spend the entire day, just an hour or so can make a difference. Be the difference you want to see, don’t let ego turn you into a buffoon, and please, please, please, whatever you do, make sure you tell the emperor he is not wearing any clothes. If he doesn’t listen, well he can go on worshipping the golden calf, and we all know how that turns out. 

Somewhere out there, a peace officer is seeking help from a firearms instructor. That peace officer may be the one that comes to your call for assistance, or be at the same place as your significant other and children when an active killer kicks off. We had all better hope that the instructor trains that peace officer up well……… Let’s encourage each other, police our own; ride, shoot straight, and speak the truth; even if the majority don’t want to hear it.