4 Nov 02
Rifle information from a friend in the Philippines:
“Over here, the M16 series continues to enjoy respect. Government units equipped with the M16s still have the old variant with the slow twist rate. All use the M193 ball round. Contact distances remain well under 200 meters, with the vast majority of encounters occurring within 100 meters. Given all this, the (old) M16 still shines around here.
Some ‘elite’ units (devoted to protecting politicians) are now fielding a new, ‘mini’ version of the M4. Iron sights have been replaced by red dots, with no backup sights. Barrels have been shortened to six inches. Stocks are maladroit, retractable wire contraptions. Rifling is 1:7. Considering the length of the chamber, one has no more than four inches of rifling to stabilize the round. Consistent zeros are impossible to establish beyond fifty meters. The maker is blaming it on poor marksmanship. Next project? A four-inch version of the same gun, ostensibly for those really close encounters! Heaven forbid these folks run into well trained riflemen, using real rifles.
Meanwhile, our Rangers are content with their standard M16A1s. Those equipped with M14s are even more delighted and happy to bear the extra weight. Not surprisingly, these are the guys who’ve seen the most action in the most places, urban, field, mountain.”
Lesson: Heaven save us from “elite” units! The 223 round in a standard-length rifle is effective to 150 meters. Beyond that, its effectiveness diminished exponentially. Its penetration capability (at any range) is extremely limited.
Shorten the barrel, an a rifle which is already effective only at relatively short range, becomes even less effective. The 223 may make an efficient assault rifle, but it makes a manifestly inadequate battle rifle. New ammunition and shorter barrels with tight twists do not help in the least.
/John
6 Nov 02
Shooting Incident in the Philippines:
“It was early in the morning. I was returning from a golf outing in a taxi. The driver stopped by the side of the road to relieve himself. I decided to do the same.
Three men approached us from across the road. Sensing trouble, I hurriedly finished and started moving away from the taxi driver. One of the three asked us if we lived in the area. Not waiting for a reply, another announced a holdup. Two pulled pistols. The third brandished a large knife.
Knowing we would both probably be killed no matter what we did (the typical armed robbery MO around here), I moved and simultaneously drew my own pistol (1911 w/hardball). I ended up on the opposite side of the car as the robbers.
We traded shots through the car windows, spraying glass fragments everywhere. I fired widely at first, hitting nothing. When I finally settled down, I hit one robber twice, both times in the chest. He was dead at the scene. I, in turn, was hit twice (38Spl RN Lead), once in the leg, and once in the jaw. The leg wound was through-and through. The jaw hit broke my lower mandible but did not penetrate my neck or head. I felt no pain from either would. In fact, I only became aware of the leg would after the robbers fled.
I knew I was hit, but I also knew the fight was not over. I applied pressure to the facial would with my left hand and continued shooting with my right. When I reloaded (which required both hands), blood spurted out the entry wound.
I carried one magazine in the pistol and two spares on my belt. I was into my last magazine when the taxi driver, also wounded, got inside the cab, retrieved an AK-47, and started firing it full auto at the robbers. He had no knowledge of how to use the weapon, and most of his rounds were launched into the air, doing no damage, but it enough to scare the two robbers who were still alive, and they fled. Both the taxi driver and I then headed to town. I passed out just as we arrived at the hospital.
Oral surgeons reconstructed my jaw. It’s been several months now, and I am able to eat normally. I’m lucky to be alive.
I carried my 1911 with the hammer down on an empty chamber, because I was told it was ‘safe’ that way. Never again! I now carry cocked and locked. I’m suddenly serious about living!”
Lessons:
Most robbery suspects flee like mice when the first shot is fired at them. However, sometimes criminals are willing the shoot it out, as happened here. Some are cowards. Some are crazy. Some are just mean. We must be prepared to best them in a genuine fight to the finish.
This fight occurred across the width of a Camry, but it was dark and only portions of bad guy were exposed and only for short times. In addition, my student had to engage most of them using only one hand. We don’t practice one-handed shooting nearly enough!
Most gunshot wounds are not fatal. In fact, if you are going to die, you’ll be unconscious almost immediately. So, if you’re conscious after being hit, it means that your wounds are probably not life threatening! We have to refocus immediately on the task at hand. If we allow ourselves to dither, the problem will likely solve us.
Keep emotions in check. While my student’s anger kept him in the fight, it also caused him to forego the basics of marksmanship. He panicked, forgot his sights, and started to bash the trigger wildly. When he finally settled down and used his sights, he hit the robber where he needed to be hit. The sooner you settle down, the faster you’ll end the fight!
If you carry a pistol for defensive purposes, carry it with a full magazine and round in the chamber! If you carry a pistol with an empty chamber, you’re kidding yourself. Get serious, or go back to eating grass.
/John
6 Nov 02
S&W Sigma Pistol:
We just finished training a group of police officers in ME. One local department sent three men, all equipped with Sigmas in 40S&W. All worked fine for the duration of the course. State troopers here use USPs, which also worked fine. Most are in 45ACP, but the department is changing over to 357SIG. The rest of the officers brought Glocks and SIGs.
The guys using the Sigmas indicated that the department had a number of functional problems with the guns at first, but that “S&W bent over backwards” to get them working. After being reworked by S&W armorers, they’ve worked well ever since. Officers like them.
I don’t know if S&W intends to keep the Sigma in production or not. I also don’t know what they intend to do with their P99 line. I don’t want to recommend any pistol that is about to go out of production, but Sigmas are available, and they are inexpensive.
At least one department is pleased with theirs!
/John
7 Nov 02
Comments on the S&W Sigma pistol. All were negative:
“The Sigma has two functional problems:
1) The trigger is hinged to form a safety by a small pin. If that tiny pin falls or breaks, the pistol cannot be made to fire.
2) The trigger return spring is placed directly under the chamber, the hottest part of the pistol. The Glock will still function with a broken trigger return spring. The Sigma will not.”
“I’ve experienced nothing but problems with the Sigma pistols. They are junk. Tell your guys to buy something that works.”
“The latest version of the Sigma, the “E” series, is trash. It is the result of a legal settlement with Glock, which required internal changes. The result is a consistently light striker hit.
One Australian student joked, ‘You should be selling this bloody thing with a bayonet attachment so that we can stab what we can’t shoot!’ The Greek Navy was involved in a ship boarding incident involving drug smugglers. They bought Sigma Nines the year before. They ended up in a gunfight, and the Sigmas were going ‘click’ instead of the bang. They got rid of them immediately afterward.
The Sigma had potential, but S&W doesn’t have any engineers left who can design and fix the gun properly, which is why they desperately turned to Walther and the P99, but that is a whole separate can of worms!”
/John
8 Nov 02
At a recent class in CA, all shooting was done one-handed. The curriculum was so well received that I’m doing a similar class at next year’s IALEFI Conference in FL. Some painful conclusions:
One-handed shooting is not easy, and the expectation that, without practice you will be able to be accurate and sustain a reasonable rate of fire, is little more than wishful thinking
You must go back to basics and let your pistol do the work. There is a strong tendency to trigger bash in order to compensate for the reduction in stability and strength.
One-handed, weak hand shooting is extremely difficult, much more difficult than most shooters think, but it needs to be confronted and practiced too. When you have to do it for real, it will be too late to wish you had practiced!
Trigger-cocking pistols exacerbate the challenge.
You may have to use your non-dominant eye, an additional challenge to which few have ever given any thought.
/John
11 Nov 02
We just completed an ADHG course down here in SC. Developments:
We had two Wilson 1911s. One only lasted for one hundred rounds. It then developed feeding problems so severe that it had to be pulled from service. The pistol is just too tight. The student completed the course with a G30, which worked fine. The other Wilson went through the entire course (1000 rounds in two days) and exhibited few problems.
We had one SA XD. It worked, and its owner indicated that Beretta 92 high-capacity magazines work just fine in it. They require one modification, but it is done at the SA factory. He bought several from them directly, and they all worked fine during the course. Good way to have a reliable, high-capacity 9mm pistol and not have to deal with “Clinton clips.”
In my experience, ten-round “Clinton clips,” currently supplied by all manufactures of (heretofore) double-column 9mm and 40S&W pistols are all not nearly as reliable as the high-capacity magazines for which the pistol was originally designed. I recommend that owners of these pistols ditch the “Clinton clips” that are supplied with the weapon and acquire a good supply of high-capacity magazines. They’ll end up with a pistol which holds more rounds and is more reliable than the one now supplied by the manufacturer.
We had one SA 1911, done over by Jim Garthwaite. Not a hitch during the entire course. Jim really knows his way around a 1911!
We had one Kimber Mini in 45ACP. It worked well until the end of the second day, when it developed feeding problems. Its owner was shooting dirty, lead reloads. No surprise.
/John
12 Nov 02
IPSC Shotguns in the Philippines:
“There was a strong presence of hyper extended pumps, with thirty-inch barrels and extended magazine tubes that held as many as thirteen rounds. These shotguns are a full foot longer than a standard M16. Not surprisingly, those with these monstrosities had a difficult time maneuvering.
I used a standard Mossberg 590 pump that held five rounds in the magazine. At every stage, I was offered the use of a hyper-extended shotgun, which I refused. ‘Don’t you want to get a high score?’ they all said, as if that was all life had to offer.
In the high round-counts stages, guys with the long magazine tubes still had to reload, and, when they did, it became painfully obvious that they had not practiced. They dithered and fumbled, dropping rounds like rain.
Amidst all this, I was ordered to render my shotgun ‘competition legal’ by removing the sidesaddle and the sling. Seems the sidesaddles and slings aren’t allowed as they project a ‘military appearance.’
I don’t really care if these folks want to deceive themselves, but it concerns me when they presume to train others in the art of defensive shooting, of which they obviously know nothing and in which they obviously have no interest.”
Lesson: Competition shooting is the same over here. If all you want to do is just be “one of the boys,” stick with the boys.
/John
18 Nov 02
Our annual pig hunt in Ohio is now history. We had a wonderful time, as always.
Twenty-five years ago, my father gave me a Colt/Sauer “Grand African” bolt-action rifle, in 458 Win Mg. It is equipped with express sights. I remember shooting two or three rounds through it way back then. It has been sitting in my safe ever since.
So, I decided to use it on the pig hunt this year. We need to put all our equipment to practical use, said I. No shrines for me!
I shot two pigs with it, one at twenty meters in heavy brush, and one at thirty meters in the open. I used 510gr soft points. Both shots were offhand. Both pigs were hit from the side on point of the shoulder (through and through), and both went down immediately.
When I sighted it in the afternoon before the hunt, I was intimidated. Recoil was everything you would imagine, and I wondered (silently) if I could shoot it accurately at a real target.
As it turned out, when I shot the pigs the following day, I had no recollection of the recoil at all. My fears, like most fears, were unjustified.
I learned, once more, that it is just a rifle, and I can shoot it accurately, just like any other rifle. The best way to deal with fears of all kind is to confront them directly. My first chief of police once gave me this sage advice, “Always call their bluff.” He was right!
/John
21 Nov 02
From a friend who is a gun retailer:
“A student just brought in his new G17. It stopped working, and he was unable to field strip it for investigation. He indicated that he had installed a laser device which replaces the entire recoil spring and guide rod. It dislodged. The slide would not move and could not be removed as a result.”
Lesson: More aftermarket junk. Don’t put this trash on any serious gun.
/John
25 Nov 02
Latest from South Africa:
“As the festive season approaches, we are experiencing our seasonal increase in cash-in-transit heists. This year, a new tactic as emerged. I’m surprised the robbers haven’t thought of this before:
The armored van is forced of the road in a remote spot. Most of these vans are top heavy and roll easily once they leave the road and hit the dirt shoulder. AK47s are then used to riddle the van’s soft underbelly. The sides are armored, but not the underside. The guards inside are usually all killed. The robbers then can peel off the doors at their leisure.”
Lesson: Never stop moving. Don’t let anyone force you off the road.
/John
27 Nov 02
On the AR-15/M-16/M-4/etc from a friend who manufacturers guns:
“As a result of heavy use, M-16 upper receiver aluminum forgings can begin to ‘oval out’ where the barrel is installed. Accuracy suffers greatly, and the weapon can come apart.
On the lower receiver (also an aluminum forging), the holes for the hammer pin are also famous for ‘ovaling,’ to the point pins walk out.
The M16 bolt also has problems. Locking lugs next to the extractor begin to crack around 6,000 rounds, especially if the rifle is shot on full auto. The other point of bolt weakness is the cam pin hole. The bolt breaks at the cam pin hole between 6,000 and 10,000 rounds.
Most civilians will never shoot their AR15s enough for any of these problems to develop. However, your students who attend course after course should be inspecting their arms regularly.
Our government, fully aware of the foregoing, has decided to get bids on (can you believe it?) shot counters, so they can know how many rounds have gone through each rifle. This is ridiculous! It is time for a long-overdue change.”
/John
28 Nov 02
More on military rifles from another international friend:
“Additional problem: The design of the bolt and extractor of the AR15/M16 is inherently defective The extractor spring (no matter what material is used) will predictably fatigue and break at 1,500 rounds, although the rifle may continue to function normally. This persistent problem has been extensively studied by the Pentagon. The ‘solution’ has been to add a rubber ‘D’ ring to the spring. Even when the spring weakens and/or breaks, the rubber continues to insure complete extraction. This is what all serious operators use, but the problem has hurt international sales of ARs.
My brother has just arrived in Kiev, Russia. He reports that the new Russian AN94 is a good and functional rifle. Most African countries are now buying Russian small arms. Price, durability, and ease of use are big draws. At less than one hundred dollars per copy (including four magazines) no western rifle comes close to the AN94. Russian rifles are rude and crude (by western standards), but they are designed to function continuously despite poor conditions and perpetual lack of maintenance. In fact, the durability of South African Rs (South African copy of the Israeli Galil), Russian AK/ANs, and the French FAMAS far outrun that of American ARs. This fact is common knowledge and is surely not lost on the world’s arms buyers.”
/John
28 Nov 02
“Victory Disease,” Overcoming heavy odds at Blood River (Dutch-Zulu War, 1838) and Majuba Hill (First Anglo-Boer War, 1881)
In the Eighteenth Century, Dutch settlers on the South African Cape, like so many other European colonists, swiftly developed a sincere dislike for the British. The British had an annoying habit of making second-class citizens out of all non-British. The British, of course, knew local Dutch farmers lacked the political sophistication to develop the area into a legitimate economic entity. The British were also interested in displacing German influence in the area, so they were not about to pack up and leave. The indigenous Khoisan (Bushmen) were scattered and disorganized. Unlike the ferocious and cunning Iroquois and other Indians in North America, they provided little effective resistance to European settlers. Even the fierce (and well organized) Bantu, coming down from the North and West, were unable to overcome the overwhelming European advantages of the mounted infantryman, the rifle, and the “lager” (a circle of wagons).
Dutch settlers called themselves “Boers.” The term translates to “farmer.” The British used the term also, but to them it meant “pig.”
Many Dutch left the Cape for the South African interior. Others pushed eastward up the coast. All wanted to get out of the reach of British influence. In fact, the “Great Treck,” starting in 1836, took on a profound religious significance with the Dutch. They were convinced that the British had been sent by the devil to harass them (British soldiers did wear red uniforms, after all), as they regarded themselves as having been favored by God.
Their beliefs were bolstered at the Battle of Blood River in December of 1838, where Dutch “Voortrekkers” decisively defeated a large Zulu (Bantu) army. Their commander, Andrius Pretorius, cleverly set up a defensive lager in the elbow of the Blood River, frustrating the classic Zulu double envelopment. The tiny Dutch contingent could have easily been wiped out, but was instead victorious. They all took this as a divine sign that their presence in the interior of South Africa was sanctioned from on high.
Between the end of the Napoleonic Wars and the beginning of WWI, there were only seven years when British soldiers were not actively engaged in a foreign war. British soldiers have always been excellent fighters. As with the Romans before them, their ability to function as a coordinated team was matched in few other armies. However, British soldiers have never been excellent, or even respectable, marksmen. Individual marksmanship among British infantrymen has always been poor, and still is to this day. Individual marksmanship was never considered important to British commanders. To them, a military unit that is so cohesive that it moves and functions as a single entity was far more important than individual competence with weapons.
In stark contrast, The “army” put together by Dutch farmers in South Africa couldn’t have been more different. Dutch religious views made it impossible to have an officer corps, as each man considered himself the equal of every other. So, officers and NCOs were elected and only served in their position so long as their “subordinates” kept them there. Obeying orders was optional, as each man served as a volunteer. He could leave and go home any time he wanted. No one was paid. Thus, large, coordinated military movements, such as an infantry, bayonet charge, were unlikely, because commanders knew many of their men would consider the order stupid and refuse to take part. There was no infantry/calvary coordination, as all Boers reported for duty mounted on their own horses. Their “army” was all cavalry! There were no uniforms either. Except for a cartridge belt across their chest, they all looked like civilians. It all sounded pretty disorganized, but, under the Boer system, dithering buffoons did not stay in positions of command for long, and there was no mercenary attitude. Everyone was there fighting for his home and way of life. As hunters and frontiersmen, Boers were masters of camouflage and stalking. They were hard to locate and harder yet to fix in position.
The British considered the whole thing laughable. Any such disorganized mob would be quickly brushed aside by a professional army. They were in for a surprise, and the First Anglo-Boer War would signal the world that, as would be repeated during the Russo-Japanese War (1904), a small, but agile and highly motivated military force, armed and trained with modern weapons, could handily defeat a much larger force that was unwieldy, outdated, overextended, armed with obsolete weapons, indecisively lead, and most of all, arrogantly overconfident.
Because Boers were all mounted, they moved quickly. They lived off the land, so they didn’t require long, vulnerable supply lines. They had the irritating habit of suddenly appearing where no one expected them and just as suddenly melting away as if they had never been there. Their ability to move without being detected was uncanny and was the subject of many exasperated comments by British commanders.
Most importantly, each and every Boer was a suburb rifleman. Having subsisted by hunting native planes game all their lives, poor marksmanship would not be found with any of them. Rifles were not issued. Every man brought his own, and they were never shared. To a Boer, his rifle was his most important personal possession, and it was always well maintained, close at hand, and kept in a high state of readiness. Rifles stayed with their owners at all times. They were never gathered up in stacks or locked away in buildings, as was common procedure with the British.
Their ability to hit, and hit consistently, at extended ranges was something the British had never had to deal with before. British infantrymen were no match for them. Boer riflemen could hit effortlessly at ranges where a British soldier would never even attempt a shot. And, Boers were masters of cover and concealment. They would always fire from expertly camouflaged positions. Precious little was ever exposed. Thus, volley after volley thrown back at them by ranks of British soldiers had scant effect.
Boers inherently disliked all governmental trappings characteristic of Western Civilizations (for which the British were so well known), like multilayered bureaucracies, committees, and endless meetings. They made decisions quickly, with a minimum of discussion. Accordingly, when superior military equipment became available, they didn’t dither, they acquired it as fast as they could. A company in England, Westley-Richards, began making a revolutionary breech-loading rifle beginning in the 1860s. It was an improvement of the American Peabody Rifle and, in turn, influenced the British Martini-Henry Rifle, which was eventually adopted by the British (as always, too late for it to make any difference).
With the Westley-Richards breechloader, Boer riflemen could dramatically increase their rate of fire over the that of muzzle loaders that the new rifle replaced. This capability made them essentially invulnerable to bayonet and cavalry charges which formed the very foundation of British tactical doctrine. In addition, metallic cartridges were not as susceptible to environmental deterioration as was loose gunpowder, caps, and balls. There was nothing not to like, so, without hesitation, Boers acquired good quantities of Westley-Richards Rifles immediately upon them becoming available and used they with devastating effect during the First Anglo-Boer War, which began in 1880 and lasted less than a year. By the time the British followed suit (with the Martini-Henry), Boers were acquiring the new, and vastly superior Mauser rifle, just in time for the Second Boer War, which began in 1899!
In 1852, the British, recognizing the potential problems associated with armed conflict with Dutch settlers who had fled to the South African interior, extended autonomy to Boers who had settled beyond the Vaal River (the Transvaal). Autonomy was also given to those settled between the Orange and Vaal Rivers, who promptly claimed the title of “The Orange Free State.” In the years following, neither “state” ever emerged significantly from anarchy. When they couldn’t pay their bills, Britain reannexed them. Both were promptly invaded by high-handed British bureaucrats. Predictably, by 1880, anti-British riots were out of hand, and Boer farmers organized into mobile military units (called “commandos”), began seizing British outposts by force.
Things came to a head when a British infantry column, dispatched late in December of 1880 to reinforce the garrison at Pretoria, was ambushed at a river crossing called Bronkhorst Spruit. A single Boer messenger, under a white flag, commanded to column to turn back. The column dithered. A crescendo of gunfire suddenly erupted from carefully concealed positions on the column’s flank. British troopers fell like dominos. One hundred and twenty of them were hit within two minutes. Few ever saw the enemy. Fewer still even got off a single shot. Most died at the scene, including the British commander Colonel Anstruther. The Boers, with their new Westley-Richards breech loaders, lost only two. The First Anglo-Boer War had well and truly begun!
Back in the Cape Colony, British General George Colley was informed of the Bronkhorst disaster on Christmas Day. He was furious! He was also fearful that peace would break out before he could have his revenge on the brazen and impudent Dutch. Without delay, he organized a regimental-sized expeditionary force and started north to confront the Boers directly. He found them sooner than he expected! At a narrow pass in the Drakensburg Mountains called Laing’s Nek, he confronted a large Boer commando, led by Peit Joubert. Apparently forgetting that the enemy was now armed with rapid-fire, breech-loading rifles, Colley assaulted them with a volley, followed by a bayonet charge. The charge never got close to any of the Boer trenches. Once again, British troopers were gunned down wholesale. Colley lost over three hundred men within minutes and was forced to withdraw. A short time later, leading a new force, Colley met disaster afresh at a plateau called Schuin’s Hoogte, where, once again, accurate Boer rifle fire from covered positions decimated both his infantry and artillery crews. Again, he was forced to withdraw, this time abandoning both his wounded and his big guns.
Colley was now even more determined to defeat the Boers, in order now to avenge the triple disasters at Bronkhorse and more recently at Laing’s Nek and Schuin’s Hoogte, where he had been personally in command. In February of 1881, Colley led six hundred men up Majuba Hill in the dead of night. Majuba Hill commanded a vast area that Colley believed he could dominate with artillery. This time, he took the Boers by surprise. He was firmly in position on the summit before any Boer realized it. Eighty Boers volunteered to assault the hill and dislodge the British force, which was four times their number! They had no artillery, and the slope was too steep for horses. No one would have given them much of a chance of success, but, fearless, they went forward anyway.
Majuba Hill is actually a small, volcanic mountain with a crater at the top. On the rim of the crater, are three high points, all of which the British occupied. Many British soldiers were Gordon’s Highlanders, fresh from fighting in Afghanistan. Imagine their surprise when several dozen Boers suddenly stood up and fired at them from just outside their perimeter. The Boer commando had snuck into range virtually undetected. Forty Scots dropped dead nearly at the same instant. The rest wavered, then ran! Many were picked off as they scurried toward the hill occupied by Colley and his staff. Colley was advised to make a bayonet charge, but, remembering Laing’s Nek, decided to wait until the Boers charged. He would then give them a volley and overrun them.
The Boers never charged. They never even stood up. They just maneuvered and fired from covered positions. British soldiers continued to fall. Return fire was ineffective. Colley himself finally stood up to rally his troops. Instantly, a bullet struck him in the head, and he fell, lifeless, to the ground. Over two hundred British troops were killed that day. Nearly all were wounded. The Boers suffered one killed and five wounded! The British army was in shock. No one dreamed such a thing was possible.
As a result of Colley’s quadruple disaster, the Transvaal was again granted independence, but the agreement was unworkable, and a second Anglo-Boer War would break out eighteen years later. This time, the Boer’s luck would run out.
Lesson: As we say are the poker table, “Don’t mistake good cards for brains.” Unlikely victories, particularly in combination, can cause some to think they can’t lose, or that God won’t allow them to lose. It’s called “victory disease,” and it is nearly always fatal. Seasoned warriors know the bad always comes with the good. In poker, winners are not the ones who get dealt good hands. They are the ones who play the poor hand well.
/John
28 Nov 02
State of police training. From a friend who just attended a police training course. Attendees were all working, patrol officers, ranging from rookie to veteran:
“The good news is that accuracy was acceptable in most cases, and most officers displayed a healthy, learning attitude. Here is the bad news:
100 % did not incorporate lateral movement into their pistol draw, stoppage reduction, reloading procedure, or firing sequence. This matter improved by only 10%, even after movement was taught and recommended.
40% consistently looked at their holsters during the reholstering process.
20% panned their support hand with their muzzle during the draw sequence and during reholstering.
20% were apparently comfortable holstering an empty weapon after completing each exercise, even though they knew they were on a hot range.
100% failed to look all the way behind them after firing and prior to reholstering.
75% failed to scan to any degree before reholstering.
40% were unable to reduce a stoppage quickly.
30% ‘scooped’ their pistols during the draw (sometimes called ‘bowling’)
75% of the students equipped with pistols with decocking levers were unable to decock rapidly using only their strong hand thumb. In many cases, these officers struggled and dithered every time they tried to decock.”
Lesson: We’re a lot better than we used to be, but we still have many training challenges that must be overcome. All trainers need to work diligently on the above issues.
/John
