It often feels like there’s a new story on the news every day where some innocent (or group) gets attacked by another crazy. With concealed carry at an all time high, as people take their safety into their own hands, I can’t be the only one that feels this way. However, simply having a firearm on you is not enough. You need to be proficient enough with it to defend your life and those around you.
You can never be too prepared in an emergency. That’s why your practice must include more than just punching holes in paper. It’s important to develop a dedicated training plan and hone these skills for concealed carry.
Shooting Fundamentals
Before getting into something major, you need to work on and build your shooting fundamentals. These should be ironed out so well that they become muscle memory. One of the first skills you should get a hold of is proper grip.
A good shooting grip is firm, but not so tight that your hands are shaking as you grip the gun. This will help you control the pistol through recoil and aid in keeping your sights going back on target. The dominant hand should grasp the pistol grip as close to the slide/beavertail as possible — without impeding function. This provides more leverage to counteract muzzle rise.
When not actively shooting, the trigger finger should ride along the frame to prevent a negligent discharge. The support-hand palm should be pressed into the side of the frame (just rear of the trigger guard). Your support-hand wrist extended, and your thumb pointed forward. A balance of pressure between hands will lock the pistol in, although slightly more pressure should be applied to the dominant hand.
Proper sight alignment and sight picture is essential for getting accurate hits. Although it may be tempting, and feel natural, to close the non-dominant eye (if you’re not cross eyed-dominant), be sure to keep both eyes open while shooting. This allows you to view more of your surroundings in your peripheral vision, which may alert you of an additional threat.
Assuming you’re using a traditional three-dot sight, or similar notch and post setup, keep three three dots level. Focus on the front sight. The rear sight is more for reference. As you work on your grip and presentation, these should align naturally. This can even be worked on from home. Pick a point of aim on the wall and draw and present the pistol (unloaded). Pay special attention to your front sight dot and put it on that point on the wall as quickly as possible. You may need to start slow and work up your speed as you go. When you’re at the range, practice this on target and add in a shot to check where you’re actually hitting. Practice until you do not need to search for your sight after the draw stroke — and then practice some more.
Trigger pull/control is where a lot of people run into accuracy issues. A poor trigger pull can throw off your shot entirely and make all the rest of your work useless. One of the most common issues is shooters jerking the trigger as they anticipate the recoil and flinch. This is a hard habit to break once it’s there, but can be done by practicing with a rimfire trainer. The lack of recoil will allow you to focus on a smooth, consistent pull with a clean break and follow through. You can also practice this in dry fire with the Penny Drill. While gripping your pistol with your arms extended in shooting position, take a penny and balance it on the front sight post. Now, practice your trigger pull, taking special care to keep the firearm steady and not knock the penny off.
Learning when to breathe will also help. Don’t hold your breath as you fire, instead breath steady and smooth. This keeps oxygen running to your brain and muscles and keeps your head clear.
A solid shooting stance helps bring all these fundamentals together. Distribute your weight to provide a stable foundation for shooting. Minimize the exposed area of your body to avoid return fire (make yourself a smaller target). The Weaver stance is the standard for most defensive applications.
With the Weaver stance, the off-hand foot is placed about 12 inches forward, and most of your weight is placed over this foot. The toes of the front foot face the target, while the rear foot carries less weight and is angled roughly 45 degrees away from the target. Both arms are unlocked, with the elbow of the shooting hand pointing outward and the off-hand elbow pointing downward. The slight bend in the arms draws the pistol closer to the body. This allows you to pivot and move faster, and requires an attacker to come closer for a disarm attempt.
Finally, practice effective malfunction clearance. You need to be able to operate your firearm when something goes wrong. Failures to feed, extract, and eject happen. They need to be corrected quickly.
A fast and firm tap-rack works most of the time. Tap (smack) the bottom of your magazine up into the firearm to ensure it’s seated properly. Then rack the slide to clear the jam and chamber a fresh round.
Depending on the malfunction, you may need to remove the mag. Then, rack the slide, and insert a fresh spare magazine. This will cover the majority of your malfunctions. In cases where it doesn’t, further action may be required, such as when your magazine binds up and needs to be stripped from the pistol with force.
Drawing
In a self-defense situation, the primary concern is getting your firearm into action. The draw stroke should be practiced until it becomes second nature. When carrying concealed, this means the first step is clearing any cover garments to get access to the handgun. Depending on your carry position and wardrobe, this may mean sweeping a jacket to the side or yanking a shirt tail up.
Once you get a grip on the pistol in the holster, draw the pistol up and out smoothly. Then, direct the gun forward. Be sure to practice good muzzle and trigger discipline. As you press the gun forward, bring your support hand to meet the pistol and complete the firing grip. Your eyes should be up and on the threat the entire time.
It would also be wise to practice your magazine changes or revolver speedloads. When you run out of ammo or experience a malfunction, you’ll need to get the gun back into action quickly.
Movement
Standing on the firing line is far different than being engaged by an active threat. It’s easier to hit a target that is standing still, and the same applies to you. Movement is key to both getting out of the situation or finding cover. You need to be able to actively engage a threat while moving (either yourself or your family) out of danger.
In certain situations, such as an active shooter, you may need to move toward the threat as you engage — if you are not within shooting range. Or, you may need to flee and avoid the threat altogether. Again, proper trigger/muzzle discipline should be muscle memory at this point.
Further, knowing how to move is as important as knowing when to move. If you’re a sitting duck, there’s no time like the present. However, if you’re already covered to a degree, strategic movement may likely be your best choice. Find another point of cover, wait until your attacker is distracted or reloading, and get a move on.
Transition from point to point until the threat is neutralized or you’re out of harm’s way. This is all situation based and will require some critical thinking on your part. Sometimes, staying hunkered down in your cover may be the right move.
Cover
Now, let’s talk about finding cover and what makes good cover. Cover needs to do two things — conceal and protect. If you’re near a vehicle, the engine bay makes for a good option… All that thick metal does a good job at stopping a bullet. In a shopping mall or store, a display stand or sign may be your only option.
Look for solid wood or metal. Outdoors, a thick tree or large boulder may be your best bet. Your environment and surroundings will dictate your cover options. This makes situational awareness important, which I’ll go into later.
Practice shooting from cover. If you don’t have access to private land or a range that allows this, it can be mimicked by training in awkward or crouched shooting positions and firing from odd angles. Shoot with your offhand as well as braced. Braced shooting may induce malfunctions in semi-autos, as some recoil force may be absorbed by the rest instead of cycling the firearm, and the slide may not have enough energy to fully eject or chamber a round (similar to limp wristing).
Situational Awareness
None of this training does any good if you don’t have enough reaction time or even notice the threat to engage. The key to this is having good situational awareness. This is basically just paying attention and noticing what is happening around you in your environment. Looking who’s around you, where the exits are, or anything that seems off.
This may sound like common sense, but that isn’t so common anymore. Most people have a smartphone glued to their hand and their neck craned down 24/7, which makes for an easy target. Keep your eyes up and scanning.
If you’re pumping gas or changing a tire, don’t get tunnel vision focusing on the task at hand. Be sure to look up from time to time. No, you don’t need to be looking around paranoid as if danger is lurking around every corner, but stay cognizant of the world around you so you have ample time to react when something does go down.
Final Thoughts
I know this may seem overwhelming, especially for new shooters just getting started. But start slow and build up your skills as you progress further. When you’re ready, start putting some of the basic shooting skills into practice for realistic self-defense applications.
Evidently the only person in the training world who does not recommend dry fire
Dry fire is a given not open to debate- I figured
I felt I had to respond to Mr. Campbell. My comment was for the person with little or no exposure to firearms. Every day people who are concerned about the conditions around them. People who are beginning to realize that when seconds count the police are minutes away. The Mr./Miss or Mrs. who doesn’t have a lot of time or funds or reasonable access to a range to get the proper training. As much respect as I have for Col Cooper and Massad Ayoob, I am trying to point those who do not have the resources for live fire with certified instructors to good information and a safe way to practice. They can inexpensively practice to develop sight alignment and trigger pull and accuracy. There is no direct feedback like hitting your target. By the time they have mastered the basics to be able to consistently hit their target at the range they might have to defend from they should have been exposed to enough experience to be ready to select a real firearm that they think will fill their needs and safely practice live fire. Some will decide that firearms are not for them. Self-defence has very little to do with TV,
Of all the information that I have read and all was useful, in my opinion the MOST useful came from Mr. Kennedy one statement “If you don’t practice don’t carry”. But do not underestimate any of the information in this entire article. I would appreciate recomendations to airsoft pistols comming close to the Ruger SR9c. Thank you for your reply.
Now John Kennedy just offered some of the best advice I’ve seen in these articles in a long time. Most folks don’t realize that they are responsible for every shot that comes out of their weapon. Misses and over penetration out in public could land you in big trouble. It would be way better to try and get out of a bad situation screaming as you go.
Sir,
I am certain your training works to an extent. If you study Jeff Cooper you know that Colonel Cooper recommended extensive dry fire regimens. So does Massad Ayoob and I do as well. Dry fire is a corner stone of marksmanship. As for you need feedback- that will not happen if you shoot a living thing for real. Very seldom. All focus is on the sight picture and sight alignment. All focus is on getting hits. Dry fire, then range work. Steel gongs are excellent feed back but kind of like the candy of training. I am certain you are a good shot but what works and what is taught for personal defense training always involves extensive dry fire and live fire on man sized targets.
Alex- good you stress finger off the trigger until you fire!!!!! Cannot stress enough.
The training in this article would be excellent but most ranges won’t allow most of it.
For most of you who do not know me, I was a Police Reserve Officer for about 33 years. I began studying tactics and what would become known as combat shooting back in the mid-60s. I became a follower of Colonel Jeff Cooper.
I do not recommend dry firing as a training program for competition combat or self-defense. You need the feedback from hitting your target fast and repeatedly on various targets 2 to 5 yards or more. Use the bowling pin silhouette on your target, any hit outside the bowling pin silhouette should be considered a miss in defensive tactics. In a combat shooting situation only the brain, brainstem, and throat are true stoppers.
Most people carry small light power pistols, even a heart shot may allow a deadly opponent to return fire for 10 seconds or harm you before they collapse. Forget fast draw. You, cannot draw faster than someone who already has their gun, knife, or another weapon out. If you have not practiced firing a pistol tucked into your side(either side) don’t start with a real firearm. An airsoft pistol works much safer for that. You can get an airsoft pistol that will be generally like what you want to carry.
When you become safe and confident you will need to do some work with your self-defense weapon from a coat pocket(recommend a Salvation Army vest or jacket) before you begin to carry socially.
I own a combat master airsoft, model of the 1911 45 Colt pistol. This model in my opinion, is one of the best 1911 semiautomatic Airsoft pistols made. It will shoot a 5gr.0.2O plastic BB at 350 feet per second and a lot more. It is accurate, sight adjustable, and will ring light targets and knock down most light aluminum targets.
I do not shoot it much anymore as I am 80 and no longer shoot combat competition. I do regularly shoot a smaller lighter HK USP Compact Airsoft pistol with a red laser. This has been the smallest, most accurate Airsoft pistol I have been able to find. I carry a Girsan MTC 14 .380 with a green laser light under-barrel, or an S&W 9mm EZ with an under-barrel red laser. So far the airsoft HK is as close in size between the Garsan .380 and the EZ in an airsoft pistol that meets my training and practice requirements. The HK keeps my hand-eye coordination very effective for six-inch targets to 10 yards. That’s about the maximum distance I may have to defend to with a handgun.
Start with the airsoft pistol before you invest in a carry weapon. There are also revolver airsoft models available that will fit your needs. YouTube can be a source of how-to videos. Look for Paul Harrell for many informative videos. Test yourself, set up 3 soup can lids at 3 to 5 yards to either side, then add 3 more on the other side 5 to 7 feet irregularly spaced to represent attacking moving targets If you like. Set another 15 feet out, all at about 4 feet above the ground. Coke cans work well, about the level of the average person’s sternum. You might add 1 more about 25 feet out. Those targets would represent a moving shootout. Time yourself. Count your misses, and remember that every bullet/airsoft bb, you fire in public has an attorney attached to them. Shoot as slow as you need to get all hits. Re-arrange the targets. Shoot until all targets are hit. Keep track of your times, to see improvement or to see where more practice is needed.
You are your only critic in this practice. Remember past statistics show that you {the average person} shoot at best 50% of your best training time under stress. Unless you are very fortunate, you don’t have a range that allows this kind of practice. Probably you do have a Privacy fenced yard or a garage where you can shoot an Airsoft pistol. I have one caution, if you don’t practice, Don’t Carry a Firearm.
EMG TTI Licensed JW3 2011 Combat Master Airsoft Training Pistol
You may be able to find cheaper Airsoft pistols but unless they can shoot to 350 feet per second with adjustable sights and I recommend a pistol that will accommodate a green laser you’re probably wasting your money.
If you have more interest in Airsoft, please contact me, and I will show you pictures of homemade targets I use and some more discussion about them.
Good luck with whatever you do. You may notice I do not recommend BBs because of ricochet, Also there are few accurate blowback semi-auto pellet pistols. Both of these will give you problems with backstops as Airsoft will not. Remember lastly always wear eye protection as there will always be ricochet with airsoft bbs on hard targets.