The KR Training team taught, competed and attended sessions at the 2021 Rangemaster Tactical Conference, held in Dallas at the Dallas Pistol Club (DPC) facility. In part 1 of this series I wrote about the KR Training team’s participation as trainers, staff and competitors. Part 2 covered the sessions I attended. This part shares four video compilations from the event.
Women’s Shootoff
Men’s Shootoff (partial)
Vision and Reloading
Here’s a short clip from one of my Correcting Common Shooting Errors sessions. I was discussing what you need to see during a reload, specifically the myth that looking at your gun during a reload is a Tactical Sin that will get you Killed On the Street. Those that promote that idea often assume that person reloading gets tunnel vision on the gun for the entire duration of the reload. In reality, there’s only a small part of the reload where looking really does make a difference – the time when the new magazine needs to get into the empty gun. Those that are really good at quick reloads likely see even less than what I recommend in the video, but the demonstration conveys the general idea.
During my Saturday session I did a demo I hadn’t done in a long time – gripping the pistol with only my support hand grip and firing it. Not traditional “support hand only”, which is a standard one handed grip. What I demonstrated was the support hand gripping the gun with no fingers and no support around the backside of the frame, the way that it’s used in a two handed grip. The point of the demo was in relation to grip strength and grip pressure with the support hand. That hand should be gripping the gun hard enough to be able to hang onto the pistol in recoil. For many carry permit level shooters (or lower skill), their support hand isn’t gripping the pistol that hard.
DISCLAIMER: if you attempt to duplicate what I’m doing in the video, try it first with a .22, with no magazine in the gun, and only one round in the chamber. If that goes OK, try it with more powerful calibers, but NEVER do it with more than one round in the gun. That way if you are unable to retain your grip on the gun when it recoils, the worst that will happen is an empty gun falls to the ground. (I also recommend NOT doing this at any facility where you are standing on concrete or gravel. Soft grassy ground like we had at DPC is ideal.) Even more ideal is to have enough confidence in your grip that you know you can hang onto it. If you don’t have at least 80-100 pounds of grip strength in your support hand, I wouldn’t try it at all. “Experienced professional on a closed course”, “don’t try this at home”, and I am NOT responsible for any damage to your gun, you, or anyone else that might be injured if you choose to imitate this demo.
Several years ago I was carrying an M&P Shield and experimenting with different modifications that could be made to it. I ran the gun, with a variety of increased capacity magazines, in a John Farnam class and wrote a blog post about it.
After that class I did some additional experimenting, posted about it in some online discussions, but was reminded today that I had never written it all up as a blog post. Longer sight radius and longer slides and barrels generally reduce recoil, improve reliability, increase bullet velocity, and improve accuracy. At the time S&W had not introduced a long slide version of the Shield (now available as a Performance Center model).
Silencerco makes a threaded barrel for the Shield with a standard 1/2-28 thread, and I found one on sale at a great price. Taylor Freelance makes an interesting product called the Glock Sight Block that adds 3/4″ of sight radius. It’s basically the same sort of barrel weight/sight extender that people used to run on single stack 1911’s back in the early days of USPSA before those barrel weights were turned into compensators.
I bought one of those (an earlier model with a slimmer profile), and threaded it onto the Silencerco barrel, removed the front sight from the Shield’s slide and installed a Dawson Precision Glock style fiber optic front sight of appropriate height into the sight block, making a Shield that looks like this:
I also added a Crimson Trace laserguard to the gun, to experiment with using the laser instead of iron sights.
All the mods made the gun completely incompatible with any holster made for a normal Shield. I discovered, though, that the Raven Morrigan holster I had for a 4″ M&P could be tightened up, using the velcro strap, to fit the modified Shield.
Results
All the mods worked OK, but I found that I really didn’t see that much difference in performance between the stock Shield and the sight block extended gun. My primary complaint with the Shield became the challenge of doing reloads with a gun that only allowed me three fingers on the frame. My pinky didn’t know where to go, and sometimes wanted to block the mag well.
A lot of shooters are attracted to the 3-finger framed guns, thinking that they are easier to conceal than a 4-finger frame gun — but then those same shooters stick a pinky shelf magazine in the 3-finger frame gun, ending up with a frame that is just as long (3 finger frame + pinky shelf) as a 4-finger frame with a flush mag. So they end up with no concealment advantage but a disadvantage when reloading the gun.
The only way to get the true advantage of the 3-finger frame is to run the flush mag and have a true 3-finger gun. What I finally decided was that the Shield’s best role was in that truly minimal configuration, with no laser and no sight extender, carried as a pocket gun or deep concealment option. The experimental Shield got parked back in the gun safe after the Glock 48 came out, which gave me a 4″ barrel and a 4-finger frame with a flush mag holding 10+1 (and later 14+1 using the Shield Arms S15 magazines. I run the S15’s with the 10 coil heavy springs loaded to 14, and I get better reliability this way than loading to 15 with the 9 coil recoil springs).
The next experiment I’m going to do with the Shield, though, is to put it back to stock configuration and try the deep concealment approach shown in this Rhett Neumayer video, using a PHLster Enigma and Dark Star Hitchhiker holster.
I’ll do another blog post after I get my Enigma (they are sold out again) and can get some dryfire and range time in with that configuration.
The KR Training team taught, competed and attended sessions at the 2021 Rangemaster Tactical Conference, held in Dallas at the Dallas Pistol Club (DPC) facility. In part 1 of this series I wrote about the KR Training team’s participation as trainers, staff and competitors. This post will cover the sessions we attended and other events at the match.
The Sessions
Here was the schedule for all the sessions. As you can see there were a lot of great options: classroom, live fire and hands on.
FRIDAY
Friday morning I attended a 3 hour live fire block taught by Brian Hill of the Complete Combatant. Brian’s background includes coaching for strength and fitness, martial arts and firearms, giving him a very broad perspective. He’s also an excellent shooter. I was too busy shooting and learning to take a lot of pics. A bonus of attending that course is I got to meet and chat with Scott Jedlinski and Tim Herron in person. I’ve chatted with both of them online over the past year. For the past several months I’ve been running my Holosun 507 sight in “32 MOA circle only” mode, influenced by Tim’s suggestion and recommendation. I’m finding I like the big open circle better than small dot or circle-dot.
Interestingly enough, the value of having a larger reticle is something I recommended to the industry back in 2017 when I posted my red dot study results. Apparently a few companies read the post and implemented that idea into their products. As I had predicted in the 2017 post (and something Tim observed in his own use of the larger circle) is that in cases where you don’t get perfect alignment of gun and reticle and eyeball, being able to see part the reticle at the edge of the window gives you sufficient visual information to correct the alignment faster than seeing no dot in the window and having to make a guess (educated or uneducated) about which way to move the gun.
Friday afternoon I taught a 4 hour session.
SATURDAY
The TacCon presentations and seminars are always a mix of new material, special topics trainers only offer at conferences, and “greatest hits” drawn from the presenters’ best known curriculum. Having been to more than 20 TacCons, I admit to skipping the 8 am sessions in favor of getting enough sleep and a decent breakfast, so I would be reasonably well prepared to shoot the match, sample some sessions, grab a snack and be ready to teach all Saturday afternoon. I did get a chance to observe bits and pieces of the Small Auto Pistols class taught by Chuck Haggard and the Revolver Essentials session taught by Lee Weems as they were wrapping up before lunch break.
Sunday
I started Sunday with Darryl Bolke’s Revolver Options presentation. Darryl is working on a book about the history of revolver-oriented training.
The next session I attended, (conveniently in the same classroom as Darryl’s talk) was Eve Kulcsar’s “Business Tactical”. Her talk addressed an issue I get a lot of questions about: how to balance the desire to carry and be prepared for self-defense against the need to dress in business attire, and potentially be in violation of company policies that could lead to being fired. I recently became aware of one gun blogger/serious student of self defense who had lost his job as a result of a co-worker making a comment that attracted the attention of management. That resulted in company security searching his office, finding the pistol he had in his backpack, firing him and removing him from the building.
Eve’s discussion started out presenting classic risk management concepts, and then focusing on specific risk associated with job sites and business environments.
She pointed out that one of the biggest risks (that is often neglected or discounted) is risk of being in a traffic accident commuting to/from the workplace. For most people, that risk is higher than the risk of workplace violence, but gets much less attention.
Her presentation concluded with a discussion of gear and different ways to carry it: not just firearms but also pepper spray and medical gear. Off-body carry has many limitations but is often the most practical, with the lowest risk of detection.
SHOOTOFF
Claude Werner shared this excellent video of the final shootoff. It used the 3D targets developed by John Hearne, originally used for the main match when it was run indoors at the Rangemaster and Memphis PD facilities. KR Training has a set of 8 of these targets that we use in our shoothouse.
The final presentation I attended on Sunday was Jeff Gonzales‘ block on gun range accidents. Like Eve’s talk, it began with discussion of traditional risk management concepts. (Jeff’s presentation was held in one of the classroom tents. Lighting was poor, so these pics are not as good as others I took in other sessions.)
The topics on that last slide are relevant to every level of firearms training, as Jeff explained in his talk. From teaching beginners to working in live fire shoot houses, drawing from concealment and doing force on force training, those elements need to be considered to minimize risk. Most readers have probably seen videos of classes run with students downrange, or muzzling others through inattention, or videos in which negligent discharges occur, sometimes resulting in injury. I’m not going to link to any of those videos, because in many cases they are content the unsafe trainers have posted themselves to promote their businesses, and I don’t want to contribute to their online traffic.
Still more to come…
I still have some videos taken during my sessions and the shootoff to edit and post. That will be the third and final post in the series.
The KR Training team taught, competed and attended sessions at the 2021 Rangemaster Tactical Conference, held in Dallas at the Dallas Pistol Club (DPC) facility. This was the 24th TacCon. I’ve attended 22 of them and been a presenter at at least 20 of them. For many of us, the event is a family reunion, getting to visit and train together. The event has moved around over its history: from many years at the “mother ship” (the original Rangemaster range in Memphis, to the US Shooting Academy in Tulsa, DARC in Arkansas, a combination shooting range/racetrack in New Orleans, and now Dallas.
DPC has been confirmed as the location for the 2022 TacCon, and registration will open in May 2021. The event always sells out many months in advance. I will share the registration link in our monthly KR Training e-newsletter posted to this blog when it becomes available.
I presented two sessions of my 4-hour Correcting Common Shooting Errors course, which was useful for instructors and shooters. It’s a class that I teach several times a year at our home facility, and have taught on the road.
Explaining acceptable sight picture (and aiming point) for close range defensive shootingDemonstrating with the SIRT pistolAnother demo
John’s Sessions
John Daub was asked to fill in for Spencer Keepers, (who had to cancel due to a medical issue) teaching three 2-hour blocks of appendix carry skills. This was John’s first time to be a lead instructor at a Tactical Conference, and he received many compliments, in person and online, from students in those sessions.
Clearing the cover garmentRe holstering“Hi, Mom!”
John is going to expand his appendix carry skills course into a 4 hour class we will offer this summer at the A-Zone.
Match Staff & Attendees
In addition to Karl and John teaching, KR Training instructors Tracy Thronburg, Dave Reichek, and Ed Vinyard all worked as range officers for our sessions and sessions run by other trainers. KR Training instructors Becky Dolgener and David Tschirhart also attended TacCon. Several KR Training challenge coin holders and many other alumni were there too, taking advantage of the opportunity to train with a wide variety of national trainers.
The Match
Part of the event is a live fire match that now includes an initial qualification stage, a tiebreaker stage, and a head-to-head shootoff on the final day. The KR Training team made a respectable showing, with Dave Reichek (7th overall) and making the top 16 for the men’s shootoff, and Tracy Thronburg (2nd womens) and top women’s shootoff. John Daub was 20th and Karl was 25th.
The qualification stage was a fixed time, 40 round course shot on a Rangemaster RM-Q target with 200 points possible. Anyone scoring over 190 shot the tiebreaker stage, which was 5 shots from 5 yards on a B-8 target, with individual times recorded. Total score for the main match was raw points from the qual stage PLUS the hit factor (points/time) from the tiebreaker. John will be including the match course of fire along with other drills from TacCon in an upcoming revision to his “Drills, Qualifications, Standards, & Tests” eBook (free download).
K Clark’s winning target (below) shows a 200 point main score with a B-8 with 50 points in 2.83 seconds. Had they counted X’s, he would also have had 5X — a truly impressive performance. That gave him a main match score of 217.61.
Perfection
There were a lot of shooters in the top 30 that shot hit factors in the 11-13 range (compared to K’s 17.6 factor). John shot a fast 43 points to get a hit factor of 12.25, my slightly slower 50 points was a hit factor of 12.59. I shot the tiebreaker right after dropping one point on the last string of the main match, which caused me to be more conservative than I should have on the tiebreaker run. Dropping one point on the main match moved me down 8 places in the overall standards, so a 0.5% difference in score making a 5% change in overall placement. There were a lot of great shooters there and the level of competition continues to get tougher and tougher each year.
Karl’s target: 199/200. Dropping one point in the main match cost me 8 places in the overall finish.
But Wait There’s More!
Stay tuned for future posts, as I share some pics and content from sessions I attended, video from the sessions I taught, and some shootoff video. TacCon is always a very full 3 days. My reports from TacCon 2018 (both the Arkansas and Northwest Regional conferences) and TacCon 2019 are still online also.
Back in 2005, the Rangemaster Tactical Conference was featured on an episode of Shooting Gallery. The event was held at “the mothership” – the original Rangemaster facility in Memphis. Back then the event was called the “Polite Society Conference”.
Sharing these videos as I and several on the KR Training staff head to Dallas for TacCon 2021, as instructors and range staff.
We have reduced the number of rounds required for most classes, and will continue to offer many no-live-fire defensive skills courses. Taking classes with .22 caliber guns will be allowed, and dry firing is always a good way to maintain and develop skills. February gave us a 100 year ice and snow storm, complete with lengthy power and water outages. March brings us the 2021 Legislative Session, with over 100 bills filed relating to firearms rights (pro and anti). Lt. Governor Dan Patrick’s list of priorities is here. Note that Constitutional (permit less) carry is NOT one of his priorities, although there are several other firearms issues on his list.
Here are the classes we have scheduled with space available through end of June. Don’t see the class you want here? Let us know. Many classes can be taught as weekday private lessons, or we can add it to the schedule if there’s enough interest.
We are bringing national trainer John Murphy to KR Training in March, for his two day Street Encounters Skills and Tactics course. He has lowered the round count for this course to 250 rounds, and he has limited ammo available to sell to students. Slots are still open. John is an excellent instructor with his own facility in Culpepper Virginia, with decades of experience. It’s a great choice for those with a carry permit wanting their first post-LTC course, and it’s a great complement/refresher for the material we teach in our Defensive Pistol Skills course program.
HOME DEFENSE TACTICS IN AUSTIN SUNDAY APRIL 11
We will be offering a special session of the Home Defense Tactics course Sunday evening, April 11, from 5-8p at a student home near The Domain in Austin. In this class you learn how to do a security assessment of your own home, practice armed movement in structures (aka “houseclearing”) using red guns, and practice working in a dim/low light environment inside an actual home. This class is limited to 6 students plus the host family.
In the past few months, several of our staff have attended courses with Hock Hockheim (Karl, John Daub, Dave Reichek), Ben Stoeger (Karl & Dave), Brian Hill (John Daub), and Tom Givens (Tracy Thronburg and Sean Hoffman). Most of the staff will be attending the upcoming Rangemaster Tactical Conference in Dallas, with Karl and John both teaching sessions as lead instructors, Tracy and Dave working as assistants, and all the rest attending as participants. I’ll post some articles here on the blog about the event when we return.
Tracy’s 5×5 card from her recent Tom Givens course.
SONG OF THE MONTH
Back in 2008 I released a CD of original music called “Respectable” (link goes to amazon Mp3 version, physical copies of the CD are available from me at the A-Zone). Here’s another song from that CD: a cover of a classic Texas blues song from the 1920’s, also covered by the Grateful Dead.
FOLLOW US ONLINE!
With the recent trend in Facebook and Twitter deplatforming and shadow banning firearms-related content, I strongly encourage you to subscribe to this blog, as direct email and blogging remain the best ways to get un-filtered, un-suppressed information. The link to subscribe is on the right hand side of every page of the blog, including this newsletter.
The folks at ConcealedCarry.com have released a new state-by-state gun law book called “Legal Boundaries by State”.
It’s available as a print book, but also as an e-book that comes with lifetime updates. In my opinion the e-book version is more useful. Load it into the reader app on your phone, and you will always have the handy updated reference available. There are websites that offer similar information, but I trust the folks at ConcealedCarry.com to get the information right and keep it up to date.
STATE BY STATE GUIDE
For each state, it provides a one page summary of current gun laws, in a simple, easy to follow format. Each of the categories shown in the sample page below are repeated for all 50 states.
OTHER TOPICS COVERED
Additional information provides a nice summary of all of these topics:
How to check a gun in luggage when flying
Article 926A of the Firearm Owner Protection Act
Proper Vehicle Firearm Storage
Hotels
Non-Resident Permits for Expanded Reciprocity
Traveling With Firearms in National Parks
It also includes tables with one line summaries for all states on these topics:
Duty to Notify Law Enforcement when carrying (traffic stop or other interaction)
Duty To Retreat
Carry in State Parks
Carry in Restaurants Serving Alcohol
Constitutional Carry
Campus Carry (Colleges)
Magazine Capacity Limitations
Open Carry
Suppressor Ownership
In less than 100 pages, this book provides a lot of useful information, particularly for those that travel across state lines on a regular basis. Order the print or e-book editions here.
Here are two videos from our archive, recently added to our youTube channel.
This is one is the full video podcast of my appearance on the Civilian Carry Radio podcast from 2019
And this one is quite a bit older: Penny is interviewed on local Austin news, during a Refuse to Be a Victim class we taught in a restaurant on 6th street.
One bonus video: a short clip of me getting a short “ride” on the Taser at a 2004 trade show. Anyone willing to take a testdrive got a free T-shirt (and I still have the T-shirt).
For the first half of the 20th century, exhibition and trick shooting was a common and popular form of entertainment. Famous shooters from Annie Oakley, Ad and Plinky Topperwein, Ed McGivern and Bill Jordan put on shooting demonstrations as part of Wild West shows, circuses, county fairs, and later, on TV shows.
In the second half of the 20th century, Herb Parsons, Tom Knapp, Bob Munden, Jerry Miculek and others kept the tradition alive.
https://youtu.be/__SQXgwOfrI
Exhibition and trick shooting has made a bit of a comeback, with many 21st century trick shooters like 22plinkster, Gould Brothers, Howard Darby and Chris Cheng still putting on shows, making online and TV appearances.
Latest news is that Chris Cheng will be one of the performers on a new “talent show” to be televised on TBS. More about his involvement in that show in this Ammoman article.
This episode of the Time Suck podcast tells the life history of Annie Oakley, who the most famous of the early exhibition shooters. (Warning: host Dan Cummins drops a lot of f-bombs. Spoiler: George the Poodle does not get shot.)
Bob Hanna provided some better quality copies of some of the essential articles Chuck Taylor used as class handouts. The full PDF file is here for free download. Selected pages are shown below. This material is all from the early 1980’s.
One of the big challenges we faced was having two locations to winterize and worry about – doubly complicated when they are 50 miles apart (our house in Bryan and the A-Zone property in Lincoln.
When we have power and internet service, these give us monitoring and control of important building infrastructure. Overall, all of these systems worked very well — particularly at the A-Zone property, because Bluebonnet power and Zochnet internet outages were typically of short durations (a few hours) as opposed to the long outages we experienced in Bryan. The AT&T cell phone network stayed up even when power went off in Bryan, giving us connectivity back to the remote sensors.
During the first wave of the storm, we learned that the heat pump on the house on the A-Zone property froze up. I ended up texting with our AC guy, who talked me through rewiring and configuring the Nest thermostat out there to switch on the electric heat strips and shut off the exterior heat pump. We haven’t seen our electric bill yet, but even with the thermostat set to 63, the electric heat was running at least 50% of the time for more than a week. We learned that the Nest thermostat we have isn’t “smart” enough to switch to the emergency heat. We were able to figure out that the heat pump had failed when the temperature inside the house kept dropping and the heater kept running, so the remote sensing did provide essential information.
Similarly, the exterior rain/freeze sensor worked to stop the sprinkler system from running (and we manually stopped the sprinklers remotely just to make sure no sensor error would cause them to run.)
Deciding where to ride out the storm
As the forecast worsened we had to make a decision as to where we were going to ride out the storm. At the A-Zone we had a generator and a wood burning fireplace with plenty of wood, but poor cell service (regardless of weather), with gas and food vendors 15+ minutes away. In Bryan, we had natural gas appliances (including a gas fireplace), and are within walking distance of a Walmart and multiple gas stations. We had food and bottled water at both locations.
We mistakenly assumed that utilities would be more reliable in the larger urban area. (This turned out to be wrong, as we had a 19 hour and a later 8 hour power outage in Bryan.)
Things that worked well
In my vehicle I always have a Streamlight Siege lantern, a Goal Zero solar panel and an AA battery power box that could be recharged by solar panel or USB, and could be used to charge devices connected to it via USB. During the period we went without power, I was able to use the solar panel to recharge AA batteries. The Panasonic Eneloop Pro AA batteries that I had been carrying around in my car for over a year had held their charge: other brands of rechargeable AA batteries did not, and the Goal Zero-branded AA batteries drained fastest. I will be buying more Eneloop Pro AA’s. It would have been useful to have more of them.
Natural gas appliances allowed us to cook and provided some warmth during the power outage. When power returned after the first 19 hour outage, we charged up every rechargeable thing we had, particularly all the little USB power packs and flashlights.
On the Saturday before the storm hit we went to the A-Zone and wrapped and insulated every pipe we could find. I tracked down some low-toxicity antifreeze and we poured that into the PVC water pipes in the barn to try to protect them against bursting and freezing (this worked). On Tuesday after the first big cold snap and snow and ice, we made an emergency run from Bryan to the A-Zone to check on everything. It took 90 minutes vs. the usual 60, due to road conditions and slower speeds but we were glad we made the run as it gave us peace of mind that the winterizing we had done was working (and weather conditions got worse preventing us from getting out there for another 5 days).
The batteries in the UPS’s attached to our computers were additional power storage that were used to charge USB devices and laptops. (UPS makers need to provide an option to run the UPS without the alarm sounding. Neither of ours had that option.)
The TempStick freezer/fridge sensors are expensive, so we don’t have them on the patio fridges that are only used for sodas and beer, or on the small freezers on the kitchen fridges at either location. We did have Accurite wireless sensors on those, giving local alarms if the temperatures inside the fridge or freezer got out of bounds. They allowed us to locally monitor temps without opening the door. Having those sensors let us know when we needed to relocate frozen or refrigerated items outside (into the ice and snow) to keep them from spoiling.
The only food we lost was some frozen meals in the freezer of the patio fridge at the A-Zone house. We unplugged the patio fridges at both locations out of concern that the old fridges would fail trying to keep the fridge area heated to a non-freezing temp, and expected that the sodas inside them might freeze. As it turned out, the patio location and insulated cabinets kept the sodas from freezing, and we did not have to deal with frozen/exploded soda cans.
Improvements to make
Things we are going to do to be better prepared for future power outages:
Generators at both locations. Propane heaters (we had propane at both locations but no heater to connect to the bottles). Look at replacing/modifying the gas fireplace in the Bryan house to something capable of producing heat. We needed heat far more than a decorative fire.
NOTE – some decorative fireplaces may not be built to withstand the kind of heat a useful gas heater or wood fire might produce. Inspect your fireplace area or have a professional inspect it before you make that sort of change.
Learn more about how the plumbing is run in both locations, particularly pipes that run into the attics that may need additional insulation.
Find the main power connections to the AC/heat units in the attics and put in extension cords long enough to get from the attic down to a generator. We had gas heat in Bryan, and if we had been able to run the attic unit blower from a generator, we might have been able to heat the house during the outage.
The next most likely crisis will be summer power outages. Making sure we have generators at both locations capable of powering the freezers, and maybe even a small AC unit capable of cooling a room, will go on the spring to-do list.
More observations
A few more observations from KR Training staff and alumni:
A lot of people discovered (the hard way) that heat pump systems don’t operate well in temperatures below freezing. Before the storm hit, electric and propane heaters disappeared from store shelves. We loaned an electric heater to a friend with a retail store in College Station. When he asked for the loan he said “there are no heating devices in stock anywhere within 100 miles of here”. I found the same situation with external hose covers. Our dogs decided that the styrofoam ones they could access in the backyard were fun dog toys for shredding, so we ended up using old T-shirts and tie wraps to protect the hose connections.
After the storm had passed, demand for plumbing parts soared. One KR staffer described the plumbing aisle as “looking like a tornado had hit it. Parts scattered all over the floor, boxes ripped open.” The most popular sizes of fittings were the first to go. One staffer drove 50 miles out to the A-Zone to get one of the small propane cans we use for gassing up Airsoft guns, so he could use it as a torch to work on copper fittings that had burst in his garage.
One lesson here: part of prepping is to have a network of other prepared people, in case maybe they have something you need and are willing to share. That includes your geographic neighbors.
Early during the storm, one of the A-Zone neighbors posted on Facebook that a stray dog had showed up at their property. They took it in, gave it shelter and food and water but didn’t want to keep it forever. Meanwhile, another neighbor posted on Nextdoor about a dog that had been lost within a few miles of use. Penny saw both posts, wondered if the stray dog and the lost dog were the same. We contacted the neighbor with the dog, pointed her at the Nextdoor posting…and dog and owner were reunited before the storm made things too dangerous to be driving.
Staff AARs
A few days ago I asked all 12 of the KR Training staff to send me their lessons learned. The lists below are the highlights from their responses.
Items we needed:
Lifestraw
Flashlights, batteries, glow sticks, head lamps
Canned or other storable food
Pet food
Water valve wrench
GMRS radios
Things we did right:
Pre-staged equipment
Having a mix of gas and electric appliances
Having fuel (gas, propane) on hand
Topped off vehicles early
Things we would do different next time
Shut off water sooner and flush the lines
Fill up bathtubs and other available containers
More firewood pre split
Tow rope in vehicle
Inspect trees – look for branches that might ice over and fall causing damage
Have a better plan for “things to do” when stuck in the house sitting around with no power and no heat. (Cards, games, books, crafts, dry fire drills, etc.)
Have a propane fired high BTU turkey fryer or lobster boiler for heating water
Have an assortment of copper and PVC fittings & soldering torch
More fire extinguishers
Have a better quality camping toilet
Know where water cutoff is and clear access to it
Indoor-safe propane fueled camping stove
Make a To-Do and To-Buy List and Follow through
The supply chain for many of the “wish we had” items listed above is strained right now. The best plan is to make the to-do and to-buy lists and follow up on them, even if that means ordering and waiting weeks for items to come in. As many people learned in the week before the storm, expecting big box retailers and shipping services to be able to supply everyone in the days before a major crisis is unrealistic. The challenge now is not to let the preparedness tasks get forgotten post-crisis.
We recently modified our Basic Pistol 2 course to offer a two-hour version that serves 3 functions:
Basic Pistol 2
The BP2 course is the class we recommend for people that know how to shoot, but have never had a formal handgun course where fundamentals were taught in depth, and/or have never shot on a structured firing line running timed drills. Many years ago we came up with a list of questions students could ask themselves to determine whether they would benefit from attending the course:
Can you score 90% on the Texas LTC shooting test?
Do you understand how your pistol works? (For example understanding cocked and locked carry for a 1911, or using the decocker and firing DA for the first shot with a DA/SA style pistol).
Do you do any “dry fire” practice with your pistol at home?
Have you practiced starting at a ready position, finger off trigger, and getting the gun quickly to the target and firing?
Are your grip and gunhandling skills up to date?
Do you really know what your trigger finger is doing before, during and after each shot?
Do you follow through after the shot is fired?
The vast majority of carry permit holders answer “no” to several (or all) of these questions. A well trained armed citizen should be able to answer “yes” to all of them. The primary objectives of the course are to teach those skills.
Online LTC Completion
Texas now allows carry permit applicants to do their classroom training online, needing only a short in person course (minimum of 1 hour classroom, minimum of 50 round shooting test on the range, with range test time NOT counting as part of the 1 hour classroom training).
In the two-hour version of the course, we spend one hour covering the required classroom material, and the second hour is 100 rounds of shooting: 50 rounds of drills to practice and develop skills necessary to perform well on the LTC test, and then the LTC test itself. By adding an extra 30 minutes to the state minimum, we provide significantly more instruction and improve student skill. The full 100 round program includes the first 4 drills from our Top 10.
LTC Refresher / Annual Tune Up
The two hour course can also be used as an annual tune up for students at any level. For those that have gone beyond the state minimum and had formal training in how to draw from concealment or open carry, by changing the state mandated B-27 target for our KRT-2 target, and having the shooter run the LTC starting each string drawing from concealment, making two of the 5-shot strings mandatory head shots, they can join lower level students on the firing line as they run the state test, but get much more training value from the more challenging version of the course.
I recently shot the Texas LTC test this way using our KRT-2 target. It’s considerably smaller than the B-27. The videos below show the KRT-2 pasted on top of a B-27 for scale. Only the grey and white parts of the KRT-2 count as hits. Anything in or outside the black border is considered a miss. The white section is the “X ring” with the grey area counted as an “acceptable” hit.
Firearms training is not a “one and done” thing, although many carry permit holders treat it that way. Taking a short course to verify that your skills are maintained at a reasonable level is a good thing to do each year, whether you do that by taking our 2 hour course, shoot an IDPA, USPSA or Steel Challenge match, or run some structured, timed drills in your own practice time.
and Paul & I have curated more than 14 hours of videos on preparedness topics available online for minimal cost on vimeo.com
In the coming weeks I will be collecting up lessons learned from all who want to contribute their thoughts, to provide a group after action report on what measures we took to prepare for the current crisis worked, what did not, and what we need to do to be better prepared for the next crisis, which could be spring flash floods or a summer heatwave once again taxing our electric grid.
We have reduced the number of rounds required for most classes, and will continue to offer many no-live-fire defensive skills courses. Taking classes with .22 caliber guns will be allowed, and dry firing is always a good way to maintain and develop skills. COVID restrictions are still in effect, limiting class sizes and mandating masks indoors.
UPCOMING CLASSES
Here are the classes we have scheduled with space available through end of April. Some classes are already sold out. We will announce May-June classes in the March newsletter.
Don’t see the class you want here? Let us know. Many classes can be taught as weekday private lessons, or we can add it to the schedule if there’s enough interest.
We are bringing national trainer John Murphy to KR Training in March, for his two day Street Encounters Skills and Tactics course. He has lowered the round count for this course to 250 rounds, and he has limited ammo available to sell to students. Slots are still open.
REFRESHER SLOTS ARE HALF PRICE
Want to take a class you’ve taken before to keep your skills sharp? Refresher slots for most courses are half price!
Back in 2008 I released a CD of original music called “Respectable” (link goes to amazon Mp3 version, physical copies of the CD are available from me at the A-Zone). Penny and I collaborated on this song, all about her experiences surviving a terrible winter storm when she was attending Purdue University. This week’s weather inspired us to make a video for it, featuring Penny’s photos of current and older Texas ice and snow.
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With the recent trend in Facebook and Twitter deplatforming and shadow banning firearms-related content, I strongly encourage you to subscribe to this blog, as direct email and blogging remain the best ways to get un-filtered, un-suppressed information. The link to subscribe is on the right hand side of every page of the blog, including this newsletter.
This controversial work of fiction was written in the late 1990’s, after the assault weapon and magazine capacity bans were signed into law by Bill Clinton: after the Waco/Koresh standoff, the Ruby Ridge standoff, and the Oklahoma City bombing. Anti-government sentiment within the gun culture and the right was strong, and the militia movement was the focus of law enforcement attention. Also during this period, many states passed shall-issue concealed carry laws. This period of US history can be considered the transition from Gun Culture 1.0 (hunters and target shooters) to Gun Culture 2.0 (urban concealed carriers). It’s an artifact of that era, published independently and largely sold through gun shows and other non-traditional channels. I don’t recall ever seeing a copy on a shelf at Borders or Barnes and Noble or any other bookstore when it first came out.
Depending on your perspective, Unintended Consequences either tells the fictional story of patriots who rise up to force the Federal government to restrain an out of control bureaucracy, or the story of terrorists that succeed in forcing the President to bow to their demands through political violence. The protagonists are a small group of wealthy, highly skilled, lifelong “gun guys” who prevent a Waco/Ruby Ridge style raid on one of their properties, and then using news releases and recordings, combined with targeted assassinations of government agents, ignite a national rebellion and widespread targeted violence against Federal employees working for regulatory agencies. This puts so much pressure on the Executive Branch that the President gives in to the gun guys, enacting a set of policies that reads like the standard wish list for anyone in the gun culture:
“…a Presidential pardon to all persons currently serving time fo or how have been convicted of violations of the National Firearms Act of 1934, the Gun Control Act of 1968, the McClure-Volkmer Act of 1986, the firearms and magazine provisions of the Crime Law of 1994, and all other Federal, state and local anti-gun laws, including any and all anti-concealed carry laws.”
Like many books from that era, from Tom Clancy military novels, Stephen Hunter action-mysteries, and men’s adventure paperbacks, Unintended Consequences is full of “gun and gear nerd” content: African safaris, long discussions about guns, loads, long range shooting, and plots that are structured around technical nuances. Taken purely as another book somewhere in that genre of “action thriller”, it’s a well written, long (863 pages), entertaining read with an ending written to please its intended audience.
Today is the 3rd anniversary of the Parkland school shooting, and President Biden has chosen to use this day to attempt to turn the clock back to 1994, with a policy goal of putting the semiautomatic long gun and magazine capacity bans back in place, along with other restrictions that go beyond what was passed in 1994. The policies in the executive orders he has signed since taking power are implementing progressive, not centrist policies that will further divide the nation and outrage those now in the political minority.
During the past year, anti-government rioters and mobs have attacked government buildings in Portland, Seattle, Washington DC and other cities. Gun sales have hit unprecedented levels. Ammo is scarce and selling for 500% of pre COVID prices, when it can be found. The country is sharply divided, with more public figures calling for acts of revenge, cancellation, re-education, and other Orwellian measures against their political opponents. Government regulation of many aspects of our lives has increased because of the pandemic, with no specific end in sight. The positions and policies of the extreme Left are now the default for Big Tech, colleges, public schools, entertainment media, “mainstream” news, professional sports, Fortune 500 corporations, the Executive branch and the House of Representatives. Trust in government is at record low levels, and outrage builds as scandal after scandal results in no significant penalties for elites and high ranking government officials, regardless of political affiliation. Lower tier elites and other expendables are ruthlessly cancelled for WrongThink or WrongSpeak, with careers ruined, but those at the top face no consequences for any offense, from simple lies to corrupt acts for financial gain to decisions and statements that result in significant property losses and deaths (of property and lives of the non-elites).
In many ways the situation is far worse than what existed in the mid 1990’s, when John Ross wrote this, in the introduction to his book:
Today in America, honest, successful, talented, productive, motivated people are once again being stripped of their freedom and dignity and having their noses rubbed in it. The conflict has been building for over half a century, and once again warning flags are frantically waving while the instigators rush headlong toward the abyss, and their doom.
Should you read the book? It’s entertaining as clever escapist fantasy. It’s educational, teaching about the history of gun laws and technical details about many different rifles and machine guns. And I think that it’s also relevant to current events, as political discussion about gun rights may soon sound like a repeat of 1994.
On Valentine’s Day, 2018, a school shooter attacked Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. The attacker’s trial is still in limbo, 3 years later. The attack was noteworthy for several reasons.
Law enforcement response was terrible. Slow and ineffective, with officers remaining outside the school, not entering to stop the shooter, who stopped the attack on his own, attempting to escape the school by blending in with those fleeing the building. This article from the Miami Herald details all the failures.
I’m certified by the state of Texas to teach the School Safety class – the course developed by the Department of Public Safety to train armed teachers for active shooter response in schools. In the past I’ve reviewed other books on other active shooter incidents. They all tell the same story: warning signs ignored by bureaucrats and law enforcement, slow, ineffective response by law enforcement, refusal of those same administrators and cops to consider or support the idea of allowing teachers, staff or school visitors with carry permits to carry on school property, and the usual demands for new gun restrictions from elites, the media and the professional gun control lobbyists. Most often the requested law changes would have had no impact on the outcome of the incident, since the type of gun used or the capacity of the gun really doesn’t matter when the victims are unarmed and have limited capacity to fight back. In the past, I’ve written about the “reloading fallacy” – the myth that reducing magazine capacity can produce any change in outcome in an active shooter incident.
Grieving father Andrew Pollack encountered all the problems and standard roadblocks common to every school shooting, and he documents all of them in depth in his book. The book provides insight into the life history of the shooter, the numerous institutional failures, the ignored warning signs, and the bureaucratic CYA mentality more concerned with protecting careers and protecting the myth that partisan policies were “working” than with protecting the students in the school.
The Broward county situation, as explained in the book, is particularly awful, with those at the top eager to make their county a nationally recognized poster child for ending the “school to prison pipeline”, even if it means manipulating the numbers, ignoring crimes, and “mainstreaming” students that would have received better attention at special schools instead of being pushed back in to the general population at a public high school. Their approach certainly advanced their own careers but did nothing to help the at-risk students in need of extra attention, nor to protect the regular students from school violence.
As with the life history of every other school shooter or mass killer, the murderer had a long history of bad behavior, obsession with violence, abuse of animals, threats and injuries to those around him, bitterness, hate and a total lack of empathy for others. His family, other students and teachers that had to deal with him were all scared of him, and many predicted that he would eventually become a school shooter. Somewhere between 25-49 law enforcement interactions with him — early warnings – were ignored or deliberately hidden.
The third part of the book details the attempt of the Parkland parents to mount a political challenge to replace many of the school board members and other county officials responsible for all levels of the policies that failed to protect the students. Broward residents in a strongly Democratic county, cared more for maintaining partisan control than improving public safety, and all the candidates the Parkland parents organized and supported were defeated.
Reading this book will probably make you depressed and/or angry, as it tells the same story that is repeated over and over again in school districts all over the US. The names change but the behaviors remain the same.
Why should you read it? As a cautionary tale, to understand how these situations develop. It can motivate you to pay attention to local school board elections and sheriff elections, not just state and national politics. As of this writing, most Texas school districts do not allow graduates of the state-police designed School Safety (armed teacher) program to carry on school property, even though they have been trained to a higher standard defined by our state’s experts on firearms and deadly force. In that regard, most of Texas, certainly the major metro areas, are no better than Broward County. There’s still work to be done, and what happened in Parkland is a grim reminder of why that work needs to be done at the local, county and state level to do more to protect students.
Since writing the book, Andrew Pollack has spoken at major national events, appeared on news programs, has written for the Federalist and other publications, and briefly served as president of John Lott’s Crime Prevention Research Institute when John Lott was employed by the federal Department of Justice during the Trump administration.
I recently had a student contact me with details about an incident he was involved in. He agreed to share his account of it, with name and location removed. It’s an excellent reminder of why awareness and “managing unknown contacts” (a skill we discuss in our Personal Tactics Skills course) are so important to avoiding situations that might deteriorate into more serious actions.
Details
I recently had an experience that confirmed why I carry a firearm for defense and why I train physically and mentally to respond to a bad situation that I hope never happens.
I was taking my usual workday lunchtime walk, and noticed a guy walking my direction that pinged my possible threat radar. The items that caught my attention were: big unzipped black hoodie, generally sloppy looking, and something about his walking gait that I just did not like. So, I gave him the sidewalk as he went by and nodded politely when he made eye contact. He continued his way, as did I. I thought it was over and a non-event. I was wrong.
On my return leg back to the office, I noticed the same guy ahead of me again, this time traveling the same direction I was. I slowed my roll a little to re-assess and he stopped and looked over his shoulder at me. At this point I realized I really did not like what was happening. The sidewalk we were on was on a busy street. On the other side of the sidewalk was a construction site. He then walked on a few more feet and sat down on a piece of construction equipment that was just off the sidewalk and took another look at me. At this point my only route was past this guy. So, I slowed up until I had a bit of a space in traffic to my left (in case I got forced into the street), I dropped my hand into my pocket and took a light grip in my little S&W 642, which is what I carry most days. I then began to move past with purpose.
The moment I passed him I saw his body tense up and start to move, so I took a big step off his axis and spun to meet the threat. He had tried to lunge; my best guess was to push me into the street/traffic. I put my non-dominant hand up close to my body in a conciliatory gesture and said “have a nice day man” as I backed away to create space. At this point he started moving toward me yelling “Are you ready for Hell? I’m gonna send you to Hell! Heaven is waiting for me! Hell is about to take you! etc.” All the while, he was moving toward me making lunging moves, and gesturing with his hands like he wanted to attack. I kept creating space and just shook my head at him without saying anything and watching his hands closely. In that moment if he had reached in his hoodie or made any other indication of bringing a weapon into play, I would have fully drawn my gun (which by now I had a firm grip on and was nearly clear of the pocket holster). This went on for about 10 seconds before he seemed to stop for a second and he suddenly took off to a tattoo shop that was just close by. At this point, I got out of the area quickly. I was back in my office parking lot within another 10 seconds and had reached for my phone to dial 911. I checked my 6 again and noticed that he was running back again, yelling and shooting the finger at me, so I got inside behind a locked door and made my 911 call. I did let the 911 operator know that I was a licensed carrier and was armed but had not drawn or used my weapon. I told her that prior to speaking with the officers, I would secure my weapon and it would not be on my person when I they arrived. She communicated this with the officers in the responding unit. When they arrived, I went out and we had the conversation. I had my license ready for their inspection and offered it. The whole conversation went smoothly, and they were quite supportive, even complimenting me for my self- control. The adrenaline dump started to hit right around that time, and once the I was done talking to the police I went home for the day, and a badly needed whiskey drink!
Since the incident I have seen the offender hanging around the area of my office quite frequently. He appears to be staying with someone in the area and may be with us for a while. I no longer take walks, and we always watch out for each other when we leave the office to go to our cars. The incident has caused out company to review safety protocols and improve surveillance camera coverage around our building. I am grateful for the training I have received from some amazing coaches who helped me be better prepared for what happened. These folks are Karl Rehn of KR Training, John Correia of Active Self Protection and my shooting coach, Joe French. Karl has provided me with outstanding training on how to use my firearm in a defensive situation. Karl also turned me on to John’s YouTube channel, which has been invaluable in helping me improve situational awareness, adopt a serious attitude as a self-defender and to better understand the dynamics of defensive incidents. I look forward to one day being able to train with him in person. Joe has helped me improve my shooting skills tremendously, particularly with the little snubbie I carry. It takes a lot of work to get competent with these little tools and having the confidence of knowing I could take care of business with the little thing made a huge difference in my mindset that day. Most of all, I thank my Lord Jesus Christ for being my Rock and for being so good to me despite me.
I was very fortunate that day. I went home and got to hug on my kids and kiss my wife. That is what matters. I have a long way to go on this journey of learning to protect myself and my family. I hope nothing like this happens again, but I now know even more clearly that I absolutely must continue to grow my skills, attitude, and spiritual fitness. You never know what is going to happen or how it’s going to go. You cannot be over-prepared to defend your life or those you love.
Addendum
After discussing the incident with the student, I encouraged him to carry pepper spray in addition to his firearm, as it could be a very useful intermediate tool in dealing with a potentially mentally unstable person such as the one he encountered.
Also, when carrying a snub revolver, having a “speed strip” with additional rounds with you is a good idea. Reloading the revolver this way is significantly slower than changing the magazine on a semiauto or using a revolver speedloader, but the strip carries very flat and small in the pocket and provides some capability to reload the gun if needed. This excellent article from Lucky Gunner explains the correct procedure for using this type of loader with a revolver.
Special thanks to the student for taking the time to write this up and share it.
Ammunition has become very expensive and scarce. We have reduced the number of rounds required for most classes, and will continue to offer many no-live-fire defensive skills courses. Taking classes with .22 caliber guns will be allowed, and dry firing is always a good way to maintain and develop skills. COVID restrictions are still in effect, limiting class sizes and mandating masks indoors.
UPCOMING CLASSES
Here are the classes we have scheduled with space available through end of March. Some weekends were left open to add more courses as students request them or to reschedule in case of weather-related cancellations.
Don’t see the class you want here? Let us know. Many classes can be taught as weekday private lessons, or we can add it to the schedule if there’s enough interest.
I’m offering the full NRA Basic Pistol instructor class Feb 1-3. This certifies you to teach the NRA Basic Pistol class, which is a pre-req for both the DPS License To Carry instructor course and the NRA’s CCW instructor class. A limited number of slots are still open in this course.
JOHN MURPHY CLASS IN MARCH
We are bringing national trainer John Murphy to KR Training in March, for his two day Street Encounters Skills and Tactics course. He has lowered the round count for this course to 250 rounds. Slots are still open.
REFRESHER SLOTS ARE HALF PRICE
Want to take a class you’ve taken before to keep your skills sharp? Refresher slots for most courses are half price!
DOUG GREIG CLASSES IN CONROE
Doug Greig will be offering classes on Saturdays at Thunder Gun Range in Conroe. Topics include Basic Rifle/Pistol, Intermediate Rifle/Pistol, Red Dot Pistol and more! His full schedule is here.
In early January I had the opportunity to play with national touring drummer Tom Brechtlein, who has recorded and toured with Robben Ford, Eric Johnson, and Chick Corea. Tom joined me and bassist Brian Lippman for a special show at the Third Floor Cantina in downtown Bryan (a venue where Tom and Robben Ford performed in the early 1990’s . We recorded the entire show live to multitrack, and Midnight Express lead singer Greg Patterson recorded a few video clips. I used the soundboard audio and Greg’s clips to make this video.
FOLLOW US ONLINE!
With the recent trend in Facebook and Twitter deplatforming and shadow banning firearms-related content, I strongly encourage you to subscribe to this blog, as direct email and blogging remain the best ways to get unfiltered, unsuppressed information. The link to subscribe is on the right hand side of every page of the blog, including this newsletter.
During the 1990’s, several schools, including InSights Training, Tactical Defense Institute (Ohio) and Modern Warrior (New York), began offering classes that integrated gun and unarmed skills. In 1998, KR Training hosted the 40 hour Close Quarters Confrontations class taught by InSights Training. It included sessions on groundfighting, standup defense, live fire drills, and several days of integrated work using the big padded suit. By the final day, drills involved one student wearing the suit (the trainer role) and one working the defender role. Here’s some vintage video and photos from that week in KR Training history:
Groundfighting pics
Standing
Live Fire
Some of the techniques and drills shown in these pics may look familiar to graduates of Shivworks’ ECQC courses. Both Paul Gomez and Craig Douglas (who co-developed the original ECQC classes in the early 2000’s) credited the InSights curriculum as an influence on their own curriculum, and KR Training hosted several of the early ECQC courses taught by Craig and Paul.
Each year at the start of summer I offer a small gun oriented defensive pistol class. The intent of the course is to provide an opportunity for people to practice with the smaller gun that is more convenient to carry in the hot weather. Use of pocket holsters, purses, fanny packs, and any other mode of carry that’s not a traditional belt holster is allowed and encouraged, since practice drawing from those methods is typically not allowed at commercial ranges and discouraged in other defensive pistol classes due to range safety concerns and the additional time/complexity associated with reholstering.
Part of the course includes shooting our 3 seconds or Less test (3SL) with both the small gun and a full size gun drawn from a belt holster, to measure the performance change (usually a loss) that occurs when switching from the larger gun to the smaller one.
Data from the 2019 and 2020 sessions
31 shooters
Small Guns: 2 DA/SA, 3 snub revolvers, and the rest were all striker fired polymer guns. The typical “small gun” was a single stack 9mm striker fired gun.
Large Guns: 4 single action (1911, CZ75 or Wilson EDCX9), one SIG 226, one CZ P01 fired DA/SA, one S&W Model 10-8, and a lot of striker fired polymer 9mm handguns.
Scoring: 5 points for each acceptable hit (20 hits possible, 100 pts possible). Earlier versions of the 3SL test shot on USPSA and IDPA targets awarded points for hits outside the 5 point zone. Current version is scored on a 5 or 0 basis.
Average small gun score: 69.17 out of 100 possible Average large gun score: 79.63 out of 100 possible
Performance loss from shooting the smaller gun: -10.4%
The best shooters in the classes dropped 5% or shot the same with their small guns; the worst dropped 30-50% more points with the smaller gun.
Students passing the 3SL test with 70% or higher score using their small gun: 19 of 31 (61% passed). Students passing the 3SL test with 70% or higher score using their primary gun: 24 of 31 (77% passed).
Students passing the 3SL test at the 90% level (desired) using their small gun: 3 of 31 (9.8% passed). Students passing the 3SL test at the 90% level using their primary gun: 12 of 31 (38.7% passed)
Historical average of the entire data set of 91 shooters:
Small Gun score: 74.9/100 Larger gun score: 83.5/100
The 2019-2020 classes included 11 shooters assessed as “low” skill level based on their primary gun scores, 11 assessed as “medium”, and 9 ranked “high”. All had Texas carry permits, carrying one or both of the guns they used for the course at various times during a typical year.
Looking at the historical data set, those in the “low” skill level (unable to pass the 3SL test with the primary gun), dropped an average of 3 points switching to the smaller gun, indicating a general lack of shooting skill regardless of which gun was used. The spread of points dropped ranged from +15 to -30, as a few shooters shot significantly better with their small gun than with their primary.
Those in the “medium” skill level (70-89 points on the 3SL test shot with their primary gun), dropped an average of 6.5 points switching to the smaller gun, with the spread ranging from +12 to -38.
Those in the high skill level (90+ points with primary gun) dropped an average of 7.8 points with differences ranging from +17 to -48.
Interpreting Data
The Three Seconds or Less (3SL) test was designed to define an acceptable minimum performance standard for concealed carry pistol shooters. I describe as a simple go/no-go assessment. If you can pass at 70% with a particular combination of gear, that configuration is probably OK to carry in public. Being able to shoot 90% means you are well prepared and not just “OK”. 90% on the 3SL test is roughly equal to IDPA Expert or USPSA B class skill.
64 of the 91 shooters using their small guns could pass at the 70% level. Only 16 of the 91 could pass at the 90% level.
79 of the 91 shooters using their primary guns could pass at the 70% level, with 37 of 91 passing at the 90% level.
The data shows what we already knew: smaller guns are harder to shoot. Those with lower skill level shoot poorly regardless of gear. Those at higher skill levels shoot higher overall scores, but drop more points on average when switching to the smaller gun. That’s a result different from what was observed in years past, with a smaller data set. More than half the shooters capable of shooting 90% with their primary gun couldn’t do it with the smaller gun (19 of 37).
Conclusions
It’s convenient to have a large and a small gun, used as weather and type of wardrobe dictates. It’s good to be able to shoot at least 70% on the 3SL test with both, better to be able to shoot 90% with both. Being able to shoot a 70% or a 90+% score with the primary gun and gear configuration does NOT guarantee that you’ll be able to do it with the small gun.
Small guns are harder to shoot fast and accurate, deep concealment carry methods slow down draw times — but violent attackers are not going to attack more slowly to compensate for the difficulties imposed by the gear you’ve chosen.
Try this:
Shoot the 3SL test from open carry with your primary gun.
Shoot the 3SL test from concealed carry with your primary gun. Assess the difference in score. More than likely draw time will be the problem, which means dry fire practice, changes to holster, cover garment and/or draw technique may be needed.
Shoot the 3SL test from open carry with your small gun. Identify which parts of the test need improvement, and work on those skills with the small gun.
Shoot the 3SL test from concealed carry with your small gun. Assess whether the concealment method and draw technique you are using needs changing. Or in some cases, accept that the wardrobe or other restrictions forcing you to carry in a way that has to be compensated for in other ways than changing carry method: being more cautious, reaching in your pocket to grip a pocket pistol earlier in a potential situation than you had in the past, giving yourself more space and time.
If you don’t measure it, you can’t manage it, as the saying goes.
