Practical Firearms Training
Vehicle Based Incidents Course
Owner: Pat Goodale
Instructors: Rob Tackett, Bart Baker, Travis Sullivan, Wayne Fisher
The average American spends countless hours in vehicles. Between commuting to work, running errands or taking the family on vacation, we spend a bunch of time behind the wheel. How many of us incorporate that reality into our training though?
The Vehicle Based Incidents course is designed to do just that. The course took place on 18 Aug 2013 at PFT’s home range in Alderson, WV. The class is designed to touch on all aspects of deadly physical threats that may present themselves while you are making your way to, entering/exiting, or driving your vehicle.
The course started out with a lecture portion. Topics covered included common characteristics and locations for various types of incidents. Everything from best practices for dealing with parking lots and ATM’s to violent carjackings. This information was pulled from open source and law enforcement sources give students a working knowledge of criminal trends from across the country.
Other topics included the MO of suspects, characteristics of various vehicles, a primer on various laws in local states, and even how best to handle a traffic stop by law enforcement while carrying concealed.
From there we hit the range. First was a warm-up and a quick refresher on some pertinent skills. These included off angle and off axis shooting, and drawing from a seated position.
Other skills included firing from supine and other unorthodox positions.
With that out of the way, we fired up the vehicles.
Students got a chance to run numerous different drills, each of which had a particular learning objective. As with most of our classes, PFT used it’s qualified cadre of instructors to run the drills in simultaneous splits. This means students get to run far more drills than would be possible with only a single instructor. It also means more shooting and learning with less time standing around.
First up was getting shooters used to maximizing the room available inside a vehicle to most effectively make shots and control recoil.
While each drill offered its own unique problems to tackle, there were a few constants. One was strict adherence to muzzle awareness. Another was a reminder that threats will most often present themselves from awkward angles to the shooter. It is a simple fact that muggers, kidnappers, carjackers and just about any other criminal wants to use surprise to their advantage. Thus, students were forced to engage targets at some extreme angles.
Drills included engaging close range threats out of every window on the vehicle. Next up was how to safely and quickly engage a target to the rear of the vehicle while a 3D target simulated a passenger. Having a threat appear from behind your car in the middle of the night with your wife riding shotgun is not the time to figure out the best course of action.
Students then got a chance to see how their carry/duty ammo performed in some real world situations. One of which was engaging targets through a vehicle windshield.
Next up was a primer on skipping rounds off of concrete and vehicle body parts such as hoods or trunk lids and how this pertains to using a vehicle as cover.
After that, students went right back into the cars. The next two drills showcased just how close attacks will generally take place. One simulated being attacked from behind and pushed into your vehicle during a violent assault. The student had to bring their weapon into the fight and engage the threat located at their door.
The next drill moved even closer. A lot of modern vehicles will automatically unlock the doors when it is placed in park. Thieves and carjackers are taking advantage of this knowledge. As such, the next drill simulated a violent attacker jumping into your passenger seat. Without time to exit the vehicle, you have to take what you can get for a shot while shooting from a seated retention position. This often meant starting with shots to the legs and working your way up.
This took place while another group of students had a chance to work on drills that forced them to think about another bit of reality. While traveling with friends or family, you may be the only armed person. How do you safely maneuver around them to address the threat? One drill simulated working around a passenger while the next simulated an unarmed driver.
After roughly 8 hours and 250 rounds, the day was over. Most shooters walked away with a smile on their face and all had learned something about the dynamics involved with fighting around a vehicle. If you are interested in this course or any others, be sure to check out the schedule on the PFT website. Also, keep an eye out for the Advanced Vehicle Based Incidents course that should be announced shortly.
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