You Must Train With Your Firearm!

[WillBrink]

Last night I was sitting with my boys in their bed room before they fell asleep. The wind blew a door closed that they left open and it sounded so much like someone entered the house that my Lab went barreling downstairs growling. I sprinted to my room and grabbed my M&p 9c from my bedroom safe and thought I correctly seated a mag loaded with hollow points. The mag did not seat correctly and I couldn't chamber a round. It took about 5 minutes to understand that a full mag on a new gun needs to be fully seated using far more pressure than i did. Bottom line was my firearm was useless and had an intruder entered, I couldn't defend my children.

I wad raised around firearms and have hunted for over 40 years. I've been stranded in the Alaska wilderness on multiple occasions, charged by grizzly bears, killed moose and caribou above the arctic circle on self guided hunts with my best friend. I'm no stranger to challenges.

But when it came to self defense at a time when seconds might have meant the difference for myself and my children, all of my life experience didn't prepare me for that moment.

Bottom line is if you here reading and taking advantage of the wealth of information provided, make sure you get excellent training with the defensive firearms you purchase. All of your life experience my not serve you well. Drop me off in the wilderness and I'm at home. I felt sick last night with an inoperable weapon, not knowing what to do next. I'm sitting with my boys right now as they fall asleep. I won't let this happen again.

Thanks to everyone here at M4 for all of the info you provide. I'm going to make sure that I am fully capable of protecting the most important part my life. My amazing sons.

Well, you learned a lesson under the best possible circumstances that being "raised around guns" has no bearing on a specific skill set needed.

[12SERIES]

Well, you learned a lesson under the best possible circumstances that being "raised around guns" has no bearing on a specific skill set needed.

Absolutely. That's what I want to communicate here. Two completely different world's here. You can drop me into about any wilderness area in North America and I'll be fine. Man I failed the lesson of the other night and I can't believe it. I understand why and need to grab some humility and get some training.

[Supergyro]

Wow! I'm glad to hear that you and yours are safe. It's also great that you're taking an "episode" like this and using it to learn the limitations of your current defense paradigm and to figure out how to improve it.
Fantastic and thought provoking thread.

Sent from my SCH-I500

[WillBrink]

Absolutely. That's what I want to communicate here. Two completely different world's here. You can drop me into about any wilderness area in North America and I'll be fine. Man I failed the lesson of the other night and I can't believe it. I understand why and need to grab some humility and get some training.

I have spoken to many who purchased a new handgun for example and when I asked what (if any) training they had and what (if any) training schedule they had, a common response was what you started above: they had been around guns their entire lives, hunted, etc. Sure, they are probably ahead of the curve of say those who have no experience with firearms, but being proficient with a handgun for SD/HD/CCW is a very different skill set than say hunting, or plinking with your buds, etc. I was invited to go shoot skeet recently. And having grown up around guns, done some formal training (though I would benefit from FAR more truth be told), some competing in IDPA, regular range trips, etc, I totally sucked at skeet as I expected. I was under no illusions any of my prior training or experiences would translate to skeet, and it didn't. Again, I probably learned a tad faster than others with no fire arms experience to be sure, but it was a very different skill set from what I'm used to doing.

It's a totally false sense of security to think otherwise.

[Chameleox]

Man I failed the lesson of the other night and I can't believe it. I understand why and need to grab some humility and get some training.

"Failure" is some times relative. Yeah, if this were live, the cost could have been high. You recognized that. Having said that, you identified a deficiency in your training and home security plan, and now you're working to fix it. A "lightbulb moment"? Sure. Has learning occurred? Definitely. But, unlike others, you might get another chance, so to speak.

[madisonsfinest]

if mag springs are new, and you don't shoot the gun much, you might be better off going down a round.

[12SERIES]

"Failure" is some times relative. Yeah, if this were live, the cost could have been high. You recognized that. Having said that, you identified a deficiency in your training and home security plan, and now you're working to fix it. A "lightbulb moment"? Sure. Has learning occurred? Definitely. But, unlike others, you might get another chance, so to speak.

You're right in that I learned the lesson and that isn't a failure so to speak. I'll never forget the fear in my boys eyes and the horrible feeling I had inside for several minutes asking myself how I was going to protect us with an inoperable weapon. I am going to be hard on myself for that one for a long time. Can't tell you how glad I am that it happened.

[jmoore]

It is interesting how these intruder "sounds" sometimes occur - triggering our tactical response:)

In my case - a suction cup bath mat that had been "suckered" to the shower stall wall dried out and fell off. It caught a couple of mostly-full shampoo bottles on the way down - and all of this reverberated in the one-piece fiberglass shower stall. The LOUD noise came from a part of the house that had no door, so my immediate thoughts centered on someone coming in through the window (played that game before, a few decades back:) Needless to say – the problem was “solved” after cutting several pies to get back to that part of the house where I cornered the interloper in the bathroom! (And all rounds expended were center-of-mass on the bath mat:)

John

PS – Just kiddin, of course:)

[TAZ]

Sorry to hear that you had a bad day so to speak, but you learned something very important so it's not a loss by any stretch of the imagination.

I've found that seating a full mag on a closed slide is a PITA on a lot of guns. This is doubly true on new or lightly used mags. Springs just aren't broken in or in some extreme cases the magazine isnt designed for a +1 arrangement. Potential solutions to your dilemma are to download 1 round and understand that you're only going to have 16 available. This is what I did with my wife's MP9.

You could also try to leave a loaded mag in place for a time while you're around and see if it alleviates the issue.

[bzdog]

While you may not trust the safe, no reason you can't have the firearm securely concealed on your person, properly with round in chamber, while at home (or always, depending on CCW laws where you live).

I agree you should practice and train, and I feel you should also vet all your equipment including ammunition, mags, etc. In other words, don't practice with one ammunition then switch to defense ammo you've never fired.

-john