"When I have your wounded." -- Major Charles L. Kelly, callsign "Dustoff", refusing to acknowledge that an L.Z. was too hot, moments before being killed by a single shot, July 1st, 1964.
Black Lives Matter. All confederate symbols and monuments need to go.
Proud to live in a sanctuary city.
Last edited by Jammer Six; 12-18-18 at 22:30.
"When I have your wounded." -- Major Charles L. Kelly, callsign "Dustoff", refusing to acknowledge that an L.Z. was too hot, moments before being killed by a single shot, July 1st, 1964.
Black Lives Matter. All confederate symbols and monuments need to go.
Proud to live in a sanctuary city.
One thing that was pointed out to me by Tom Givens at TacCon a few years ago re: gamers. They care about tenths of seconds here or there because they really add up during a match. Is there REALLY a big different between a 1.3 draw to first shot hit in the A zone at 7 yds vs. the same hit in 1.0 second? On the street, not really. But in a match of 6-10 stages, with a draw for each stage, that might add up to 1.8-3.0 seconds, which can mean the difference between 1st place and 6th place.
This is not to say that competition does not have a place. Givens himself was involved early in IDPA (his number is like 000008 or something like that), only that one must recognize what that "place" is. As an audit of skills, it's decent for what it is. But anything like USPSA or IDPA that has "rules" is, by definition, a game.
I recently had a friend of mine watch me shoot a local IDPA match. I happened to have a bad day, but that's immaterial to this discussion. He's an ex-mil and ex-intel guy, a true "sharp end of the spear", been-there, done-that guy, now (mostly) retired. His advice to me, afterwards, was, and I quote: "Gunfighting isn't anything like shooting a match......until it is." He said that ANYTHING that has you thinking with a gun in your hand is good practice for the real thing. Something to think about.
Absolutely... and you use the same body position to reload the M4 and you save your brain's RAM for other things. Plus, holding a 6+ pound rifle leveled out at a berm, whether real or imaginary, while reloading would suck.
We call that "ballroom shooting" as opposed to "gunfighting". Some of the guys at work who shoot the tightest groups on paper lose gunfights when the UTM bolts get swapped in. Punching pretty holes on paper doesn't apply the same pressure as shooting at someone trying to shoot you back. I'm looking at joining a local range next year that does IDPA matches. I've talked with guys that shoot there and heard things like there's no real need to turn on the dot in their pistol's RDS because they are just squeezing the trigger the moment the backer is seen through the glass and I've seen the results on their backers. I've also shot with them in a IDPA type set-up (non-competition) and seen them crowd their cover something fierce and all I picture is that poor Dallas Transit Cop getting flanked around the pole by that turd a few years ago. There is a "happy medium" of losing some speed for sound tactics and I'll have no problems staying humble while "losing" and trying to speed up my high-center chest hits while still using good tactics even if they beat me in the actual competition.
Anyway... sorry to contribute to the derail.
A take-away from the article for me that I didn't see mentioned already: Moving my CCW's reload from my front pocket to my back pocket. When training from my concealed set-up, I tend to move toward cover/ concealment while reloading instead of just standing still. I've never had the easiest time pulling my magazine from my front pocket because of the movement of my thigh when running like a bitch.. err, in a tactically-sound manner... I would imagine that some of this would be mitigated by having my mag in my back pocket. Thanks for that... going to give it a whirl.
Gabe is an excellent fellow. Very nice to chat with in person, and he worked very, very hard to get where he is. He's also the only person to shoot a perfect score at the Rogers School from concealment, with his regular carry gear.
So he probably knows a bit about how to run a pistol efficiently and safely. Bill Rogers and his crew do not allow safety violators to stick around very long.
Hey Guys, I Have to ask because I don't know what the term "gamers" is you're talking about, is some computer game or are you talking about Paint ball-Air Soft stuff?
I have enjoyed reading ALL of your thoughts!
I was going to say sorry but what the Heyyy... If You don't know, you don't know...
TIA
"Gamers" is often used as a term of derision to refer to those who are involved heavily in the various shooting sport disciplines out there, and there are a lot, such as IDPA, steel plate shooting, three-gun competitions, etc. etc. etc.
Of course we all know the true masters of the craft of tactical and combative use of firearms are those dedicated warriors who practice their craft in front of large flat-screen high-def televisions playing Call of Duty: Black Ops. These are the Tier One Gamers.
Bookmarks