Quote:
April 15, 2013, 03:24 PM #2
sfmedic
Senior Member
Join Date: December 2, 2012
Location: Currently Erbil, Iraq
Posts: 105 All the time - shooting moving communicating is key to tactical marksmanship.
sprint and shoots are a whole other animal. once the shooter gets back to the firing line keep them moving - getting behind cover , moving in depth, linear lanes, barricade shooting, live fire obstacle course runs you name it.
its a bad bad bad habit to get into by standing on a static firing line all day punching paper. you miss all the tactical aspects that come into play during a real gunfight.
and its a problem if you can shoot stressed. Its not as easy as you think to do the following tasks while your gasping for breath
identifying and moving to cover
high wall negotiations
low wall negotiations
pieing corners
moving in L , T, X hallways
quick peeks
negotiating windows
shooting from the prone, kneeling
recovering from being knocked down and shooting
egress from a structure
shooting from vehicles
shooting from a seated position
shooting while covering another
weapons retention drills
weak hand/offhand/injured hand drills
mag changes on the move / from behind cover
moving in depth / linear movement
etc etc etc
IMHO too many people think that putting massive quantities of bullets through tiny little holes in paper prepares them for a real life street encounter.......
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This ^^^^^ gets my vote for the post of the year so far. Great advice that will seriously increase your abilities and confidence.
Nobody is "too skilled" that they don't need to keep training.
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, THE most fun I've ever had was all the training we did as assaulters. We had an old, 7 story tall abandoned hospital that was going to be torn down. We used it for almost an entire year. Our entry team would assault that building over and over, in many different ways and areas after the other group would set up targets in different places. And then visa-versa. ALL the shooting was with live ammo and it was something I'll never forget. We had to buy ammo on our own because we shot beyond what was allotted us for training. So worth it!
Everything that sfmedic posted was tried and tweeked there with the exception of shooting from vehicles. We would actually go up there off duty with our personal assault rifles and "search" the entire building just for practice. Actually shooting at doors, walls, etc really shows what's cover and what's just concealment. Most of what you'd encounter in an average home is just concealment.
Just one example....we set up steel targets outside a door way where a team would typically be stacked and ready to make a dynamic entry. Then we opened up from inside the room shooting thru the walls near the door and "ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting-ting". EVERYTHING we did was brain stormed for what worked, what didn't, what could be done better, etc.
So much better than just paper punching.
On the other hand, our 2 snipers loved what they did and had little desire to practice assaulting structures. And the guys going inside had very little desire to be sniper trained.
Too many great stories to ever be able to share. That was such an important part of my life and I'm very grateful that I was able to experience what we did. I'll always miss it.
I appreciate all the good suggestions and thoughts that were shared by so many in this thread. It's great to hear all the ways others keep their skills sharp.