Doing some dry fire work with my handgun and two things hit me… both taken from the Rangemaster Defensive Shotgun class I took a couple of months ago. My head, and how to make Rolling Thunder a better drill.
First, my head.
When I get into a shooting position, I always end up pushing my head out and down… sticking it out/forward and down. Why? I don’t know, but I do it and I know lots of other people do it too. Givens worked to get us to stop doing that: bring the shotgun up to your cheek. You ended up in a far better shooting position when you did. As well, it’s less movement, and less things to have to get in line to get a good sight picture and then a fast shot off.
I need to remember to stop doing that when I draw my handgun… any firearm really, but right now I’m working handgun and need to just not move my head… bring the gun up to my line of sight, not bring the gun up and my head down and try to have them meet somewhere.
To experiment, I did a bunch of dry press-outs, some with my head held normally, some with my head going out and down. No wonder I’ve had a dog of a time lately with getting my index… there’s just too much movement and things going on when the head also moves. With my head still my index and front-sight acquisition was exponentially better. *sigh* Live and learn.
Second, the Rolling Thunder drill.
I realized that we didn’t run that drill as well as we could have. The goal of the class was fundamental manipulations and keeping the gun running. Everyone was focused on being able to get their required number of shots off when it was their turn to go. If it came to someone’s turn and they weren’t ready to go, the person would continue to work to load the shotgun until they had all the shells in and then went. It shouldn’t have been that way. If it’s your turn to go, you should go in whatever state your shotgun is in, and if there weren’t enough shells at the time, then you just keep doing the speed reloads until you get there. So for instance, you are to do 4 shots but your turn comes and you’ve only got 2 in the gun (one in the chamber, one in the magazine). GO! Shoot the two you have, then load one through the ejection port, chamber and shoot, load another through the ejection port, chamber and shoot.
Why do it this way? IMHO, this would be an improved way to run the drill because it won’t just be about going when YOU want to go, it’ll be about going when you HAVE to go, which is more likely how a gunfight would go — you really don’t get to choose. That said, I would say the drill should first just be run without discussing this approach and see how people do it, likely they’re will be a long pause between shooters while “next shooter” finishes a complete reload before shooting. After everyone goes, bring up the topic about having to go when it’s time to go no matter what the state of things, but continuing to finish the fight, if you will. Both approaches to the drill are legit and both end up working a slightly different set of skills. I think what’s key is to raise the issue and sow the seed in people’s minds so they work to practice both ways and get the pressure of both approaches.
Stuff From Hsoi 
Want to cure the head movement (at least with a handgun)? Put a mirror on a safe wall – use a bathroom mirror (if it’s safe to point a gun at), or put one on a wall somewhere that you can safely use as a dry fire backstop. Put a target of some sort (preferably something small – a 1″ circle if you’re in a small bathroom, for instance) on the wall opposite the mirror. Stand facing the mirror, so that you’re in between the mirror and target, and so that you can see the target on the wall behind you in the mirror. Now, draw to the target’s reflection in the mirror.
What will happen is that if you move your head during the draw, you’ll very clearly see the whole room move in the mirror’s reflection. You can use this as immediate feedback for learning – slow down your draw and focus on keeping the room steady, and slowly work it back up. A few minutes of this a day should help avoid the issue in the future.
Your draw improves for two reasons – you touched on one, in that if your head is still, your body knows exactly how to present the gun to your line of sight with the gun’s sights aligned on target. This happens quickly without your body having to use a feedback loop mechanism to determine if the gun has arrived in your line of sight and is properly aligned or not. The second is that your brain doesn’t know the difference between your head moving and a moving target – it treats both the same, and initiates a feedback loop for that perceived movement, as well.
As for bringing a long gun up to my cheek, I’m still highly confused by that one… If I stand naturally, in the same stance I shoot a pistol from, it’s impossible for me to get a stock against my cheek, and still have it be touching my shoulder. I haven’t figured out how to do that without moving my head away from my pistol shooting stance. Being in that right stance (with head in the correct location) and then bringing the gun up – that I understand… but it’s a different stance than I shoot a pistol in… Maybe I’m just not smart enough to figure that one out 🙂
The mirror idea… I like that because yeah, any movement will be really exaggerated. I dig it. Thanx!
As for the long gun thing, it’s something that was introduced during the Rangemaster Defensive Shotgun that Tom Givens did @ KRT a couple months back. Now, I wouldn’t say it’s the same stance as pistol shooting — may or may not be, hard for us to really discuss this over a blog comment. But it’s more the same head-movement issue, of sticking the head down and out, coming down to meet the gun instead of keeping things still and bringing the gun up to the body/head/cheek.
Point is either way, I need to be more aware of my head “sinking” and stop it or make it as minimal as possible (or perhaps change gear… e.g. if the long-gun stock isn’t working, find another).