This morning I was able to listen to Ballistic Radio episode 129 (Sep. 13, 2015), with guest Tom Givens of Rangemaster. Any chance I can hear (and learn) from Tom, I always take because there’s always something to learn. This episode was no different, and I encourage you to listen to it.
The episode hit home on a personal level, but that’s not what I want to talk about.
Tom mentioned the phrase “unintended hits”. I’m not sure if Tom was referring to my phrase “unacceptable hits“, but I came up with that phrase shortly after taking Tom’s Combative Pistol 2 class about 5 years ago.
After that class I wrote a lot of things, and I revisited them this morning. So, take a few minutes and walk down memory lane. Learn from my learnings.
- Rangemaster’s Combative Pistol 2 AAR (Oct. 2015)
- It
- First Shot
- The Grip
- The Ready
- Practice (Ballistic Masturbation)
- Training to Averages
- Shooting Things
- Hitting Things
- Fixing a Double-Feed
In re-reading them this morning, most things remain true and unchanged. In fact, having 5 more years of experience since I wrote those things, I’d say those things were reinforced more now than ever.
A few comments.
First, I forgot about the way to get more “unexpected” reload practice:
Do you have magazines that hold a lot of ammo? Instead of loading your mags all the way full, load them somewhere less than full and to random amounts. You do that, you’ll get a lot more practice on your reloads.
Second, I’d make a larger point about “averages vs. typical“. Tom makes a constant point about “typical” (not “average”) and while it seems like a nit-picky point, it’s a crucial differentiation, and I should have expanded further on the notion of “typical”. Averages are useful, but remember that “mean” is only one type of “average” (there’s also median and mode, range matters too); averages tell a part of the story. Thus it’s really more important to look at what is “typical”. Check out the podcast.
The articles are short, but informative. Read them. Again.
Stuff From Hsoi 