John Holschen is an instructor with Insights Training Center. John just posted to the Center’s mailing list his “recipe for personal defense preparation”

1. Get a handgun you will carry and can shoot well, in a caliber you can handle, fill it with cartridges that go “bang” every time you pull the trigger launching a hollow point bullet that reliably expands. (Gear/ingredient selection is done. The ingredients are in the refrigerator and/or cupboard. Now you have to make something with them.)
2. Get safety, gun-handling, marksmanship, and mindset training
3. Practice to develop proficiency.
4. Have the gun at hand when you need it.
5. Get tactics training (force-on-force)
6. Practice to develop proficiency.
7. Have the gun at hand when you need it.
8. Practice to maintain proficiency.
9. Have the gun at hand when you need it.

SouthNarc has a concept called Managing Unknown Contacts, or MUC for short.  I’ve written about MUC before, and you can learn some about it in his DVD’s.

As I was leaving the local indoor gun range, I had a MUC situation. Here’s the diagram:

The red block is the range building. The blue block is my car, parked nose in. Brown block is a large pickup truck. Green circle is a tree, and the black lines at the bottom is the edge of the road.

I came out of the range and went to put my stuff in the trunk of my car. I was standing at the X. As I was putting things into the trunk I was going to re-situate a few things in the bag when I caught out of my left eye a guy approaching me. He was still far enough off but it was evident his path of travel was no longer along the road but was branching off to come up to me. Hands were in his coat pocket, but that’s not too out of the question as it’s very cold outside. As soon as I noticed this I stopped caring about fiddling with stuff, slammed the trunk shut then moved along the arrow, towards the driver’s door. My intent was to just get in the car and go…. the guy was far enough off that I could do that.

Or so I thought.

As soon as I slammed the trunk and turned around the guy yelled out to me. I couldn’t make out what he said but it did sound like he was asking for directions. It caused me enough to pause just long enough that he was closer and so all I could do was wheel around. Hands went up into a fence position and I moved so I could get a better view of things. Unfortunately the movement was limited because now I was between the truck and my car. He repeated himself, asking where exactly the post office was. I can understand that as it’s a little non-obvious. But I kept my distance, kept my left hand up in a fence and proceeded to tell him as briefly and concisely as I could where to go (i.e. keep the interaction short). I noticed tho… my right hand went down to my belt. Reason was I had my car keys in my hand and it was my intention to put them back into my pants pocket, but for some reason I didn’t and for some reason my hand stayed at my waist. I did catch the guy noticing that, and that probably wasn’t too bad a thing as it’s evident I’m leaving a gun range and of course I was carrying. He seemed satisfied with directions and left.

I think overall I handled the situation alright, but one thing I did not like was how I moved. I ended up between the truck and my car, which put me into a funnel. If he had a buddy, he could have easily hid on the other side of the truck (it was a huge pickup) and came around the front of the truck and I’d be sandwiched in. Of course, this was a natural path of travel… at the time I was attempting avoidance, plus any other movement would have looked odd. Upon reflection I probably should have just stayed at my trunk or in that vicinity. The car would be at my back and I’d have more movement and visual options.

In the end, I’m just glad the MUC training kicked in. Awareness was the most important thing. Fence went up and so guy kept his distance. I see places to refine and improve, and hopefully you can learn something from my experience as well.

I read about Bob S. ringing in the new year with some range time. Seeing his targets reminded me of something I’ve wanted to post about for some time.

Ignore the X-ring.

Here’s a B-27 target:

(target images courtesy of pistoleer.com)

Note that it attempts to be vaguely human shaped, then a traditional bullseye set of rings is placed over it. So what do people tend to do? Aim for and shoot out that X-ring. It makes sense. It’s very traditionally target-like; we like to “hit the bullseye”; and when you consider this is the target used on shooting tests like the Texas CHL shooting test, you want to ensure you pass and score well so you aim for the X.

What’s the trouble with this?

On an actual human, there’s nothing vital behind the X.

If you are shooting at targets like this because you’re working on your bullseye shooting skills, that’s one thing. If you are shooting at targets like this because you are training for self-defense shooting skills, then shooting at the X is the wrong place to shoot. When SHTF you will descend to your lowest point of training, and if you’ve trained/conditioned yourself to shoot at the solar plexus well, it’s still going to suck to get shot there but it won’t be as effective as hitting your attacker in the vitals.

Let’s look at the TXPT target:

This was the original target used in the TX CHL shooting test and is much more accurate in terms of vitals placement. I don’t know why Texas changed the target.

Where do you want to aim?

(image found via Google Search, but you can see it’s owned by Plasticboy Anatomy Models)

Vertically between the tracheal notch and the solar plexus. Horizontally between the nipples. Some say to make a triangle connecting the tracheal notch and the nipples and aim within the triangle. Some say when you put your front sight on the target, the top edge of your sights should be in line with the armpits. However you choose to index, the bottom line is to know anatomy, where the heart and lungs are as that’s where you’re going for. That’s why I chose the above image, because it shows the exterior structure (armpits, nipples, etc.) as well as internal structure, so you can see how everything on the inside lines up with everything on the outside. Thus when you are using any sort of “realistic” target, your point of aim should be over the vitals, even if it means you’re not aiming at the printed target’s designated bullseye.

Thus if you’re using a B-27 target, aim at the target where the upper “8” and “9” are printed.

I’ve written in the past about choosing a defensive handgun. Courtesy of James Rummel I’m directed to this short but fine write-up on selecting a defensive handgun.

A summary of points:

Caliber is important but not that important

Caliber matters, but only so much. All pistol rounds suck about the same, so it’s generally better to pick the one you can shoot best. One that when shooting you can control and get fast, accurate hits.

Gun Fit

The gun must fit you. KR Training has one of the best write-ups about this topic, and I consider Karl’s article a must-read before buying a gun.

Small Guns Are Expert Guns

That’s the phrasing of the article author, and while I wouldn’t necessarily state it the same way, he is right that a small gun should not be a newbie’s first choice. I made that mistake. My goal was for concealed carry, so I made “carry-ability” and “conceal-ability” a primary concern in my gun selection. It was a mistake because those guns are harder to shoot. If you’re learning how to shoot, it’s not wise to start with something hard to use. Better is to get a full-sized or near-full-sized (e.g. “service” model) gun and learn with that. A gun that allows you to get all of your hand on the grip (especially that pinky) leads to increased controlability. A bigger gun is a heavier gun, which will be more managable to shoot. A gun with a longer barrel means a longer sight radius and thus you’ll aim better and get more accurate hits.

If you are well-versed in handgun shooting, you can move on to a smaller gun. If you’re just starting out, do yourself a favor and start out with a larger-sized gun. Get your skills. Then you can purchase a smaller gun for carry. If money is an issue, don’t forget you can always sell the larger gun to help finance purchasing the smaller gun.

Reliability

A gun that doesn’t go bang when you need it to is useless.

Granted, all mechanical things can and will fail, but do yourself right in selecting a gun that has minimal chance of that. Do some homework before you buy.

Final Thought

The article said it best:

Whatever you get, invest in quality self defense instruction, and practice!

This just came in via the Rangemaster mailing list.

Student Involved Incident #51

Monday evening, at 10:40pm, we had the 51st  self defense incident involving a Rangemaster student that we know of. This one occurred in an upscale area in the Southeast part of the county, just outside the Memphis city limits.

The male resident had just arrived home, exited his car, and was walking up the sidewalk to his home when he was accosted by two armed robbery suspects. A struggle ensued, during which the homeowner was shot in the thigh by one of the suspects. The homeowner’s wife was at the front door to greet her husband, and saw the attack. She ran upstairs, got her handgun, opened the bedroom window and engaged the suspects with several shots from the window. She hit one suspect, and both fled.

The homeowner was taken to a local hospital and treated. About 1:00am, police received a call from Delta Medical Hospital on Getwell about a male with a gunshot wound. He was positively identified by the victim as one of the robbers, and was arrested and transferred to the jail unit at the Med. The second suspect was still at large at the time of the police report.

Comments:

1. Both the homeowner and his wife have been through training here. The wife’s ability to engage the suspects likely saved her husband’s life. Had she not intervened he probably would have been shot more.

2. The victim owns several businesses, including a couple of convenience stores in Hickory Hill. It appears he was followed home, and possibly deliberately targeted on the theory that he would be carrying the store’s cash. Be alert, and as you draw near your home or other destination, check your rear view mirrors! If you have made some turns and the same vehicle is right behind you, don’t go home.

3. Practice! Not all defensive shootings involve a suspect a few feet away. In this instance, the wife had to shoot past her husband from the second floor window, without hitting him.

Point #3 is something I touched upon in my recent article about XS Sights. You just don’t know and cannot predict what a self-defense situation is going to be like. Odds may say it’s likely to go in some particular way, but wouldn’t it just be your luck that you get to be the statistical anomaly?  It’s one big reason I stopped using the XS Sights and got better sights (Dawson Precision). It’s also a reason that we need to practice things we may not always think or want to practice, like shooting groups at 25 yards.

The KR Training December 2009 Newsletter is posted.

Many classes coming up. I’m trying to figure out which ones I’m going to help with and which ones I’m going to take.

This is cool, but it’d be nice if it was a real RSS feed.

One of the best parts of the newsletter? 21 things a burglar won’t tell you:

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