New Drill 2/7
So now that we are done arguing over what a high ready is, and we've had time to restock on hair gel, time for another basic drill. I'm factoring in that most people here aren't set up/overly experienced with combat/carbine shooting, and thats totally fine; its basically who I'm doing this for as the amount of PM's I've been getting the last few months asking about equipment, carrier and carbine setups as well as 'what do I do now' shows an interest in getting started/getting better.
I've also had alot of PMs with questions about doing the first drill (or others) and having issues. Ill try and give a broad answer here for all of you and maybe we can misuse some terminology and have
@Matches Malone jump out of a sock drawer or something.
Last week's 'Up Drill' is an extremely basic yet useful fundamental drill. Sure, a lot of the time you will not be in a position where the target will be right in-front of you while you have a 'perfect' stance and time to engage. Taking contact and going right into RTR, your initial firing at the enemy may basically end up being a pseudo sideways shouldered maneuver while running your ass to cover. However, just like with distance shooting or anything else, if you can't get this kind of stuff perfect under 'perfect' conditions, the random hard shit is just going to be a complete disaster. Additionally, the up drill may be something that in real usage, might be the, or one of the most common movements as you are at a low/high ready and then observe a target and have to engage. Just like with a sidearm, its great you can shoot groups, but what happens when you have to come out of the holster?
With that said, there is a ton of other stuff that comes after this like multiple targets, transitions, malfunctions, communicating and working as a fireteam/squad/larger element, fire and maneuver, and the list goes on. But if you can't bring your gun up and hit a target using proper technique faster than the average CoD player, none of that other shit really matters.
So, onto last weeks questions:
- Why is my carbine moving around all over the plate while firing /why do I come up on the target and I'm always way to the left/right/above it?
Most of this is because your stance/body position as well as how you are holding/where the stock is located are shit.
Step 1. Stop watching fucking youtube. Like, all of it.
It'll give you the impression that you are somehow supposed to get into some overly aggressive 'fighting stance' where your body/torso are all fucking angled to the target and have a footprint that is unnatural and slow to assume. Imagine walking down the road and then bumping contact only to have to take a few seconds to scramble your feet into that unnatural 'fighting stance' you are supposed to have instead of using what your body already does (you know, like keep itself balanced and upright all day?) and focus on basing your stance out of a normal walking stride and finding out where in that stride your strong side foot needs to end up further back behind your weak side foot while not having to tilt your body at all nor spreading your legs apart any further and keeping your head on/in-front of your weak side foot placement without leaning forward. Now bring the gun up (assuming you're holding it right) and slightly adjust the forward/back distance of your strong side foot until your NPOA is on target. That's your basic stance. Youtube just exploded.
I look like you caught me midstep when standing still.
Step 2. Stop muscling the shit out of the grip on the carbine.
We're not getting into the push/pull or whatever grip conversation. However, other than flinching and smashing the trigger, the biggest way to totally fuck yourself while shooting is to deathgrip the pistol grip on the carbine. Not only will you death grip it at different strength levels and angles, you'll also start to loosen/tighten it as you shoot causing even more stupid shit to happen. Personally I grip the foreend well and control where the gun goes from up front, yet take the slack out of the system with my firing hand, which should primarily be used to fire the weapon and not grip the shit out of things. Your grip both fore and aft should remain the same, from the first round until the last. See if this is the case, if not, make it something to remember during practice.
Step 3. Stop firing the gun because you want to be fast, but you're not even on the target.
I've seen it a billion times. Guy hurries up to present the rifle, pulls the trigger and blows it 2 feet to the side. Why? He wanted to go fast and be the first to get a round out. You can't miss fast enough. There is a difference between returning fire during RTR and making a valid effort to hit a target during a drill, so we'll only focus on the drill aspect here. But why get a 1.1 second shot out only to miss and probably move the red dot/reticle somewhere further off target because your stance probably sucks only to take another 1-2 seconds to get back on target until you can settle and fire again? When instead you could have taken an extra .5-1 seconds and corrected your shot well enough to make a hit AND have the red dot/reticle recoil onto/near the target in less time, even though you didn't have the first round out?
You also want to make a training habit of for every 1 shot, there are 2 sight pictures. 1 before the round, 1 after. Even if its a 1 shot drill, you want to get on target, shoot, properly manage the recoil and have it be on/near the target and then get right back on target for that 2nd shot if needed, rather than training yourself to fire 1 shot and be done. Then take that further and give a good look in your immediate peripheral vision (over the RDS/scope) for any additional targets while still having the gun up or in a low/high ready. And no, I'm not talking about that theatrical youtube shit; the trick here is to eventually put it together to where you're on your target, engage, target is down, observe new target and/or move while observing for new targets.
Go home and put a paster on the wall somewhere. Practice the up drill from a low ready at home in your underwear. Or put on your carrier and learn what does/doesnt work.
- Why am I shooting at a target at 50y? Why can't I shoot at one at 7 yards, its the same thing right?
No. It's not.
However, you are more than free to shoot at shit at 7 yards, and hell, there are a ton of classes out there that will take your $350 to instruct you on how to destroy a paper target at <10 yards the entire day.
There's multiple reasons for this (some good) but most of them are centered around the fact that less students will feel awesome when trying to hit shit at 50 yards, because they wont.
Shooting at a full size IPSC /A zone target at 7 yards will generally have everyone hitting it somewhere between the shoulders - usually, unless you literally shouldn't even be allowed to hold a gun. That 'hit' on the cardboard at 7 yards is a foot to the right at 50. You suck and you should know this. Even if its A zone only centered training, the big training difference is that reduced target at 50y makes your aim that much more finite and adds time to your entire process. The view of a 40% IPSC plate at 50y is if I remember right (correct me if I'm wrong) something like what the torso would look like on a human at like 200y. I'd take being fast and coming up and rocking a guy at 200y from a low ready/no ready position than being able to knock out the A box on a paper target at 7 yards.
The next evolution of the up drill is to continue doing the drill for faster, yet consistent times. Then start putting 2 rounds downrange (both hits). Regardless, even if firing one round, gun up, sight picture on target, round out, recoil, sight picture back/stays on target.
- I got a malfunction/something went wrong on the drill otherwise I would have had a faster time.
Um, ok? You do know you can do this more than once, right?
Roll with it.
You need to get it in your mind, that EVERY drill you do, if you get a malfunction or something stupid happens like you didn't load a round (laps and/or pushups as punishment) or you don't perform the way you want to when the buzzer goes off and you end up snagging your sling on something - keep fucking going. Learn to work through it. Learn to not let it bother you. Fine, your par time goes to shit; but being able to do an IAD without thinking about it, fix the problem and continue like it was supposed to happen is far better than whatever time you otherwise would have had.
Start having practice rules with yourself and your practice buddies. Someone stops and fucks around with a stoppage, pushups. Crazy ass flinch? Go do some flutter kicks. Someone forgets to load a round and has an empty chamber on a drill, laps. Slowest time, burpees. And your gear/carbine are always on you from the time you begin to the time you end for the day.
So new drill.
Nothing earth shattering or 'new' but the modified version of the 6/6/6 or El Diablo drill that when we did it was instead at 50 yards and referred to as the 'Navy Qual'. The standard drill was 6 rounds from standing, kneeling, prone with a reload between each on a IPSC paper target. Only hits in the A zone counted and everything had to be completed in no more than 18 seconds. Going over the time or a single miss = fail.
This drill once again starts with an 'up drill' and then really seeks to exploit your recoil management as you are not just going to be able to get off 1 lucky shot that results in a hit, yet total shit recoil management. Add in 2 mag and position changes (as well as the possibility of malfunctions) while having to utilize a chest rig or rig of some sort, and this is a good introduction to stress induced practice. This will also make you want to practice the individual positions as you will see where your weaknesses really eat up your time.
For the 'Navy Qual'
- 40% IPSC at 50 yards
- Load 3 magazines each with 6 rounds (theres also versions where there are 3 mags but all have a unknown amount in them that add up to 18)
- You can also cut the rounds to 3/3/3 or whatever and scale the cutoff time in relation to it if you're not wanting to shoot 18 rounds per go around
- Begin at the low ready with a loaded gun. The first mag will be in this gun already.
- Fire 6 rounds.
- Reload
- Fire 6 rounds from whatever kneeling position you utilize
- Reload
- Fire 6 rounds from the prone
Pass is 100% hits, under the 18 second time. Fail is anything else.
You can also do this drill at night, but the prone portion was removed unless you wanted to do some weird supine or rice paddy prone bullshit.
