Oregon Shooter

Gun Game Traps

Posted: December 05, 2008 | Last Updated: June 06, 2009

You see for me, shooting a gun fast and accurately had more meaning than beating a clock.

I first started in the Shooting Sports via USPSA at a local club here in Medford, Oregon.  It was the first time I had done anything like it and previously had only shot Bullseye style, which made sense considering my shooting mentor (Tom Claytor) was an accomplished Bullseye shooter at the national level.

Unlike the accuracy goal of Bullseye shooting USPSA or IPSC as we call it even though we shoot under USPSA rules, the goal seemed to be how fast you could place hits good or not on a target at usually a close range between 1-15 yards with the occasional 15-25 yard shot thrown in.

Now exactly what your impression of IPSC is can be greatly biased by how the local group runs their matches and what kind of stages they favor, so the above is likely not a complete picture of what to expect at an IPSC match.

My club preferred to and still does set up high round count (25-30ish) stages that favor “run and gun” tactics to win.  In IPSC the way to be competitive at the local club level is to shoot fast, run fast, and accept accuracy loss for speed. Speed carries the day on the average IPSC stage and the often repeated mantra “you are shooting too slow” is heard when anyone is not getting C-zone hits mixed in with their A-zone hits.

I bought into the game lock stock and barrel because let’s face it, running and shooting like a wild man is fun!

I got me the fastest “holster” I could find, basically a hook to hang the gun on since its only point of contact was the trigger guard.  I bought Safariland angled mag pouches made of Kydex, enough to wrap my whole left side in reloads. I bought books and DVD’s on how to shave time and move up in rank by using tricks of the trade.

Then right as I was ready to devote hours and hours of practice towards those specific “tricks” I started going to shooting schools that focused on making hits count.  This is best summed up with their mantra of “only hits count!”

You see for me, shooting a gun fast and accurately had more meaning than beating a clock.  I carry a gun daily as an insurance policy to protect myself and those around me, and while I’ll never regret having learned the gun handling skills that competition has given me, I have started to regret falling in to the trap of “gaming” and have let unwanted methodology slip into my training by putting my competitive drive ahead of sound tactics.

Now that I’ve been to a few high end classes on self-defense with a handgun, I’ve started looking at the games a little different and have vowed to change my ways for good this time.  I say this time because I have before gone back to IPSC and IDPA with the intent of being tactically sound, but soon fell into the time trap because my ego just couldn’t handle being beat by a lesser shooter using the tricks in the sport to gain time advantages.

The difference is that this time I’m not shooting against a clock. My stages will be full of time additions whenever tactics are called for, but not required by the stage designer or the rule books.  To make it easier on the score keepers, I ask for a “no score” run when ever “poor” stage design requires me to violate the designers intent in order not to practice poor tactics.

The opposite of “perfect practice makes perfect” is just as true IMO and the more you do something in practice the more likely you are to do it without though on the street in a self-defense situation.

IDPA was created (as legend tells it) to break away from IPSC and the trap of speed over tactics.  Unfortunately, IDPA is growing more and more like its big brother every year, at least in my part of the woods.

So what are the traps that I’m talking about you might ask? How can you use IDPA matches to practice sound gun handling skills and good tactics?

Below is a list of things that I see on a regular basis at local matches and even our State match for that matter. Some are easily corrected by the shooter, some are not possible to correct without taking penalties under current IDPA rules.  I’ll throw them down and let you decide if you are guilty of them or think that it’s not an issue.

IDPA stage example:
Starting position was seated at a table with a “purse” on it and a 5-shot revolver loaded inside it.  Idea was that it was your wife’s gun and you had left yours at home (uh-huh). Bad guy approaches table and needs shooting.  Target is across the 3ft table and ALL eleven shooters in the match picked up the gun and fired point blank into the target in a specified one-handed stance with all of them extending the gun to within 1ft of the target.

What’s wrong?
A person poking a handgun into the BG’s chest is in grave danger of having that gun taken away or at least the direction deflected which in the real world can result in an innocent being shot.  It also give the BG a chance to take a semi-automatic out of battery so that it won’t fire simply by grabbing the slide.

Shooting from a retention position makes a lot more sense here.  Since it was a one handed shot and he was with in reach, why not grab the target or block with an elbow, or cover your head from a right hook while shooting form a “high two?” At the very least, shoot from retention at this close of a distance!

Penalty for doing right...
Only hits in the upper chest A-zone would keep you in the game score wise, and a retentive shooting position such as the high two would put impacting bullets in the bottom of the target or lower where a man with legs instead of the cardboard would receive hits.

The RO would likely rule it unsafe gun handling since your arm will likely be farther forward than your muzzle, although with training and reps you know from experience that you are not going to shoot yourself because of a locked in retention position.  Unfortunately the majority of IDPA shooters have no clue what shooting from retention is and see nothing wrong with the prescribed scenario. Too bad.

How many times have you seen guys give a wink to this important tactic?  Slicing the pie is a sloooooow process when you have time and it’s still slow when you are in a hurry. If there was a camera (I’m going to try talking my club into using one) on the other side of that corner and the technique was done correctly, it would not see anything but a muzzle and an eyeball until the shot was fired.

Too many times people run around the corner because they know where the next target is.  IDPA has strict rules against “air gunning” where you pre-plan the stage and figure all the angles before shooting it like in IPSC, but in reality they are just doing it without pointing a finger at the targets.  I ask you, “This is better in what way?”

Because “blind” stages take so long to setup, run, and require mucho visual barriers, it’s a rare day to see one in IDPA.  I can understand this, since I’ve set up my fair share of stages and realize it’s very labor intensive.  Just because we know where the targets are does not mean we should throw sound tactics out like slicing the pie and maintaining cover though.

Cover (according to IDPA rules) is basically “less than 50% of the upper body exposed or any part of the legs/feet.” That leaves a whole lot of body exposed! Again, the BG should only see a gun and an eyeball here, but rarely is the case at a match.

Real world...
Keep as much of you as you can behind cover!  Cover is your friend.

You are likely a better shot than an untrained BG, but with gang members doing military service and getting war experience this is likely to change some.  Do not assume your assailant is stupid, weak, or untrained ever!

Most times IDPA rules prohibit reloads between when moving from cover to the next shooting area.  Not always though. If there are no more exposed targets that have not been engaged, you can move down hallways, across doors, windows, etc. and reload on the way or once you arrive at the next set of targets.  You “know” there are no more targets because you saw this on the walk through of the stage.

Real world...
If you have to leave cover, make sure you are loaded up to the max capacity that your gun will handle.  You may not find cover again and hiding behind a wall of bullets is your best bet in such a case. The more bullets you have in the gun, the higher the wall!

IDPA allows 3 reloads. Many have their opinion on which are worth learning and I’ve gone back and forth on the matter myself, but the tactical issue we should focus on is where we are doing them from.

If you are not behind cover, get there if you can. A full sprint is a hard to hit target for anyone but an advanced shooter and it’s a lot better than standing still trying to reload, even if you can do one in less than 1 second!  It’s also a lot better than trying to run to cover and reload at the same time. Your brain/body can not multi-task better than it can single-task, period!

How often do you see a shooter look for cover when they are at slide-lock and there are still targets to engage?  That .98 second reload may seem fast when no one is shooting back, but I bet it would feel like eternity in a real gun fight with bullets coming up range.  When you consider that an untrained person can pull the trigger at .50 sec splits and an experienced one at .10 -.15 sec, that equals a few too many rounds coming down range while you our exposed and reloading.  Granted cover, is not always there. 

If you are not thinking “where is my last or next point of cover” before the shooting starts you will be just as exposed while you look for it.

Rule #1 don’t get shot.  Rule #2 shoot BG.  In that order…

Backing up while shooting is fraught with danger in the real world.  There are several techniques that have been proven effective though and in use today by many Police and SWAT teams.  My experience with it is very limited from a Police point of view, but I was taught by the department I worked with that “obstacles happen!” If you have no other choice but to back up while shooting, the last thing you want to do is trip over a toy on the floor or fall off a curb, etc.

To prevent this, the “moon walk” or “slide step” were invented.  The moon walk looks exactly like what you are thinking, Michael Jackson style.  The slide step is simply sliding the (usually the strong side) leg back a step then catching up with the forward foot while never losing contact with the ground.

Both maintain at least two points of contact with the ground, keeping ones self from shooting off a one-legged stance and from tripping over and object that you would have stepped on if you just back peddled picking up your feet.

Again, rarely do I see this in IDPA because of the extra time it takes.  I mean you already know the path behind you is cleared now don’t you?

After the stage has been shot, most shooters do nothing in the means of an after action drill.

Practice as you expect to fight! Practice as you expect to fight! Practice as you expect to fight!

The purpose of the after action drill is to make sure that all BGs are dealt with, that none of their buddies are trying to sneak up on you, that you are not hit anywhere, and that you are topped off and ready to go again if need be.

How often do you see a shooter in the competitive shooting sports perform this properly?

Since IDPA/IPSC do not allow a “hot” gun to be reholstered (ruling out a tactical reload), we must skip this step, but there are many parts of the after action drill that can be practiced on each stage.  You don’t have to “race to the holster!”

After you are done shooting you can still scan the area with your gun, look over your shoulders for a possible bogie, and reholster in a reverse draw stroke to get more reps in.  On the street you would also seek cover and perform a reload.

It’s also a chance to practice clearing your gun.  Many shooters rely on the RO to tell them their gun has been cleared and not long ago the wording changed for RO’s in IDPA to correct this by asking “if your gun is clear?  You may drop the slide, etc.”

Too often we tend to just look into the chamber and then drop the slide.  A better way is to look, feel for a mag in the well, feel for a bullet in the chamber and then drop the slide.  The extra step seems bothersome, but our minds have a way of seeing what we expect to see, and this physical check can wake us up to the fact that a mag might have been left in the well, avoiding a negligent discharge.

Those are the biggest issues I see on a regular basis at matches.  If you are guilty of them, change!

Don’t think that “it’s a game and I’ll react differently in a real fight.” You likely will not.

You likely with not “rise to you expectations, but fall back to your training.” Make sure that training is tactically sound at all times.

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