Last night, I spent three hours shooting in the dark. The goals: to shoot test my new JP-15LE rifle, test my low-light mounting solution (a SureFire X300 mounted at twelve o’clock on the top rail) and get some trigger time in complete darkness. To say I learned some valuable lessons from conducting this session would…
Physical skills cannot be learned well by reading a book or watching a video; they need to be physically practiced. We firearms instructors would like you to do three practice sessions of 200 rounds each week working on various marksmanship, movement, and tactical drills. However, that’s not a realistic expectation. Most people, myself included, live…
What is the real reason we should train to use only one hand to manipulate and shoot the firearm? Lots of people might say, “Because it is common to get shot in one of your extremities and lose the use of one hand.” While I agree, and the statistics confirm this to an extent, over…
It is important to integrate a lowered center of gravity into your training regimen as it is one of the most common reactions to being scared and/or startled. The reason for this survival reaction is that it prepares us to move. In fact, if we try to integrate lateral movement into our presentation quickly when…
Revolver shooters tend to be a pretty smug lot when it comes to dealing with malfunctions, enjoying the reality that serious revolver malfunctions are fairly rare. When severe malfunctions do happen, however, they usually take the gun out of commission. The usual prescription to “stroke the trigger again” doesn’t solve these unusual problems, and most…
Close Ready Close Ready is a pistol ready position that places the handgun just below the visual plane and close to the torso. The elbows are down and tight to the sides of the torso, and the muzzle can be seen with the lower periphery of vision. Close Ready can be utilized as a Movement…
HOW I LEARNED TO LOVE THE WHEELGUN I’m sure you’ve heard it before: someone asks, “Which is better: revolver or autoloader?” Everyone chimes in that revolvers are more reliable and simpler to operate. Over and over again. Yadda yadda yadda. Related PDN Video: Getting Started Shooting a Revolver Those things are generally true, but there…
An attribute is defined as a quality, character, characteristic, or property belonging to a person, thing, or group. In this article I’d like to discuss the essential attributes of the combative shooter, as I see them. Note I do not list accuracy or speed in my list of shooting attributes. While these are certainly desirable…
As we launch the Personal Defense Network, we realize that a huge portion of you are going to be interested in firearms training for defensive use. As I looked over the dozens of topics that I expect to be covered here in the coming years, it was not easy to pick the most important ones.…