Combat Mindset & Self Defense #3

This is the third installment of my combat mindset and self defense posting. In this posting I will cover different shooting drills and situations where each one will be useful.

The first drill that we are going to cover is the controlled pair. Basically what this drill comprises of is two shots with two separate sight pictures. What this means is simply that you aim and fire your first shot then recover from the recoil and aim and fire your second shot. This drill is useful for making multiple accurate hits usually at an extended distance such as down a hallway, or across a larger room, or at a small exposed portion of a target. This drill typically takes approximately 1.5-2 seconds to fire. This drill is useful as a drill to get you used to quickly aiming and firing your weapon, and builds upon the next drill which is called the hammer pair. This drill should sound like “tap pause tap”

The hammer pair, also known as the double tap, is simply aiming once and squeezing the trigger twice rapidly. What you want with this drill is for both you your shots to impact within two to three inches of each other in less than one second in order to facilitate what is known as hydrostatic shock. To explain what this is, picture having a bucket full of water that you drop a single rock into. The ripples move out from the point of impact and hit the walls of the bucket and bounce back. Now picture dropping two stones into the bucket rapidly and the ripples cross and disturb the whole surface of the water violently. This is what happens when two rounds simultaneously impact close together in the human body as the human body consists of 80% water. It causes massive trauma, and with a lighter caliber pistol, this is often necessary to provide the instant incapacitation desired to end the assault upon your person.  This drill takes a lot of practice to be able to accurately and effectively engage with this at anything beyond very close range. Another note on this drill, the heavier the recoil with your pistol the harder it will be to perform a tight drill. This drill should sound like this “taptap”

The failure to stop drill, also known as simply the failure drill or Mozambique drill, consists of a hammer pair to the chest and a single shot to the head or pelvic area as quickly as can be performed in 1.5-2 sec. It should sound like “taptap pause tap” which is the hammer pair to the chest followed up with a second sight picture for the headshot. This drill is just a follow on to the previous hammer pair drill and you would perform this drill if the target that you engaged did not stop, hence the name for this drill. This drill is relatively hard to do on a moving target, however an easy way to do it is to simply ride the recoil up and squeeze the trigger for your third shot as your sights cross the throat area of your target.

My personal favorite is the box drill and is used for multiple target engagement. Multiple target engagement is when you are confronted by one or more hostile targets and you begin engaging them in order of greatest threat.  You fire a hammer pair to the chest of each target and then a head shot to the last target then working your way back over the targets reassessing and reengaging as necessary. Start with only two targets and practice the hammer pairs then headshots. It should sound like this “taptap pause taptap pause tap pause tap”. A total of 6 shots for 2 targets. If you use a revolver realize that you will be empty at this point and need to reload.