Every “fitness guru” I’ve ever talked to – those folks being people who make a living from fitness in some way – agree that there are a couple basic items you need to focus on to maintain a good overall fitness level.  They include:

• Cardiovascular health
• Strength
• Flexibility

Of course, it’s also important to keep your weight relatively proportionate to your height.  I know there are plenty of standards out there about what is “obese” and what’s “overweight,” etc.  There are military standards for maximum allowable weight as calculated based on gender, height and age.  What’s rarely discussed is that the military weight standard is a guideline that isn’t fixed in stone.  It can be easily waivered provided the individual who measures overweight can demonstrate a sufficient fitness level and acceptable levels of body fat.  THAT is the overall goal of the height/weight standard: to insure the individual is maintaining a HEALTHY body weight, meaning they are over the weight limits purely due to the fat content of their body.  So the military height and weight standards are a good place to start but should not be considered absolute.

That recognized, let’s recognize this as well: body building is not performance fitness.  Sure, body builders may have a great physique and they may be strong as compared to the average person, but how well does all that muscle perform in the long term?  What most people don’t realize is that body builders are at their weakest point when they compete and their body fat levels would be called unhealthy by many doctors.

The human body NEEDS fat to be healthy.  We need it not only in our diet (to some extent) but we need to have it making up a portion of our body.  While it’s true that a body fat content of 25% is unhealthy, it’s equally true that a body fat content of 5% can be equally unhealthy. Why?  Because fat is our natural shock absorber AND it’s where we store extra water.  I’m like plenty of other people in that I don’t like to retain water (which occurs any time your sodium intake goes up enough) BUT I recognize that an appropriate level of fat is a good thing.  So, what’s “appropriate?”

It is generally accepted that a body fat percentage (for men) under 8% is unhealthy while a “healthy” fat percentage is between 8-19%.  For women a body fat percentage under 21% is considered “underfat” with a healthy fat percentage running between 21-33%.  Those numbers look drastically different between genders but they readily demonstrate what all of us inherently know: There are big differences between gender physiologies.  Again, these numbers are not etched in stone and what one doctor says is healthy, another doctor may disagree with.

Body fat chart for men showing BLUE as underfat, GREEN as healthy, YELLOW as of concern and RED as unhealthy. Same color scheme/code for the women’s chart below.

Once you have your height and weight proportionate and your body fat in a decent range, what else do you need to worry about?  Oh, yeah… those three things we listed above: cardiovascular health, strength and flexibility.

What does each body fat percentage actually look like? What’s your goal?

Cardiovascular health is often compared to or equated with endurance levels.  Most people assume that if you can run ten miles then your cardiovascular system must be in great shape.  That’s not necessarily true – as is demonstrated by the number of people who have heart attacks while they’re exercising and those who have heart attacks while they’re just sitting still.  Cardiovascular health is a combination of maintaining your system in a relatively “clean” and healthy fashion while also exercising it to maintain function.

Keeping your cardiovascular system “clean” means keeping your whole body clean internally.  It means eating healthy, limiting junk foods, excessively fatty foods and contaminants such as tobacco, alcohol or other toxins.  It means drinking enough water each day.  It means breathing enough fresh air (do you have any idea how many toxins you inhale on a city street each day?).  As you maintain your system in a clean fashion, you also need to exercise it to strengthen or maintain it.

Your heart is like any other muscles in your body: if you want it to get stronger, you have to exercise it.  If you neglect exercising it, you risk having it cramp or fail upon exertion.  You exercise your heart by exerting your body, thereby creating a demand for greater blood flow.  This also works your lungs/respiratory system by creating a greater demand for oxygen.  The question that comes to mind is: how fast do you want your heart to beat when you exercise to get optimal increases in performance?

To figure out your target heart rate for exercise you start by identifying what your maximum heart rate is.  To find out, subtract your age from 226 (for men) or 220 (for women).  That is the number you don’t want to reach.  It identifies the heart beat rate at which your heart is operating at maximum levels and you risk it failing.  Your target is to get your heart at 50% (if you’re just starting out) or 75% (if you’re already in great shape).  SIDE NOTE: for optimal FAT burning exercise, aim for 65%.

So, as an example: a 50 year old man wants to do some cardio exercise.  He finds out his maximum heart rate is 176 (226-50).  He’s just start out so he aims for 88 as his target heart rate.  As he gets in better and better shape he ups that percentage.  A year later he’s aiming for that 75% number but his maximum heart rate has dropped to 175, so now his target is 75% of 175 or 131 beats per minute.

As an example based on experience to help put that into perspective, I’m in my late forties and do regular cardio exercise.  I target that 65% range of my maximum on purpose I’m currently trying to lower my body fat percentage.  Doing the math, my target heart rate for exercise is 115 beats per minute.  Although that’s my goal I often catch myself getting my heart rate up to about 125 or 130 beats per minute.  That’s up closer to 72-73% of my maximum.  Even so, and although I do work up a good sweat over the course of an hour, I can maintain that exertion level for two hours or more without feeling overly fatigued. In other words, this isn’t hard – you just have to invest the time and effort.

With your cardiovascular system being maintained in a clean and healthy fashion, you need to also work on your strength and flexibility.  Often the exercises we do to increase our strength serve to decrease our flexibility.  As we perform resistance exercise – any exercise that uses weight to work the muscles in a repetitive fashion – we tear the muscle tissue down so it can rebuild stronger.  The rebuilding causes the muscles to tighten and become more rigid.  Stretching exercises are important so that you don’t stress the muscles to the point of injury and so you can maintain a healthy level of limberness.  What is a “healthy level?”

While I’m not sure that can be quantified, I can give you an example of how being flexible saved a man from injury.  The gentleman I’m thinking about is a lifelong Tae Kwon Do practitioner.  He stretches as part of his martial arts practice and teachings and he does so at least six days each week.  This man was in a head-on car collision resulting in his body being impacted by the steering wheel, the seat belt, the air bag, and various other parts of the car around him.  The collision occurred when he was traveling approximately 40 miles per hour and the car that ran into him was traveling in excess of 60 miles per hour.  That’s a closure rate of, and impact occurring at, over 100 miles per hour.  The man walked away with a sprained wrist.  Every other joint in his body that was impacted was flexible enough to bend without injury.

Take that story and relate it to an activity that is commonly associated with survival: hiking.  How many times do people sprain an ankle when they turn their foot on a loose stone? Or trip over an unseen root? Or simply miss their footing and end up putting their weight down wrong?  The more flexible ankle receives less injury from such events.  So the flexible man doesn’t slow down his family or team in travel.  The guy whose never done anything to maintain his flexibility either sprains or breaks his ankle causing everyone he is with to have to slow down.

Now, let’s revisit strength.  Each of us has our own level of it.  Each of us has to operate within our own limitations.  You can increase your strength levels, as discussed, with exercise.  To do so you can lift weights, perform calisthenics, etc.  Any exercise that works a muscle group in a repetitive NON-impact fashion (like hammering or punching) will help the muscle grow without risk of injury.  That’s not to say that hammering or punching won’t increase the strength of muscles used in those tasks; I’m simply recognizing that punching risks injury to the hand and wrist while hammering risks injury to the hand, wrist and bones/joints of both.

To be “survival fit” you must attain a sufficient fitness level to be able to perform all day each and every task you can reasonably assume you’ll have to in a given emergency situation.  That may mean walking all day or it may mean walking all day with your fully loaded backpack on.  It may mean chopping wood for a couple hours.  It may mean hunting, cleaning, butchering and preparing food.  Whatever YOU anticipate your survival actions to be, insure that your fitness level will support them.

The differences that exist between Competition shooting and Combat shooting are not vast, but they are significant. One is about points and trophies; the other about life and death. This was on my mind as I drove home from the National Police Memorial service on Sunday, May 15th. I had heard a few officers discussing shooting skills and one of them observed that his scores had never been better since he had taken some lessons from a well-known competitive shooter. One of his friends observed that while the first officer’s range scores may have gone up, he seemed to take more hits now in force-on-force training.

That’s a bad thing. As I thought about it I realized that much of the training I’ve participated in recently has seemingly revolved around shooting skills using Competition tactics. The preferred stance is obviously very stable and stationary. It was James Yeager who I heard say, “Immobile targets ventilate easily.” That’s why he espouses “get off the X” and why his forum of that name has done so well. Combat shooters recognize the need to not stand still; to not be stationary while engaging targets.

That realization makes me wonder just how important it is to combat shooters that the stance we use be a perfect one of competition quality. Let’s be realistic: when bullets start flying you are NOT going to stand still – and if you do you won’t be standing for long.

Yes, we want to be able to put multiple shots into a space as small as possible on the target. We want that space to equate to lethal / quickly disabling hits on the target. We’d dearly love for our shot placement to be equal of the world’s best competition shooters but we cannot emulate them in their stance and it’s a small miracle if we emulate their breath control. Everyone I’ve ever seen or talked to after a shooting has been near hyper-ventilating. Respiratory control? Not something they were thinking about when they were dodging bullets and launching projectiles back at the bad guy.

So I think the end goal is for us (combatants) to understand that YES it is wonderful to clear a plate rack as fast as possible using as few bullets as possible and YES such exercises are wonderful for enhancing our tempo and speed of shooting and YES it’s good to strive for a 5-shot 1-hole group every time, BUT… and that’s a really BIG BUT… when bullets are flying back, everything we’ve learned about how to put bullets into a target as quickly as possible has to be applied as we make sure we don’t get hit by return bullets.

In the end the ugly truth and important lesson is this: no matter how perfect your stance, grip, site alignment, sight picture, breath control, trigger press and follow through are, if your target is moving and shooting back and your immobile, you’ll likely not emerge victorious – or even unscathed (hopefully not dead).

“Immobile targets ventilate easily. Get off the X! – James Yeager

OR

“Motionless Operators Ventilate Easily.” (MOVE) – Tom Perroni of ccjatraining.com

Remember that when you’re practicing. When you feel you’ve mastered your shooting technique and you can put out those micro-sized groups and you can clear that plate rack and drop those poppers… try doing it on the move. Competition is one thing; combat completely different.

For those of you who don’t know me, I’ve been in the military or law enforcement for 28 years. I’ve been a weapons instructor for 23, 8 years of which was spent as the Chief Instructor of the Passaic County, NJ Police Academy. I’ve taught thousands of cops, soldiers and civilians to shoot. I’ve trained under most of the top guys in the country and have a PhD in Criminal Justice Education. Most importantly, I’ve been involved in several shootings personally.

I mention all this for one reason only, even after all of this, I still don’t have the answer! What I can do is share my experiences and give you some facts from my research. (I would be glad to provide details to anyone who asks.) You can never get enough training, knowledge or experience!

First, about my two shootings. I am a Modified Weaver shooter; use my front sight if at all possible, carry a 1911 and dry fire almost every day. In short, I live and breathe this stuff 24 / 7. The first shooting I was involved in was against a burglary suspect that was trying to kill me. The distance was about twenty yards. My partner said I stood in a perfect Weaver stance, with the gun at eye level. I remember clearly seeing the orange insert on my front sight. I fired 2 quick, sighted shots from my 1911 (NOT a double tap). Both rounds impacted about 2″ apart, center of mass. End of story! For me, with all the training and practice I’ve had, at that distance, SIGHTED fire saved my life.

The problem with all the statistics and percentages are we don’t have all the facts. Numbers of shootings at XXX yards, etc. doesn’t tell us if the shots hit or missed. Most stats come from the F.B.I. Uniform Crime Reports and their Officers Killed Summaries. That “Officers KILLED” which, most of the time means that whatever they did DIDN’T WORK. In the 60′s and 70′s when point shooting was the rage, 80% to 90% of the shots fired by NYPD cops MISSED! No matter what the distance. One officer I know of shot 6 rounds at a suspect, point shooting, at 5 feet and missed every time. The suspect ran to about 15 yards, turned and fired at the cops again. The cop remembered what he had been taught at the academy about looking at the front sight, aimed, fired once and killed his attacker. This was a rookie with minimal training and only a few months on the job.

In my second shooting, I was confronted with a 12-gauge pump shotgun, pointed at me from about 12 feet by a deranged subject. With no time to spare, I raised my pistol to eye level, used a flash sight picture (basically just buried the front sight center of mass) and double tapped. The two 230 grain Hydra-Shoks from my .45 entered about 1 inch part. This time the distance was close, the time frame was hyper-quick, but seeing my front sight, even if only briefly, assured two solid hits, ending the engagement instantly.

To answer the question about how much training does it take to be able to use your sights under stress… The answer is a lot, but how much do you want to live??? It’s worth the time and effort. For years in the basic program at the Police Academy, recruits got 40 hours of firearms training. I would say that is the MINIMUM to learn and develop acceptable skills with a handgun for a professional. That means training under a good instructor, not just practice on you own. A civilian can probably get by with a 2 or 3 day course to start with, but I would highly recommend additional training when practical. Today, most progressive agencies conduct quarterly training.

Again, I think that is the minimum. When I worked the street full time, I dry fired every day and shot once a week. Top notch Special Response Teams spend 25% of their time training. That works out to about 40 hours per month! My recommendation to my students is to dry fire at least twice a week and if at all possible to get to the range a minimum of once a month.

Point shooting, in real gunfights, whatever the distance, just doesn’t have a good track record. Yes, it seems to be what people with little or no training do under stress. That doesn’t mean it will work. When you take a close look at a lot of actual shootings and their details, one thing becomes VERY CLEAR…

You stand a better change of hitting your target if you look at your front sight!

Does this mean always using your sights? NO. It means that you are more likely to survive if you can, but often the circumstances, time and distance, don’t permit using your sights. Therefore, you MUST have some other options.

Here is one possible solution that I and many others have used for a number of years. Most of the tops schools – police, military and civilian, teach something similar. It has been PROVEN, time and again in actual shootings. It is based on a couple of fundamental principals…

1.) USUALLY time and distance are proportional in a gunfight. That means that the more distance involved, the more time that you have and the more time that you need to hit your target. (Also, the greater the distance, the more you need your sights.) Obviously there are exceptions.

2.) Regardless of the circumstances, you are more likely to hit your target if you use your sights. It doesn’t matter if you are a cop or civilian; highly or poorly trained; shoot yearly or daily; the fact is sights help you hit what you’re aiming at. (Also, the LESS you train, the MORE you need your sights.)

3.) Holding a handgun at arms length, even if it’s not at eye level, when you are at contact distances with your opponent is asking to have your gun deflexed or taken away. In extremely close quarters, you must protect your sidearm.

4.) Distance is your friend! By increasing the distance between you and your adversary, you up the odds of survival in your favor. Movement in general and moving away from your opponent in particular, make you a harder target for him to hit.

5.) Cover (not just concealment) is your Best Friend! Movement is good, distance is better, and cover is best. Cover means something that will stop incoming rounds. However, anything that you can put between you and them is better than nothing.

This being said, here is a basic explanation of the system. With proper training, diligent practice and the right mindset, it is the best set of tools for the job.

I will use, as an example, a situation that begins at contact distance and moves to greater distances. This will serve to illustrate all the shooting positions.

At contact distance (arms length):

* Defend with your weak arm or push away from your opponent, as the situation requires.

* At the same time, draw and if needed, fire, using a gun retention or “speed rock” position.

As you begin to increase the distance (a yard or two):

* Transition to a two hand hold and begin raise the gun to eye level.

* If need be, at this short distance, you can fire from a point shooting position.

Continue to move away and hopefully toward cover (about 3 to 7 yards):

* As the distance increases and the gun comes up to eye level, use a flash sight picture by placing the front sight center of available mass. No need to worry about the rear sight yet.

*Continue to fire, if necessary. Keep moving.

As the distance increases and you take cover:

* Assess the situation. If you have not stopped your antagonist, consider why not? Are you missing? Slow down – front sight, press the trigger… Are you hitting but he’s not going down do to drugs, body armor, poor shot placement, etc? Slow down, consider shooting for the central nervous system – front sight, press the trigger…

* At this point (medium distance), proper use of BOTH sights becomes critical. Remember the basics, sight alignment, breath control, trigger squeeze…

If the distance increases more or you are using low cover:

* Switch to the Roll-Over Prone position.

* Maintain effective use of cover, focus on the front sight and press the trigger.

Keep in mind that throughout this or any deadly force encounter you should:

* Be giving loud, simple verbal commands (STOP! STAY AWAY! DROP THE KNIFE!)

* Adjust your use of force (Force Continuum) as the situation changes.

* Reload as needed, as soon as there is a break in the action, hopefully from cover.

* Scan, to look for other subjects, break tunnel vision, etc. “Check Six!”

I use this example only to shown how your shooting position needs to change as the distance / time changes. Is it a lot to learn and practice – YES! Is it worth the effort – MOST DEFINATELY!

One drill that can be used to practice this system goes something like this…

Start at arms length from your target. Block or strike with your weak hand as you draw and fire 2 rounds (double tap) from a gun retention or “speed rock” position.

As you take a step or two to the rear, switch to a point shooting type position and fire a couple of more rounds.

Continue to move rearward, raising the gun to eye level. Flash sight picture… front sight center of mass… several more rounds… keep moving…

Somewhere in the mid-range distances (I don’t like fixed distances on the range – they’re not on the street.) take cover, reload, assess and fire a few more rounds…

Transition to a Roll-Over Prone position and fire a few more rounds… Scan, reload… End of exercise.

In the beginning you would practice this VERY slowly. Fire, then move, stop, fire, move again, etc. As you progress, the tempo increases. Done properly by an experienced shooter, this entire drill flows as one continuous, fluid exercise.

Having developed a selection of tactical tools in the form of several properly trained and regularly practiced shooting styles or positions is the ONLY real way to maximize your survivability. In short, if at all possible, look at the front sight and press the trigger. I’m alive today because I did exactly that!

Leonard M. Breure

lmbreure@centurytel.net

Before we get into the AAR process let’s make sure we’re all on the same page in understanding Boyd’s Decision Making Cycle also commonly referred to as “OODA Loops”. The OODA – observe, orient, decide, act – is constantly repeated as every action we perform changes our environment initiating a new cycle. This on-going looping of decision making is foundational. As we briefly go through each step in the cycle and then discuss repetitive cycles I’ll explain more about what I mean by “foundational”.

A long time ago, when I was about ten years old, my father, my uncle and I were laying a brick patio in my parents’ back yard. It had been previously done by a commercial company that my father had hired but every time it rained we’d end up with serious puddles. It wasn’t anywhere near level. So, my father called upon my uncle – who was a brick mason from the “old world” (Italy) and together we all did it again. We tore the whole thing up, set up new retaining walls and spent a lot of time measuring whether or not the sand base was level. When my uncle laid the very first brick my father said to me, “Just remember: life is like laying these bricks. If the first one is off then every one after that is off.” That was foundational theory in practice.

So, let’s look at the OODA Loop, with the support of the graphic below, and understand how each step has to be performed correctly or the follow-on steps are going to be less than efficient.

OBSERVE: This is the first and most important step. Most of us who work in a uniform are all too aware of the fact that we must remain alert at all times. Why is that? It’s really quite simple. Think about every successful attack plan you’ve ever formulated and the large majority of them involve using the advantage of surprise. If YOU are the one being surprised then your time to react appropriately is severely reduced. This compressed time frame forces you to cycle through your OODA Loops that much faster – often with the result that they aren’t efficient in the outcome; you make inappropriate decisions leading to unsuccessful actions. So we remain ALERT and we OBSERVE our surroundings.

Based on the information we have taken in through all five of our senses (as applicable) we ORIENT ourselves within that environment. How we orient ourselves can usually be identified by answering one simple question: How does all of this apply to ME? Remember this and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. As selfish as it sounds the following statement is 100% true for everyone: Everything you observe in the world gets oriented as it applies only to YOU. YOU are the center of your universe. That’s just how reality is. Here’s the challenge though: If your observations were inaccurate or incomplete then you are orienting yourself only partially or, at best, inaccurately to your surroundings and the unfolding situation. Your observation must be as accurate and complete as you can make it. It’s just like shooting a weapon: small mistakes at the back end makes for large mistakes 100 yards away and even larger mistakes 1000 yards away. Minor mistakes during the observation phase can potentially make huge problems when you reach the action phase. This is another example of foundational theory in practice.

Having observed your surroundings and oriented yourself within them you need to DECIDE what you’re going to do. An example is when you’re driving and you’ve reached a stop sign. You’ve stopped and looked in every important direction, observing other traffic. You’ve oriented yourself to what you observe and now you need to decide: are you waiting? or are you proceeding? That is a very basic example but one that is easily understood. The kicker here is that if you observed incompletely therefore orienting yourself inappropriately, chances are good that your decision won’t be the correct one. For instance, if you don’t look carefully around that bush on the corner and you don’t see the car coming up the road (incomplete observation) then your orientation is going to be a feeling of safety to proceed, leading you to a decision to proceed. That’s a bad decision in the given example.

Once you’ve made a decision based on your observation and orientation then you ACT on that decision. In the example given above you take your foot off the break, step on the gas and start to move through the intersection. This is an example of acting on a bad decision based on orienting yourself to information gained through poor observation. See how they all depend on each other? If the OBSERVATION phase isn’t as correct and thorough as possible then everything following it will be, at best, inefficient; at worst it can be plain dangerous or disasterous. The good news is that even as we ACT we are restarting another OODA Loop so as our vehicle inches up and we see that car coming we accellerate through another loop: we observe a car coming, orient ourselves to it as presenting a dangerous circumstance if we proceed, decide to stop as fast as we can and then act by jamming on the breaks. As soon as we have we start another loop and so on.

Now let’s apply all of that to conflict situations and training.

There are many ways to train for increasing your performance in conflict situations but, in general, the closest thing you’re going to get to the “real deal” is some type of force-on-force training using paintball, simunitions or airsoft munitions. The use of these training tools, due to the threat of a pain penalty when you make mistakes, can stimulate your sympathetic nervous system thereby helping you learn lessons at a subconscious level. That’s actually a good thing. The other good thing – but something that is challenging during the AAR period – is that the compressed time frames that exist in conflict situations (this applies to force-on-force scenarios) inspire you to make decisions subconsciously as well. Since the decision is SUBconscious you never are consciously aware of it and therefore can’t articulate it after the fact. Nor can you usually articulate WHY you did it. That you performed an action is not arguable. Good trainers have it on video and can point at it and say, “See? You did that. No denying it.” You performed an action. Why? That’s the answer you need to give, most especially if the action was incorrect. That usually means that the first three parts of the OODA Loop leading to the action were incorrect at some point. THAT is the mistake that needs to be identified and corrected or the action will never change.

So, the next time you have enjoyed a day of force-on-force training, pick the scenario that you were least happy with in the end. What I mean is to pick the one that ended in the way you didn’t like… weren’t satisfied with… took too many hits on… etc. Just pick the one you’d like to most improve. Then sit back, get out a piece of paper and two other resources:

1. A print out of the OODA Loop as shown above, and
2. A print out of your agency’s Use of Force diagram / graphic, etc.

You need those two items to refer to as you ask yourself the following questions about each step in the OODA process:

OBSERVE:

1. What did I see upon entering the scenario?
2. What did I hear upon entering the scenario?
3. What did I feel upon entering the scenario? (this is tactile touch; not emotion)
4. What did I smell upon entering the scenario?
5. What did I taste upon entering the scenario?

Yes, I know. The last two about smell and taste aren’t often asked or even discussed. However, I hold them to be quite important. Some smells are clear signs of potentially dangerous situations and we can readily identify them if we pay attention. Some examples of such smells are natural gas, cordite (you smell it at the range all the time), gasoline, etc. Some smells are so strong that you “taste” them. As you inhale the aroma and it passes down the back of your throat if it is strong enough you can taste it. Anyone who has ever encountered a five-day old corpse inside a closed hot apartment knows exactly what I’m talking about.

After asking yourself those five questions, and writing down your answers, ask this for each one you had any response for: Did what I saw, heard, felt, smelled or tasted cause me any concern? In other words, did any of the sensory input you received make you feel threatened or as if you needed to be more on guard?

How you answer that question determines how you ORIENTED yourself to what you observed. But examine your orientation and decide whether the level of cautiousness you exercised from that point forward was sufficient, insufficient or proper.

Based on your ORIENTATION you made some DECISION. If you’re not sure what decision you made because things happened so fast, there are two ways to find out. The first one is better for the learning process so let’s examine it first. Pull out those two reference papers: Boyd’s (expanded) OODA Loop and your Use of Force graphic. With those two references re-examine the sensory input you have listed. A few things should happen:

1. You should remember and start writing down MORE sensory data that you hadn’t recalled but are now clearly remembering thanks to the memory prompts you’ll experience in the reference materails, and
2. You’ll see where your orientation placed you within your Use of Force guidelines.
3. You may see why certain bits of sensory data affected you in particular ways as you examine, on the expanded OODA Loop, the various inputs that are personal to YOU and would affect how each piece of sensory data aftected you differently from others on the scene. It’s important that you be able to articulate that. It’s called LIFE EXPERIENCE and it affects how all of us interpret the data we get in.

After you’ve done that you should have even more detail in your OBSERVE and ORIENT steps written down AND you should be able to clearly see where you came to a decision and what that decision was. Be careful: It’s easy to identify a decision you made which STARTED a course of action and then simply stop your analysis to assume that the entire course of action was your decision. It wasn’t. The first step – your FIRST action – was what you decided to do. It’s also the second way to identify the decision if the above process didn’t work. Whatever decision you made was displayed in your ACTION.

Based on the information you have detailed and written down in your OBSERVE and ORIENT steps you should be able to determine whether or not that first decision and action was appropriate. If not then the DECISION was inappropriate. Figure out why. THAT is where you need to learn. If it WAS appropriate then you restarted a new loop and need to repeat this process until you find out where you went wrong.

Ultimately your goal in this process is threefold:

1. You want to identify where your decision making process went wrong, or
2. You want to identify where your decision mkaing process could have been improved, or
3. You want to learn how to 110% articulate and justify your decision after a Use of Force

THIS is where that 75% of learning occurs. As you went through various force-on-force scenarios you learned. You saw, heard, felt, smelled and tasted certain things while your sympathetic nervous system was activated. That “data cache” was fed into your subconscious mind and, as you’ve gone through the analyzing process described above, you will have seen how you CAN prompt some of those memories out and into your conscious mind. By actually doing this you should clearly see the value of this process in the event you get in a real shooting or use of force situation that you need to articulate. You will also see what you should go through BEFORE you sit down and give ANYONE a statement. It will take you awhile to sort it all out in your own head, much less be able to fully articulate it to whomever is asking.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them on our Forum Board or send me an email.

Stay safe!

Editor’s Note: This article was originally written to address the need for law enforcement officers to be able to treat themselves for traumatic injury.  This skill is equally necessary to all citizens who hunt, camp, hike, etc.  If you carry a gun in an emergency situation, it only makes sense that you should be able to treat yourself for a gunshot wound.  If you carry a knife, the same.  It’s not difficult to do.  Read and learn.

***

A few years ago the whole area of tactical medicine came flying out of obscurity and into the forefront of law enforcement consciousness.  Although tactical teams have had tac medics along with them for decades, and the federal CONTOMS tactical medicine program has been around for a long time, until recently the ordinary patrol cop or detective really didn’t know much—if anything—at all about it and its most relevant aspect: self rescue in case they sustained a life-threatening injury.  The GWOT has given us both new developments in tactical medicine equipment and techniques, and unfortunately, ample opportunity to use them.  The net result is that tactical medicine is now both a hot topic and one that’s moved beyond its early adaptors and well into the growth curve of ordinary officers.  Today, if you carry a self-rescue kit, no one thinks you’re crazy or paranoid.  In fact, they generally want to know more about it and where to get one.  Naturally, training in self-rescue is a booming mini-industry, and it’s becoming incorporated into more and more in-service training.

In the early days of the current self-rescue trend (maybe five years ago), you could get very different advice from different trainers as to what to carry in a self-rescue kit.  Some advised that you carry hemostatic clotting agents (of which QuikClot is probably the most well known) and some were leery of them.  Some trainers had you carrying Asherman Chest Seals to treat pneumothoraxs and some didn’t.  Many trainers wanted you to carry scissors and latex gloves in the kit and some didn’t see the need.  Realizing that most injured cops, unlike soldiers in combat, will get treatment pretty quickly, most law enforcement-specific tactical medicine trainers today have coalesced around a three-part self-rescue kit: clotting agent, super-absorbent bandage, and a tourniquet.  Chest seals aren’t usually included since most pneumothoraxs take time to kill you.  Gloves should already be on you all the time anyway and aren’t even necessary if you’re working on yourself, while scissors aren’t really necessary and you probably have a knife on you in any case.  This makes for a pretty compact three-part kit, one that’s easily carried in a cargo pocket of your pants or a small pouch on a raid vest.

“It’s critical for injured officers to try and slow down their heartbeat and respiration,” says Eric Stratton, Deputy Sheriff, EMT, assistant tactical team commander,  and well known tactical medicine trainer through STS Consulting (www.tactical-ems.com).   “During this high stress event the heart pumps faster and harder – both bad when you are bleeding out. Officers should practice slowing down their breathing and attempting to control their heart rate. A good way to show officers this is by having them shoot at several targets and then use a heart rate monitor or pulse oximeter to show them how high their rate is and to concentrate in slowing it down. A slower heart rate means a slower bleed out rate.”   He continues: “Officers also must practice accessing and using their self-rescue kit.  Trying to remember where it is and what you do with its components after you’re shot isn’t the time to be figuring this stuff out.”

A down-and-dirty kit can be assembled with a sanitary pad, a tourniquet made from a length of webbing and FasTex buckles, and a package of clotting agent.  Carried in a zip-lock bag, this home-made kit will do the job.  A better kit can include professionally designed tourniquets and bandages, such as the the new H-bandage and the TK-4L tourniquet from H&H Associates.  The H-bandage can be applied and secured with one hand, and doesn’t require cumbersome wrapping of the limb.  The TK-4L tourniquet fared very well in recent Navy tests and can also be applied one-handed.  Going one step furtherm the new Blackhawk Integrated Tourniquet System incorporates tourniquets directly into their tactical apparel.

Predominant clotting agents on the market today are QuikClot, Trauma-dex, Celox and the newly introduced ActCel.  QuikClot has been reformulated so that it is no longer thermogenic (heat producing), and it’s newest version is QuickClot COmbat Gauze, essentially a roll of gauze impregnated with the new inorganic QuickClot formulation that can be used as regular gauze (with hemostatic qualities), or the entire roll can be inserted into a large wound to stem the blood loss.  ActCel, the newcomer (distributed by Royal Arms), is made entirely from cellulose and is non-thermogenic and hypo-allergenic (people with fish allergies should not use shellfish-based hemostatic clotting agents.)   When it comes in contact with blood, ActCel expands to 3-4 times its original size, promoting clotting, and then converts to a gel that dissolves into glucose and saline over a 1-2 week period.  Because of its purity and the fact that it simply degrades to these end products, ActCel does not cause delayed healing.  The life-saving value of all of these clotting agents has been proved many times over in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Today, no matter what your budget, you can afford to have a self-rescue kit, and you definitely can’t afford to be without one!

More Information

www.z-medica.com

www.cinchtight.com

www.tactical-ems.com

www.royalarms.com

www.combattourniquet.com

www.blackhawk.com

 by Ralph Mroz

 Wadda You Saying About Presbyterians?  Presbywhat?

Sooner or later, something much like what happened to…er, a “friend” of mine…will happen to you. You’ll be at the range—probably a marginally lit indoor range, you’ll bring your pistol up to eye level to shoot, and “Damn,” you’ll say, “I swear this gun had sights on it this morning!”

That, my friend, is presbyopia at work!

Not long afterwards, you’ll find that fine print gets fuzzy, and then regular print will require reading glasses just to read, then much manual work will necessitate the cheaters.  Soon, you’ll be just another middle-age person that can’t get through the day without your readers.  And if you’re smart, you’ll have several pairs strategically placed around your work and residence.

Presbyopia is the name of this syndrome.  It tends to onset in the late thirties to early forties—sometimes later—and it affects even people with otherwise excellent vision.  I still have much better than average (that is, 20/20) vision at distance, and when I was a young man I had even better distance vision.  I never needed glasses at all until the dreaded “P” thing happened, and I discovered it just as described above.  Now in my early fifties, I am dependent on my reading glasses for much of my daily activities.

From www.allaboutvision.com:  Presbyopia is caused by an age-related process. This is different from astigmatism, nearsightedness and farsightedness, which are related to the shape of the eyeball and caused by genetic factors, disease, or trauma. Presbyopia is generally believed to stem from a gradual loss of flexibility in the natural lens inside your eye.  These age-related changes occur within the proteins in the lens, making the lens harder and less elastic with the years. Age-related changes also take place in the muscle fibers surrounding the lens. With less elasticity, the eye has a harder time focusing up close.  Sooner or later, if you live to middle age—which is kinda the point of our survival training—you will be in this boat.

Presbyopia and Shooting

Presbyopia affects your ability to clearly see near objects: book and magazine print, objects you are working on, and yes, gun sights.  I don’t know a middle-age shooter—one who doesn’t wear glasses all the time—that hasn’t remarked to me “I haven’t seen my sights in years,” or “If I could still see the sights on my pistol, I could shoot well again,” or some similar thing.  (By the way—these two paraphrased quotes are from two pretty famous gun trainers.)   Which really sucks, if you think about it.  Just about the time you get in a couple decades of refining your shooting ability, your ability to see the sights starts to go out the window, and your precision shooting inexorably declines.  Rule one: life is most certainly not fair, and it is particularly not fair to older people.  (But I think that as cops, we’ve already figured that out, seeing it in spades as many times as we all have.)   By the way: you’ll see this rule again.

So we just wear glasses, right?  Actually, no—wrong.  If you are only affected by presbyopia, then you don’t wear your reading glasses during non-close-in activities, so they won’t be on your eyes when you need to shoot.  And if they were, the only things you could see well would be your sights—not the threat or anything else.  So scratch that idea.  Second, we have to assume that any encounter in which we need to shoot someone will be a physically violent one, and that our glasses, even if they stated the fun while on our face, have subsequently been knocked off.  Now if you wear bifocals, with your distance prescription on the top and your close prescription on the bottom (as they are usually set up), then you do always have your glasses on.  But both problems above apply: they are likely to be knocked off in a real encounter and you have a choice of seeing your sights or seeing the threat but not both.  Massad Ayoob has his bifocals reversed, with his near prescription on the top, so that as he brings the gun up and his head down to align his eyes with the sights, he is naturally looking through the part of the glasses that bring the sights into focus.  This tactic works well if your distance vision isn’t so bad that you can’t make out the target through the close prescription (and if you’ve ever seen Mas shoot, you know that that must be the case for him because he is one hell of a shot!)  But recall that glasses are likely to be lost in the initial second of a fight, and we are back to square one.

All of this brings up the fallacy that many shooters with corrective lenses make.  They wear their spectacles on the range and shoot well.  But take the glasses away—like they may well forcibly be in a real encounter—and what happens?  If you wear glasses, do you know?  And by the way: see rule one.  Then of course, there’s the old competitive trick of wearing glasses that allow your dominant eye to focus clearly on the sights while your non-dominant eye focuses on the target.  Thus, you have different prescription in the left and right lens.  Do I even need to discuss the survival fallacies involved here?

Three Solutions

XS Sights shown mounted on a Glock pistol

Fortunately there are three sight systems on the market today that, although they weren’t designed to address geezer shooters, go a long way to making us not suck so bad.

XS Sights 24/7 Big Dot sights  These are still sometimes called “Ashley” sights, after Ashley Emerson who designed them.  Ashley’s moved to other endeavors, but his sights remain a favorite of combat-orientated shooters and trainers.  Big Dot sights are a modern version of the old African Express hunting sight, which essentially consisted of a large dot on the front of the gun.  This sight was meant for close-range work against charging dangerous animals, where the speed of the shot outweighed precise shot placement, and where missing the animal’s center mass was unlikely at the distances involved, so long as the gun was roughly aligned with the threat.  Does this situation sound like anything we might be worried about?  Like the kind of close-range encounter we are likely to have with the two-legged animals that may threaten us?  The idea of the Big Dot sight system (and the 24/7 version of it refers to the tritium in both the front and rear sights) is that the big white dot on the front of your gun is, in the words of trainer Gila-May Hayes “hard to ignore.”  The theory of operation is: Place dot on target; pull trigger.  Repeat if necessary until problem solved.

Yes, Big Dot sights are not as accurate as traditional post-and-notch sights (my groups are about twice as big with the Big Dot system over post-and-notch sights), but these latter require a distinct focus on the front sight to achieve their precision, and we know that this is unlikely in a spontaneous deadly encounter.  Besides, most such encounters happen at close range (five yards and closer), where all we need is a (relatively) coarse alignment of our pistol with the threat…but we need to get our shot off fast!  I’ve used the Big Dot set-up for almost a decade now on all of my carry guns, and lived with the fact the long range or very precise shots were not quite as reliable or fast as I’d like (I could reliably hit pepper poppers at 75 yards though, so they weren’t hardly bad!)  But the main advantage they has was that I could SEE them!  I could not see traditional post-and-notch sights with my middle-age eyes.

Crimson Trace laser aiming grip shown mounted on a Glock pistol

Crimson Trace LaserGrips  Lasers on guns of all types, and pistols in particular, are one of those phenomena that, despite the pooh-poohing of many initially, keeps growing and growing.  And for good reason.  Lasers are, in fact, a real aid in real-life gun use.  The military, for one, has not discontinued their use on personal arms, yet they have had ample opportunity lately to discover if lasers are useful or useless.  State-side, almost every professional I know that has taken the time to give lasers a true wringing-out has become a believer.  A good, bright laser allows you to look at your threat—which is where your brain will almost always force to be looking anyway in a for-real encounter.  And if presbyopia is your problem, you can see the laser’s red dot just fine at that distance!

For a number of years now, Crimson Trace (CT) has made the pistol lasers that are the hands-down choice of professionals.  Their Lasergrips are incredibly rugged, instinctively operated, and reliable—not to mention effective.    Until recently, all CT Lasergrips took the form of extremely ergonomic user-replaceable grips for the pistol or revolver, with the laser integral to them.  All, that is, except for the best-selling pistol of them all, the Glock.  Since there are no grip panels on the Glock, CT had to factory install their laser into the front of the trigger guard, and snake wires though the frame to the hollow cavity at the rear bottom of the grip where the battery was housed.  Recently, CT’s long-awaited G-series of user-installable Lasergrips for Glocks have arrived.

The G-Series grips are a single-piece add-on unit that affixes to a Glock’s grip in seconds with a replacement trigger housing pin.  That’s it.  The laser is activated automatically with a pressure switch on the rear of the appurtenance when it meets the web of the shooter’s hand.  The G-Series does not interfere with most holsters, and does not adversely affect the grip that my average-sized hands can take on a Glock 19.  The laser beam is very close to the bore axis, meaning that point of aim and point of impact remain close over a broad range.  Further, the G-Series grips are stable and do not wiggle around with time and use.  All-in-all, the G-Series provide all of the advantages of a laser (which are too numerous to go into here), AND they solve the presbyopia thing.

TruGlo Rear sight shown mounted on a Glock

TRUGLO Tritium/Fiber Optic Sights  We all know what tritium sights are—tritium is what’s in the little vials that form the glow-in-the-dark dots on your handgun sights.  Traditional tritium sights—or to be more precise, traditional post-and-notch sights with tritium inserts—seem to be made for very young eyes, though.  The tritium inserts are pretty small—they have to fit in the post and the notch, after all, and still leave the federally-mandated amount of metal surrounding them, which means that they require good eyes to see in focus.  And they break up the black mass of the post and notches, making these harder to focus on with marginal close vision.  They are a win-win situation for young eyes, and a lose-lose thing for older eyes.

Likewise, we’ve all seen the fiber-optic sights—essentially formed from an inch or so of a glass or glass-like rod that captures and directs ambient light into a strongly lit dot.  These are the nuts for outdoors, daylight shooting, but depending as they do on ambient light, they lose their glow (pun intended) in low light, which is exactly the condition that we are likely to have to fight for our lives in.  For presbyoptic eyes, fiber optic sights are often a God-send—in daylight, on the range—since they can be seen like little headlamps on the gun.  But neither these nor traditional tritium sights work for older eyes in low light.

TruGlo Front sight

The folks at TRUGLO figured out that they could combine these technologies.  TRUGLO’s handgun sights consist of a vial of tritium embedded in a fiber optic tube.  Thus the tritium’s light is captured and directed to the eyes by the fiber optic tubes.  In low light, the TRUGLO sights become bright little green headlights.  In daylight, the fiber optic captures and directs ambient light, providing even brighter little headlights for front and rear sights.  The great news for us Boomers: we (at least I) can see them quite clearly, even without reading glasses.

What I can see is three (one front and two rear) brightly glowing dots on the gun.  I still, of course, cannot focus on the outlines of the front post and rear notch, making the TRUGLO sights slightly less accurate than traditional black-on-black sights for me, but they do provide a more traditional sight picture than either the XS Big Dots or the laser.

I just found out about the TRUGLO sights, so I can’t give you a complete report just now, but I’ll be wringing them out over the next couple thousand rounds.  I can tell you that I do see them well, with my naked eyes and despite my current 2.00 diopter reading prescription.  All three tritium/fiber optic dots are the same brightness, and I do wonder if that will slow me down a bit.  I’d guess that having the two rear dots less bright—or a different color AND less bright—might be preferable, but right now they only come with three equally bright green sights.  The competitive shooters I know that use them really like them, and they show great promise.

Conclusion

The three sight systems described here all help presbyoptic shooters (which is almost anyone over 40) overcome their—and let’s be frank; we’re all adults here—age-related disability.  Which is the best sight system, or which is the best for you?  I wish I could tell you!  One thing I’ve discovered in over a decade of intensely studying various sights on the market, trying most of them out, doing so against the backdrop of my own changing sight ability, and discussing the issue with dozens of world-class experts, is that the right firearm sight is a highly individual matter.  There is no single answer that applies to everyone—not even to everyone with the same native sight.  Asking me which sight is the right one for you—even if I knew everything there was to know about you, is like asking me what woman or man you should marry.  I simply couldn’t tell you—even if I knew everything there was to know about you.  You need to “date” a number of sights (borrow friend’s guns) and see how they work for you.  What I can tell you is that the three sights described here are in use, and well liked, by many shooters like you.

More Information

XS Sights

2401 Ludelle
Fort Worth,Texas 76105

888-744-4880

www.xssights.com

Crimson Trace Corporation

Crimson Trace Corporation
8089 SW Cirrus Dr.
Beaverton,OR97008

800-442-2406

www.crimsontrace.com

TRUGLO, Inc.

710 Presidential Dr.

Richardson,TX75081

972.774.0300

www.truglosights.com

When I was an active police officer (I’m retired now) I wouldn’t have thought about going camping without taking a gun.  Why would I?  Technically though, the law prohibited me from carrying in federal parks.  Yes, I freely admit it: I ignored that law.  I’d far rather have been “tried by twelve” than “carried by six”.  I mean… let’s face it: if you’re camping out in the wilderness – and that’s what I’m talking about – it’s just silly to not have a firearm if you legally can.  The country’s elected government finally agreed with me with the passage and signing of the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act (HR 218) which exempts police officers nationwide from concealed deadly weapons laws.  It also covers retired officers who meet certain criteria.

This “awakening”… this change in outlook to greater support the ability of every American citizen to possess and carry a firearm for defense makes our discussion of guns for field use of greater interest.  People in ever increasing numbers are “strapping up”.  This, to me, begs the questions…

What is the best gun for the field?

What’s the best way to carry that gun?

The discussion of those questions – and my potential answers – is the subject of this article.

Now, obviously we’re going to talk about handguns.  In certain parts of the American wilderness I imagine it’s quite silly to go out and about with a rifle.  Let’s face it, man is not the top predator unless we are armed.  There are plenty of animals that can prey on us animal-to-animal and win the fight.  Those animals that couldn’t do it one-on-one often hunt in packs and can win the fight by sheer numbers.  That’s why – if we’re smart – when we go out into those areas we carry a gun and stay alert.  Some of the animals though aren’t what we think of as dangerous animals.  I mentioned man being prey above but what about the animals that might attack us out of fear or protection?  They represent a threat to and while we should do what we can to avoid encroaching on their territory, if we make that mistake it’s not one I think we should die for.  I speak of things like snakes that will usually run from us or at least leave us alone if we let them.

For those of you who regularly go into areas where a rifle better suits your needs, that will be a topic of a future article.  For the many campers and backpackers we have in our readership (look for a future survey on what your favorite outdoor activity is) we’re going to talk about the options available in handguns, the pros and cons of various designs and the best methods and places to carry them.  Here we go…

Revolver vs. Pistol

A quality (even surplus) 4" .38 may be your perfect field revolver.

When I started out my career as a police officer I was 18 and part of Uncle Sam’s Army.  I was issued a Government Model 1911 .45ACP.  Even as many years ago as that was the weapon had been a mainstay in the military arsenal for over 70 years.  I came to appreciate the heft of it in my hand, the 7+1 capacity and the sweet single action trigger pull on every shot.

When I got out of the Army and became a civilian cop I was issued (by my first agency) an old blued .38 Special with a 4” barrel and abused ugly minimal wood grips.  It was 1985 and the military was switching over to the Beretta M9 9mm and police agencies nationwide were following suit.  I would have been happy if my agency had just gone to stainless steel revolvers instead of the old blued ones.  My second agency issued me a blued Colt Trooper MkIII .357 Magnum revolver with a 6” barrel and big ugly wood grips in a swivel holster that was held to my gunbelt by way of a single snap.  In the interest of self-preservation and comfort I almost immediately went and purchased a blued 4” revolver (.38 Special because I couldn’t afford a stainless .357) and a security holster to go with it.

At the grand old age of 21, with a whopping three to four years of law enforcement / uniform experience to my name, I was having the “revolver vs. pistol” debate in my head.  I missed my government issued 1911 .45ACP.  It was easier to shoot and held more rounds.  Besides… carrying “cocked and locked” was way cool.  (Hey… I was only 21, remember?)

It's hard to beat (in the author's opinion) a quality 1911-style handgun for field use.

There came a point though where I realized that carrying a small revolver for off-duty was much more convenient than carrying a full size pistol (or revolver for that matter).  I procured a Smith & Wesson Chief’s Special – a snubby 5-shot .38 – and it became my best friend, going everywhere with me.  On duty it was usually on my ankle.  Off-duty it rode at my right kidney or in the small of my back.  I was never really comfortable wearing a shoulder holster; it always felt too restricting to me, but that gun was with me everywhere.  In my mind I added another level of debate.

Reality mandates that before we decide whether we’re going to carry a pistol or a revolver for our field adventures we need to identify:

• The environment we’ll be in
• The threats we anticipate possibly encountering
• How much reload ammo we anticipate needing and the method of carry

Environment

In ourUnited Stateswe can experience quite the plethora of outdoor environments from beach to mountain, swamp to desert, flat plains to rolling hills.  My camping is mostly done in the mountains but I have, in the past, camped on or near the beach.  Virtually all of my backpacking has been done in mountains.  While no gun is reliable if it’s dirty, you do need to consider environmental conditions.  If you’re going to be in a place that is often moist / wet or regularly has a high humidity level you don’t want to take a blued weapon.  Stainless steel or a weapon with one of the many metal / alloy / chemical coatings would be advisable.  Today’s variety of polymer framed pistols may well be a good choice.

That said, if you’re going to be in or around a lot of sand or other grit that can infect your handgun, revolvers may be more desirable than pistols – but it depends on how finicky your particular handgun is.  I’ve seen some revolvers that would seize up on a speck of unburned powder and I’ve seen pistols that functioned just fine once the mud was poured out of the barrel.  The point is that you need to know what you’re traveling into and how your options in handguns would function from a combined efficiency and maintenance perspective.

The author's described custom holster rigs made by George Wells of Wellsmade Holsters

Threats

Once again we have to appreciate the variety our country has to offer.  Depending on where you go the threats you potentially experience can range from grizzly bears to rattlesnakes, wild boars to mountain lions, coyotes to wolves.  I don’t know if it’s fortunate or unfortunate but, to date, the biggest threat I’ve ever faced on a camping trip came from that two-legged predator called man.  When I was a younger man on a camping trip with my best friend on the Appalachian Trail in westernMarylandour camp was invaded by an assortment of drunks on ATVs from the not-too-distant farming communities.  I was quite happy to have my stainless steel Colt Commander .45ACP with me.  A revolver full of bird-shot loads might have presented a threat but also might not have proven very successful if needed in defense against a human predator.

The threat you deem most likely is what I’d recommend you choose your caliber by.  In some places the potential threats might mandate handguns near the higher end of power delivery such as .44 Magnum or even .454 Casull.  If you are camping / backpacking in such places my recommendation would be that you reconsider carrying a rifle, but I also understand that circumstances can limit our options.  In other places the most common threat might be snakes.

Through the course of my life I’ve had chance to encounter several Water Moccasins (Cottonmouths), a few rattlesnakes and, more often than not, harmless black snakes.  In at least two incidents the poisonous snakes were right up in our usual area of habitation: one hiding under a rock right up against the house and the other sunning on a rock just a few dozen feet from the house.  In both cases I had uncles who shot the snakes with .22 caliber rifles, taking several shots before determining that enough damage had been done to kill the snake.

In both of those incidents, had my uncles had shot-shells for their revolvers, only one shot might have been necessary.  That type of ammunition though is primarily manufactured for revolvers thereby helping you make your decision between revolver and pistol.  I hate wasting ammo so I’d far prefer to fire one shot-shell to do the job than several rounds of single projectile ammo.  The strength of revolvers in such situations is that you can load up the first chamber or two with the shot-shell ammo and the rest with ammo designed for larger animals.  If you find yourself encountering the larger threat, you crank through the first round or two (how many ever are shot-shell) potentially causing minor injury to the animal or maybe turning him/her due to the noise.  Either way, your follow on shots with the more effective single-projectile ammo are quick enough to get to.  (I’d venture to guess that your bigger challenge at that point would be keeping your shots on target as you try not to soil your shorts)

Reload Ammo

This is, of course, dependent on the type of handgun you choose in the first place.  That said, carrying scads of reload ammo is far easier for pistols than for revolvers.  Comparing similar caliber weapons – for the sake of this article we’ll use .38 Special and 9mm) – in the different designs of revolver versus pistol, you usually get six shots of .38 in a medium sized revolver while you can get as many as 16 of 9mm in a similarly sized pistol.  Perhaps using a caliber more generally suited for larger threats, a revolver chambered for any .45 round is going to be pretty big and offer six rounds.  A comparable pistol could be much smaller to offer an equal number of rounds or the same size and offer as many as 14 rounds without a reload.

Of course, the extra ammo and other accessories/items you carry have to be considered as part of your handgun selection.

If you’re going to choose a revolver then speed-loaders become almost mandatory and you need to figure out how many you’ll carry.  Will they all have the same ammo in them?  Or will you carry a speed-loader of shot-shell and another of jacketed hollow point?  At what point do you say, “Okay… if this isn’t enough then I shouldn’t have been there to begin with”?

In that above mentioned camping trip where my best friend and I found ourselves surrounded by drunken ATV riders at two in the morning I had my Colt Commander full (7+1) and a spare magazine (7 more).  I couldn’t imagine a scenario on a camping trip in which I would need more than 15 rounds of .45ACP.  THAT is the decision you must make when you decide how much spare ammo to carry AFTER you’ve decided which you’ll carry out with you: revolver or pistol and in what caliber.

Choices

After you’ve analyzed your needs, if you choose to carry a pistol I’d highly recommend you pursue ruggedness and versatility as much as possible.  Yes, I’m a fan of the .45ACP but I wouldn’t want a revolver in that caliber.  It’s restricted to single-projectile ammo – even if the projectile breaks up when it hits the target.  If you’re choice is a revolver then I’d recommend a stainless steel .357 Magnum with a barrel length between three and five inches.  Here’s why…

With a revolver chambered for .357 Magnum you can shoot either .357 ammo or .38 Special ammo.  The availability of single projectile ammo for either caliber is wide and varied.  You can get everything from lead roundnose (although I can’t figure out why you’d want it) to semi-jacketed bonded-core soft-lead hollowpoints.  There is also a wide variety of shot-shell ammo available for either caliber and speed-loaders are easy to find for any common manufacturer’s revolver.  Revolvers like the Smith & Wesson Model 66 and 686 come to mind – but they might be a tad big or heavy for you.  How about the Smith & Wesson Model 64?  Widely used by police agencies in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s there are still plenty of serviceable surplus Model 64s on the market.  Remember that you’re not using these weapons for competition so adjustable sights aren’t a requirement.  Fixed sights will take more abuse and not lose their zero.  As a final note, there is an abundance of relatively cheap practice ammo available for these calibers of revolvers.

If your choice is a pistol then your variety increases even more.  Do you want single action? Double action? Safe action?  Do you want a polymer frame or alloy? Do you require an external safety?  This gets to be almost like picking a duty weapon.

There are plenty of very serviceable pistols that will take plenty of abuse and still function.  The top three two that come to mind are the Glocks and the S&W M&Ps.  Certainly the pistols from Colt, H&K, Springfield Armory, Taurus and others will serve you well but I’ve never seen anything take abuse like a Glock and still keep working.  I’ve seen the disassembled pieces from a Glock Model 19 reassembled IN THE MUD, the weapon loaded with a full mag, the first round chambered and the weapon fired through the whole magazine (15 rounds) without a malfunction.  Glocks offer a variety of caliber choices as well: .45ACP, .45GAP, 10mm, .357Sig, .40S&W and 9mm.  The 10mm is well suited for use even on big threats (ask Ted Nugent since the Glock Model 20 is reportedly his handgun of choice anytime he’s in the field).

As much as I speak of the ruggedness of the Glock, our Navy SEALs use and swear by the Sig Sauer P226 9mm.  I know one former SEAL who has had the same P226 for nearly 30 years with well over 50,000 rounds through it and he still says it’s the only gun he’ll ever carry.  I know another gentleman who has been carrying a Brown High-Power 9mm cocked-and-locked for the better part of forty years and he’s just as loyal to it.  You have to decide what’s going to work best for you under the circumstances you expect to encounter.  Then you need to procure the pistol, practice with the pistol and get confident with it.  “Confidence through Competence” applies to everything we do.  Where protecting your life is concerned, you want to be as competent AND confident as possible.

Carrying It

The biggest question you can ask yourself when deciding where and how to carry your sidearm is this: how fast might I need it?

Many backpackers choose to carry their sidearm in or on the pack.  That means not getting to it quickly.  Many campers choose to keep the weapon secured in their vehicle.  That REALLY means not getting to it quickly.

Let’s face it: the threats you can face out in the wilderness are the kind where, if you need the sidearm, you need it RIGHT NOW – not when you can get to your car, unlock the doors, open the safe under your seat and reach your gun… after that bear has torn you to shreds.  I can’t say I’m a fan of putting the gun in or on the backpack but if you’re going to then ON is far better than IN.  There are plenty of holsters you can attach to a pack via MOLLE webbing or anything you can customize.

Now, let’s settle something else: no holster is going to keep your sidearm clean and dry AND allow you to access it in anything resembling a timely fashion.  Your gun is going to get dirty and/or wet and you’ll just have to devote the time to clean it.  If you’re not willing to invest the maintenance time in your weapon, don’t carry it. Eventually you’ll end up carrying a weapon that doesn’t work due to your simple negligence.

I was issued a revolver once that the cylinder couldn’t be opened on because the guy who had it before me had never unloaded and cleaned it.  The loads were corroded into the chambers which wouldn’t even turn.  A gunsmith had to disassemble it for me to clean.  If the cop who had it before me had needed to use his gun he’d have been out of luck – due to his own laziness and negligence.  If you’re going to carry it, clean it!

If you’re not going to put it in or on the pack then it’s going on your person.  Today’s holster varieties include everything from in-the-waistband to shoulder holsters to belt holsters to drop-leg “tactical” holsters.  When it comes to pure comfort and speed of access, especially while backpacking, I don’t think the drop leg platform can be beat.

Yes, I know: some people think this looks “squirrely” and that anyone who wears a gun this way is a “wanna-be-swat-cop” enthusiast.  I submit this thought:  if you’re going to carry a sidearm and it’s not going to be concealed, what’s the difference?  Is the guy who wears his gun in a shoulder holster a “wanna-be-detective”?  Is the person who wears a sidearm in a cross-draw holster a “wanna-be-air-marshal”?  Is the person who wears their sidearm in a tooled leather gunbelt a “wanna-be-cowboy”?

The bottom line is this: unless you are carrying the weapon concealed you need to carry it comfortably, securely and in a fashion that grants you quick access.  In my experience, the “tactical” leg platform meets these criteria.  If you disagree, stand up, relax as much as you can without falling over, and see where your gun hand is hanging.  It’s not up under your armpit; it’s not resting on the opposite side hip; it’s not up on your strong-side hip; it’s hanging near the top of your thigh just in front of the curve of your hip.  You want your sidearm as quickly available as possible?  Put it in a thigh holster positioned so that your hand hangs almost comfortably at rest on the grip.  You’ll also find that wearing a holster like this makes the handgun accessible while you’re driving too.

Outside of that option – which many just aren’t comfortable exercising – pick a good secure holster system that is comfortable to wear.  For many that IS a cross-draw pistol – and there are plenty of good ones out there.  Your options today include carbon-fiber holster bodies, leather holster bodies, kydex holster bodies (that I recommend against based on pure strength concerns) and more.  Having already stated that your gun WILL get wet and/or dirty I also need to recognize that the more of your weapon the holster covers the more it is protected from the elements.  Remember the trade off though: the more covered your weapon is the longer it will (usually) take you to get it out and into action.

Some holster systems are overly simple, like a nylon web loop sewed into a belt.  It’s far better than nothing but doesn’t really offer comfort or security.  Other belt rigs are durable beyond the lifetimes of you and I (I still have a holster / belt set custom made for me by George Wells, then of Wellsmade Holsters, made out of elephant hide that will FAR outlast me).  As a general rule, your field holster needs to have a definitive security design that will secure your handgun into the holster even if you’re upside down.

Such a security device could be a simple strap with a good snap.  It could be a spring-loaded trigger guard hook.  Whatever it is, you need to be confident that, no matter the circumstances, your gun will stay in your holster until such time as you decide to draw it.  When that time comes, you should be able to secure a good grip on your handgun, deactivate the security device and draw the weapon in a timely fashion.

Prior to concluding this article I’d like to address one topic I received about this topic a couple years ago in an email: full flap holsters.  I received an email from a gentleman who proclaimed that full-flap holsters were the only acceptable type of holsters for “field use”.  In support of his outlook he cited the military’s use of the Bianchi Universal Military (UM) holster #84.  That nylon holster has a removable full flap that secures by way of a spring-loaded “tongue in slot” design.

My response to this is two-fold:

I don’t believe in absolutes except that there aren’t any.  What works well for me may not work well for anyone else in the world and vice versa.  What my best friend likes may not appeal to me and what I support he may disagree with.  Absolutes are absolutely useless.  If your preference for a given holster design is voiced in an absolute I’ll probably disagree with you.

I believe that full flap holsters are perfectly acceptable for handguns that are secondary to rifles (essentially back up guns) and which are not, therefore, needed with any immediacy.  If your life depends on you getting that sidearm out quick, a full flap holster is probably not in your best interest.

Conclusion

Rifles are better than handguns in the field.  If you’re not going to carry a rifle, carefully select your type of handgun.  There are pluses and minuses to both revolvers and pistols.  Know your potential threats and arm yourself accordingly.  Carry the weapon so that you are comfortable with it and can access it as quickly as you might feel necessary.  PRACTICE with it and maintain it.  Any weapon that won’t function or that you are unskilled with is nothing more than an expensive club.

As always, your comments are appreciated and can be shared on this topic on our blog.

Stay safe!  Happy trails…

I can’t begin to tell you how many sergeants I heard that from when I was in the Army. When I worked for a uniformed private security company I heard it a few more times (that’s an understatement). When I worked security at a large theme park I heard this from virtually every service manager from the landscaping guy to the head lifeguard. Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. It was their mantra at the park.

As an “average every day citizen” though, what do you need to plan for? We don’t usually realize it because we do it so often, but you plan things every day – often days, weeks or months in advance. For instance…

Have you planned dinner for tonight yet?

Have you planned what you’re doing this weekend?

Have you planned your next vacation?

Those are easy ones. We plan what we’re going to wear, even if it’s only moments in advance of putting it on; we plan our route to work, and sometimes back-up routes if problems with our main route are common; we plan to call our mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents… and then plan when we’re going to reschedule that if we forget to do it.

That kind of planning is easy for us. Have you ever wondered why? The answer is because you do it so much that it has become 1) 2nd nature and 2) a part of your daily life. Such realization made me ponder what kinds of things we would need to plan for that aren’t a part of our daily lives: emergencies, crises… the unexpected.

Another statement I heard frequently in the military and in security work was Always expect the unexpected. We all know that’s quite impossible. If you expect it then it’s not UNexpected, right? However, you CAN plan your response to various emergencies you may be faced with at unexpected times – without warning – which is how almost all emergencies occur anyway. After all, if you knew an emergency was going to happen then you’d avoid being wherever it was going to happen in the first place (I would hope).

So I found myself trying to figure out where emergencies would occur that you (the average “Joe Citizen” or “Jane Citizen” just so I’m not unfair to all our readership) might find yourself. It’s not hard to think of a few – but they both fall into the category of “work place”. Those who worked in the World Trade Center Towers and area found themselves dealing with a totally unexpected emergency on 9-11-2001. Folks at the Pentagon did too. Some people on Flight 93 (that crashed in Pennsylvania) did as well.

Sure, it’s easy for me to pick out the most extreme circumstance – a terrorist attack. How about something far more likely (statistically speaking) and less dramatic? Okay…

You could be shopping at the mall and find yourself targeted by a random active shooter. You could be in your favorite fast food “restaurant” and find yourself targeted by a random active shooter. You could be at church and find yourself under attack by someone who disagrees with your faith or that of your church. All of those have occurred.

How about something even less dramatic? You could find yourself at your favorite mall in a familiar department store trying on shoes when the power goes out and those emergency light boxes (that haven’t been inspected since the place was built) don’t work. It’s DARK. If you haven’t planned and prepared for that possibility then you will be as susceptible to circumstance as the next Joe Citizen.

Even so… that’s even a tad bit extreme when we look at unexpected events that you can realistically plan for. As I said at the beginning, I wanted to figure out some standards – some common places you should be ready and do so in such a way that I could offer some options. As I consider it you’ll most likely experience unexpected emergency circumstances:
At home
While traveling to work
At work
Other

The “Other” is a bit too broad to really address. It’s impossible for us to be prepared for every eventuality 100% of the time. Even our best military operators don’t manage that and they have extensive support systems. So we’re going to se aside “Other”. That leaves at home, at work and traveling in between. Sure, we travel to other places and spend time in them, but when you think about how you spend the majority of your waking hours (unless you’re retired and enjoying your golden years), you are mostly at home, at work or traveling between the two.

At home, what emergencies might occur that you can reasonably plan for?

The first is FIRE. We all cook – albeit some of us do it very badly. But the kitchen can be a hazardous place both for fire and for burn injury. Planning to deal with a fire is actually fairly simple: have a working fire extinguisher in or near the kitchen. Know how to work it. Inspect it quarterly and replace it when it expires. Obviously there are other ways to deal with fire than an extinguisher, but if you plan to use them then you have to study and know a few things.

You need to know the proper way of dousing an oil/grease fire versus a food (meat, veggies) fire. You need to know where your kitchen’s breaker switch is in your breaker box in case the fire has an electrical source. (HINT: Throwing water on an electrical fire is a BAD idea!) You need to insure that you have the materials at hand or nearby to deal with oil / grease fires (where’s your flour?).

Additional injuries that can occur in the kitchen include burns and cuts. Burns can be treated in the short term with ice or cold water. Some people preach putting butter (real, not margarine) on burns; others stand by Aloe Vera gel (we have a bottle in the refrigerator for treating sunburn). Severe burns from hot pans, boiling water or hot heating elements on stoves must be treated at a hospital. They should be cooled with ice or cold water briefly, covered with a non-stick material (how many of us have a burn blanket? Not many – but plastic wrap can serve the purpose) and transported to the emergency room. THINK ABOUT THIS:

Not that long ago (as I type this) an off-duty paramedic chose to drive his wife to the hospital for an emergency rather than calling and waiting for an ambulance. Just because you’re driving a family member to the hospital for an injury does not exempt you from obedience to the traffic law. If you are going to drive them to the emergency room be prepared to deal with the stress of speed limits, red lights, stop signs, etc while your family member suffers next to you or in the back seat. This is not something to be taken lightly. Consider it carefully.

Finally (for the kitchen) cuts can occur. I have a friend who was cutting a sub roll in half and accidentally cut all the way through faster and with more force than he intended. The result was he cut three of his fingers through to the bone between the first and second joint. He was home alone. He grabbed a towel with that hand, squeezed the hand shut and called for an ambulance. He very sensibly didn’t attempt to drive to the hospital because he was worried about loss of blood, shock, dizziness, etc. He KNEW he didn’t have enough first-aid / medical information about such a wound and the accompanying blood loss to make such a judgment call. So his judgment call was to wait for the ambulance. He paid attention to the blood loss, constantly measuring the need to apply a tourniquet. Such need never arose.

People work with knives, cleavers, scissors and more in kitchens. We use them to cut meat and bone. Um, duh!!! WE are meat and bone. Think about it. Be careful. Have a plan. Just for curiosity’s sake, and I know I won’t get the answers (unless you want to go post them in the blog for this article), how many of you have a tourniquet or – at hand – the materials to make a tourniquet in your kitchen? If you can’t answer that, then try to answer this: where is the first-aid kit in your house?

Obviously accidents can occur anywhere in the house. We use sharp objects in our bathrooms for grooming but we don’t (typically) experience severe blood loss if we “slip up”. Still, scalding can occur in the tub / shower; injuries to eyes can occur quite easily (think of all the chemicals you put near your face / hair); mirrors aren’t hard to break and can cause traumatic injuries. It is imperative – unless you just assume you’ll never experience an injury in your home – that you have a properly stocked, well maintained and easily located first aid kit. Do you?

Now let’s talk about a couple other things that can occur at home. These few things are:
Weather emergencies
Home invasion / burglary
Breaking & entering (when you’re not home)
Outdoor assault

All my life I’ve heard that if a tornado or hurricane is coming I should get in the basement. My parents never, that I can remember, ushered my siblings and I into the basement if any type of severe weather was predicted or pending. In fact, I remember standing just inside a pair of French Doors and watching trees blow in the back yard as a tornado went through. My parents’ basement was below ground certainly, but it was (essentially) a concrete rectangle with two steel support beams running across its width. All other support to the house was provided by wood frame walls. Two stories worth of house could have crashed down into that basement and I’m not sure how much protection we’d have had.

Relatives of my wife’s actually have storm shelters: in ground concrete “bunkers” for lack of a better term. The metal sheathed solid wood doors have multiple slide-bolt locks. During “the season” the shelters are kept stocked with a small store of dry food and a couple 5-gallon jugs of fresh water that are rotated regularly. Those folks do that because the lessons have been previously learned: be prepared. That includes having a plan and making preparation. They do.

Different parts of our country run different risks for weather or natural emergencies. I’m not sure what the good folks of California can do to prepare for earthquakes, but they can take steps to prepare for storms and wild fires. This publication – both within these pages (in a different issue) and online – has produced a number of articles about “bug out” or “Go” bags. If you live in an area prone to wild fire (southwest) or hurricanes (southeast), isn’t it only prudent to have a bag packed and ready to go? If there’s a chance you’ll be evacuated in any given storm, fire or other natural disaster season, it only makes sense to be ready to rock with as little notice as possible.

I put “Home Invasion” and “Burglary” together. Different states define different crimes different ways. In my mind it doesn’t matter if the bad guy is coming into your house uninvited to commit mayhem in the day or night. He’s not wanted and you have to have a plan to deal with him – or several “hims”. Having an alarm system to scare off bad guys is not enough. What do you do in the middle of the night when the alarm goes off? What do your children do? What role does your spouse play?

Your plan for such an event should take into consideration where everyone in your house sleeps; what “choke points” exist in your home’s floor plans; most likely approach routes for bad guys; locations of phones for calling 911 and more. Long ago our illustrious editor wrote an article about his “Immediate Response Bag”. I believe he was a police officer when he wrote the article because he included OC Spray (pepper mace) and handcuffs in his bag. I promise you this: if I have to deal with an intruder in my home, I have no intention of spraying him or handcuffing him. I DO believe you should have at hand in a consolidated and easy to grab fashion:
A gun
A spare magazine (at least one)
A flashlight you’ve practiced with at the range
A knife (never go anywhere without a knife)
A cell phone

IF your home alarm is going off then everyone in the house should be familiar with the “game plan” and know their part. Your wife should be calling 911 after consolidating children in a single location that you can guard. Ideally that location should have a locked door that is in front of your family but behind you. There should be another locked door (if possible) between you and the bad guy. Your position should be one where you can easily cover the most likely avenue of approach for the bad guy – hopefully an identified choke point that will bring him easily into your sights.

If your plan includes a long gun instead of a handgun (like a shotgun), then you have to know where it is; whether or not the chamber is loaded; how to work any accessories without fumbling under pressure; how to move around a given space without letting the length of the weapon give you away.

With any weapon, however, comes the concern of over-penetration and where everyone is in your house. You don’t want to be shooting down the hallway from you bedroom at a bad guy if your children are in bedrooms BEHIND the bad guy. If you miss then where does your shot go? This is why the “collapse to a single room” strategy – if it’s at all possible – is so valuable. It puts every innocent BEHIND you giving you free reign to engage the bad guy as necessary and justified.

Now if you come home to find out that your house has been broken into there are a couple of things you need to do. First, when you discover that a breaking and entering (B&E) has occurred, you need to insure that the bad guy isn’t still in the house. The easiest and safest way for you to do this is to get out of the house and call 911. Let the law enforcement professionals come and check your house. Dogs have wonderful noses for such work. If you HAVE to clear your own house recognize that it takes a minimum of two people to clear most structures and some structures require a minimum of three properly trained. If you find yourself in the instance of having to search your own home, look in every space larger than a bread box for bad guys. Bad guys are quite inventive and imaginative and can do things you’d never expect. I know of an instance where a six foot eight inch tall bad guy hid under a kitchen sink – in a standard size cabinet. None of the cops on the scene could believe that the guy fit in there – but he did. Everyone ASSUMED he couldn’t so no one looked. Assumption is the mother of all screw ups.

AFTER your house has been confirmed as secure (every space bigger than a bread box has been checked at least twice) THEN you need to make a list of everything that is missing. Recognize up front that the police and your insurance company are going to want as much information as possible about every item you put on that list. They will not like you estimating value by the anal aperture extraction method (pulling it out of you @$$). It helps – with proper prior planning – to create a home inventory list that includes:
Your electronics
Your jewelry
Your weapons
Any other valuables

Make the list; take a picture of each item. Include serial numbers in the pictures if you can. Any item you have that doesn’t have a serial number you should engrave with your state driver’s license number (unless it would ruin the object). Keep that inventory – which you should update annually – in a safe place. A fire safe is good.

That last “at home” item – Outdoor Assault – is on the list and connected to B&E – kind of. The best thing you can do to avoid being assaulted on your own property as you enter or leave your home is to avoid blind spots. If you can’t avoid having the blind spots on your property, move to and from in such a manner that you stay out of lunge-distance of the blind spots. In other words, stay far enough away that if someone is hiding in the blind spot they can’t lunge and be on you. Be farther away than that.

With proper planning and landscaping you can make sure that there are no such blind spots. Now, this ties to B&E because landscaping can often hide the bad guys from anyone who is looking at your house from the roadside. If you live in a community then bad guys aren’t so eager to break into your house where they can be seen by your neighbors. They like tall bushes in front of windows; doors in unlit or poorly lit areas; garage doors that are unlocked so no one can see them trying to pry open the inner door, etc. Take a walk around your house and look for places you could hide where no one would see you if you tried to break in a window or door; ANY window or door. If you find such places, fix them in a timely fashion.

Finally, let’s briefly talk about while you’re traveling to and from work. Awareness matters. If you aren’t aware of the pending assault against you then you have no hope of avoiding it. Avoidance is the absolute best approach you can take to any situation wherein you might become a potential victim. Just don’t be there. Will to fight is what you have to have if you aren’t successful in your avoidance of becoming a victim. When you are targeted and attacked you have to be willing to fight back – with speed and violence of aggression – to escape being a victim. Sometimes that fight may involve weapons and you should carry, and be trained with, the most effective weapon you can legally possess for carry.

If you have a concealed carry permit, carry. If you don’t, make sure you have a knife. Impact weapons can be anything: canes, umbrellas, clipboards, briefcases, books, etc. If the bad guy wants to attack you with his fists and feet and you can beat him silly from three feet outside his length of reach then the fight is better for you. Knives are handy, light and easy to carry. DON’T carry a knife for defensive purposes unless you seek about the proper training first. Sure, anybody can cut anybody but you have no way of making the cuts / stabs defensively effective unless you know what you’re doing.

Carry a chemical weapon if you can. OC Spray (pepper spray) is available nationwide. Mace can be bought in many corner drug stores. HAIRSPRAY will work if that’s all you have. The key is that you have to have it easily within your reach when you need it – quite unexpectedly.

Throughout all of this I hope you’ve realized: if you don’t plan for success then you’ve (by default) planned to fail.

Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance

The OODA Loop model was developed by Col. John Boyd, USAF (Ret). When Colonel John Boyd first introduced the OODA (Observe-Orient-Decide-Act) loop concept during the Vietnam War, he was referring to the ability possessed by fighter pilots that allowed them to succeed in combat. It is now used by theU.S.  Marines and other organizations. The premise of the model is that decision making is the result of rational behavior. Problems are viewed as a cycle of Observation, Orientation (situational awareness), Decision, and Action. I believe that in order to use the OODA Loop efficiently in personal conflict, it must be used in conjunction with the Combat Mindset in order for it to be effective.

What is Combat Mindset? For the fighter, mindset is the conscious or subconscious willingness to commit harm (lethal or non-lethal) against another.  When engaging in combat, mindset, more often than not, will be the determining factor as to your success or failure, regardless of technical proficiency. Anybody can train in a martial skill, but few have the mindset and will to use their skills for killing or serious injury. Mindset’s partner is “mental trigger,” and this trigger is the defining moment that forces you to engage your opponent with the goal of injury or death.

So how do you train in Mindset? Here is how we begin the Mindset portion of our training. Remember that Mindset is just one of the 3 main principals taught at theCommonwealthCriminalJusticeAcademy.  All three include:

• Mindset
• Skills Training
• Tactics

Here is how we teach Mindset:

Since 9/11 everyone is familiar with the Color Code system used by the government (Dept. of Homeland Security) to indicate the terrorist threat level. However I was taught that the originator of the Color Code was Jeff Cooper. Upon its inception it had absolutely nothing to do with tactical situations or alertness levels. It had everything to do with the state of mind of the sheepdog.

As it was taught to me by an instructor who got it straight form Mr. Cooper, it relates to the degree of danger you are willing to do something about and which allows you move from one level of mindset to another to enable you to properly handle any given situation as it progresses. In this Cooper’s Color Code we have 4 colors that represent 4 mental states. The colors are White, Yellow,Orange, and Red. I have listed them with a definition of each:

White - Relaxed, unaware, and unprepared. If attacked in this state the only thing that may save you is the inadequacy and ineptitude of your attacker. When confronted by something nasty your reaction will probably be, “Oh my God! This can’t be happening to me.” (Sheep)

Yellow - Relaxed alertness. No specific threat situation. Your mindset is that “today could be the day I may have to defend myself.” There is no specific threat but you are aware that the world is an unfriendly place and that you are prepared to do something if necessary. You use your eyes and ears, and your carriage says “I am alert.” You don’t have to be armed in this state but if you are armed you must be in yellow. When confronted by something nasty your reaction will probably be, “I thought this might happen some day.” You can live in this state indefinitely.

Orange - Specific alert. Something not quite right has gotten your attention and you shift your primary focus to that thing. Something is “wrong” with a person or object. Something may happen. Your mindset is that “I may have to shoot that person.” Your pistol is usually holstered in this state. You can maintain this state for several hours with ease, or a day or so with effort.

Red - Fight trigger. This is your mental trigger. “If that person does X I will shoot them.” Your pistol may, but not necessarily, be in your hand.

Black – complete mental shutdown. (usually panic induced but may also result from involuntary unconsciousness)

I teach my students to always be in condition Yellow! Once you move to conditionOrangeis when I believe the OODA Loop occurs. Please also note that one of the most frequently asked questions in my training class is: Should I shoot with one eye open or two eyes open?

This is where I tell my students that in a gunfight you will not have the ability to shut off one eye, because your brain is in Observation mode and you need to be able to take in any and all information. It’s been documented that approximately 80% of the information we use to make decisions comes to us visually – through our eyes.  Using your dominate eye will be for precision or long range accurate shots only. You will most likely be shooting from the hip or Zippering your shots in this situation.

Before any of this happens, in a split second you will have gone through the first of literally hundreds of OODA Loops in any given confrontation. The reason they are called loops is because you will continue to take in information and make decisions based on that info through out the confrontation.

OODA Loop defined:

Observation - Scan the environment and gather information from it.

Orientation - Use the information to form a mental image of the circumstances. That is, synthesize the data into information. As more information is received, you “deconstruct” old images and then “create” new images. Note that different people require different levels of details to perceive an event. Often, we imply that the reason people cannot make good decisions, is that people are bad decisions makers — sort of like saying that the reason some people cannot drive is that they are bad drivers. However, the real reason most people make bad decisions is that they often fail to place the information that we do have into its proper context. This is where “Orientation” comes in. Orientation emphasizes the context in which events occur, so that we may facilitate our decisions and actions. That it, orientation helps to turn information into knowledge. And knowledge, not information, is the real predictor of making good decisions.  The more realistic your training is, the better you can empower yourself to make effective and efficient decisions in conflict.

Decision - Consider options and select a subsequent course of action.

Action - Carry out the conceived decision. Once the result of the action is observed, you start over (whether you like it or not). Note that in combat (or in any competition), you want to cycle through the four steps faster and better than the enemy, hence, it is a loop.

This is the component that enables us to make the ‘Fight or Flight” decision.  Will I stand and fight or will I tactically re-locate?

Here are a few Tactical Guidelines I teach my students:

You will not rise to the occasion: you will default to the level of training you have mastered.

Maximize you distance from danger.

Observe the enemy’s hands.

Shoot until the problem is solved. (LtCol Dave Grossman says, “Bullets don’t work, so keep shooting until you find the one that does.”)

Scan for additional / still existent threats before re-holstering.

Do NOT give up if hit with a handgun round. Most people survive being hit with a handgun round.

Finally, Conflict is inevitable; Combat is an option.  Throughout the course of our lives virtually all of us experience conflict in some way.  How we choose to deal with it is entirely our choice.

Note: most of the photographs in this article come from Armed Response, a book by David Kenik.  Armed Response is probably the most complete source of information for new defensive shooters—whether they are new to the gun or just new to the defensive aspects of the gun.

Most people get to the range now and then.  Weekly if you’re lucky and disciplined; many folks less often.  (For context, a trainer of a national-asset HRT team once told us that 200 rounds a day of practice was the minimum for that level, and 200 rounds a week the minimum for any operator at a lesser level.  Frankly, I thought he was being generous – I would have expected the numbers to be much larger.  I know of units where several thousand (handgun) rounds before lunch is common.)  Once at the range, most people tend to shoot the same routines – they have fallen into a rut.  Most practice is at 7 yards plus, and people tend to care a lot about nice, tight groups…and they practice all the little things that achieve them: sight focus, steady posture, two-handed shooting, deliberate shot release, and so on.

None of that is realistic.

Use your carry gun for training; not the gun you shoot best with.

But, “Whoa!” you say.  “I shoot IDPA (or IPSC.)  Granted that these competitive sports aren’t realistic, but at least they are more realistic than static shooting, and they certainly mix things up – no ruts here!”

Sorry.  You said it. They aren’t realistic.  And they require a significant amount of time and commitment to participate in, plus you’re operating on someone else’s schedule.  All of which makes realistic practice difficult.

So herewith 10 ways to take your irregular practice sessions and make them more realistic, with no additional time or equipment needed.  That is, to modify them so as to practice survival gun fighting…not merely shooting.

1) Move Closer   The average (mean, for you math people) gunfight happens at five feet – which means that half of them occur even closer!  I’ll bet that very few readers bother to even practice at these “ridiculously” close distances.  If all you’re trying to do is make a good shot then, agreed,  there’s no need to.  But if you’re practicing survival shooting, it’s not that easy.  The dynamics of a fight with a gun change dramatically at these extremely close quarters (ECQ).  You can’t stand still.  You can’t bring the gun up to eye level.  You can’t use two hands.  In short, you have to learn an entirely new repertoire of skills.  You have to practice fighting – not shooting.

2) Shoot from realistic ECQ positions  Clear the holster, and shoot from the a close shooting position.  That is, one-handed, with your forearm next to your ribcage (and the gun canted out slightly, for obvious reasons, unless you carry a revolver.)  This is sometimes called a “retention” position.  Pelvic shots are the most natural thing from this position.  From here, target indexing has to be done propriosepticly – that is, you have to have a good sense of where your gun is pointing because you have no visual index, and your “felt” index is tenuous and is unlikely to be recognized in the violent chaos anyway.  This is why you need to practice…despite the “can’t miss” (not!) distance  involved.

Realistic training means engaging multiple targets at distances of 5 to 8 feet (or closer).

3) Use Target Focus  Under the extreme stress of a violent encounter we are hardwired to focus on the threat.  Trying to focus on the sights is an un-natural action.  It can be trained into us, so long as we also train to keep our stress level below the “tipping” point where our sympathetic nervous system (SNS) overrides our para sympathetic nervous system (PANS).  (Training isn’t just to develop skill at shooting, it’s also to reduce our SNS response to stressful situations.)  But if you are over the tipping point – if you are into SNS override – then Mother Nature rules, and you threat focus.  This is more likely the closer you are to the violence, and the more surprised you are.  So…if this is the way you are likely to have to fight (while looking at the threat), then you need to practice that way.   But since you aren’t under extreme stress at the range, you will want to focus on the sights – which it what you’ve trained yourself to do while you’re calm.  Thus you need a trick.  The trick is to force yourself into a Zen-like concentration on the target (mimicking the overriding focus we will have on it under stress), raise the gun to eye level, (once we are past the ECQ range), and fire with tight grip on the gun – one handed.  (You will need you other hand for other things – moving as loved one out of the way, holding a child, preventing yourself from falling, etc.)  You will be amazed at how far out you can get pie-plate sized groups with this method – 10 yards is not unusual.  Colonel Applegate was right.  Imagine that!

4) Use Your Carry Gun  This sort of goes without saying.  If you carry a J-frame but practice with a 1911…well, the reality disconnect is obvious.  You’ll have to give up the performance that you’re used to at first, but you might be surprised at how well some of those little guns shoot (particularly the J-frame.)  The ability to hit A-zones at 15 yards will be of small comfort if you can’t defend yourself at two.

5) Move and Seek Cover  Don’t just stand there!  Either get to cover or move laterally – which is the single most effective thing you can do to avoid getting shot yourself.  Or even aggress on the target – that is, move towards it.  In a multiple threat situation at close quarters, moving towards one threat may be necessary to accomplish your overall goal of triumphing over them all.  But make every shot coincident with a movement of some sort.  After a little of this, standing still and shooting will seem uncomfortable.

6) Draw From the Holster  This is another obvious one, but don’t get in the habit of firing from a ready position or from the bench.  In real life, the first shot from the holster is the most important one, and firing from the holster is the most likely scenario for you as the defender – so re-holster after every string and draw to begin each one.  A range that does not permit this (shooting from the draw) is a range you may need to find a replacement for. At the very least, practice holstering and firing with a dry gun at home.  A lot.  Oh – and do this from your normal concealment garments.  No cheating.

Make your targets look more realistic without spending a ton of money.

7) Staple an Old T-Shirt Over the Target  Get used to shooting something that looks like the violent criminal you may have to shoot for real.  You don’t need to “dress” the target in an old garment, just staple one to whatever target you use.  And maybe use a copy machine to blow up a face picture of Osama Bin Laden or Adolph Hitler to life size, run off a bunch of copies, and staple them in place over the t-shirts.

8) Shoot at Multiple Targets  Do so at close range.  Attacks happen fast, up-close, and are increasingly perpetrated by multiple assailants.  So set up a few targets in random positions (positions that are safe for your range), and get used to the gross body movements that are necessary to get fast hits.  This experience is not at all like the small hip rotations that are used for multiple target engagements at longer ranges – it’s a whole new set of movement, balance and body mechanics skills to be mastered.  It’s much more physical than typical target shooting.

9) Hit the Target  Since your attack is likely to happen at touching distance, get used to integrating empty hands techniques into your shooting repertoire.  The most common technique is to strike the target – as hard as you are able or the target will stand – with your hands or feet twice or thrice prior to executing a fast draw and assessment.  You thought that carrying a gun got you an excuse slip for not learning empty hands techniques?  The facts belie that myth.  You’ll have to deal with many, if not most, attacks with empty hands just to get the moment of time necessary to access your gun.

10) Practice Dummy Gun Scenarios  Anyone can learn to shoot at paper targets, even up to the limit of realism – as per the above – that the range allows.  The next step – and the one that will determine your street results – is to practice fighting against live, thinking human beings.  You don’t need a range or even a gun for this – just a dummy gun and dummy knife or two.  Practice with a partner, one person being the bad guy and one person being him/herself.  Simulate scenarios that are realistic for your lifestyle and location.  Learn to be aware, to verbalize, to de-escalate, to find cover, to properly handle the aftermath and to fight in full living 4D color.  If you have honed your marksmanship and “hitting” ability on the range, then you can assume you will hit when your dummy gun “fires.”  Here’s your opportunity to practice all the much more complicated aspects of survival gun fighting.  This costs nothing and can be done anywhere, anytime.

More Information

Information about David Kenik’s book, Armed Response, can be found at http://www.armedresponsebook.com/