Why The Emphasis on Center Mass over Headshots?

[JM Campbell]

Except that a dead center CNS hit will drop a threat with far more certainty than a perfect COM hit.

Switches and timers. Sometimes it has to happen now.

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This statement is money in the bank.

Jack aka F2S had a very sobering discussion after class in College Station about 2 years ago, you can blaze away and miss fast, repetitive accuracy at an expedited rate guarantees survival.

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[Dagga Boy]

I am hoping NYeti will come along and chime in...

I have always found his thoughts to be very interesting considering his experience. If I remember, and feel free to correct me, the idea was: 2 hits to the upper chest, and if the head is still there... take it.

We trained at traditional failure drills extensively. Not necessarily to make that a required response, but to have my people not dump lots of rounds into something not working. The benefit was two fold. They didn't have high round count shootings and forcing lots of head shots and tight scoring made for better body hits. Those who got failures were comfortable going to the head (if the muzzle is going that way in recoil and its still there, take it). Those who needed head shots for hostage situations were comfortable taking them. We also saw all the crooks drop immediately even with non-lethal hits to the head (which is why we always did singles to the head and controlled shots). The key is to get the head fairly stationary as its ability to move rapidly is the issue with hitting it, and people tend to move it quickly when it is threatened.

Personally, the head shot is a very viable solution, but it must be trained for. I would use a direct head shot for a surprise shot in a tight situation. I had a situation where it looked like I was going to end up in the middle of an armed robbery (not on duty or in uniform). I got a side position on the BG and was focused on his ear as where I was planning shot #1 to go from the 1911 I was carrying. Just prior to things going bad, the guy turned at the last minute and saw me positioned with a barrier and I am sure he figured out exactly what I was doing just like I was sure of what he was doing. It ended up with a "just give me a water" and he walked out, but it was a case of me not wanting to give him a chance to fire.

We should be training regularly to make tight shots on any target and we need to have the mindset that when things are not going as planned, to start looking to turn the threat off in the most reliable way possible.

[hufnagel]

What would you advocate then for those who haven't trained (for whatever reason, call them the crawlers in the self-defense game... it's where I still consider myself) extensively enough to be either proficient or confident to make a head shot? Is Mozambique the place to start? Something else?

[Failure2Stop]

What would you advocate then for those who haven't trained (for whatever reason, call them the crawlers in the self-defense game... it's where I still consider myself) extensively enough to be either proficient or confident to make a head shot? Is Mozambique the place to start? Something else?

Know what distance you can hit a 3" circle, on demand. Work on doing it faster and from further than where you are now.

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[DocGKR]

Good advice. 3x5" cards are a great practice tool for this type of shooting...