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Mr_White
06-12-2015, 01:31 PM
Week 116: Draws and Challenges Dry

Results may be posted until July 12th, 2015.

For this drill, all you need is your pistol, a target, and a safe direction. This is going be a dry practice drill that almost everyone can participate in regardless of range restrictions.

At bare minimum, verify gun is unloaded, have no live ammo anywhere in the dry practice area, and keep muzzle in a safe direction. But there is more you can do to ensure safety in dry practice. Please also read Robust Dry Practice Safety Principles and Procedure following the drill description.

Designed by Gabe White
Target: Any silhouette target
Range: Shooter's choice
Rounds: 0

We are going to practice drawing and assuming various ready/challenge positions, drawing and pressing the trigger, and drawing and starting, but then rescinding, a trigger press.

First, pick two ready positions. Doesn't really matter which ones, but pick two that you personally use.

Next, complete as many cycles of the following drill as you want, until you get physically or mentally tired of it. It is fine to break the drill up over multiple sessions. Instead of doing a certain number of repetitions, just keep track of how much time you spend doing the drill.

One cycle of the drill is:

A. Acquire master grip on your holstered pistol but keep it holstered. You may optionally verbalize or include defensive body language such as extending the support hand in the universal sign for 'stop, stay back.'

B. Draw to the first ready position you chose. Your finger should be in register the whole time and you should be able to see the entire silhouette target from your ready position (or at minimum, be able to see the silhouette's hands, were they hanging naturally at its sides.) You may optionally verbalize.

C. Draw to the second ready position you chose. Your finger should be in register the whole time and you should be able to see the entire silhouette target from your ready position (or at minimum, be able to see the silhouette's hands, were they hanging naturally at its sides.) You may optionally verbalize.

D. Draw to sights and press one dry shot. You choose what part of the target to aim at (body or head.) You may optionally verbalize during the draw, but don't delay your dry shot waiting on the optional verbalization.

E. Draw to sights and begin to press one dry shot. But before you complete the trigger press, we're going to imagine that the situation has changed and you no longer wish to fire, so immediately stop pressing the trigger, put your finger in register, and bring the gun to any of your chosen ready positions. You may optionally verbalize.

Options and considerations:

Careful with the verbalization. If you are practicing in a place where there may be people unaware of what you are doing who might hear the verbalization and call 911 or otherwise intervene, please omit the verbalization.

You may use concealment or not.

You can use whatever hand start positions you want.

This drill is designed to cover a range of the challenges/draws that a person might use. It's fine if you want to spend extra time and focus on a specific part or parts of the overall drill.

Please report: gun and holster used, concealment garment (if any), ready positions used, and anything you noticed during the drill.


Training with firearms is an inherently dangerous activity. Be sure to follow all safety protocols when using firearms or practicing these drills. These drills are provided for information purposes only. Use at your own risk.


Robust Dry Practice Safety Principles and Procedure (the closer you follow this, the fewer opportunities you will have to ND)


Principles:

Allow no distractions – focus exclusively on the task at hand

Keep muzzle in a safe direction

Use correct trigger finger discipline

Verify no live ammo in gun, on person, or in the dry practice area

Use dedicated dry practice targets that are put away until you consciously choose to begin dry practice, and taken down when you consciously end dry practice

Use dedicated dry practice magazines and dummy rounds/inert training cartridges that stay in the dry practice area (if you use any magazine or cartridges)


Procedure:

Unload gun in a location other than the dry practice area

Leave live ammo, and magazines with live ammo, completely outside the dry practice area

Enter the dry practice area

Verify gun is unloaded, that any magazines do not contain live ammo, and that any cartridges present are inert/dummy cartridges

Consciously choose to begin dry practice

Put up dry practice targets

Do your dry practice

Take down dry practice targets and put them away

Consciously choose to end dry practice

Exit the dry practice area and do something unrelated for a few minutes

Return gun to location and condition of your choosing

SouthNarc
06-12-2015, 01:48 PM
Excellent contribution Gabe!

Mr_White
06-12-2015, 01:58 PM
Excellent contribution Gabe!

Thank you Craig!!!!

I think we can get a little progression of dry and live drills going over the next few weeks to work on some of these nuances (those that can be worked in dry and live fire anyway.)

s0nspark
06-20-2015, 10:18 AM
Gun: Springfield XDs from Sticky holster (backup)
Ready positions: low ready, compressed high ready

I really like this kind of drill... drills often just focus on shooting but, as we know, a situation that calls for presenting the gun may not require shooting it. Nice to see a drill preparing for that scenario!

I plan to make this part of my regular dry fire routine, especially once my new JMCK holsters arrive :)

Range1
06-30-2015, 06:48 AM
Gun: Glock 23 from Safariland ALS holster using a vest

Ready positions: low ready, compressed high ready

Tried to work this in for about 2 to 4 minutes each of my regular dry fire sessions. While giving verbal commands and exercising good trigger control is mandatory in real situations it is also one of the hardest things to practice. It is just very difficult to be motivated to talk to paper targets. We found this to be the case also with the officers on my previous department. We were constantly reminding them to give good, clear, concise and professional verbal commands as well as presenting them with no shoot situations. While the practicing this is hard to do it does and has paid huge dividends in the "real" world for our guys.

Clobbersaurus
07-01-2015, 06:41 PM
I did some of this today, on evolution E, my Beretta went to half cock a few times. It created an interesting thought process, as going back to a compressed ready position I would catch myself decocking reflexively. In that situation I don't think it would be necessary or proper, which is something to chew on for a bit.

Good drill Mr. White!

s0nspark
07-02-2015, 07:44 AM
I plan to make this part of my regular dry fire routine, especially once my new JMCK holsters arrive :)

Gun: HK VP9 + APL from JMCK light bearing IWB V2 holster
Ready positions: low ready, compressed high ready

New holsters arrived about a week ago - started with the IWB and I've been using this drill to kick off the adjustment process... I definitely have some adjusting to do.

One additional thing I've come to appreciate about the 'no shoot' part of this drill is that I don't have to rack the slide after every iteration! I always worry a little bit about that becoming a practice scar - "he was being robbed, drew his gun and fired one shot and then racked the slide, letting the guy stab him... weird."

I guess that is really just an argument for variety in dry fire drills, though.

Mr_White
07-02-2015, 09:46 AM
I guess that is really just an argument for variety in dry fire drills, though.

Totally agree.

scw2
07-08-2015, 08:27 PM
Wanted to do some extra practice so will be doing these series of drills. Will be adding in and mixing weeks 117 and 119 in a few days.

Gun: CZ 75 SP-01 with Bladetech OWB holster
Ready positions: retention position, compressed high ready

In my first class I learned how to draw from holster but was disengaging the safety as I acquired the master grip. I decided to delay it until after the gun clears the holster and it's pointed up-range since I feel like that's safer, so getting extra reps in will be good. Also with the AIWB thread I've been making sure to ride the hammer and engaging the safety and riding that with my index finger in register under that as I holster.

Observation not during this drill when I timed myself for the first time ever 2 days ago, I was shooting with a par time at ~3-4 yards for 1 shot from this same setup. Under the time pressure once I accidentally fired as I was extending as I was prepping the trigger. When I read this drill I figured it would be good practice since there may be a situation where you would want to stop the trigger press. I also realized that despite the unexpected shot, it was still relatively on target and would have been in center of mass. This reinforced that making sure your finger is on the trigger as you press out if the pistol is on your target, but getting your finger on the trigger any earlier in a stressful situation could be a recipe for hitting yourself or a bystander.

Finally, it's good practice to verbalize and also scan hands for threats in our dry practice.

Skeeter
07-08-2015, 10:03 PM
Gun/Holster: Glock 19 from AIWB Keeper holster with shirt cover.
Ready positions: low ready, retracted ready.

Good drill, I like it. Dry fire is a lot easier and cheaper to do. Used laser ammo for the dry press, lots of reps. Did about 5 reps of everything else.

Thanks!

Mr_White
07-12-2015, 11:29 PM
Gen3 G34 out a Keeper, polo shirt, used extended and compressed ready positions. Did a few cycles of it, here is one:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bE6MndKxW4E