Practicing in the Resource-Constrained Environment article

[HeadHunter]

My latest article on Personal Defense Network.


Most people, myself included, live in what I call the “resource-constrained environment.” While some people have access to a good training facility, or at least a gun club, that’s not usually the case. Generally, people who own firearms for personal defense have limited resources to train and practice with. Those resources consist, for the most part, of one lane on an indoor range, one or two boxes of ammunition per month, and a couple of hours or a few minutes here and there when they are away from the range.
http://www.personaldefensenetwork.com/articles/tactics-defensive-issues/practicing-in-the-resource-constrained-environment/

[EVP]

Thanks for the great article.

Good stuff!

[Ga Shooter]

Very good article. Thanks for some great ideas.

[NickA]

As usual a great thread pops up on something I've been thinking about lately; my main constraint is simply the time to get out to a range.
Thanks HeadHunter.

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[HeadHunter]

Yesterday, a friend was telling me about different approaches to live fire practice he has observed.

For those of you who have to use one lane of an indoor range and aren't allowed to draw, I would be interested to hear how you approach your practice.

[ToddG]

Not counting teaching time, I usually get to a wide open outdoor bay once a month from March through November, whereas I go to a public indoor range twice per week all year long on average. Up until last year, I didn't even have access to the outdoor range and essentially all of my practice was done in one lane at the NRA.

Having said that, the NRA Range's rule is that as long as your muzzle stays downrange and you hit the backstop you can do pretty much anything you want, especially if the ROs know you. I can draw, rapid fire, practice most one-handed manipulations, even shoot on the move as long as I stay in my little 4'W x 5'L box.

[Corey]

...... even shoot on the move as long as I stay in my little 4'W x 5'L box.

Having similar range constraints I would like to hear how you do that. One range I practice on the "box" is so narrow that I sometimes whack an elbow on the wall during manipulations.

[ToddG]

If your shooting box is smaller than 4x5, it will be a lot different. As it is, I tend to start aimed in on the gun or even sometimes firing the first shot from a static position, then firing one or two more while taking 1-2 steps toward the opposite corner of the box. I'll typically do 30rd in each direction (rear right to front left, rear left to front right, front left to rear right, front right to rear left).

[167]

Yesterday, a friend was telling me about different approaches to live fire practice he has observed.

For those of you who have to use one lane of an indoor range and aren't allowed to draw, I would be interested to hear how you approach your practice.

The closest range to where I live (about 10 minutes) is an indoor range that doesn't allow drawing from the holster. The guys who run the range know me by first name, and they were comfortable with my skill level and use to let me draw from the holster anyway but earlier this year asked me to stop because they didn't want other patrons watching me and trying to do the same. So instead I just run everything from a high compressed ready since I rotate through that position (or pretty close to it) on the draw stroke anyway. If there is no one else on the range, I may try to sneak in a couple draws under the radar;) I then follow that up with a lot of dryfire draws at home. It probably isn't the ideal solution, but as close as I can get.

Occassionally I get to an outdoor range that is further away that allows drawing from the holster, shooting on the move and more stuff like that.

[guymontag]

Great article!



For those of you who have to use one lane of an indoor range and aren't allowed to draw, I would be interested to hear how you approach your practice.

Although I seldom practice at the indoor range, I would load the firearm, de-cock or activate the safety and bring the pistol up from hip level (table level) into a high compressed ready while mimicking the draw stroke and drive the gun to the target, with the muzzle always in a safe direction. When reloading, my support hand would dismount to catch the falling magazine (to not allow it to fall forward of the line), place the magazine on the table, clutch the new loaded magazine, bring it to an imagined magazine pouch location, and then insert it into the weapon. It was the beginning of visualization for me haha.

The range employees watched me, on camera and in person, and let it all fly.

[Corey]

For those of you who have to use one lane of an indoor range and aren't allowed to draw, I would be interested to hear how you approach your practice.

There is one range I use occasionally that does not allow holsters. I practice from ready position on that range. Another range I have been to in my area (exactly twice in 4 years) not only does not allow holsters but has a “no more than one shot per second” rule that is strictly enforced and the ROs will get after you for “aggressive” shooting stances or techniques. Only thing you can work on there is basic marksmanship.
*
Todd, thanks for the tip on practicing SOTM indoors. That will work at one indoor range I use. My primary indoor range gives you too small of a box to try that, but* as long as you stay in the box and are safe they don’t care about anything else. I have learned to keep my workspace compact there (at least that is the excuse I use). It is my primary practice range simply because it is only 10 minutes from my work and it only costs $6.00 to shoot there. Time and money are two big factors for my live fire schedule.

[justcor]

I thought I remember a thread where someone posted a reduced PDF target specifically to be use at 7-10ft. After some searching I am not finding it. I thought this would be as good a thread as any to ask if someone could point me to this target I'd really appreciate it.

[HeadHunter]

Here's one for you.

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s91/HeadHunter_album/Targets/dbtgt_16-001.jpg

[HeadHunter]

Here's another.

http://i150.photobucket.com/albums/s91/HeadHunter_album/Targets/sngtgt13-001.jpg

[Cowtown44]

I was going to start a new thread with this title but this thread seems appropriate. I think my indoor range is severely limiting my progress. Here's why: small box, no holsters, certainly no concealment, one shot/second, absolutely no rapid fire (first time it happens you're gone), double taps are allowed. How's a person supposed to make progress with these rules? I do have access to an action pistol bay but it's 1.5 hr away with no traffic. Has anyone ever been successful changing range rules or getting special exceptions? Just for kicks, I'm going to a discussion with the manager to better understand their position which I'm sure has to do with liability. If it's just liability, why don't all ranges have such restrictive rules?

[ToddG]

Those rules are promulgated by the NRA, believe it or not, and were designed primarily around outdoor ranges in "suburban sprawl" areas. You know, the range was there 100 years ago but now there's a neighborhood built around it. In order to minimize noise and chance of a round leaving the range (impacting a neighboring house), a ton of very bad rules were invented. Then they became the standard and tons of places, even ranges out in the boonies or indoor ranges, adopted them.

Ironically, the NRA's own indoor range at its own headquarters has none of these rules.

[CCT125US]

Bumping this thread to further a discussion around the ammo shortage of 2020. I had a wall of text that got lost, and am currently dealing with a migraine. Looking forward to a meaningful discussion on paths forward to maintaining proficiency in these lean times of ammo availability

[RJ]

I tried to design a Dot Torture you could shoot with 20 rounds:

20 round Dot Torture "Lite" target, SFA:

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?2124-Printable-Targets&p=1127187&viewfull=1#post1127187

20 round Dot Torture "Lite" target, DA/SA:

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?2124-Printable-Targets&p=1129062&viewfull=1#post1129062

[Guerrero]

We've also been throwing around ideas in THIS THREAD (https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?45416-100-is-the-new-350).