I apologize ahead of time for any vagueness, omissions, or mistakes in the AAR, as my notes are a bit incomplete, due to the fast tempo of the class and various times of reduced visibility due to lack of lighting.
This was my first course with an emphasis on vehicles. I had small amount of prior knowledge of vehicle ballistics through online reading and informal discussions with well-versed acquaintances; I have also taken multiple pistol courses from various well-regarded instructors, including several low-light courses, some edged weapons work, some combatives, and one carbine course.Low Light Vehicle CQB is an accelerated shooting class focused on positional shooting and critical light manipulations in and around vehicles.
Students will push the boundaries of “traditional” cover and concealment utilizing various cars and trucks in a true 3D environment. Drills will incorporate adverse shooting platforms with critical weapon employment while engaging threats in, around, from, over and under vehicles. Lighting principles and threat assessment all play a major factor in this course. Live ballistic demos with a variety of ammunition will be conducted as the class explores ballistic deflection, deformation, penetration and terminal effect in direct correlation to various vehicle mediums.
I used an H&K P30LS with the Grayguns Reduced Reset Carry Perfection Package carried in condition 1, with an X400 Ultra - Green laser mounted with the DG-11 and zeroed for 25 yards. Sights were a Trijicon RMR RM06 mounted by L&M Precision, with a Dawson Precision suppressor height front sight and Ameriglo suppressor height rear sight mounted behind the RMR. Lube was FIREClean, magazines were modified with Taylor Freelance Border Special +5 magazine extentions with the included Wolff springs (these were the first generation product that I loaded only up to +4), carried using Kytex Shooting Gear open top magazine carriers. My handheld was the Surefire E1B, slightly modified with a zip tie and two Scünci No Damage elastic hair bands to form a jury rigged lanyard. For the TD1, besides the usage of an addition of a second magazine carrier, removal of the phone from my belt, and replacement of my low-cut sneakers for Salomon trail runners, my set-up was identical to my EDC: appendix carry with a slightly modified RCS Phantom at the 0100 position, t-shirt with relatively form-fitting jeans, The Wilderness Ti Instructor belt, SFB, folders, etc. PPE used were Oakley M-Frames 3.0, MSA Sordin Supreme Pro-X with gel earpads and OC Tactical headband, and Arc'teryx Knee Caps. Round count of the P30LS was 14532 at the start of the class.
William Petty was the primary instructor, with Matthew Shockey as the AI. Class started at about 1000. Weather was very warm, reaching the mid 80s °F, with high humidity, wind, and intermittent cloud cover. It had been raining regularly for the entire week, hence the humidity, along with making the sand on the range damp and clumpy. There were 11 students in the class, 1 active duty member of the military (MP position), 3 LEOs, and the rest were civilians. All of the students had some prior trainig of sorts. There were 2 S&W M&Ps 9mm, an XD (or XDm?), a Wilson Combat 1911, an H&K P30LS, and the rest were Glocks.
We started out in the classroom, with Will giving his background: he started out as a LEO in Albuquerque. He noted that while there were many vehicle classes being taught, most were geared toward a team-based assault, as seen in military, SWAT, or contractor environments, but such techniques were usually not very applicable to the average patrol officer or civilian. As a firearms instructor, he also noted a large amount of training being done is not reflective of reality. After several vehicle involved OISes in which there were LODDs, Will took a hard look at the training that had been taught about vehicle CQB, combined with his exposure when he worked overseas with various foreign units, and his own informal ballistic testing, he created the vehicle CQB training program he now used. Notably, this was only the fifth open enrollment class for this particular subject, though Will had taught this many times for LE-only audiences. Despite coming from an LE background, Will stated that what was being taught in the class was perfectly applicable to any audience, as gunfighting around the car is basically the same whether one is military, LE, or civilian. Still, because there are obviously physical differences between different set-ups, e.g., EDC vs. duty belt vs. war belt, Will encouraged us to run the drills in the kit that we would benefit from the most.
Will then had us consider how much time we spend in or around cars, along with other outside considerations that might force one to end a threat as soon as possible, instead of retreating or prolonging the fight, e.g., we're with family, etc. He then put on a slide show to show us some basic principles. CQB is defined as being short duration, high intensity, and close range. Given the circumstances, most of the video that are accessible to civilians will be LE dash cams. Will then showed us video of a traffic stop, in which multiple rounds were dumped through a window.
He then went over the principles of CQB:
- It is still, and always, about the gun, not the vehicle. It doesn't matter how good your vehicle tactics are because it's the gun that solves the problem.
- Shooting around, above, or under is always better than through vehicle parts. Shooting through barriers invariably lead to deflection, which alters trajectories and ballistics, and can also degrade bullet performance due to deformation of the round. Given the choice, one wants the least amount of outside influences between the target and one's round once it has left the barrel.
- Offset properly to better utilize lighting. One wants to maximize the amount of light being sent downrange, rather than having it wasted on splashing back on one's self.
- Get in and out of positions with a quickness. A classic issues of action vs. reaction; it is always better to force the opponent to react to you rather than the other way around.
- Rounds skip, but don't let that hinder you. Gunfighting is inherently dangerous, so do not become paralyzed when rounds start skipping, as one must act to prevail.
- Make your drills realistic. If one is a civilian, running handgun drills with a plate carrier is not very reflective of real life. A patrolman doesn't roll up to traffic stops with a carbine tucked between their legs, so they should be made to fight toward one if one is needed in a drill.
- Vehicles can be used as an excellent weapon, should the opportunity allow.
- Keep is simple. Taking off a seat belt is taking off a seat belt, it's something everyone does every day, and usually has zero issues. Same thing goes for opening doors, etc. There is no reason to overcomplicate things.
- Vehicle anatomy plays a vital role.
- Learn to fight in the position you find yourself in, rather than the position you like to be in. Most anyone can make decent hits when standing on the square range.
- High ground wins fights. Being in an elevated position gives one a position of dominance. Note that high ground can mean many things, such as someone standing vs. someone prone, someone in a lifted truck vs. someone in a compact sedan, etc.
We then went over the safety rules. Will runs a hot range, and stressed for us to know the condition of one's weapon. He stated that that one should always index in the safest position possible, and noted that this may not always be down, despite what many other instructors tend to insist on. Weapon manipulations were to be done only as fast as one could go while still being in control; this was a training class and not a competition, so there were no prizes for being the fastest. He instructed us to always consciously work the trigger and any mechanical safeties, especially during movements and barricades. Always PID the target, its angle of engagement, and the offset. For any drills that have a no-shoot, shooting a no-shoot will automatically result in being DQed for that drill. We were to always have eye pro and ear pro on while on the range unless told otherwise. Everyone was a safety officer, so if seeing something unsafe, speak up. Any call for a ceasefire should cause an automatic stopping of any shooting that was occurring. There were multiple IFAKs and FAKs available between the instructors and the students, while there was information about Life Flight LZ coordinates printed out. If LifeFlight was not available due to weather conditions, we had directions to the closest trauma center printed out, too. We turned in our waivers at this time, then headed out to the range.
I had printed out and filled out my waiver, but had forgotten to bring it. I seem to always forget at least one thing for every class.
The first drill of the day was a simple standing drill, 3 to 5 rounds to the A zone of the cardboard target from ~7 yards. After engaging the target, Will stated that we should make sure to follow the target down to the ground with the weapon, then scan and assess, including the rear. Keep the finger off the trigger while following the target down, since no decision to shoot has been made, and there is no time lost between keeping the finger on or off the trigger. Will's reasoning for a scan and assess was rather unique, though, compared to most instructors. Besides the obvious searching for more threats and better positioning, he was also very concerned about finding friendlies, particularly those that might be trying to get in the fight and might end up accidentally shooting you. Will noted that only 10% of OISes involved multiple threats (which is not to say multiple threats were engaged; many situations is simply one being shot while another surrenders or flees). Thus, more targets is definitely a consideration, but not the primary one in his view. Will also prefers that we come back out against the target one last time after finishing our scan and assess, before we holster. This drill was run five times.
Will's ideas on why one should scan and assess was definitely something I had not thought seriously about before. Like many others, my reasons for scanning and assessing were rooted in what conventional wisdom said, that you should be looking for more threats. This certainly gave me much to think about, and it also became very clear later on why Will considered such a thing important. As for the shooting itself, it was fairly trivial, as it should have been, since there were no time constraints.
Will then ran a demo of sorts, where he illustrated two different speeds in which he shot the target based off of the shot timer response. He kept all of his manipulations across both speeds, but one was substantially quicker than the other (~.10 seconds vs. ~.50); the difference in speed was due to the fact that in the slower iteration, Will was shooting only after the entire beep of the shot timer finished, while in the faster iteration, he shot immediately upon perceiving the beep. Will did this to illustrate that to have an overall faster time, one can react immediately to a stimulus, whether it be a shot timer or a gun shot, rather than waiting for the stimulus to end before initiating a reaction. As he put it, it's far better to react quicker than to go faster.
We then started to get into more unconventional positions. Beyond the simple kneel, Will also advocates the squat, which is generally not seen very often. This is because the lower one gets while posted up on a vehicle, the less one can see usually, and the less mobility one has. In Will's experience in FoF CQB around vehicles, people who tend to kneel usually are dominated by people who tend to squat. We then proceeded to run the same drill as before, except we were to go from a standing position to a squat; Will advised us that it would be much more efficient to draw while squatting, rather than trying to do them as two separate actions. When coming back up from the squat, we were to scan and assess at both levels. Will did not plan on drilling the squat too much, simply because it is a very fatiguing position, and overdoing it would leave us too fatigued to properly utilize it in the more complex drills we'd have later on. He also touched up on at this time the reason he chose 3 to 5 rounds on target, rather than the standard two: the simple fact is, most people take much more than two rounds to make them a non-threat. However, burning 10 to 15 rounds on a target would make the round count for the class excessively high, so the 3 to 5 was a happy medium of sorts.
For me, it was rather difficult to draw and squat the same time, as I carried appendix, and I tended to lean forward while squatting, thus blocking my draw stroke. I tended to draw first than squat.
Next, Will went over kneeling. Traditionally speaking, it has been taught that one should step forward or step back to kneel. However, this can cause issues when working with a partner (particularly applicable to LE patrol), as stepping forward or back could impede your partner's movement, or when in an enclosed area (e.g., parking lot), where there simply isn't enough space to properly step forward or back. Also, utilizing the standard step kneeling position, one is quite stable forward and backwards, but is quite unstable laterally. Lastly, it tends to be a very painful position when conducted on concrete without kneepads. Instead, Will prefers an alternate method, where one breaks the position of the ankle on the leg that's going down, and then drops straight down, so that the inside of the calf and knee are against the ground. Not only is this space efficient, but this also allows one to load the leg where the knee is still up, so that mobility is retained, as it is much faster to get up and move about. Of course, to use this position, one would need to be standing with a good base, with some blading to begin with, with the front leg loaded. However, this position naturally looks rather aggressive, and is conducive going hands-on, which is typically how patrol would most likely be solving their problems anyway. Also, Will noted that one should stay low if there is a need to switch knees, as one might need to do when switching sides of the barricade. Instead of standing up and then getting back down, one can simply switch knees. We then did several dry runs of kneeling while drawing, before going live for about five reps. Will also noted that one should not holster while still kneeling, as a target can go down behind concealment, and we can't ID that issue until we have stood up, especially if the target goes down not due to one's bullets, but perhaps to their own movement issues; Will has seen video where LEOs have engaged a target, the target falls, but because they trip over something rather than being hit, and the officer assumes that the target is neutralized when it's not.
Being young, fairly flexible (enough to be considered an oddity among the males at my BJJ gym), and having knee protection, I had a tendency to force the kneel while my legs were too close together, so that while I was able to get down, it was rather awkward, as I'd have a lot of tension going on. Haver I started more consciously making myself get in a better position before kneeling, it felt much more stable
Will then went over the double kneel, where both knees are on the ground. While inferior to the single kneel, as it has much less mobility, as Will noted, while walking or standing normally, it's a far easier position to get into than the single kneel. He also instructed us to post one leg out, so as to get into a single kneel, before standing up, rather than trying to simply rock our way up, as the latter can be very fatiguing. While actually in the double kneel, one should have their toes loaded, rather than having the whole top of the feet laying directly on the ground, that way one can push off easier, while also helping prevent ankle injuries. It was noted that these would be the same kind of kneeling as used with using long guns. Will also stated that he doesn't like to get into too many different positions, due to issues with Hick's Law, which essentially states that the more options one has for solving a problem, the longer it'll take to make a decision. Obviously, some options are needed in order to solve a problem, but too many can cause analysis paralysis, and as CQB is defined as being short duration, one does not have much time to make a decision as to what option to pick.
Will also went over the idea of "combat effective" or "combat accurate". In his experience, those phrases are generally used by people with weaker shooting abilities trying to mask their weakness. Will believes that one should strive to make one's groups as tight as possible, that maximizing accuracy should be the goal in training, as speed will come naturally while under stress. Will preferred to state that one is either accurate, or one isn't, no in-betweens.
At this point, 1215, we broke for lunch.
We resumed class at 1335, and went into talking about prone. While prone is obviously and undesirable position for the most part in CQB (high ground wins fights), one may very well still find themselves in it, whether it be due to falling, injuries, trying to shoot under a car, etc. Thus, one should be in prone only for the temporary advantages it might offer, or else if one ends up there by circumstances. There are three basic types of prone, depending on one's position relative to the ground: being on one's back, being on one's side, and being on one's stomach. Being on one's stomach is the worse place to be, as it is very difficult to track a target that is moving left to right; we did not go over it much, and nor was it utilized except by accident during the various drills later on.
Next up was urban prone, or the rollover prone, which can track targets much better. The key part to remember about urban prone is to have the top leg forward, to minimize any tension that your hips would generate in relation to your chest, as you would then have to fight to keep the pistol from being driving off target. Will noted that many people will try to break the wrists and cant the head somewhat while in urban prone, which reduces one's ability to manage recoil and track targets; instead, one should keep the gun and head parallel to the deck. Another consideration for urban prone is how it can be used to shoot under vehicles, while such a thing may not be feasible while being prone on one's stomach, simply due to the length of a 30 round magazine. When going done to urban prone, one keeps to gun forward with the strong hand, the weak hand goes down to keep the body posted as it goes down ("under" the strong arm if laying on the strong side), then the top leg goes forward to stabilize the position. To get up, one uses the support hand to push one's body up into a kneeling position, while rotating the body behind the gun, as the gun is pointed forward at all times. One should be careful with how forward the top leg is placed, as there is the possibility of muzzling one's self when using an SBR or handgun when tracking a target. We then did dry runs using two lines, first going to the right, then the left. After the dry runs, we then went for live runs, firing three rounds into the pelvic girdle of the targets, strictly to minimize the possibility of sending a round over the berm, rather than any real belief about the viability of the pelvic girdle as a preferred target. As Will stated, there are only two ways to end a fights once the enemy is committed: either a CNS hit or else bleeding out, and given the difficulty of hitting the head in a real situation, the optimal target is the upper thoracic cavity. This was first run on the right side, then the left, then transitioning between the two.
Like my first exposure to urban prone, I would occasionally make the mistake of putting the top leg back instead of foward. Also, the transitioning from side to side on the urban prone gave us a first taste of the physicality this course would entail. Also, given the pressures on the shoulder, my index was a bit off, which made finding the dot on the RMR much slower, a staple criticism of pistol slide-mounted RDSes.
Finally, Will went over what he considered to be the best prone position, being on one's back (although technically speaking, that's the opposite of being prone). His argument is based on the idea that vision is the primary source of information in a gunfight, and so stomach has the least amount of visibility, while urban prone affords about 50% visibility, and supine gives a full cone of vision. Given how information wins fights, and how one can't solve problems without information, Will argues that supine is indeed the best prone position in CQB. When in a supine position, keep one's head up. In order to draw in a supine, for appendix, simply drop the legs down so that one doesn't muzzle them, then draw. For those that have a strong side holster, they will have to pop the hip and chest up a bit so that the arm has enough room to draw the pistol properly. Again, we shot at the pelvic girdle for safety reasons. While starting in the supine, we transitioned to kneeling and urban prone throughout each iteration of the drill.
Again, the transitioning required some degree of athleticism to pull off.
We then moved on to vehicle ballistics. The most obvious thing is to first define cover, and how it differs from concealment. Cover, as defined by Will, is something that protects you from the threat, while concealment merely denies your threat information about you. Next up, Will discussed core-jacket separation, which is when a round impacts an intermediate barrier and has separation between the lead core and copper jacket. Bonded ammunition uses bullets in which the jacket and the core have been, well, bonded together through an electrical or electrochemical process. Will also noted that core-jacket separation happened quite often even with bonded rounds, despite what ammuntion reps and conventional wisdom stated. He then gave a basic overview of kinetic energy, which he defined as being the amount of work a body in motion (the fired bullet in our case) can perform. The equation for kinetic energy is KE = (1/2) * mass * velocity ^ 2. Velocity is generally measured in FPS, while mass is in grains. Thus, a 115 gr. bullet travelling at 1200 FPS would have less kinetic energy than a 124 gr. bullet travelling at 1200 FPS. Since core-jacket separation would entail the loss of mass from the bullet, it is obviously an undesirable thing to occur. And since we cannot control the speed of the bullet when shooting the gun, we can only control the weight of the bullet, by making sure it doesn't hit any intermediate barriers that might cause core-jacket separation.
Conventional wisdom states that the only places that provide cover on the car is the engine block and the wheels. However, Will noted that the purpose of a vehicle is transport and protect. So the question then became, which areas of the car was designed to absorb kinetic energy in order to try and keep the occupants safe? Will figured that the various pillars of the car would be excellent at absorbing kinetic energy, and so he started to shoot various rounds into the A-pillar, with the hope that a round would be able to punch through both A frames and then hit the target set up on the other side of the vehicle (a 2007 Volvo S70), starting with 9mm Para out of a Glock 17.
The first round was simple ball 115 gr. Despite conventional wisdom stating that ball is superior for intermediate barrier threats, the round did not exit the first A-pillar, and exhibited significant core-jacket separation. The Hornady Critical Defense 135 gr. went deeper into the A-pillar, but again did not make it all the way through. Again, core-jacket separation. The same with Winchester SXT 147 gr., did not exit the first A-pillar, exhibited core-jacket separation. Will then noted that this behavior with the A-pillar was not unique to the Volvo, but across almost all road-worthy vehicles, due to DoT regulations and standards. At this point, it was satisfactorily shown that the pillars on a car would make great cover against 9mm.
The next step up would obviously be the .40 S&W, which is often selected by LEAs for their supposed improvement over 9mm Para for barrier penetration. A Glock 22 shooting ball, Winchester SXT 180 gr., and Hornady Critical Duty 175 gr. all failed to fully penetrate the A-pillar, and all exhibited core-jacket separation. Likewise, .45 ACP did not perform any better, at least out of a Commander length Wilson Combat. Some sort of Wilson Combat hollow point performed extremely poorly, penetrating very little and exhibiting large amount of core-jacket separation, while the soft point round merely left a dent and a blemish against the A-pillar. A .357 Mag Hydra-Shok 158 gr. faired little better. Ultimately, Will's point was that no pistol caliber was going to be able to penetrate both A pillars, especially when most were struggling to fully penetrate even one. Will commented that he found it somewhat ironic that one of the parts of tactical shooting that's supposedly to be so rigorously tested, the ballistics, is in actually just as full of myths and dogma.
Next, we moved up to rifle rounds. Using a 16" barreled AR, 55 gr. ball penetrated the first pillar fine, but did not make it to the second pillar, instead fragmenting all over the inside of the car. Hornady TAP 55 gr., XM855, and Federal Fusion MSR 62 gr. all also managed to penetrate the first pillar, but none went through the second. One of more interesting things seen was a series of striations on the windshield, near the opposite side of the car that was being shot (toward the second A beam); Will explained this was rounds skipping against the inside of the windshield. It was also noted that window tint does nothing ballistically, but that the new DoT standards that call for laminated glass on the side windows would definitely change things up quite a bit.
We then brought out an 18" 12-gauge shotgun. The 1 oz. slug failed to fully penetrate the first pillar, much to most everyone's surprise; in fact, the #00 8-pellet low-recoil buckshot that followed penetrated deeper, even though it also failed to penetrate completely. Will explained that this was because the slug was made mostly of soft lead, so it deformed rapidly and thus quickly dumped all its energy, while the pellets were usually made of hardened or coated lead, and thus punched through a bit more. Again, it would appear to be that the pillars could easily provide cover for buckshot and standard slugs. It was also noted that there was minimal spalling, which Will explained as being a by-product of the fact that the pillars were designed to crumple under impact.
We then tried the 18" .308 bolt gun using FGMM 168 gr., which was also stopped in the first pillar. Will showed us the failure point of the pillars when using 55 gr. ball: using a 16" AR and standing about 3 yards away, it took him roughly 60 rounds in order to punch through both sides of the B-pillar to get a hit on the target, even while holding a group about an inch in diameter. Will also reminded us that the pillars didn't have to worked strictly horizontal, i.e., only A-pillar to A-pillar; instead, it could be worked A-pillar to B-pillar or D-pillar to C-pillar, etc. One could basically try and use the openings between the pillars almost like competition shooting ports. He also noted that with sound dampening materials, side curtain airbags, the new honeycomb structures that better absorb impact, etc., would all increase the amount of punishment the pillars could take.
The final round tested was the Brenneke Special Forces Maximum Barrier Penetration Magnum, for the 12-gauge; this was saved, since this was a speciality round designed to penetrate intermediate barriers (42.5" of penetration when used against bare gel). However, it still failed to make it past the first B-pillar, being stopped by the seat-belt mechanism. Will then made the note that cover doesn't have to necessarily stop the round. For example, if one is in a position by the windshield and the round is consistently being deflected, does the windshield not serve as a piece of cover?
Most of the students were extremely shocked at the amount of punishment that the pillars could take. I personally was less shocked, but only because I had heard Matt talk about it many times, and had also cut up various cars during my extrication training, so I had an idea of just how much junk was in a pillar. I was honestly surprised at how poor the Brenneke SFMBPM performed, though, as I had provided the round and was expecting it penetrate at least one pillar. The fact that it took basically two whole mags in order to create a hole to hit the target just once also surprised me. Either way, even with the prior knowledge I had, it was a very eye opening demo, as it's one thing to hear about something that defies conventional wisdom, and another to see it first hand.
Next, we tested car doors. Using 9mm ball through a Glock 17, Will placed 3 evenly spaced shots near the top of the door, 4 through the middle, and 3 again through the bottom. 8 rounds made it through, which Will said was unusual, since the average is around 5 or 6, but either way.
After that, it was tested the same way except through two car doors, shooting from the outside into the car and seeing if the bullets exit the car on the outside. Using the same placement as before, there was no penetrations through the second door at all when using 9mm ball. When trying with 6 rounds of .45 ACP, only 1 round made it through. Even with .223 Rem, out of 10 rounds, only 4 made it through when evenly spaced. Thus, in order to punch through a door, one must shoot a hole into the door and then keep pumping rounds through. Obviously, in order to make a hole, one would need a certain degree of accuracy.
Next, we tested deflection while shooting out of a car. Will had us set up four targets spaced about 1 meter apart each, one behind the other. He explained to us why deflection occurs: due to the rake of the window, different parts of the bullet will exit the glass at different times. Because energy tends to take the path of least resistance, the bullet will deflect into different directions because of that. For example, when shooting through the windshield from the inside of the car toward a target outside the car, the top of the bullet will be the first part to exit the windshield, and thus the bullet will want to go up. Conversely, when shooting into the windshield from the outside, the bottom of the bullet will exit first, and so they deflect downward. This is why someone from 100 yards away from a vehicle can easily engage someone inside a vehicle through the windshield, but the opposite doesn't hold true. This also means there are widely variable amount of deflections through a windshield, such as the difference between a Chevy Corvette and a Jeep Wrangler.
Again using 9mm ball first, Will aimed at the pelvic girdle, but the round went flying up, exiting off the top of the head of the target at a mere ~4 meters from the front of the car, with significant core-jacket separation. Moving around to find an area of the windshield that was still intact, Will also tested the Winchester SXT (much less deflection, still had core-jacket separation), .40 ball (much less deflection compared to 9mm ball, core-jacket separation), Hornady Critical Duty .40 (same as ball, no core-jacket separation), .45 ball (even less deflection than the .40 ball), .45 ACP Wilson Combat hollow point (large amount of deflection, enough that it only hit one target), and .45 ACP soft point (about the same as 9mm ball in deflection). Thus, given all the deflection when shooting out, Will stated that one must burn a hole in the windshield first, then start getting the hits through the hole, similar to the door. When asked about his preferred duty rounds, he stated that for 9mm Para, he was fond of Federal HST in any weight, while Federal HST and Speer Gold Dot were fine for .40 S&W. He was not a fan of Hornady's Critical Duty line, and stated that he's told the Hornady reps that they should be ashamed for putting out a subpar product like that. He is also not fond of Winchester Ranger for .45 ACP, but likes the 147 gr. 9mm.
The idea of having to create a hole in order to engage someone through an intermediate barrier certainly makes for a good argument for having a higher capacity weapon, especially considering how many rounds a threat might take before becoming a non-threat. I honestly surprised how 9mm Para was unable to penetrate a single door consistently; I had little doubts that two doors would have resulted in zero penetration, but did not translate that through to the single door.
We then tried to shoot from the back of the car to the front of the car, through the back window through the front windshield. The first round tried was a Winchester SXT 147 gr., which penetrated both windows and impact the target. The .223 Rem ball 55 gr. penetrated both, it appeared, but deflected high and did not hit the target. The same occurred with a 1 oz. slug, #00 reduced-recoil buckshot, while the Hornady Critical Duty .40 S&W and second round of Winchester SXT both also failed to hit the target. Will then stated that the first penetration was an anomalous event, which tends to occur every 3 or 4 classes.
To recap, Will reiterated and numbered off the 16 points of cover that a 4 door sedan has: the 2 A-pillars, 2 B-pillars, 2 C-pillars, 4 wheels, the 2 sides of the engine block, the front of the car on the left (looking toward the rear), the front of the car on the right (looking toward the rear), and the analogous positions from the rear looking front. Vehicles with a D-pillar add an additional two points of cover. Will also noted that the drivers almost always sit in the same relation to the windshield in all vehicles, regardless of how high the vehicle is off the ground. Also, given the rake of the windshield, the bullets tend to deflect straight down into the high thoracic cavity of the driver. He also notes that when officers bail out of the vehicle, they invariable tend to find themselves in the rear, even if they had been trained to post up between the A-pillar and the open door. If that tends to occur, and is a decent point of cover, why not go there first? Will stated that he taught the positions and ballistics separate so that we could then know the whys and hows and then put them together.
For the next drill, three vehicle were roughly put one after the other, separated by about 10-15 meters, with cardboard targets placed high and low, along with a single steel plate. The drill is to engage each cardboard target while working up against the car, going both high and low (that is to say, utilizing urban prone and looking under the car), and after all cardboard targets at that car had been engaged with 3 to 5 rounds, ping the steel target to move on to the next car. In order to move to the next car, Will gave us the option of using Sul or else the infamous temple index. Because the cars are lined up in a linear fashion, multiple people can be running the drill, one at each car; thus if one finishes their car and has pinged the steel, but the next car is still being cleared, one should just stay in their position, at the ready, until they can ID that the car is clear. If you doesn't use a proper index position to move to the next car and muzzles another person, than you're out of the class.
Will notes that for moving quickly, the problem with Sul is that it tends to flag yourself, due to how high the legs go. Also, when working in close proximity with others, one might either be forced to flag others or else flag one's self when trying to move around, although it can be mitigated with careful positioning; however, under stress, it's unlikely one will think of such issues, or if one might even have enough room to move far back enough.
As for the temple index, the palm should be right under the earlobe. Will noted that this makes it much easier to move about when standing up without muzzling anyone. With ear pro on, one can use the thumb as an index point, by placing it in the rear of the ear pro. Will stresses that pressure must be kept inward on the head so that the gun doesn't start flopping about whenever one gets fatigued. For familiarization, we dry practiced moving from the temple index to getting a good sight picture. Will also stressed that the temple index is strictly a movement position, and should not be used as a ready position of any sort.
In the first iteration of the drill, we moved from the left most car to the right most car.
My first run went okay. I had a single double feed/failure to eject that I was able to work through much issues. I did have some issues acquiring both the dot in the RMR and the BUIS, as the front sight was rather occluded by the setting sun and the large amount of debris/lube splatter that had accumulated on the front of the lens, combined with the already reduced visibility the damaged glass provided. It was also noted that many people seemed to have some kind of aversion to shooting up the car, even if they did work the angles of the car quite well; Will stated that this was a natural thing he often sees even LEOs do, and that this was a chance to train out of it. I personally went in trying to clear the car methodically, working high at the rear of the car, then working low on both sides of the rear wheel, working high to the B-pillar, then the A-pillar, then low next to the front wheel. It was definitely quite fatiguing, but I was able to without gassing out.
The second iteration of the drill was run the other way, from the right most car to the left most car.
My second run went much more poorly. First off, both times that I moved, I applied the temple index way too early, as I was still in a squat when I applied it, while I had Matt behind me guiding/observing me, thus potentially muzzling him; the fact that I did it a second time in the same drill was extremely distressing to me. Beyond that, I also had an issue with my reload: on my first reload, when I tried to grab the magazine, the whole mag pouch came with it. I had never had this happen before, and nor do I usually carry two magazine pouches, so it was in a spot that was usually unused. I also totally failed to get good hits on the last steel target, throwing multiple rounds down range before I forced myself to slow down and get a good hit.
After the second run, we were done with drills for the day, and headed back to cover for a debrief. Will noted that some people liked to touch the car, and it was mainly an issue of comfort, that people liked to touch the car. Also, he suggested that we tried to watch others as much as possible, as humans tend to be good at pattern recognition, and by watching others, we might be able to pick up on things and incorporate them into our own knowledge base.
Class ended at this time at around 1915, instead of the planned 0000. I believe it was because Will noted that many of us were getting fatigued, and it would have been unsafe to continue into the low-light portion at that juncture. The owner of the range then provided a delicious home-cooked dinner for those of us that stayed.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by HopetonBrown
