Week 169: Senior Airman Andy Brown Challenge

[Mr_White]

I think it's time to run this one again.

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Week 169: Senior Airman Andy Brown Challenge

Results may be posted until July 17th, 2016.

Designed by: Gabe White, based on Senior Airman Andy Brown's outstanding resolution of the 1994 active shooter event at Fairchild Air Force Base, where he successfully neutralized a rifle-armed assailant at 70 yards with four shots from his Beretta M9 pistol.
Range: 25 yards
Target: Tennis ball, or other ~2.6" circle
Rounds Fired: 1 minimum, no maximum
Procedure: Start with pistol loaded and holstered, facing downrange at the 25 yard line. Keep pistol holstered and run from the 25 to the 0 yard line, then back to the 25 yard line. Face downrange and start the timer. Upon the start signal, draw and engage the target. You have completed the challenge when you hit the target one time.

Variations:

Concealment is optional.

Positional shooting (kneeling, prone, etc.) is optional.

A tennis ball will be useful as a reactive target (you will easily know when you have hit it) and at 25 yards is the approximate equivalent of a ~7.3" circle at the 70 yard engagement distance of the actual event. Either put the tennis ball on a safe surface to shoot at, or hang it from a cord. Alternatively, make a ~2.6" circle on a piece of paper and use that, or use some other similarly-sized target.

Shoot until you hit the the target. Of course we want to hit on the first shot, but the point is to accomplish the fundamental task of hitting the target, whatever that takes.

In doing whatever it takes to hit the target, you have two options in this challenge: shoot from the 25 yard line until you hit, or, if after unsuccessfully trying to hit the target at 25 yards for some number of shots (your choice of how many, but you must fire at least one shot from the 25 yard line), move to a position at the 10 yard line and shoot from there until you hit. If you want to use this option, set up a simulated point of cover at the 10 yard line and offset laterally by 5 yards from the lane/position where the target is located. See accompanying diagram. If you don't have anything to use as simulated cover, you can just mark the spot on the ground you are going to move to.

Please report the following when you post your results in this thread:

Equipment used: gun, holster, concealment (if any)
Target used: tennis ball or alternative target
Number of shots fired from 25 yard line (note any positional shooting), number of shots fired from 10 yard line (note any positional shooting)
Total number of shots fired to make one hit
Total time to make one hit
Observations: anything you noticed

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.

[img]Senior Airman Andy Brown Challenge by OrigamiAK, on Flickr[/img]

[Mr_White]

Equipment used: Gen3 G34, concealed in a Keeper under a polo shirt
Target used: tennis ball
Number of shots fired from 25 yard line (note any positional shooting), number of shots fired from 10 yard line (note any positional shooting): 2 @ 25 yards (standing), 0 @ 10 yard line
Total number of shots fired to make one hit: 2
Total time to make one hit: 3.80
Observations: Disappointingly took a bit longer than when we did this last year, and still took two shots to make the hit. But it easily could have taken a lot more than two. Used my carry G34 (same as my practice/training/match G34) loaded with 124gr + P Gold Dots.

[okie john]

Equipment used: gun, holster, concealment (if any): Gen4 G19, American Eagle 147-grain FMJ ammo, K-Rounds IWB holster, no concealment.
Target used: 3" Shoot-N-See. The hit clips the middle scoring ring, which is 2" in diameter.
Number of shots fired from 25 yard line (note any positional shooting): 2, both fired offhand at 25 yards
Number of shots fired from 10 yard line (note any positional shooting): N/A
Total number of shots fired to make one hit: 2
Total time to make one hit: 8.54 seconds
Observations

1. Shot this one cold. The last time I fired a handgun was 12 days ago on 05 JUN 16.
2. Except for a Dawson adjustable rear sight and an Ameriglo front sight painted red, this gun is stock. It even has the grooved trigger.
3. It really helps to practice regularly at the 25-yard line, know your zero, and have a proven accurate load.

Okie John

[JHC]

Nice shooting from two Glocks!

Last year on this I thought the time included the sprint. I pulled a hammy.

[okie john]

Nice shooting from two Glocks!

Last year on this I thought the time included the sprint. I pulled a hammy.

Thanks. The time probably should include the sprint.


Okie John

[JHC]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

[okie john]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Oh, yeah. I'm old and fat, and it's going to torpedo my ranking...


Okie John

[okie john]

I shot this drill twice today. My club has an old-school bullseye pistol range, essentially a 100-yard long shed with benches at the firing line. On half of it you can hang targets at 10 and 15 yards, on the the other half you can hang them at 25 and 50. Shooters change targets en masse, so I couldn't run downrange and back, then turn and fire like Mr. White did. To get 50 yards of running, I had to run out of the range shed and across the parking lot, which requires making three 90-degree turns at speed to clear the building, then running sideways for a car length to avoid knocking rearview mirrors off of parked cars, then sprinting about 10 yards to the fence, then turning around and coming back along the same route. This raised a couple of eyebrows, as few other people do this kind of stuff on this range. I did this wearing jeans and a T-shirt, boots, 5.11 belt, holster, loaded pistol, and spare mag. No concealment.

Equipment used: gun, holster, concealment (if any): Gen4 G19, American Eagle 147-grain FMJ ammo, K-Rounds IWB holster, no concealment.
Target: 3" Shoot-N-See

First Try
Run Time: 22.73 seconds
Number of shots fired from 25 yard line (note any positional shooting): 2, both fired offhand at 25 yards
Number of shots fired from 10 yard line (note any positional shooting): N/A
Total number of shots fired to make one hit: 2
Total time to make one hit: 7.94 seconds + 22.73 for the running = 30.67 seconds

At this point, I should have declared victory and gone home. But

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Second Try
Run Time: 20.03 seconds
Number of shots fired from 25 yard line (note any positional shooting): 12, all fired offhand at 25 yards
Number of shots fired from 10 yard line (note any positional shooting): N/A
Total number of shots fired to make one hit: 12
Total time to make one hit: 50.21 seconds + 20.03 for the running = 80.24 seconds

Observations

1. I pose no danger to Usain Bolt's place in history.
2. Shot this one with no warm-up.
3. Same pistol and load as yesterday.
4. I shot the second run immediately after the first one, so I didn't wait for my heartbeat to slow down again. Covering 50 yards in 20-ish seconds one time was no big deal, but doing it twice back to back makes the shooting task exponentially harder. The group I made on the second attempt would have been in the A-Zone had I been shooting at an IPSC target, but that little black ball is decidedly difficult to hit when you're huffing and puffing like I was.
5. I've always had a lot of respect for SRA Brown's shooting in this incident, and this drill has only increased that. I've shot a couple of IDPA stages that attempt to recreate the geometry of this event, but none of them put a target past 25 yards, and none of them make the shooter to ride a mountain bike as fast as you can for a quarter-mile (as SRA Brown was forced to do) then make a 70-yard headshot.

Okie John

[jiminycricket]

G19 Gen4 in a Blade-Tec IWB Phantom holster under a buttoned down shirt.

I shot this cold this past Saturday with my first round being my already chambered defensive round: Hornady's Critical Defense. The other rounds in the magazine were 115 gr. Blazer Brass. My target was a 2.6" circle drawn with a sharpie on a 3x5 index card affixed to an IPSC target.

I ran to and from the target, hit the timer, then drew and fired only one shot because I realized I forgot to put on my ears. Oops. It was a damn miss too at low left. So I started over, ran again, and hit the timer for a hit on my first shot. I didn't want it to be just luck, so I ran a third time, hit the timer, and finished with a hit on the first shot again. I'm fairly pleased.

First attempt: Missed at 3.something seconds

Second attempt: 1 shot at 2.86 seconds

Third attempt: 1 shot at 3.39 seconds

[backtrail540]

Glock 17 rtf2, Dark Star Gear AIWB, under a polo
Tennis ball hanging via tape from a uspsa target
2 runs/2 shots each run
Run 1 - 6.09 second round hit
Run 2 - 4.86 second round hit
All shots fired from 25 yard line

I honestly thought I would struggle much more with this. I was assuming at least 5 to get a hit. My first run I missed the first shot then the second round hit. When I checked the ball it was just a graze, enought to leave two black dots on the ball, and move it visibly but not a good hit. My second run actually moved material on the ball but still wasn't a particularly good hit. Either way, I was surprised I got hits as quick as I did, although they weren't particularly fast or solid.