Racking the Slide

[UNM1136]

It's not too long. You made a rational response, and I thank you for that.

However, I have two things I would like to mention:

1) We're not all bound by antiquated training practices used in one's agency. I understand doing something this way or that way due to policy.

2) Training is not something that happens naturally. Efficiency comes from repetition through quality practice. I'm not an instructor, so I won't comment on training practices, but having someone who is there "because they have to" isn't an excuse for their lack of fundamental. It's their job to carry a gun, so they must learn to use it. Cops who don't want to learn to shoot shouldn't be cops. I wouldn't want a plumber that refuses to learn how to route pipe. It's their job.

You are right. Not all are bound. JodiH has smoked me every time we have been on the range together. The last Avanced Urban Rifle class I was in between two SWAT guys, one of whom I was chasing and the other I was trying to keep ahead of. That worked out well for me. Institutional inertia is a real thing, and it varies from place to place. I see it as more of a jeet kun do approach, where you take what is useful and reject what is not. The antequated stuff has been around for as long as it has because it has proven itself viable. I predict that with our current fascination with video this "antequated" stuff will become less and less relevent as the improvent of shooters can be more accurately documented. Our nation has been involved in a combatives laboratory for the nearly 20 years leading to advances in TTPs and medicine and teaching methodologies that would have taken much much longer to achieve otherwise.. Frank Proctor has some serious time in that lab. As a consumer of that product I can demand evidence, relative to my circumstances and say "prove to me that what you are teaching is better for my situation than what I know works and have been doing for X number of years." And it takes time, exposure, and training to accomplish. Without people like Proctor pushing the envelope and evolving faster than some we would not have choiices. I am quite sure that 20 years ago Mr Proctor was doing things very similar to me. If his new stuff stands the test of time it will become the standard until it gets updated, but latest and greatest ain't always. Central Axis Relock,point shooting, and other techniques have largely fallen by the wayside as being too situationally specific, now matter how skilled their adherents became. The training world is full of fads and frauds as well as sacred cows that need to be slaughtered.

As for your second point, a lot of agencies want social workers with arrest powers. One local agency refused to allow its officers to carry guns, and got away with it for MANY years until DPS told them that whether they carried guns or not, if they wanted certified police officers with powers of arrest then they needed to comply with all requirements including mandated annual firearms training and qual scores for all personnel. Minimum qual scores are just that. It should not be an issue, but you would be surprised at just how big an issue it is. While I strive for excellence in myself and those around me, a line has to be drawn somewhere. My mentor is a USPSA Grand Master across several divisons, competing and frequently being competitve on the national level, as well as a street cop currently assigned as a canine suervisor. If we set the standard there it would be just as bad or worse than setting the qual standards at 50%. On my best day I can't hope to keep up, I just have to hope not to embarrass myself too badly. As a sponsored team shooter he gets about 70k rounds a year provided to him for practice. I have seen him pull almost .125 splits (not a typo, 8 rounds a second) with a near stock M&P 45. An important thing about standards is that they not be so high as to be unattainable. That is not my excuse for not excelling, rather it allows me to work and earn a living as I work to get as close that standard as I can.

And by the way, with 2 days of dry reps on a near stock G17 MOS with RMR, run slick, I am kinda liking this technique for Tap-Roll-Rack. The suppressor height front sight makes a nice a DO NOT CROSS point, and I am most often not near it. But it has a long way to go with dummy rounds and empty cases before it deserves to be put in the tool box. So far it seems prone to the same issues I see with Tap-Rack-Bang, like needing man hands to keep from short stroking. The orientation of the ejection port worries me IF it is short stroked, just as the orientation of the ejection port is a problem with short stroking during Tap-Rack-Bang, leaving me currently with my old, familiar Tap-Roll-Rack as my go-to for now.

pat