US Diplomat Security and Secret Service Shooting Standards?

[1Rangemaster]

@TGS, your mention of the G26 piqued my interest as I occasionally carry one. I understand the adjustment for magazines, but is there any other adjustments for the G26? For example, moving the distance shots closer to “adjust” for the shorter sight radius.
Just curious-thanks in advance for reply.

[TGS]

@TGS, your mention of the G26 piqued my interest as I occasionally carry one. I understand the adjustment for magazines, but is there any other adjustments for the G26? For example, moving the distance shots closer to “adjust” for the shorter sight radius.
Just curious-thanks in advance for reply.

Nope. When being judged against such an imprecise and generous course of fire as typical for most LE quals, generally people can score as well with the Glock 26 as they can with the 19. There's a higher failure rate with the Glock 26, but that's generally from fumbling the shorter grip and then getting flustered and blowing the string of fire, especially on the reload string. While encouraged to carry Glock 19 mags as reloads if carrying the Glock 26 on duty, agents must shoot the qualification with Glock 26 mags for this reason, to prevent themselves from gaming the qual and giving themselves a false sense of competency.

[AMC]

To be fair, DSS has some management that are actually trying to move things forward. There's also the nightmarish issues of feasibility on qualifying agents who can't regularly shoot...i.e. half the agency which is assigned overseas. The Regional Security Officers at more than a few countries will actually have to fly the Marine Security Guard detachment out of country to qualify as they're not allowed to shoot in country. Since the DS agents are running the ranges to keep the MSGs up to snuff, there's limited ability for them to practice themselves outside of a particular few countries. There are not enough agents allocated by Congress that DS can staff overseas posts with more agents allowing the agents themselves to rotate in and out every 4 months for shooting like the Marines, so the downtime between tours -usually 2-3 years in length) will usually include a 2 week hard skills refresher.

DS's policy reflects this, so agents assigned overseas are only required to perform a fam fire once per year, as feasible.

Yeah, admittedly you guys face a type and level of logistical challenges that probably few other LE agencies can imagine.

I used to hear crazy stories from my DSS buddies back in the 90s, about overseas 'training' experiences. One guy did a tour in Turkey, and told a story about practicing at a Turkish military/police range. When they went to change targets, suddenly the targets next to them were being shot while they were down range. They expressed their dismay to the Turkish cops doing the shooting, who were completely surprised at their concern. After all....they weren't shooting at the DSS guys, right? What's the problem?

Another friend who was assigned to the embassy in Bogota, Colombia said that the last time he went to a local range there, a local Colombian cop literally begged him for his holster and ammunition....since he basically had none

[1Rangemaster]

Nope. When being judged against such an imprecise and generous course of fire as typical for most LE quals, generally people can score as well with the Glock 26 as they can with the 19. There's a higher failure rate with the Glock 26, but that's generally from fumbling the shorter grip and then getting flustered and blowing the string of fire, especially on the reload string. While encouraged to carry Glock 19 mags as reloads if carrying the Glock 26 on duty, agents must shoot the qualification with Glock 26 mags for this reason, to prevent themselves from gaming the qual and giving themselves a false sense of competency.

Thank you-understood. That eval/qual, compared to some local and state examples, would be seen as difficult in some city agencies.
Just as a side note, I sometimes use the + extension on the 26 mags which gives my little finger a rest, but I understand the logic somewhat of the issued mags.
Appreciate you responding

[jnc36rcpd]

Bravo zulu on a separate qualification course for the Glock 26 and requiring the 26 magazines be used. For some years, my former agency had a mix of SIG 226's, 239's, 230's (not my choice), and a couple of 228's. We used the same Q course, letting the officers with smaller guns stuff mags when needed. In retrospect, a separate course of fire would have tested skills with the little guns better.