I’m not military or law enforcement, but I am a father and a freeman so I think about firearms in terms of defense in addition to recreation and hunting. It seems to me the most likely scenario that an American civilian would be in a situation where using a firearm would be justified would be a home invasion, and then maybe being on the wrong side of town, like at a gas station or something. Domestic violence and suicide are other considerations and shouldn’t be ignored, but I don’t think there’s any friends or family that would attack me and I’m not suicidal. And that’s kind of a different question with different answers anyway so I’d like to ignore it for now.
Does anyone have any thoughts on the best way to train and prepare for a situation where using a firearm as a tool for defense is required? It seems the tool of choice when you are out and about would be a concealed carry pistol. And in the home, a pistol would be a good choice but you also have a shotgun or an ar-15 that would be a good option, like a short barrel 300 blk suppressed subsonic or something. Naturally, using a firearm to defend yourself is super serious and you really have to have no other means of escape or deescalation. I understand that part. I’m more interested in the tactical part, like once you’ve already made the decision that deadly force is required in the situation.
I do informal “practice” like drawing my concealed pistol and hitting a steel silhouette as fast and accurate as possible. And then running around and shooting an ar at steel targets from standing position.
What do you all do? Im just sitting here on a night shift thinking which is never a good thing. I think about the minutemen and militias who played such a pivotal role in the formation of our country. Must’ve been exciting and nerve racking all at the same time being a part of something like the American Revolution. But I’d like to know everyone’s thoughts if they have any?
As an aside, in terms of hunting, does anyone practice going from hiking with rifle to shooting position? it seems that a lot of experience hunters are really good at stalking and therefore have time to set themselves up for success but I have heard of people stumbling on animals while trekking around as well. I know for my mule deer hunt this year, the only buck I saw, I just happened upon and was not ready for it and therefore missed an opportunity on a beautiful buck (it was gone before I could set up so I didn’t even get a shot off). It was a good learning experience but wish I had been more prepared and faster on the draw. It was a 180 yards away so the shot would’ve been easy, but the hard part or slow part was the time period between spotting the buck and setting up the shot.
As far as hunting shooting positions go the guys on here sent me some great videos. Look up the thread under “Shooting positions and stabilization gear”
When I first started looking into actually using firearms for self-defense I ran across the website pistol-training.com. that’s now turned into pistol-orum.com. it was started by an instructor who’s Mantra was people spend way too much time trying to accrue as much gear as they can when they should be actually training with what they have. Just the presence of a firearm doesn’t protect you, and there’s no sense in owning every single pistol run by every single SWAT team in the CONUS.
I ended up signing up for a two-day defensive pistol course at the company then called Blackwater in Moyock NC. It was an extremely helpful class. Both in terms of improving my pistol skills as well as learning some things about classes and what’s good and bad about them. They’ve since changed their name to something else but I still believe they’re in business. Later on several years later I took a class posted by Larry Vickers. Then a few years after that I took a class that my local gun club put on where they brought an instructor down from Bragg ( no, it’s liberty, no it’s Bragg again). Each and every course definitely improved my skills.
Unfortunately the guy who started pistol-training.com passed away from cancer several years ago and the current forum has definitely drifted a little more into the gear Centric style. However there still is a subforum for training classes as well as do-it-yourself drills. Also, for the past several years I’ve become much more engaged with precision rifle and therefore I’ve not really paid attention to the current state of the art for pistol or defensive rifle.
Check out your local clubs. They may offer good instructors. There’s certainly a wealth of people online but I don’t have any good way to grade them.
I don’t think training of any type is ever a bad idea and can only help. What I don’t believe they can replicate is the adrenaline rush from being in that situation and how environmental factors like that will affect you.
It’s been several years now, but I used to work with a retired West Valley police officer and we got talking one day about 9mm vs 40 vs 45 for self/home defense. He had a friend that was a champion marksman in pistol competitions. He had someone break into his home, and emptied an entire18 round clip of 9mm at the guy and hit him once. Ever since that day I’ve always been happy to go with more rounds over bigger bullets for self defense because you just never know how the adrenaline, darkness, etc. will affect you in the moment.
As for your hunting question. I think you absolutely nailed it and shooting from realistic hunting positions should be practiced by all hunters. One of the biggest mistakes hunters make is shooting well from a bench and thinking that will translate to the field. If you’ve never practiced getting off your pack and setting up a shot off it, or using a tree as a support, or shooting inclined, etc., you’re going to struggle. It’s not that you can’t eventually make the shot, but how long does it take you to get set up and get that first shot off? I still struggle with this and will keep working to improve.
Was just having a similar conversation with my brother and told him the same thing to get 9mm over 45 cause of the unknown factors in those type of engagements, the 9mm gives you the best chances of success, cuts out the recoil and having to reload, allowing you to focus more on hitting a shot than trying to manage the firearm
First of all, there is no way you can train for an actual self defense situation, each one is different and in most cases will not resemble anything that you have ever thought about. Most self defense situations will be similar to what you experienced with your Buck. The only thing different is that if you stand there worrying about getting set up, your attacker will most likely got a shot off and if lucky hit you before you even got your carry firearm out of the holster. Be sure you are under attack then draw and fire from whatever position you are in. Trying to get set up will get you killed. As for home defense, the only sensible firearm is a shotgun loaded with # 7 1/2 or #8 trap loads. If you hit your attacker even at close range it will end the fight. If you miss the pellets won’t go through 9 walls before stopping in your neighbors bedroom.