Friday, August 30, 2013

rawr!


LET'S GET SOME!

He always seems completely jazzed just to be out there shootin' stuff.

22 comments:

Karl said...

Shouldn't the sequence be 1) shoot first, then 2) drag a 200lb sand bag a 100yds and 3) bury it about a foot deep?

It is hard to tell what he's training for...

Anonymous said...

I doubt I'll get any takers for that tomorrow. They whine enough doing Ian Harrisons 2 minute drill for 60 seconds.

Gerry

Anonymous said...

Karl, that is a drill that you don't video and upload to the internets.

Joseph said...

No fair, he's like, in shape and stuff. How about I just saunter from my truck with my 44oz Dt Dew and shoot the "El Pres"?

Tam said...

Plus, I heard he has Red Bull in his veins instead of blood.

Keads said...

Wow, the level of testosterone and adrenaline just increased in this room by an order of magnitude.

Armed Texan said...

Yeah, I'm not quite sure what the point is. The exercise would make more sense to me if he shot first from cover, ran out to grab the sand bags and return to cover, then wash, rinse, repeat. You know, clear the zone, retrieve fallen or pinned friendlies, clear zone again as necessary.

Tam said...

People are confusing "drills" and "simulations" again.

This isn't supposed to be simulating anything.

I think PDB was good and succinct here:
"There is a big difference between shooting drills and shooting a scenario. We repeatedly shoot drills (which are by nature usually unrealistic in context) in order to develop shooting skills. We don’t expect to have to transition to our sidearm 30 times in a row, but the Meltdown drill is still extremely useful for hammering the rifle to pistol transition into shape.

We then put our thinking skills to the test in a scenario, where we attempt to solve a problem with the shooting skills we’ve learned. Scenarios are sometimes roleplayed by other instructors, or have some element of theater to them. We might also rehearse a common tactic that we expect to use in the future. But the point to a scenario is not to repeatedly run through the test until we get it right, but to run through a test to get it wrong, to harshly show what we need to work on.
"

Tam said...

(In this case one would assume the skill being developed was shooting and performing weapon manipulations while being gassed from heavy physical exertion.)

global village idiot said...

I've done something not quite as studly but somewhat similar.

Last month, I went to the range, not in my normal range clothing, but in my Physical Phitness Uniform. I shot a course-of-fire using one of Fred's targets as a "control" group. Immediately afterward, I simulated an Army Physical Phitness Test (2min pushups/2 min situps/2mi run), shooting the exact same course-of-fire after each.

What I did was no more realistic than what this guy did; however, that wasn't the point. It was - as Tam said - to show the effects of exertion on marksmanship. I did this pursuant to posting on the website I link to.

Although the results were predictable, I did learn a couple things:
1) The value of the Hasty Sling when shooting a Garand in such a circumstance, and
2) How much harder it is to control one's breathing, and how we must do it differently than we're typically trained. I basically had to take a big gulp of air and hold it, as opposed to my normal zen-like pause in the respiratory cycle.

I watch very few "high-speed" shooting videos, irrespective of who recommends them. But this one I watched the entire way through. I like the approach and am impressed by the achievement.

gvi

billf said...

Yeah,what Tam said.Watching the video,it never occurred to me that he was simulating retrieving bodies.I remember a drill where we ran up and down a hill before shooting at the range,cause you rarely get in a firefight while you're calm and relaxing.

Dirt Sailor said...

During every workup I've done, We spent about 1/2 of our flat range time in full kit. The point was not to get us used to wearing it (the 18 hour underways did that fine), the point was to make us aware of the effect wearing 90 lbs of stuff while at altitude in the desert would have on our ability to shoot simple drills from known distances, and to help us minimize that effect. Later in workup, we'd have to do kettlebell runs before hitting the house for a skills test, for the same reason.

Tam said...

gvi,

I've never heard anybody have anything but good things to say about Pat Mac. His enthusiasm strikes me as being of the infectious sort.

Chas S. Clifton said...

I can't shake the mental image of throwing the VIPs into the pickup bed before shooting.

Anonymous said...

Remind me not to mess with that guy.

Anonymous said...

This reminds me of one stage of a "3-gun match" (well, sort of - I'm in France so three-gun matches are eeeeeevil).

90sec on a punching bag
90sec trying to hit the punching mitts on a deputy referee
60sec of exercise bike

Of course with your holstered handgun and your rifle slung on your back and with the "referee" screaming at you from the top his lungs.

Then targets from 20 to 50 yards with the rifle. And 5-25 yards with the pistol.

As an IT worker/nerd/couch-potato, suffice to say that my shooting skills went from average-ish to dismal.

But a lot of fun was had by everyone.

Things we do on weekends !

T.Stahl said...

"(In this case one would assume the skill being developed was shooting and performing weapon manipulations while being gassed from heavy physical exertion.)"

You mean like biathlon, the Nordic martial art? :-)

Matt G said...

Anyone who questions this has never tried to shoot while his muscles shook and his heartbeat raced and the sweat swam through his eyes and the ligaments in his forearms were all stretched out from hard, fast work.

If you can't see the value in training to be effective during such circumstances, then I really don't see the point in explaining it.

JustSomeGuy said...

Thanks, Tam!

I needed some of that unbridled enthusiasm today. Just watching is a testosterone tonic!

I, too, was a little baffled at the confusion about drills...anybody seen two parallel rows of tires lying around an NFL field on game day? Maybe it'd be a random running back obstacle?

Jay G said...

I would hazard a guess that the reason for running the drill that way would be to get the adrenaline flowing, sweat pouring, and nerves jangled first - much like you might be if you did find yourself in a dynamic confrontation.

IllTemperedCur said...

Biathlon? Oh, a Finnish drive-by.

Suomi, represent.

T.Stahl said...

I think he's Duke Nukem with a beard.