The very last shooting exercise of the day had two students paired up on the firing line. Ahead of them was a thicket of four "no shoots" at awkward angles, and one bad guy that looked identical in the middle of the group, moving laterally back and forth in spastic, twitchy jerks, powered by Louis yanking on a pair of ropes. The target, only seven yards or so away, would start moving and you and your partner had, oh... three or four seconds to try and get good, solid hits without winging the bystanders.
On the "Go!" the target dove into the middle of the crowd. I had tried to game it by asking Shootin' Buddy if he'd mind if I took the left side, and felt pretty clever by crouching a little lower and going cyclic, hitting the bad guy a couple times in the pelvis (there was just enough gap between the front two targets) before it lurched away to the right. I heard a few shots to my right, as Shootin' Buddy got a piece of it, and I swung towards it, only to have it bob back into cover, duck right again, and suddenly shoot clean out the left, where I managed to get one good head shot as time ran out.
No good guys hit, and a couple of righteous hits in addition to my pretty-clever-if-I-do-say-so-myself sloppy pelvis shots. I'll take it.
Add a randomly-moving, only partially-visible target, surrounded by no-shoots, and suddenly even really close range carbine stuff got really tricky.
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26 comments:
I like yelling out "THERE ARE NO INNOCENTS!" when I hit no shoot/hostage targets...
I only shot the dude twice in the head. You were the one having all the group therapy on the left flank.
Shootin' Buddy
All the really kewl kids are NEEGOATSHEATORS now. They, like, FEEL THE PAIN of the perp and try to calm down the situation. The really good ones get the perp in line for a head shot, like the Discovery Channel bomber. The BAD ones get to teach at HaaVARD. And the REALLY, REALLY bad ones get appointed Sec. of State.
I remember a match, many years ago, in which a shooter scored on all the BGs by shooting them THROUGH the no-shoots.
I was one of the timekeepers on that stage. I turned to my partner and said, "If I'm ever taken hostage in a bank or something, and the only thing you can think to do is send [insert shooter's name] in to save me ... Lemme work it out for myself, okay?"
Nice job!
Congratulations.
It's not cheating if the good guy(s) all walk away and the critter(s)don't. It's good tactics.
And in regards to "NEEGOATSHEATORS" (love that one) I can only point to Bruce Willis' line in The Fifth Element regarding negotiating. After a single round to the chief hostage taker's forehead he asks, "anyone else wanna negotiate?"
Sounds like a good class. I need to see if there's something similar available around here.
'Course, I'd have to use the M1 Carbine since I don't have a AR15.
that sounds like a great IDPA CoF!
At that distance, your hip shots woulda done pretty good, I'm betting. Assuming they hit on the inside of the illiac crest, that is. Mr. Bad Guy would have almost certainly gone down where you could get on in his vitals right after, and if he chose to leave, he would be headed straight to the hospital. And even then luck would play a big role in his survival. So, yeah. Good on you!
Firehand, Lou's rifle class is ran up close so your carbine would do just fine. Just bring plenty of mags that work.
Tam, shooting the mover the last day is the scariest/funest part of the class.
I reckon unless you can hit that little spot when the spine meets the brain and turn the gomer off, then it doesn't much matter where else you hit he, he'll still have a (brief) chance to squeeze a trigger before he either expires or crumples.
My $0.02
Guess we'll have to call you "Tam, shoot 'em in the nuts, K."
Anon 11:27-RW Training? Perhaps your local bank? And you are on the scene with your CCW .380 while the Po-Po is taking 20 minutes for the SWAT Team to get there, but it's okay because they have a "Secure Perimeter", which you are stuck inside? Or you were in the Discovery Channel Building Lobby on Wednesday? Sounds like a very plausible training scenario nowadays. He was just using Carbines instead of a pistol.
People who don't see the point of hostage scenarios or rifle training (or any other scenario), not being able to envision a situation where they would use such training in self-defense, are missing the point.
You don't know what life is going to throw at you. YOU can't envision it happening in the real world but maybe the Nornir have better imaginations. Far better to have the skill set and never need it than need it and not have it.
Tam's newest mostest favorastist t-shirt:
www dot zazzle dot com slash stupid_no_shoots_front_tshirt-235626780510734379
BoxStockRacer
Paint me envious. I shoot the damned sall day, but never get practical type practice.
Day off? High power rifle. I should join an indoor club and dump a brick of .22's a week after work. Maybe mix it half rifle and half pistol.
But still, all the practical training and muscle memory I'm not accessing annoys me.
Is there someone who teaches a practical pistol course for .380 type carry guns? It strikes me that a pocket pistol is probably the most likely to be used in a bit of serious social intercourse, at least by non-uniformed parties.
Given the harder to hit with mini-shooters, I imagine the amount of practice and rounds pumped downrange would be considerable.
Hmmm. Might be a magazine article in this, for someone who wrote for a gun magazine.
Getting shot a few times in the pelvis with a carbine would get my undivided attention.
Not gaming; it called winning in a gunfight.
Well done.
Gerry
I'll be impressed when the rest of the no-shoot targets are moving randomly as well.
"can envision such a hostage situation quite well, actually. And like I said, if I'm in that cluster of no-shoots the very damn last thing I'd want is a mall-ninja (bank ninja? Discovery ninja?) with a carbine class fresh in his mind squeezing off .223's in the direction of a little bullseye that happens to be surrounded by rings of...me and the other try-not-to-shoots."
I'd rather have just about anybody from M4Carbine.net or Lightfighter take on that situation rather than relying on Officer Donut who fires maybe 50 rds out of his carbine and service pistol per year and doesn't know what the word "dryfire" means.
The Israelis are trained from 3rd grade on to attack en masse anyone threatening them.
They have gents in burnooses and AK's rush into the classroom, and the kids are expected to throw everything not nailed down at the badguys, while rushing them and screaming at the top of their young lungs.
Then they jump them and kick, bite, and pummel every vulnerable bit of the hopefully well padded practice terrorist.
It gives the teacher time to draw the pistol they all have on or nearby their person.
Do you think it would play well in Peoria?
Ed, quiet, you'll get the sheep riled up. Nothing worse than a sheep stampede...
Wait until the folks who brought Russia the Beslan Massacre or Mumbai decide to visit scenic Mayberry for some serious .gov inaction followed by over-reaction. Can we say "arm the pilots?"... Nah....
Al T.
On a lighter note, I was going down in flames at the UT State USPSA match years ago, and decided to go out with a bang. My squad's last stage was loaded with no shoots. buzzer went off, I charged through the door, shouted "hostages down!", and hosed down all the targets.
Good times.
Roland:
Judging by that comment, I'm sure we played on the same Terrorist team in Counter-strike at least once in the past.
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