DEFENSIVE HANDGUN TIPS
So you think you don’t flinch?
II’VE BEEN CARRYING my trusty old CZ75 Compact pistol on my right hip for decades, and through the years, fired thousands of rounds. However, for the past six years, I have fired only a few shots every couple of months to ensure that I keep my basic handgun skills up to scratch – or so I thought. Recently I realised with a shock that these pitiful efforts of emptying a magazine every once in a while were totally inadequate to prepare or keep me in shape for any handgun use, sport or self-defence.
Yes, I’m on the range almost every week, handling firearms and shooting, but recently putting myself to the test with some emergency drills with the help of a friend acting as range officer and using a timer to add a bit of pressure, left me embarrassed at my now non-existent handgun skills.
As I explained in Trail Talk, March 2020, the first problem to arise was that, in casually emptying a mag or two at informal targets, I’d never really noticed how far sightedness had affected my shooting ability. Yes, I was aware I needed glasses for reading, but now for the first time it became abundantly clear that I cannot focus on my front sight.
Secondly, I ‘suddenly’ have a severe case of trigger jerking when firing a string of shots against time, sending some of my shots low. Adding a dummy round to the magazine (I did not know which of the ten rounds it was) illustrated this clearly with the barrel moving sharply downward on pulling the trigger on the dummy round.
Thirdly, my emergency drills were hopelessly rusty. Loading a dummy round to simulate a dud in among the live ammo in my magazines forced me to perform the tap, rack, assess, engage drill to clear the stoppage. My initial immediate action drills can only be described as those of a novice. Adding a mag change to the drill made things even worse. The exercise ended with me fumbling around as though I had ten thumbs, trying to catch the ejected magazine with my weak hand to prevent it hitting the ground and losing precious time mid-exercise trying to recall the next steps of the drill.
THE FIRST PROBLEM mentioned cannot be solved by practice at the range, so I will not discuss it. However, for problems two and three there are easy fixes.
To smooth out my trigger pull I reverted to a simple drill: load a magazine with five or more rounds, insert the loaded mag in the pistol, chamber a round and then remove the mag. You then draw the pistol from your holster
and fire two rounds at a target between five and ten metres away. Of course only the first shot will go off, but dry firing that second shot immediately after the first (working against time) will reveal trigger pull problems. Three range sessions and about 50 rounds later my trigger control is much improved. Of course dry firing alone also helps, but I’ve found that the dry firing after firing a live round had me furious with myself more often as the live round gave rise to trigger jerking the second shot, more than dry firing only. Doing this exercise each time you visit the range, even if only using five rounds, will improve trigger pull. It has the added benefit of improving muscle memory for reloading.
TO WORK ON my tap-rack drill, I load six rounds in each of two magazines, among which is one dummy round in both magazines. The dummy can be loaded anywhere in the mag, preferably not first or last. To ensure that you don’t know the sequence in which the dummies are loaded, you can get a friend to load the mags, but I do it myself. After loading, I spin them around behind my back and then push them randomly into the mag holders on my left hip. I pick a magazine, load and holster the pistol. I set a timer on 20 seconds, at the buzzer I pull the pistol and fire six rounds (dummy included) at a target, clearing the stoppage when it occurs, change magazines and fire the rest of the shots, again clearing each stoppage as it occurs.
After three range sessions spent practising this, I can now comfortably perform the drill in about 14 seconds while keeping all ten shots in the target’s A-zone. Of course the aim is to further improve my time.
Both these drills are easy to master and ideal to get the basics of handgun shooting under control.
Lastly, not being able to buy dummy rounds at my local retailer I decided to make my own. I loaded two rounds exactly the same as the others, but without primers or powder. I sprayed them white with a quick-dry spraypaint, but any colour that makes your dummies stand out from the live rounds will do. I use the spray-paint sparingly and clean and respray after about every third range session.