Training Day

The wholesale slaughter of the ubiquitous clay pigeon continues at a fever pitch. It may have hit Lado Enclave levels, or perhaps I’m now roaming Ben Lilly territory. It ain’t just me, either. Rick Schwertfeger shouldered his shotgun this morning and took after ´em down in Texas. Sporting clays, I hear…

•••••

Today, I had a block of several hours with no commitments — in advance of four days that contain nothing but. So I was determined to take advantage of my freedom. Training Day.

Built the work around the Frontier Partisan Biathlon — kettlebells and shooting. Spent the first 45 minutes focused on magazine change drills with the AR. Load one or two rounds in a magazine. Fire on a target — feel it go empty; drop the magazine, swap it out with a loaded mag; slap into battery; fire on target. Over and over again. Stationary, then moving. Mix in KB complexes.

Focused on being smooth, keeping my right hand on fire control and my head up and eyes on target. Like anything else, it’s about good reps and building muscle memory.

Then I moved to the pistol, focused on drawing and firing from my bag — what my buddy Brett Miller calls my “murse” (Man Purse. Brett gets away with shit. It’s who he is).

The 511 Tactical PUSH Pack is my primary mode of concealed carry, and you have to train the way you carry. There is no way around it: It’s awkward and slow, compared to drawing from a holster on the waistband. Getting the pistol into action quickly from the concealed carry compartment of the bag presumes that you have at least some inkling that a “situation” is developing, or that you are wary of your environment and have unzipped the compartment and maybe have your hand inside the compartment on the pistol.

Practiced with the bag zipped up and with it unzipped. Again, the focus is on being smooth — and safe. Reaching in and “grabbing” risks an unintentional discharge. Have to keep the trigger finger extended and indexed along the frame until the gun comes up…

Also set up a chair and practiced out of a seated position — like, say, on a MAX train in Portland. The incident of a few days ago in which three men were slashed, two fatally, by an asshole on the train certainly got the attention of folks who practice concealed carry and/or martial arts. It points up what a nightmare dealing with a knife-wielding assailant in a confined space actually is. After seeing what happened there, I don’t think I’d intervene in any kind of incident like that without a hand on the pistol.

As Sgt. Rory Miller has said, the most difficult part of a gunfight may be turning it into a gunfight.

I couldn’t be more pleased with the Springfield XDM Compact. Despite being small enough for effective concealment, it fills my hand well, and I shoot it as well as any other pistol I’ve ever worked with.

Finished off with the CZ .22 rifle at ranges from 25 to 100 yards, offhand and kneeling. Then, on to kata practice and some heavy bag work.

Satisfactory. Moved well, shot well. Feel like I’m making good progress on learning how to run the AR effectively. A good workout, too.

And many, many clay pigeons were turned to chips and dust…