JimConway
Instructor
Gunfight Realities When Choosing a Handgun
Choose Your Weapon Part II
Last month in Part I of this series you may have been shocked to find that I didn't instruct you to go out and buy my "pet" favorite carry pistol. I have one of course, but I have changed what I carry over the years as my preferences changed. The point was that there are a lot of factors, but the most measurable "correct" answer is to measure what you are shooting well, and weigh those choices against the standard "bigger is better" considerations when choosing a handgun for carry. No, I'm not going to tell you what to buy this month either, but we will get into some interesting details about aspects that many people just gloss over, but that are vitally important and will affect your ability to survive your gunfight.
Choices have consequences. People have died for the inability to stay in the fight until they prevailed. Just recently I had a student report that he won his second fight, immediately following his first, because of a technique we taught him for reloading in combat. An enemy fighter suddenly materialized after the first fight was over, presumably out of "nowhere." He was able to choose the best option, and simply shot said bad guy, because his head, and his gun, were still in the fight! He did not "unload to reload". He did not stick his muzzle into the air where it might take a lifetime to re-index or block his vision (or act as a flag to tell every bad guy in the vicinity that someone is going to be out of action for a brief period). Rather, he had kept up his guard up when his first attacker fell and, after a threat scan to insure there wasn't another immediate threat, he started to execute a reload. When a threat did materialize without warning he was able to stop mid-stream and change gears. I could not, of course, be more pleased.
Within the same week we received a report (in the form of an excellent but sad magazine article) from a young Marine who is disabled for life because he did not know how to do this. That of course was not pleasing. Forward this article to your friends! Nobody wants to learn these lessons the hard way, whether carrying a gun as a CCW, as a Police Officer on duty or off, as a security guard, or in the sandbox so far away protecting our freedom.
Whether you went so far as to shoot at index cards with a shot timer or not last month, hopefully you have now gotten yourself thinking about what guns you shoot well. I intentionally steered clear of the factors we are going to talk about this month. Some things here you will take very seriously, others you will say "that isn't a factor for me because... " None of these are light issues. What balance you find will depend on your personal commitment and the threat level you feel you need to be prepared for.
Take the choices you considered last month and view them in the light of these factors:
Capacity
Except for a job in one of the world's really hot spots fighting terrorists, you will probably run out of time before you run out of bullets, unless you are a lousy shot! If you refuse to train hard the answer is not more bullets (though more ammo is not necessarily a bad thing) but to learn to stay out of trouble. But since these days trouble can find us in our home that may not be an option.
People obsess about caliber and the latest and greatest bullet technology but gloss over the fact that if you drop that bullet just 1" off the upper spine you have likely increased the duration of this fight by factor of times 10! You can get killed during that time. The same is true if you select the latest "whiz bang" bullet that "transfers all its energy" and you put it right where it belongs but it fails to reach the spine! Will it lead to more rapid incapacitation with a hit to only to the heart or lung? Perhaps, or even probably, but giving up the ability to instantly stop the fight to increase the rapid stop - which can still be a lifetime - seems a poor compromise. On the other hand, your attacker may simply decide to quit (psst that does happen). Don't bet your life on it.
Capacity benchmarks vary with effectiveness. I strongly feel a 6 shot .44 or .45 wheel gun is the equal or even superior of a 15 shot 9mm in effectiveness (IF you shoot both equally well). But you must decide, not me. The latter is however easier to keep running in a long fight. Tough choice! Don't get lulled into a false sense of security! No one can tell you how long your gunfight will last. Through years of research I have discovered that most fights are short, no more than 2 to 3 seconds, but I have not found a guarantee that they would be that short either. You should be prepared for a longer fight regardless! But If you have a gun that holds 15 rounds then you had better also plan on doing a lot of dynamic movement and use cover to help you keep from getting shot during the time it takes to use those 15 rounds effectively.
6 Rounds of Effective .45 Auto that can be reloaded rapidly or 6 Rounds of even more effective .45 Colt at a slower reload - it's your choice!
Recently I had a law enforcement student involved in a fight that evolved around his police cruiser. Eventually the bad guy even got into his cruiser. It was one of those unusually long gunfights that took more than 20 shots from his Glock 17 before he actually hit the bad guy. And no he was not a bad shot. Every bullet was well directed they just did not reach the subject (we saw most of it on film). Neither did the bad guy's bullets reach him. This officer's ability to reload under pressure was definitely a factor in the ending of this fight, he says. But based on what I saw and some experience shooting cars, and the result of the subject's actions upon finally being hit, the fight most likely would have been over during the first two shots with a .45, or even a .40. The officer traded off his 9mm for a Glock .40 the next day!
The pertinent question most often is not how many bullets your gun holds but how much damage you can do in the short time you have. It is failing to get good results at the outset that turns a short gunfight into an epic one. Caliber is always going to be a trade off with capacity. The same gun comes in three calibers and they are all the same size. One has 17 rounds of nine, one has 14 rounds of .40, and one has 10 rounds of .45acp. What you choose depends partly on what we covered last month, how you shoot and recover from shooting the gun. Capacity is just another factor.
Continuity
I suggest that you plan to carry at least one reload for your weapon regardless of its initial capacity when full. A full gun is better than a half full gun at the start of any new fight or new part of the old fight! The wise man will reload every time he sees an opportunity, in anticipation of the next engagement. I consider 2 extra magazines or speed loaders the bare minimum. It does not matter if those magazines hold 7 rounds or 20, you need at least two! Three is better (or even better a spare gun). Remember the mantra: "Reload when you can, not when you have to." (i.e. When the gun is empty) Also remember the military axiom: "two is one and one is none!"
You may find it extreme to carry extra magazines or speed loaders, but ask yourself why do we carry guns at all? It isn't convenient to carry a gun. But we inconvenience ourselves because we think that we may find ourselves in a situation where a gun is required. And if a gun is required, do you want to find yourself waiting for the smoke to clear and new threats to appear with three rounds left in your nine?
Celebrate Diversity!
5 Rnds .38+P 17 Rnds of 10MM
18 Rnds of 9mm 9 Rnds of .45 +P
Name Your "Poison"
The rule is: never leave a place you have cleared with a partially empty weapon! Not my rule, it comes from Capt. Eric A. Sykes of "Shooting to Live" fame (as well as the famous knife he designed with his co-author William Fairbairn). His actual quote was "Never go through a door without a full magazine in your weapon." It applies to back up guns too, everything gets topped off, but keep your head about you while doing it!
There is very little difference in the amount of time it takes to reload most common autoloaders, unless you have one of those with the European style "heel clip" magazine release in which it will take twice as long. This is also where revolvers come in last place. Not only do they take longer to reload, they have to be taken out of action to top them off, and unless your gun is empty, you will be flipping loaded rounds out into your hand to insert a full speed loader if you hope to reload without a long down time for the gun. This is a very good reason to carry two revolvers if your wheel gun is not already your backup gun.
A word here; do not measure your reload like the competition boys and girls do it. You may not be familiar with this. If you watch just about any pistol or revolver action shooting competition, at some point there will most likely be a "reload" where the shooter will drop the magazine, insert a new one (or speedloader in the case of revolvers) and keep firing. Timing is measured from one shot to the next. In a real gunfight, this would mean that you are trying to reload while being shot at, while presumably returning fire. Gunfighters, or at least those who have thought about this, don't reload like that. They "stay in the fight". Keep up your threat scan as you draw a magazine ( or a speed loader) and get it up to the gun which is held in the "workspace, " not up in front of your face blocking your view of the environment. Practice this!!
In this case it does not matter much how fast you draw your spare ammo because at any time you can stop drawing it and engage a threat with what is left in the gun. That is why we don't empty the gun if it can be helped. That spare might not be there! NOTE - IF YOU ARE IN THE OPEN AND THE THREAT IS STILL THERE THEN SHOOT DON'T RELOAD!
It does matter how fast you can draw the spare ammo or spare gun if you run out of bullets during an engagement and are standing still in the open - don't do that!
If you reload, do it properly and intelligently, or transition to a backup gun. This is something that you can time and examine closely. Done right you will be out of the fight for .5 to 1.5 seconds. That is a time we can live with - literally! If you cannot produce your reload or backup gun in 1.5 seconds you may want to start carrying it somewhere else.
Choose Your Weapon Part II
Last month in Part I of this series you may have been shocked to find that I didn't instruct you to go out and buy my "pet" favorite carry pistol. I have one of course, but I have changed what I carry over the years as my preferences changed. The point was that there are a lot of factors, but the most measurable "correct" answer is to measure what you are shooting well, and weigh those choices against the standard "bigger is better" considerations when choosing a handgun for carry. No, I'm not going to tell you what to buy this month either, but we will get into some interesting details about aspects that many people just gloss over, but that are vitally important and will affect your ability to survive your gunfight.
Choices have consequences. People have died for the inability to stay in the fight until they prevailed. Just recently I had a student report that he won his second fight, immediately following his first, because of a technique we taught him for reloading in combat. An enemy fighter suddenly materialized after the first fight was over, presumably out of "nowhere." He was able to choose the best option, and simply shot said bad guy, because his head, and his gun, were still in the fight! He did not "unload to reload". He did not stick his muzzle into the air where it might take a lifetime to re-index or block his vision (or act as a flag to tell every bad guy in the vicinity that someone is going to be out of action for a brief period). Rather, he had kept up his guard up when his first attacker fell and, after a threat scan to insure there wasn't another immediate threat, he started to execute a reload. When a threat did materialize without warning he was able to stop mid-stream and change gears. I could not, of course, be more pleased.
Within the same week we received a report (in the form of an excellent but sad magazine article) from a young Marine who is disabled for life because he did not know how to do this. That of course was not pleasing. Forward this article to your friends! Nobody wants to learn these lessons the hard way, whether carrying a gun as a CCW, as a Police Officer on duty or off, as a security guard, or in the sandbox so far away protecting our freedom.
Whether you went so far as to shoot at index cards with a shot timer or not last month, hopefully you have now gotten yourself thinking about what guns you shoot well. I intentionally steered clear of the factors we are going to talk about this month. Some things here you will take very seriously, others you will say "that isn't a factor for me because... " None of these are light issues. What balance you find will depend on your personal commitment and the threat level you feel you need to be prepared for.
Take the choices you considered last month and view them in the light of these factors:
Capacity
Except for a job in one of the world's really hot spots fighting terrorists, you will probably run out of time before you run out of bullets, unless you are a lousy shot! If you refuse to train hard the answer is not more bullets (though more ammo is not necessarily a bad thing) but to learn to stay out of trouble. But since these days trouble can find us in our home that may not be an option.
People obsess about caliber and the latest and greatest bullet technology but gloss over the fact that if you drop that bullet just 1" off the upper spine you have likely increased the duration of this fight by factor of times 10! You can get killed during that time. The same is true if you select the latest "whiz bang" bullet that "transfers all its energy" and you put it right where it belongs but it fails to reach the spine! Will it lead to more rapid incapacitation with a hit to only to the heart or lung? Perhaps, or even probably, but giving up the ability to instantly stop the fight to increase the rapid stop - which can still be a lifetime - seems a poor compromise. On the other hand, your attacker may simply decide to quit (psst that does happen). Don't bet your life on it.
Capacity benchmarks vary with effectiveness. I strongly feel a 6 shot .44 or .45 wheel gun is the equal or even superior of a 15 shot 9mm in effectiveness (IF you shoot both equally well). But you must decide, not me. The latter is however easier to keep running in a long fight. Tough choice! Don't get lulled into a false sense of security! No one can tell you how long your gunfight will last. Through years of research I have discovered that most fights are short, no more than 2 to 3 seconds, but I have not found a guarantee that they would be that short either. You should be prepared for a longer fight regardless! But If you have a gun that holds 15 rounds then you had better also plan on doing a lot of dynamic movement and use cover to help you keep from getting shot during the time it takes to use those 15 rounds effectively.
6 Rounds of Effective .45 Auto that can be reloaded rapidly or 6 Rounds of even more effective .45 Colt at a slower reload - it's your choice!
Recently I had a law enforcement student involved in a fight that evolved around his police cruiser. Eventually the bad guy even got into his cruiser. It was one of those unusually long gunfights that took more than 20 shots from his Glock 17 before he actually hit the bad guy. And no he was not a bad shot. Every bullet was well directed they just did not reach the subject (we saw most of it on film). Neither did the bad guy's bullets reach him. This officer's ability to reload under pressure was definitely a factor in the ending of this fight, he says. But based on what I saw and some experience shooting cars, and the result of the subject's actions upon finally being hit, the fight most likely would have been over during the first two shots with a .45, or even a .40. The officer traded off his 9mm for a Glock .40 the next day!
The pertinent question most often is not how many bullets your gun holds but how much damage you can do in the short time you have. It is failing to get good results at the outset that turns a short gunfight into an epic one. Caliber is always going to be a trade off with capacity. The same gun comes in three calibers and they are all the same size. One has 17 rounds of nine, one has 14 rounds of .40, and one has 10 rounds of .45acp. What you choose depends partly on what we covered last month, how you shoot and recover from shooting the gun. Capacity is just another factor.
Continuity
I suggest that you plan to carry at least one reload for your weapon regardless of its initial capacity when full. A full gun is better than a half full gun at the start of any new fight or new part of the old fight! The wise man will reload every time he sees an opportunity, in anticipation of the next engagement. I consider 2 extra magazines or speed loaders the bare minimum. It does not matter if those magazines hold 7 rounds or 20, you need at least two! Three is better (or even better a spare gun). Remember the mantra: "Reload when you can, not when you have to." (i.e. When the gun is empty) Also remember the military axiom: "two is one and one is none!"
You may find it extreme to carry extra magazines or speed loaders, but ask yourself why do we carry guns at all? It isn't convenient to carry a gun. But we inconvenience ourselves because we think that we may find ourselves in a situation where a gun is required. And if a gun is required, do you want to find yourself waiting for the smoke to clear and new threats to appear with three rounds left in your nine?
Celebrate Diversity!
5 Rnds .38+P 17 Rnds of 10MM
18 Rnds of 9mm 9 Rnds of .45 +P
Name Your "Poison"
The rule is: never leave a place you have cleared with a partially empty weapon! Not my rule, it comes from Capt. Eric A. Sykes of "Shooting to Live" fame (as well as the famous knife he designed with his co-author William Fairbairn). His actual quote was "Never go through a door without a full magazine in your weapon." It applies to back up guns too, everything gets topped off, but keep your head about you while doing it!
There is very little difference in the amount of time it takes to reload most common autoloaders, unless you have one of those with the European style "heel clip" magazine release in which it will take twice as long. This is also where revolvers come in last place. Not only do they take longer to reload, they have to be taken out of action to top them off, and unless your gun is empty, you will be flipping loaded rounds out into your hand to insert a full speed loader if you hope to reload without a long down time for the gun. This is a very good reason to carry two revolvers if your wheel gun is not already your backup gun.
A word here; do not measure your reload like the competition boys and girls do it. You may not be familiar with this. If you watch just about any pistol or revolver action shooting competition, at some point there will most likely be a "reload" where the shooter will drop the magazine, insert a new one (or speedloader in the case of revolvers) and keep firing. Timing is measured from one shot to the next. In a real gunfight, this would mean that you are trying to reload while being shot at, while presumably returning fire. Gunfighters, or at least those who have thought about this, don't reload like that. They "stay in the fight". Keep up your threat scan as you draw a magazine ( or a speed loader) and get it up to the gun which is held in the "workspace, " not up in front of your face blocking your view of the environment. Practice this!!
In this case it does not matter much how fast you draw your spare ammo because at any time you can stop drawing it and engage a threat with what is left in the gun. That is why we don't empty the gun if it can be helped. That spare might not be there! NOTE - IF YOU ARE IN THE OPEN AND THE THREAT IS STILL THERE THEN SHOOT DON'T RELOAD!
It does matter how fast you can draw the spare ammo or spare gun if you run out of bullets during an engagement and are standing still in the open - don't do that!
If you reload, do it properly and intelligently, or transition to a backup gun. This is something that you can time and examine closely. Done right you will be out of the fight for .5 to 1.5 seconds. That is a time we can live with - literally! If you cannot produce your reload or backup gun in 1.5 seconds you may want to start carrying it somewhere else.
