Dry fire practice is how many pro shooters honed their accuracy skills. But, as with firing live rounds, you have to do it the correct way to actually benefit from it. You could blow through 10k rounds by shooting any way you like and not learn anything, or you could shoot the same amount of rounds taking the time to consciously & consistently apply the fundamentals thus learning exactly how/what squeezes out the most accuracy for you and the gun. Proper application of the fundamentals will net great accuracy with any handgun in any shooting position. Properly applying the fundamentals in dry fire practice should be no different than with live rounds. Conscious effort goes into all 5 fundamentals every time you ease the trigger back. There are all kinds of dry fire drills one can do. Dot drill: get good sight alignment& good sight picture on a dot on the wall, apply the fundamentals and ease the trigger back. The sights shouldn't move. A laser is useful for this. Place a dime or piece of brass on the too of the front sight, when you ease the trigger back it it shouldn't fall off. Note; some guns just have too much snap for this to work. The draw: from concealed, or however you carry, practice the 4 steps of the draw, and manipulating the safety. Acquire the target & Target transitions: from the holster, practice getting sights on target; see your target(s), close your eyes draw and aim at it. Open your eyes, where were you actually pointing? For multiple targets close your eyes while transitioning to a different one. Then do that with eyes open. Initially close your eyes so you don't cheat yourself. Initial target acquisition is imperative. Doesn't matter if you are the most accurate shooter in the world if you can't get the muzzle on the threat quickly. Practice reloads and malfunction clearing. Practice keeping your sights on the target while moving.
IMO Wilson Combat Pinnacle... If you have $7k. Otherwise there are many out there. As with most guns now, the gun is likely more accurate than the person firing it. Dan Wesson, kimber, Ed Brown, STI, colt, Springfield.. I the list goes on and on for good 1911's. You could piece together a 1911 with each part from a different 1911 and have one that will run good. Some have subtle differences from the original design, ex; sig has an external extractor, kimber field strips differently. I actually used a Taurus 1911 to outshoot 3 others; a kimber, a Charles Daly, and a s&w E series. For a plinking 1911, rock island is economical & runs good, tight when it's new, but it'll loosen up after a few hundred rounds.
All good stuff. I'm an instructor here in Florida, and a USPSA /IDPA shooter as well. I recommend dry fire too. Make it a regular habit and you will see results at the range. Top shooters use books by Ben Stoeger, or Steve Anderson. Page after page of dry fire drills with par times. If you don't have a shot timer with par time capability, you can use an IPSC timer ap on your phone. It makes a huge difference if you train with one.
I'll agree with glocks may not being the perfect fit for new shooters, especially females. Glocks require a firm wrist, or you'll get a failure to extract or failure to eject. In my experience I've found new shooters have a problem with this. On the other hand when it comes to pure safety, I've found most new shooters display superior safety, I believe it's a combination of respect & also fear for the gun( I've saw a bunch of dumb S too!!) But the fact is brand new shooters that really handle and fire the first shots in training have learned safety from the get go, and haven't had time to get complacent. I would like to be able to choose what gun I carry. Granted I can shoot a Glock just fine, but with that grip angle I put in a little dry fire practice before I walk out the door.
Same team fellas. I think everyone will agree that 1911's do have great points & will get the job done, and also striker fired guns do have great points & will get the job done. There are too many heated Glock vs 1911 threads on the internet anyhow. One can soop up nearly any gun to fit their needs. When an adamant 1911 or Glock guy asks me which one, I sharply reply "a f'n revolver!". Lol
I have had the benefit of both FBI and police instructors and I also got to use a police situational simulator. Everything that I had ever done on the range never even came close to what I learned in that simulator. Yes, the practice on the range teaches you how to shoot and to shoot accurately but nothing prepares you for a real life situation where you have to make a split second decision as to who is your target and then acquire, fire and hit them and no one else. So when I see everyone claiming that CCW makes them "safer" I just chuckle because the odds are they won't react as they imagine they will. Just knowing how to use a firearm and having one around is not real life. The lighting might be poor, the weather might be bad, there could be people everywhere. Knowing when NOT to shoot is the lesson that most people carrying guns don't seem to ever bother learning IMO. And yes, both the police and FBI instructors agreed that within 20' you just don't have the time to draw, aim and fire at someone rushing you. You are better off ignoring your gun and using your other training instead. How much of that kind of training do you do and how much emphasis do you place on it?
The simulators are awesome, been through a few of them and they are awesome training devices. You're right simply owning a gun and shooting it every now and then doesn't make someone a personal defense master anymore than owning a razor blade and cleaning a deer every now and then makes someone a surgeon. We prefer to employ the crawl, walk, run method of training. Taking it one step at a time. After the basics (parts, operation, fundamentals, position, etc.) comes advanced; reloads, expedient malfunction clearing, movement, cover/concealment, unconventional positions, point shooting, lash sight picture, etc. Then, hile incorporating nd building up on hats already been learned omes defensive; CQC, target discrimination, threat de escalation, low light, create time&space, stressful situations, situational awareness, etc. For force on scenarios we start with blue guns, then airsoft, then marker/sim rounds, and try to ensure the scenarios are diverse and not repetitive. We do run the Tueller drill. For most it is an eye opener. We put more emphasis on close in work, and stress the importance of speed and accuracy of point shooting and FSP. For defensive handgun training I make a major point about situational awareness, and highlight that the best way to survive a violent crime is to not be in one. But sometimes S happens and you can't help it. I think the worst part about CCW is, for the majority, that is the only "formal" firearms training they have ever had or will ever get. I encourage my clients to learn everything they can from me, then go pick another instructors brain. I'm an instructor and I still seek more training, granted I've got up and walked out of a couple classes cause the guys teaching them turned out to be morons, but there are a lot of good guys to learn from.
I started with situational awareness with my daughter before she ever touched a gun. She learned to deescalate and keep herself out of harm's way first and foremost. Served her well throughout her schooling and I can recall one of her teachers telling me that she saw her stare down a 6' senior who was bullying another kid and make him back down. She was barely 5' herself back then but she had the self confidence that comes with knowing what she could and couldn't handle. She ended up teaching "street smarts" to other kids when she was in college. She doesn't need a gun to defend herself and doesn't even own one and that is her choice and I respect her for it.
Interesting, I get so many different answers. I do just the opposite and here's why. With semi-auto's, strong hand reloads with speed loaders are the norm. Your ammo is on the weak side as well. Why change the basic motion of reloading, just because you're moving from a semi to a wheel gun? It's also significantly faster once mastered. Loose rounds go in with a Tuff products speed strip using the strong hand.
The above is an interesting discussion and worth expanding on, because it's not that simple. First. LEO and civilian shootings may not quite be the same animal in a large number of circumstances except for one, and that's ambush tactics. Even then, it may not be similar. If you look at LEO shootings and what guys like Rob Pincus bring up, in the majority of PD shootings, the officers usually don't see the sights. Even then they occur quite often in off positions that their training, such as it is, does not stress. If you drill down on this to see what's happened in the decades that led from the transition of the revolver to the semi-auto, there are several variables that are noteworthy. I'll bring up one that's going to be controversial. The use of Jeff Cooper's so called "modern method" of shooting was a massive mistake. The technique was developed from gun matches and not gun fights and unfortunately civilians and LEO are paying the price for this very misguided but commercially successful attempt at changing shooting techniques.
How many seconds would a CC person be able to shoot his/her semi-auto handgun in a serious gunbattle with just 2 16- round magazines? How many rounds do you have on you with your typical EDC (every day carry) weapon(s)?
He's an instructor, not an operator. The vast majority of civilian shootings will involve 7 shots or less. 15 to 25 rounds should get you through just about anything.
90% of gun fights happen within 7 yards. The majority of those are within 3 yards. That's where the "FBI rule of 3" comes in. Majority of defensive gun uses: 3 rounds or less 3 yards or less 3 seconds or less until it's finished I read a story about a home invasion where the homeowner traded rounds with the suspect. The homeowner wound up firing over 30 rounds, which is crazy because no one knows your home better than you. But an eye opener to what could happen.
World record revolver reload: fire 6 shots, reload, fire 6 more; 2.99 seconds. Done by switching the gun to the weak hand. I've found it's more of a personal preference from one individual to another.
Hardly a true contest with a tricked out revolver using moon clips and perhaps the world's best revolver shooter. I"ve seen the video. That's not going to happen in real life. Again, just my opinion, but it's shared by a number of trainers including Michael DeBethencourt that strong handed reloading just might be superior.
I had read somewhere that in many police shootouts, the opponents shoot until their guns are empty, then back away to reload.
That's why I teach both ways, so they can get a feel for them, practice, and see which way works best for them. I reloaded for years keeping the gun in my strong hand (I'm a revolver guy at heart), then I practiced and practiced doing it while the gun is in my weak hand. Recorded myself doing it, reviewed the tape and found I was faster when I switched the gun to my weak side. Can't remember what the time was. I had one incident where I was doing defensive training, popped the cylinder open while moving oto over, went to reload and a threat target popped up and I was exposed. Dove for cover faster lol. The cylinder wound up closing, I hadn't put rounds in it yet, had to re open it and toss the rounds in. I know, once can always be chalked up as a fluke, but I still remember it.
That many rounds and the odds of unintended casualties is almost a given especially since you are 100% responsible for every single round that you fire.
In one simulation I fired 5 rounds. If I had stopped at 3 it would have been a good shoot but one of those additional rounds hit a bystander so it wasn't. You never want shoot any more than you absolutely must.
We're not talking about the hood here. With legitimate civilian self defense shootings, bystanders are rarely ever hit. I'm also not sure what your point is. Just about everyone recommends at least one reload.
Ziplock made my point in post #38 but let me repeat it here so we can see it in context. The odds of ever firing 30 rounds are virtually zero. If you can't hit your target after 3 rounds then where are your rounds going and what are they hitting? If you can't hit your target at 3 yards or less should you even be firing your gun? If you are still firing after 3 seconds the situation is no longer the same as it was when you started shooting. Legitimate self defense shootings do not require 30+ rounds.
Isoscelese and weaver both have their merits. Weaver presents a smaller silhouette than isoscelese or Applegate, but I've found that when folks assume a weaver stance, shooting just from the strong side; their shots string horizontally to the right(right hand shooters). I Applegate isn't a favorite technique of mine, simply because I believe it's best to keep the gun at the ready (in the fight, tight to your chest), not the low ready. That way you can fire from the ready, move back to the wing guard, or press out to fire. I prefer the modified isoscelese. It's very stable, easy to move from, allows hips & shoulders to rotate easily if need be. I teach to "press out" to the target. That way your not swinging in a concave/convex manner. It reduces the chances of over or under swing, which reduces the chances of missing the target. In a true defensive scenario; one is not likely to be in a true stance for very long at all.
The way I teach it, NC law, is that one cannot shoot to kill, wound, mame, etc. You can only use deadly force if certain criteria is met, and then you can only shoot to STOP THE THREAT. If the threat no longer remains, one cannot continue to pull the trigger.
I stress that every bullet that exits the muzzle has the shooters name on it, making them.responsible or it. There was a concealed carrier in the crowd when rep Gabby Gifford was shot. He chose not to draw & engage because he wasn't confident he could accurately engage the threat with all the innocent people running around. I'd say he made the right decision. I've had some come through that were naturally intuitive and did well from the get go. Have had others, well, the AAR went something like this: "you shot a cop, a bling guy and a baby in a stroller..." 'Surprisingly' a lot of the ones that don't do well at the start are the ones that "already know everything there is to know about guns"
