Quote:
Originally posted by Jellybean:
Bart, Ohio used to do much of their re-qual at 25 yards, or more. After the Miami shootout they took the attitude of "most shootings occure at 5yds or less, so shooting at 25 doesn't make sense". The max distance was six rounds at 54 ft. and everthing else was 30ft or less. Since requalification is more competency than gunfight training I think the 25 yards at least taught the officers how to properly hold the firearm and get used to how it should feel. I was my departments reqaulification officer and also did a few smaller area departments that didn't have their own range. I noticed a lot of the guys had problems at the 54 ft mark and decided to have a few of them warm up by shooting 50 rounds at the 25 yard line, just for some extra practice. One guy from another dept. never even touched the paper, and he was supposed to be SWAT qualified. Just as I was retiring the state changed the standard course so it looks more like an IDPA match. I hit the roof! What they are making the officers do now should never be taught to anyone that might get into a real gunfight.
But as I said, it amazes me how indifferent the average officer was to firearms training. Our dept. provided unlimited ammunition and targets for anyone that wanted to practice on their own. There never was one taker in the whole eleven years I was there. A surprising number of them had a very hard time requalifying and usually took two to three times to pass. I constantly told them that I would be more than happy to work with any of them to help them, or if anyone wanted to work on more "tactical" training just let me know. Never a taker. It was always the same thing. They show up, shoot until they pass and then leave.
I never really considered reloading a revolver one handed as a complex action, I guess I've just been doing it so long it's second nature.
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I hear you JB...I've seen many of the same things and just shake my head.
It's interesting, but if one were to look at our qualification course and then compare it with the 1986 events it is shocking how similar they are. Long shots (relatively) from prone, kneeling and standing, mid-range shots under tight (again, relatively) time limits, close range shots pretty rapidly and then strong and support hand only.
I was typing fast earlier and shouldn't have said that reloading a revolver one-handed was a "complex" action. I should have said it was more of a fine motor skill rather than a gross motor skill. Relatively small cylinder release to push, small ejector rod to hit, and then either manipulating a speed loader or loading singly into the chamber. Under stress those fine motor skills degrade significantly and that's why I like to see people compete (and get nervous in front of their friends) so they learn to handle it.
Reloading an auto is more gross motor skills. Even under stress your left forefinger can find the base of your right hand where the magwell is (for a righty, of course). Manage that and then either whack the muzzle or rear sight on something and you're done.
Obviously, operator proficiency is absolutely paramount and the reason why a good wheelgunner can reload faster than a many auto shooters. As a reasonably accomplished USPSA shooter I can reload pretty darned fast, but I wouldn't want to go ten rounds of reloads against Jerry M....I might just fumble one and he almost never does ;-) R,