Your Draw

There are many ways to draw from different concealment positions, and learning and practicing the best ways for you are crucial. You never want to be in a situation where you need to get to your firearm quickly, but you find yourself fumbling with your jacket or shirt. Practicing in your home (with an unloaded firearm) and practicing at the range on a regular basis are important as well.

When I first put my firearm on in the morning, I take a few minutes to practice drawing in front of the mirror with what I’m wearing that day. A longer shirt than you’re used to wearing can make a big difference when drawing. Your hand needs to go down just a little further to get a hold of the bottom of your shirt. These things need to be taken into consideration at all times.

 

by Home Defense Gun

The idea of having a home defense gun(s) comes from a particular mindset.  That mindset is one along the lines of that one must be ready to take lethal action in order to protect oneself and one’s family.

Jeff Cooper is known as the father of the “Modern Technique” of handgun shooting.  Besides weapons and shooting, Cooper was a huge proponent of having a proper mindset.  Check out Cooper’s book “Principles Of Personal Defense.” One of my favorite quotes of his is”

“Calling 911 is all well and great, but they take a long time to get there.”

 

 

by Home Defense Gun 

We are probably at our most vulnerable driving in our cars. Here is a great video about what to think about and what to do to aid in carjackingdefense.

As always, number one is to practice conflict avoidance and situational awareness. Leave yourself always an out and keep your eyes open about what is going on around you.

Next is to clear your over garment when you get in the car. This does a couple things. It gives you clear access to your weapon and it also covers it to avoid problems with passer and drivers by.

Keep muzzle awareness in the vehicle. It is very confined inside a car or truck and if the weapon goes off as you engage you want it going off in a safe direction.

Remember to know your target, what is in line with it and what is behind it.  You own that bullet when you let it go.

As mentioned in the video, training is important. Think about getting or renting an airsoft gun to get the practice you need.

 

by Home Defense Gun

by Home Defense Gun staffer Pat

CCW for women can be a tough sell. I always find it strange that there seems to be a societal stigma against armed women. Given our country’s frontier legacy, it is safe to say that women have been using firearms of one kind or another to defend cabins, farms, cattle drives, and wagon trains since before the Nation knew it was destined to become a Nation. We don’t still talk about Arnie Oakley or Pa Barker, do we? Point being there is nothing outrageous about the prospect of American Women packing heat on either side of the law. I believe that this stigmatization is an attempt by the anti-gun faction to pick away at the social acceptability of firearms, one demographic group at a time.

Unfortunately, the notion that guns are for guys has been fostered for a long time. While a man raised to be familiar with firearms is still not out of the ordinary, the number of women that have not been properly exposed is quite large. My wife was one of these women. She grew up in a house with guns and hunting brothers, but in her father’s eyes guns were not a feminine pursuit. Therefore, his daughters went untrained and unfamiliar with weapons. Sadly, I think this has become the norm, and that can make it tough for a husband who wants his wife to be protected even when he isn’t there. The one saving grace for me when I wanted to start introducing my wife to guns was that at least she had grown up knowing they were in the house. At least she wasn’t completely freaked out by the prospect of having them around. I think there are more and more out there all the time that find the thought of guns in the home to be completely foreign and frightening.

So, getting guns into the house didn’t present a problem. Keeping them out of the house would have presented a problem for her, but we didn’t have to go down that road. The next hurdle was to start getting her comfortable with handling and shooting them. This was a very long process, and didn’t really kick in until we had kids that were old enough to be interested in shooting. My oldest daughter led the way on this front, developing into a fine hand gunner, shot gunner, and rifleperson, the rest of my five kids are coming along nicely. Shooting became one of our family activities, and my wife had no choice but to join in or get left behind.

Shooting as a family had some great benefits in training my wife. I had an opportunity to get all the way back to basics without being accused of condescension. Shooting with the kids gave me the chance to start from the start with my wife as well, and I think she has benefited immensely from this experience.

When I started to think in terms of my wife being ready for a CCW permit, I went out and got her a pistol for mother’s day. We went into a new round of training, getting her familiar and proficient with the new weapon. I also started introducing tactics and combat shooting skills into the mix, but still only approached the subject of Concealed Carry only obliquely. Still, I was met with some resistance on the prospect of her actually getting her CCW.

The first argument I encountered was that she didn’t want to carry a gun all the time. This, of course, is an easy objection to overcome. Getting a CCW permit does not obligate you to carry a gun all the time. It does, however, give you that option if circumstances warrant. If you wait until you need a gun to get your permit, you have waited too long. I pointed out to her that we from time to time are obligated to go into towns that are larger than the one we live near, and that the streets can get pretty dark at bight.

Next argument: what about the kids? What about the kids? If we have anything worth defending, it is certainly them. All of our kids have been raised with guns, by a firearms instructor father and a former navy weapons officer grandpa, if it were legal I would let them go armed without reservation. I told my wife if she ever got into a bind she could hand her pistol off to our oldest daughter who would undoubtedly know what to do with it! Kids and guns are not an issue if you teach your kids right (and right from wrong!).

Final objection: I don’t know if I could shoot someone. This is a tough philosophical dilemma and one that comes up often when I am teaching CCW classes, especially from the women. I generally advise my students that if they can get out of a situation for the contents of their wallet, let the wallet go. I have never had enough in my pockets to justify taking even the basest human life, and would not kill over a few dollars. Trouble is, there are a lot of very violent criminals out there these days and your wallet or purse may not buy your safety. This is an even bigger issue for women, wives and daughters. Whether or not you can kill to defend your own life is a very personal moral question, but, as with the last objection, what about the kids?

The “what about the kids” argument finally won her over. Mamma bears have got to defend their cubs, and it can be tough without claws! All the ground work helped me to convince her. Making shooting part of our family’s life, teaching her skills that fostered confidence, all that. I think, though, that what finally did the trick was the discovery that there are a lot of very nice and stylish gun handbags available and that husbands seldom argue about buying items with built in magazine pouches!

What arguments have you heard for and against concealed carry for women.  Let us know in the comments.

 

by Home Defense Gun 5 Comments

Guest Post by survival, preparedness, and firearms expert, David MorrisOne of the most common firearms problems that people have is jerking their firearm so that they are shooting groups are below the bulls eye.  Sometimes the group is loose, sometimes it’s shaped like an upside down “V”, and sometimes it’s low, but so tight that you might think that the sights are off.

This problem is called anticipatory jerk, and it’s normally caused by trying to anticipate the timing and severity of recoil.  This problem is one that happens to the majority of new shooters and oftentimes returns, like a stubborn fungus, throughout a shooter’s lifetime.

Besides low and/or loose groups, this problem often shows up when pulling the trigger on an empty chamber or a dud round.  If you’ve got a problem with anticipatory jerk, the barrel of the gun will dive down as you’re pulling the trigger and there’s no recoil to hide the jerk.

This is one of several dozen problems that you’ll find quick, easy, and inexpensive solutions for in my new book: “Tactical Firearms Training Secrets”!

Here are a few things that you can do to combat this problem:

1.    I mentioned dry fire training for the “eyes shut” exercise the other day and dry fire training can help you develop the habit of staying on target through the trigger break.  Specifically, while dry firing, you want to keep your sights lined up with your intended target throughout your entire trigger press, through the trigger break, and after the trigger breaks as you’re holding the trigger fully depressed.  If the muzzle of your firearm “dives” as your trigger breaks, focus on keeping your sights lined up and repeat as necessary until your sights stay lined up throughout the entire process.

2.    Put snap caps or dummy rounds in random places in your magazines.  Better yet, have a training partner load your magazines for you.  As you’re shooting and hit a dummy round, you’ll know immediately whether you’re anticipating recoil by whether or not you stay on target through the trigger break or if the muzzle of the barrel dives.  Snap caps are also great to practice malfunction drills so that you can hardwire your brain to respond quickly and efficiently on what to do when your firearm fails to function under stress.

3.    Try training with an airsoft “tactical training” class of airsoft firearm.  They’re the same size and weight as their real counterpart and will allow you to quickly see whether or not you have any issues with anticipatory jerk.  When I’m teaching people firearms skills, I almost always start by having them practice the skills with airsoft before practicing the skills with lead.   Besides the fact that some people jerk every firearm they grab, many people will show a high degree of proficiency with airsoft and have their groups fall apart with live fire.  In these cases, it is quickly obvious that the shooter can’t say, “I’m just a bad shooter”  and that there was a fundamental change in technique that was made during the transition from airsoft to live fire that can quickly be identified and fixed.

This quick fix is just the tip of the iceberg of the high speed, low cost, low visibility techniques that I cover in my book, Tactical Firearms Training Secrets.

Share a tip or technique you use to improve accuracy in the comments.

 

David Morris, AKA SurvivalDave, is one of the few survival authors who won’t try to “wow” you with his credentials. Why? Because frankly, his credentials don’t matter. Survival “experts” are a dime a dozen, but what’s rare and valuable is David’s ability to take complex survival topics and write about them in such a way that you can actually start applying the knowledge and skills immediately on a daily basis. David doesn’t live in a yurt or on a fully stocked rural retreat. He lives in the real world in a city with a wife and young kids. As a result, he has worked with dozens of subject matter experts to develop strategies to survive breakdowns in civil order while remaining in the city. David is one of a select group of authors can write so that both newbie preppers and hard core survivalists with military and law enforcement experience rave about his work and learn something new on every page.  Check out his book Tactical Firearms Training Secrets here.

1. Always treat a gun as if it were loaded.
2. Never put your finger on the trigger until you are ready to fire.
3. Never point the gun at something you aren’t willing to destroy.
4. Know what is beyond your target.

If you have a gun, you should know the 4 basic gun safety rules.  If you don’t have a gun, you should know the 4 basic gun safety rules.  It seems that for some reason, I have been hearing about or encountering too many people who either don’t know or are too comfortable with the rules.  It is good to have a healthy fear of guns.  Guns should be respected and given proper treatment.

Being new to the business side of guns, I have never been muzzled more times than in the last few months.  At our very first show, there was a woman looking for a holster.  When I asked her what type of gun she had, she pulled it out of her purse and handed it to me, muzzle first.  Every gun safety alarm went off in my head.  I took the weapon from her to get myself out of the line of the barrel and proceeded to clear it.  Not being very familiar with revolvers, I was unable to open the cylinder.  In an effort to not freak out, I held the gun in a safe direction as I talked to her about carry methods and holster options.  In further conversation, I found out her son had bought the gun for her to use for home defense.  Later, I thought it was interesting that she was comfortable enough to just throw the gun in her purse and use it on the range, but not competent enough to hand it over to another person.

Men, don’t start thinking it’s a woman thing.  I’ve seen it from you too.  I can’t tell you the countless times I have been handed a gun muzzle first, have one thrown on a table, or seen someone trying to check out the type of a gun they have in their girlfriend’s face.  In the last case, my business partner graciously took the weapon, cleared it, and handed it back with the slide locked back to the rear.  And time after time I get the response, “It’s not loaded.”  My 4 year old can tell you that a gun is always loaded.  It’s rule number one!

Don’t worry, it’s not just the civilians either.  I know a lot of cops and I hear a lot of stories.  Recently, I got a call from a friend saying she was on her way to the emergency room because an officer had shot his hand while cleaning his gun.  What!?!  He was preparing to clear his gun and got distracted.  He forgot to do a double check.  When he pulled the trigger to release the slide for cleaning, he found out it was still loaded.  It blew the watch right off his wrist.  He did not treat the gun as if it were loaded, he put his finger on the trigger when he wasn’t ready to fire, he pointed his gun at something he wasn’t willing to destroy, and he did not check what was behind his target.  Safety rules 1-4, BROKEN.

I’m not trying to call people out or say they are stupid.  What I’m trying to say, is people are too comfortable with the rules and don’t respect them.  You wouldn’t pass a set mouse trap without disarming it.  You wouldn’t put your hand on a chainsaw blade with your finger on the trigger.  A gun should get the same treatment.

So let’s take our 4 rules a step further and add some etiquette.

5. Always clear your weapon in a safe direction.
6. Do a visual and physical check of the chamber to make sure it is empty.
7. Hand the weapon to the other person with the action (slide or cylinder) open.
8. Hand over the weapon with the muzzle pointing down (or another safe direction).
9. The receiving person should be able to get a good grip on the frame when taking it from you or just lay it down on a table so they can pick it up themselves.
10. Always index your trigger finger when handling the gun.

This may be common sense, but sometimes we just need to be reminded.  Be aware of where you are and who you are dealing with.  If you don’t know something, ask.  I assure you, I have now learned the proper way to open the cylinder of a revolver and if I’m not familiar with a gun, I ask.  You are not only responsible for what you know, but also for what you think others know.  Nobody will ever get mad at you for being too safe.

Stay safe and have fun.