Lovely days lately here in western Montana. Time to dust off the mountain bike and get ready for warmer-weather activities.
More than anything else, I need to start an actual training regime at the range. I’ve gone through the trouble and expense of acquiring .22 conversion kits for my rifles, and picking up a .22 Glock 44 to practice my pistol handling skills….now I just need to adopt a plan of shooting drills and exercises, to be performed on a regular basis, to make sure I’m staying competent on decay-susceptible skills.
(And, by the way, the Mantis system I purchased a while back is excellent and I highly recommend it for those times when getting to the range just ain’t gonna happen.)
While Im at it, I need to get back to some form of weight and mobility training. Its been too long since I sat on the floor, did stretches, and moves a bunch of weigh around.
With the end of the world (in some fashion) seemingly just around the corner, I’d like to have a headstart on being able to competently place in the top slots in the upcoming Shoot-n-Scoot Olympics.
There is no shortage of gun drills out there….the Mozambique (later renamed to Failure Drill) is probably the best known…but there’s others out there. I’m curious – if you were going to establish, say, a weekly routine of basic shooting skill drills for rifle and pistol, which ones would you do? Please link to a description/video.
And, for fun……..
Firearms training –
As I suspect you know dry fire is going to be your money maker here. Most folks recommend a 3 or 4 to 1 ratio of dry fire to live. It’s not fun but doing that work at home sets you up for the range.
If I cared (right now I don’t, maybe I will again some day) I’d dry fire a few times a week for 15-20 min and shoot weekly or bi weekly.
Fitness –
Don’t let perfect get in the way of good enough. Sure some combo of lifting/ running and body weight stuff is the ideal answer. However a bike ride or walk with your bag o tricks thrice a week and a little home daily dozen kind of stuff a couple days a week is way better than nothing.
Dr Rhonda Patrick says just 3 minutes a day of hard vigorous exercise can decrease your all cause mortality by 25%. 9 minutes of it is ideal. Look up Rhonda Patrick exercise snacks if you want more information. Also the 4 by 4 by 4 run plan works wonders according to her. Run pretty hard for 4 minutes, walk 4 minutes to get your breath and repeat 4 times, 0nce or twice a week. She calls it the Norwegian plan or something. But you are correct, I think, that a little exercise can help a lot.
Cowboy action shooting, popup shoot, No shoot targets, hostage scenarios.
Dummy rounds for random failure to fire, sprints to stimulate stress and the shakes.
Large appliance cardboard boxes, some fishing line, some 1X2 lathe for lever arms some paint. Always have a crew happy to clean up with a pizza party afterwards and build scenario.
Anybody can set up a 200 meter target and use the sandbags.
Cardio is very important in preperation for the Zombie Apocalypse per a movie I saw. The standard .50 cal ammo can will hold 36 tubes of silver rounds (720 ounces) and make great prepper dumbbells with that ‘tactical look and feel’ lol.
Some good shooting right there. Lot of stuff to unpack in that scene. Tom Cruise does like to get things right.
Method actor.
Any Michael Mann film will have realistic gun handling skills. He attended Gunsite back in the day.
Im a huge fan of Mann’s movies. Him and Ridley Scott will get in the theater no matter what they film.
So, is this a new video? Or is Larry back?
Following. Solid recommendations from readership. The basic exercise and various forms of recreational activities should be sufficient for the body workouts, your on track there. (Don’t be those gym rat muscle heads, flexing and useless for any martial abilities) Any forms of shooting drills and over all range time will get the muscle, eye, reactions tuned to be an automaton. Weapon manipulations, malfunctions, reloads, and body / shooting positioning with a constant situational awareness of cover and concealment, (knowing differences between the two and any barrier limitations) is also high up there in importance, often overlooked in stress spaz outs. The lead ups and indicators to spicy is really as important as trigger pulling. Head on a swivel, versus looking at your phone or gazing at fatty chick’s butts is kinda important too if out and about. Read the terrain and surroundings, assess physical environment for tactical pros and cons, adjust accordingly or have a plan. Scumbags stick out by behavior and nuances, watch the hands and watch the eyes, easy give away. Animal behaviorist type of observational ability is a lost skill in modern humans and soft civil societies. Also just stay frosty in a pinch and things will come together for you if you put the work in. Yeah, I got to get on it as well, everyday is a training day.
What can those with revolvers do since the Lantis system is only for pistols?
Consider the Advantage Arms .22LR conversion slide instead of the Glock 44. They make versions for all the frame sizes and you get the trigger, etc, that your carry Glock has. The slide looks/feels like the standard G17/etc slide and is made of aluminum — no plastic as on the G44 slide.
I built a standalone .22LR using the conversion slide for the G17/G22/etc frame and a stripped G17 frame from Glockstore back when they had them on sale for $40-$50 a few years ago. The AA conversion kit was $250-something as I recall, and the internals for the frame were about $50-$60? So price-wise pretty much the same.
Regarding revolvers, Mantis makes a Bore rail adapter for revolvers. Works great. Can also use the adapter in semi-autos that don’t have rails (like an original 1911).
Whichever training regimine you choose, change it every month or so… Getting really good at the (say) dot torture drill doesn’t mean you’re good with other tasking.
Get to a good school. The tips in between shoots are priceless. Especially for long range precision. Get trained up before you start, you’ll learn to do it right and save time/money (and with what the ammo costs, saving some $$$ is good)
I like to shoot handguns on week 1 of a month, rifle week 2, shotgun week 3, handgun week 4, and if there is a week 5, rifle again. Handgun is with my daily carry, or something with the same controls (which is why I’m all Glock these days). I’ll shoot a box or two of pistol, then maybe shoot some of my fun stuff.
For rifle shooting, I alternate tactical (carbine) and long range precision (I don’t call it sniper, I’m too old to crawl around and do the bushcraft stuff). Still, reaching out 1000+ meters and hitting a car wheel hub is a nice feeling.
Shotgun is all tactical, using a Mossberg 500 variant. Strictly shoot house, since that’s the only time I’d use a shotty. I am truly horrible at shotgun games (trap, skeet, etc) and don’t hunt waterfowl.
No special equipment needed, just time, effort, revolver, and ammo.
At age 75 I allot four mornings a week to physical activity. I walk 25 miles a week (one morning is a 10-miler), lift easy upper body weights once or twice a week (it isn’t much in itself but over years has had a marked cumulative effect), and get to the range an hour a week (in winter, simply indoor ‘revolver vs target’ trigger time, the other 8 months at the BLM gulch outdoors, revolver vs. ground target… move, make multiple hits, move.
It all adds up to something, and that is: I ain’t much anymore, but conversely I’m not nothin’ either.
It’s a routine that works, and if you have the time I recommend it.
SP RN
You definitely nailed it when mentioning shooting and weapon handling being a perishable skill. I was a LE firearms instructor for over ten years and just got burned out on “tactical” shooting, so when I retired I failed to keep training in that area. I came back to the agency recently in a limited capacity and was surprised how quickly my skills had diminished. Bottom line in my opinion for combat pistol training is to move. If you’re drawing your weapon, you need to be moving laterally, or to cover, or to the threat. Too many drills have the shooter staying in a static position and this is a disservice in my opinion. Also incorporate something to elevate the heart rate prior to shooting, because you’re definitely going to be jacked to the max in a gunfight. Pat McNamara has some good training videos out there. He can come across as a little over the top sometimes, but he has good training.
I just got 26″ of snow here in NH, and the forecast is for 9 degrees tomorrow night. The woodstove is cranking and it’s 85 in the basement and 72 degrees up here. No mountain biking around here for the time being!