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Showing posts with label Training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Training. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Blade Tech Training Barrel

I picked up a Blade-Tech Training Barrel last week.  Initially I picked it up for training purposes and for filming training videos where we wanted to use a realistic weapon and still have the weapons be noticeably safe.  The installation of the training barrel is as easy as field stripping your handgun and putting it back together.  The Training Barrel also works great for dry fire exercises.  There is no way a negligent discharge could happen with a Training Barrel installed in your handgun.  Though the price tag is a little bit more than a chamber plug/flag, I think that the barrel being replaced is well worth the extra few dollars, especially with the ability to have a completely safe environment to conduct dry fire drills with.
From Blade-Tech's Web Page:
1. The Training Barrel provides the ability of realistic dry-fire weapon handling during practice and training but more importantly eliminates any chance for a tragic accident, such as a negligent accidental discharge.
2. The training barrel will allow full slide function which aids in tap rack manipulation drills and trigger function.
3. The training barrel allows the operator/instructor to use his/her OWN weapon by simply removing the factory barrel and inserting the high visibility yellow training barrel which is recognized as a safety color.
4. By using the training barrel one of the many key benefits is that you will be able to get good sight picture while presenting the pistol to a threat or target, this eliminates bad habits and promotes good training habits.
5. The training barrel is ideal for disarming, weapon retention, room clearing and CQB tactics.
6. While the solidly constructed training guns available today are 100% safe, they are not beneficial to teaching or demonstrating weapon manipulation along with trigger function.
7. The training barrel is lighter, smaller, and easier to transport than plastic training weapons and is made with strong impact resistant material which prevents flexing& bending; and is resistant to harsh chemicals.
8. The training barrel is less expensive and more economical than the average training weapon.
9. The training barrel has no complex parts to attach, lock/unlock, etc. It is one piece construction. No extra equipment is needed.
10. The Training Barrel works with all holsters! In the case of closed bottom holsters the barrel length can be modified to fit by just shortening the Training Barrel’s length (easily done with a hacksaw). The 19/23 barrel will also work in the 26/27, Just needs to be shortened to desired length. (Easily done with a hacksaw)
11. It makes weapons on display at trade Shows or in a gun stores 100% safe, allowing the potential client’s, student’s and customer’s to observe and handle the weapon.
12. Instructors can maintain possession of all real barrels until students have demonstrated proficiency with handling the weapon and “graduate” to the actual barrel.
13. Eliminates using annoying large steel dry fire plates at training schools.
14. The Training Barrel is backed by a 1 year warranty! 





Thursday, September 16, 2010

Free Training Targets #2 - Courtesy of WASHLEFI

Here are a few more targets that I have created for your training use.  Let me know if they work out for you.

If there are any problems in downloading the Target .pdf files, please let me know as soon as possible at washlefi@gmail.com so I can resolve any issues.



The Speed and Accuracy Target is meant to be used with a shot timer, but a stopwatch will work as well.  One shot per circle as accurately, quickly, and safely as possible.


The Nickel Drill is to assist the shooter in working on obtaining a tight grouping of shots.  Typically the shooter will shoot 5 shots per Nickel to gauge how accurate their grouping is. 


 Same principle as the Nickel Drill, only now you have a smaller target.


Same principle as the Nickel Drill, only now you have a larger target.
  

The Billiards Select Target is best if used with a shooter / coach relationship.  The coach will call out either a number or color.  If the coach calls out "2", the shooter will shoot at the "2" ball.  If the coach calls out "Blue", the shooter will shoot at the "2" and "10" balls.  It is up to the shooter and/or coach how many rounds are shot at each ball.


Sunday, September 12, 2010

Do You Train Enough?

How often we train with our firearms and how effective that training is can have a profound effect on maintaining your skill levels. Firearms skills are a perishable skill that diminishes over time. Overall, for law enforcement, the most proficient an average officer is at their firearms handling skills is probably immediately after they graduate the Academy. The recruit is receiving constant and effective training on a weekly basis, if not a few times a week. Some days the recruit may be training for 2-4 hours, while other days it may be all day on the range.

After a recruit leaves the Academy, their agency may give them additional handgun and/or rifle training to prepare them for the streets and for the agency to ensure that they have indeed trained to a sufficient level at the Academy. Unfortunately, after the initial push of decent training, most officers do not receive on-going training throughout their career.

How often does the officer come to the range? Once a year for qualification? A few times a year for qualification? Is there training built in to the time that the officer is out at the range for qualifications?

Do you consider a qualification as being training? You shouldn't. A weapons qualification is not training. It is only a test. It is a test of your proficiency to continue to carry your firearm for duty use. Do not count your time on the range during a qualification as "training" time.

How often should you train? There are a lot of variables to this question. Cost of ammunition, availability of ammunition, time of the officer being off the street, times the range is available for use, and officer motivation to train on their own are only a few.

A good friend of mine made a good point to me once. I'm not sure if he came up with it himself or if he read it in a book, but he told me; "It is better to train a little bit more often, than to train a long time less often."

The way I translate this is as follows: If you go to the range once a week and shoot only one box of ammo (handgun - 50 rounds) for one year, you will have had 52 training sessions to work on your fundamentals and to maintain, if not improve, your firearms handling skills. If you go to the range twice a year and shoot 26 boxes of ammo (1300 rounds), you would have shot the same amount of rounds down range, but how effective was that training? Sure, shooting 1300 rounds of ammunition in one training day is not realistic. Is it possible, probably, but very likely. More realistically is that you would probably at the max, shoot 200-300 rounds during a training day, if you are truly focusing on properly training. Too much training in one day will cause fatigue and will create training scars. This will cause you to move backward, not forward in improving your skills.

Take every training opportunity that you have. If your agency offers training, mandatory or not, take advantage of it. If you can find a tactical shooting course, take it. You may not agree with everything that the instructors say, but it may help you open your eyes to something that you did not previously know. Train a lot, especially if you can get the ammunition for free.

Here are two links that offer a great wealth of knowledge. The first is the 2008 FBI statistics on Officers feloniously killed and the second link is information once again from the FBI about cop attackers and their mentality.

2008 FBI – Officers Feloniously Killed Stats

Force Science News #62: New Findings from FBI About Cop Attackers & Their Weapons

Here are a few points from Force Science of information on findings from the FBI about cop attackers and their weapons. The entire article is worth the read.

From a pool of more than 800 incidents, the researchers selected 40, involving 43 offenders (13 of them admitted gangbangers-drug traffickers) and 50 officers, for in-depth exploration. They visited crime scenes and extensively interviewed surviving officers and attackers alike, most of the latter in prison.

Several of the offenders began regularly to carry weapons when they were 9 to 12 years old, although the average age was 17 when they first started packing “most of the time.” Gang members especially started young.

Nearly 40% of the offenders had some type of formal firearms training, primarily from the military. More than 80% “regularly practiced with handguns, averaging 23 practice sessions a year,” the study reports, usually in informal settings like trash dumps, rural woods, back yards and “street corners in known drug-trafficking areas.”

One spoke of being motivated to improve his gun skills by his belief that officers “go to the range two, three times a week [and] practice arms so they can hit anything.”

In reality, victim officers in the study averaged just 14 hours of sidearm training and 2.5 qualifications per year. Only 6 of the 50 officers reported practicing regularly with handguns apart from what their department required, and that was mostly in competitive shooting. Overall, the offenders practiced more often than the officers they assaulted, and this “may have helped increase [their] marksmanship skills,” the study says.

The offender quoted above about his practice motivation, for example, fired 12 rounds at an officer, striking him 3 times. The officer fired 7 rounds, all misses.

More than 40% of the offenders had been involved in actual shooting confrontations before they feloniously assaulted an officer. Ten of these “street combat veterans,” all from “inner-city, drug-trafficking environments,” had taken part in 5 or more “criminal firefight experiences” in their lifetime.

One reported that he was 14 when he was first shot on the street, “about 18 before a cop shot me.” Another said getting shot was a pivotal experience “because I made up my mind no one was gonna shoot me again.”

Again in contrast, only 8 of the 50 LEO victims had participated in a prior shooting; 1 had been involved in 2 previously, another in 3. Seven of the 8 had killed offenders.

New Training Targets - Courtesy of WASHLEFI

Here are a few targets that I have created for your training use.  Let me know if they work out for you.

If there are any problems in downloading the Target .pdf files, please let me know as soon as possible at washlefi@gmail.com so I can resolve any issues.


The Buildig Blocks - Decision Maker target is good for a shooter / coach relationship in having the coach call out a letter, number, or shape and the shooter has to respond quickly and accurately to get a round or rounds on target.



The Reducing Boxes target is to get the shooter to slowly gain confidence in aiming for and hitting a smaller target.  Shoot 5 rounds into each box.


The Meerkat Mayhem Target is just for fun.  Do with it what you like.


 The principle of the Reducing Circles Target is the same as the Reducing Boxes Target above, just a different shape to shoot at.


The Hostage Target is designed to give the shooter a threat target to shoot at while attemtping to aviod hitting the hostage.  The "T" zone on the threat target represents the area around the eyes and nasal cavity that is preferred when conducting a head shot.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Video: Using a cell phone for visual aid while training

Here is a useful video from PoliceOne that shows how the instructor uses the student's cell phone camera to photograph the students grip on their handgun.  This could be used for many different applications and these folks were definitely thinking outside the box.




BLUtube is powered by PoliceOne.com


http://blutube.policeone.com/Media/5646-P1-Tactical-Tip-Using-a-cell-phone-for-visual-aid-while-training/