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Took another class at Asymmetric Solutions USA in Farmington, Missouri and this time brought along a couple friends, Dan Zimmerman, Managing Editor of The Truth About Guns blog site and Tim McNabb, a contributing editor. The folks at Asymmetric were gracious hosts and put us through our paces. A highlight for me was running several live fire excercises from inside a vehicle. The goal of the training is to begin to give you a sense of what you should be prepared for if/when, God forbid, you face a lethal threat while in your vehicle.
I've run these drills a few times and here are some of my impressions and things I've learned.
As always, it's all about "practice, practice practice."
Engaging a threat through the windshield is not difficult, but it takes some getting used to. Your first instinct is to assume that if you discharge your weapon inside your car, through your windshield, the result will be an explosive shattering of glass, blowing it all over yourself. This is pure Hollywood. Reality is that the rounds go very easily through the windshield and due to the nature of vehicle safety glass, there is very little that is actually blown out and it goes out the direction of the bullet. You are able to see, engage and hit targets through your windshield.
As soon as possible thereafter you engage any threats to either side and then exit the vehicle to get yourself in position behind as much of the engine block area as possible.
As in all such situations, speed and violence of the action is the key. If you have to stop and think through anything, you are placing yourself in serious jeopardy.
OK, that's the ideal.
The reality is that, in these drills, when shooting from a very small car that has no wheels, not to mention tires, rolling yourself out of it is not an exercise in speed or precision for a guy like me, but you do what you can.
Once again, the major lesson reinforced for me was: Mindset, Mindset, Mindset, the practice, practice and practice. Then, equipment.
As you can see in the video, we did have some equipment problems. The one gent had a malfunction with his fuller size semi-auto and with his pocket gun. The pocket gun was pretty much infective. Was it due to lack of practice? Maybe. Hard to say. The other gent had to stop and reload because he was using an eight round capacity Commander style 1911. Again, practice, practice, practice.
I took shots and missed, particularly badly when I forgot to engage the target through the right front window, opened the door and then tried to engage one handed. Disaster. Again: practice, practice, practice!
Here's the video:
Car Ambush and Carjacking Live Fire Exercises - YouTube
I've run these drills a few times and here are some of my impressions and things I've learned.
As always, it's all about "practice, practice practice."
Engaging a threat through the windshield is not difficult, but it takes some getting used to. Your first instinct is to assume that if you discharge your weapon inside your car, through your windshield, the result will be an explosive shattering of glass, blowing it all over yourself. This is pure Hollywood. Reality is that the rounds go very easily through the windshield and due to the nature of vehicle safety glass, there is very little that is actually blown out and it goes out the direction of the bullet. You are able to see, engage and hit targets through your windshield.
As soon as possible thereafter you engage any threats to either side and then exit the vehicle to get yourself in position behind as much of the engine block area as possible.
As in all such situations, speed and violence of the action is the key. If you have to stop and think through anything, you are placing yourself in serious jeopardy.
OK, that's the ideal.
The reality is that, in these drills, when shooting from a very small car that has no wheels, not to mention tires, rolling yourself out of it is not an exercise in speed or precision for a guy like me, but you do what you can.
Once again, the major lesson reinforced for me was: Mindset, Mindset, Mindset, the practice, practice and practice. Then, equipment.
As you can see in the video, we did have some equipment problems. The one gent had a malfunction with his fuller size semi-auto and with his pocket gun. The pocket gun was pretty much infective. Was it due to lack of practice? Maybe. Hard to say. The other gent had to stop and reload because he was using an eight round capacity Commander style 1911. Again, practice, practice, practice.
I took shots and missed, particularly badly when I forgot to engage the target through the right front window, opened the door and then tried to engage one handed. Disaster. Again: practice, practice, practice!
Here's the video:
Car Ambush and Carjacking Live Fire Exercises - YouTube
