ALL SAFETY RULES APPLY! These drills should be performed at the RANGE or an appropriate area, do it dry, with an UNLOADED FIREARM!
Always abide by the four rules of gun safety:
1. All guns are loaded. (Treated as such)
2. Do not point the muzzle at anything you are not willing to destroy.
3. Finger off the trigger, out of the trigger guard until sights are on target.
4. Be sure of your target and foreground/background
Let’s talk about Presentation from the holster and doing it as a Dry Practice exercise with 1 EYE OPEN. What the heck is this? This is the BASIC presentation, to get your handgun from the holster to “sights” on target, AND YOU CLOSE THE NON-DOMINATE EYE to get the 100% focus on the front sight! OK, this technique IS required to guarantee that “LONG” shot or a close precision hit like a hostage takers eye socket, or just shoot a nice tight group.
You must learn that situations dictate the amount of precision sighting required for a hit, is measured in distance and target size. More about this subject in the 2 EYE OPEN blog and the advanced Dry Practice Programs that will teach you the difference between shooting 3 feet OR 15 yards, as an example, 3’ - 2 eyes, 15yds - 1 eye open. You need to learn the 1-EYE OPEN method first, then move on to more advanced techniques.
Everyone at ATAC Training courses trains with semi-auto pistols, but the firearms are carried in variety of locations. It does not matter what type or brand of handgun you run, but you are ABSOLUTLLY NUTS if you don’t Dry Practice with it from the location you carry it! THIS IS THE DRILL THAT MUST BE REPEATED OVER AND OVER UNTIL THE PRESENTATION BECOMES A REFLEX ACTION! THIS MIGHT SEEM BORING, BUT IT IS VERY IMPORTANT IF YOU WANT HIGHER SKILL LEVELS.
Understanding know and unknown distances prior to starting:
Start with establishing a known distance. As you begin, or if you think you have judging distances mastered, that doesn’t mean you DON’T NEED to practice the basics. Judging unknown distances is a stand-alone exercise. On the other hand, we will give you two methods. There are all types of controversy out there on one or both eyes open when shooting. Lets keep it simple; if you were going to push a thread through a needle you would shut one eye. Yes, we shoot with both eyes open and the conditions and distances will dictate using a dominant eye only or both eyes open. Lets move forward and give you a simple solution. From 7 yards and in you can get away with hitting “close enough” to your intended point of impact. But, it will only be close to rather than the exact intended point of impact. (As you read further down, between steps 3 - 4 you need to learn to shift your focus.) For those of you that think you only need to shoot with both eyes open, here is a question for you. If you were held by the neck as a hostage and the hostage taker only exposed one eye every few seconds. Would you tell the cop, SWAT, or XXXX to, “use both eyes, it is faster, just shoot it is not a precision shot”. I doubt it, your exposed to all types of errors which could be fatal. The point is, at any distance you need to guarantee the hit, not hope for the hit. Yes, you may think this is advanced; no it is the basic fundamentals. This is not an range drill trying to hit a big steel plate; you are trying to ht a quarter over and over. Then be able to pick up the pace. As you excel in your skills, you need to ALWAYS give yourself a refresher course on distancing while shifting your focus from the target to the top of the front sight post. After time you will develop a natural point of aim, which will ONLY last as long as your continuing education does. So lets dry practice at 7 yards with one eye for now. You can go to the next stage of both eyes open after you have performed at least 1,000- 2,000 dry presentations. In our advanced programs we explain in great detail with video of what happens as you back up and forget to close that eye. It a tactical environment, you may have to keep both eyes open to have a wider field of view. But before you go off and start point shooting, get the basics down. It is a safe number to say if you have 10,000 rounds through your pistol and 2 - 3 times as much dry practice, then you can move on to more advanced tactics with both eyes open. In the end, regardless of how much you have trained just remember, if it is a precision shot, use your dominant eye only! You may only get that one shot.
Check our the programs on www.AtacTv.com
ATAC TV, TOM CLARKE, MARK FLINN, LENNY BOLTON, JIM FULLER, JEFF HALL, GLENN JUSTICE, VENOM TACTICAL, RIFLE DYNAMICS, FORCE OPTIONS, ATAC TV FIREARMS, DRY PRACTICE, HANDGUNS
