The Katar.Net

All,

I have made the decision to cancel this unsighted fire experiment before it really began. My apologies as I had every intention of carrying it out, but circumstances have changed for me recently and I need to refocus my training regimen to support a new opportunity that has arisen.

This will be the final post for The Katar.Net. My small training company has rapidly taken off and I do not have the spare time to give this site its due diligence. So instead of having yet another boring, non-productive blog, I am simply going to leave this as a redirect page to my company, Low Speed High Drag Firearms Training.

Thanks for all the support, and standby for some outstanding training opportunities in the not so distant future!

~ Jay Cunningham (formerly known as The_Katar)

I shot multiple iterations of the FAST today in order to establish some baseline data. Yes, I am aware that one should not shoot multiple iterations of the FAST (like nobody does it… :jerkoff:) but I haven’t shot it in probably 4 months so I needed to get a feel for where I was. I also wanted to look at all of the splits and see if that gave me something of value.

Run #1:     6.43, -2 body    2.01, .97 / 2.70, .28, .27, .20

Run #2:     6.17, -1 body    2.18, .65 / 2.61, .26, .23, .24

Run #3:     6.32, -2 body    1.83, .78 / 2.99, .23, .25, .24

Run #4:     6.07, -1 body    1.81, .77 / 2.68, .27, .26, .28

Run #5:     5.96, -1 body    1.85, .98 / 2.35, .27, .25, .26

Run #6:     6.33, -1 body    2.22, .72 / 2.59, .27, .27, .26

Run #7:     6.20, clean        1.77, .68 / 2.71, .37, .40, .27

noteworthy:

This was shot AIWB, Glock 19 with Warren Tactical sights, with an untucked polo shirt.

I did not drop a single head shot.

Runs #5 and #7 were Advanced rating runs.

This is the first time that I’ve achieved an Advanced rating while also dropping a shot.

My first shot broken really needs to be at least around 1.80.

My reloads were lame today, when in the past they have been strong. Unsure whether it was just me today or a sign that I haven’t been working them.

My splits on the 8″ circle really need to be at least .25 all of the time.

My dropped shots (with 1 exception) were not too far out of the circle.

Now, the intent of this experiment is not to “get good at the FAST”. The FAST just happens to be a popular milestone right now, and it also is a pretty good test of a bunch of things condensed into a simple format. What I want to see is how practicing unsighted fire will affect my performance. In looking at the numbers, i think it very well could help me in the areas that I currently am lacking.

Since the latest fad seems to be blogging and tweeting about one’s own training Odyssey (and how to get “good”/”better”/”+1 power up” etc.) I have decided to conduct a little experiment of my own.

For the next two months all of my range sessions will be with taped-over sights. Drills that are fair game are anything without a precise targeting element (IDPA head is fair game but 3×5″ card is not, for example) and 10 yards or closer. Pieces of various standards are fair game as well.

So essentially I am going to work on point shooting for the next two months. One Shot Draws, One Reload Two, Bill Drills, Triple Nickle – all good. I will keep my normal dry fire regimen.

At the end of each week I will shoot three FAST runs.

At the end of two months I will post results as compared to my initial baseline.

A spare magazine is a very important accessory to your concealed carry weapon. While having a bunch of additional ammunition is certainly reassuring, the main reason to carry a spare magazine is because they are one of the weak links in the semi-automatic pistol system.

Quite often a bad magazine will cause your otherwise perfectly reliable semi-auto handgun to turn into a malfunction machine. Magazines also have an annoying characteristic of popping off the floor plate right when you don’t want them to and vomiting out your rounds all over the ground. If you don’t have a spare, and the mag in your pistol goes TU, you are stuck with an extremely bulky Derringer. I recommend one spare magazine for double stack pistols and two spares for single stack guns.

Next time you hear “Whutcha need that extra clip fer? You think yer gonna take on a SEAL Team??” you can let them know what they don’t know.

This past weekend myself and three fellow shooters participated in a Handgun CQB course with Practical Firearms Training.

The head honcho is Pat Goodale, whom I found to be a no B.S. straightforward dude. The facility is located in West Virginia, and is compact and simple, yet contains all of the good stuff that you usually only expect from a much larger facility like U.S. Training Center.

The course was for higher level shooters, and was designed to stress the employment of the handgun in tight quarters (such as indoors and around vehicles) and in close proximity to threats.

The course was two full days, the first being drill sets to warm up and establish baseline skills and also to work in particular skills that would be used the next day. TD2 was essentially scenario-based, and made much use of the elements of TD1, but at the discretion of the shooter.

While Pat has numerous preferred methods of doing a thing, if you displayed proficiency and were “tactically sound” he pretty much left you to do your thing. Scanning and assessing were heavily stressed, as was the tactical reload. “Think ammo” was often repeated.

I shot the entire class AIWB from concealment with two different Gen 3 Glock 19s – no issues with either gun. AIWB worked out well, however some of the retention drills got to be tedious, what with the one-handed clearing of the cover garment and the draw. I also think I am going to finally get under the trigger guard radiused out on both of my Glocks, as I now have a huge callous on the second knuckle of my right middle finger.

The AIs were very active and kept things moving. There were several older (and I mean *much older*) shooters that the AIs needed to keep their eyes on simply due to physical limitations in the 90 degree heat and sun.

I learned that while my current body weight at 172 lbs. works well for me, it would behoove me to get in some weight lifting to strengthen my back and upper body. I also need to keep working on my one-shot draws and presentations.

I enjoyed the experience very much – Pat and his staff are GTG and his facility makes for a great training environment.

I will be attending Pat Goodale’s Handgun CQB class in a week, so I plan on getting the most out of the class by getting my mind right in the time leading up to it.

I hit the range all by my lonesome today… sometimes you just gotta get out there and shoot with no interruptions. I started by shooting 1″ dots up close, and gradually backing off to 10 yards. I shot them mainly strong hand supported, but also some weak hand supported, strong hand only and weak hand only. Out of 30 rounds, I had one clean miss at 10 yards.

Next I put up a 4″ dot at about 15 yards and pounded away at that, again SHS, WHS, SHO and WHO. My last string of 5 rounds was at speed and I had no trouble keeping everything in the black. Weak handed/one handed mag changes were performed appropriately. Approximately 40 rounds, with 1 clean miss.

I took down the dot targets and began working solely off of the IPSC target, shooting on the move. Forward, backwards, and laterally. I mixed in dummy rounds into my magazines randomly, and also deployed my BUG from my pocket holster. I used my shot timer as a initiating cue, but didn’t really work off of times.

Eventually I set the par to 2.00 seconds and worked several one shot draws at about 7 yards. I averaged right around 1.60 seconds for good hits inside the chest box and I worked right up against the par time for good head box hits..

Moving right along, I set up a drum and shot from cover – left and right and also over the top. I then laid it down (to simulate a wheel) and shot behind it again, scrunched up tight as I was taught by Dave Pennington.

I moved up to contact and practiced some retention shooting and shooting while withdrawing. I also practiced some falling backwards on my ass and pointing in from ground, but I didn’t shoot due to being unsure about my angle and berm height.

I then revisited some of my earlier SOTM, but this time with my flashlight in my support hand.

At the end of my IPSC target session – around 150 rounds – I had only thrown 1 round low out of the “A” zone (BUG transition) and 3 low out of the head box, but still in the head. I’m reasonably pleased with this, but of course I need to continue to draw out those things I suck at and attack them.

Hopefully I get some more worthwhile range time in over the next couple of days.

Last week my wife and I were shopping for furniture in a store inside a mall. It was between 12:00 PM and 1:00 PM on a very hot, sunny day. About 20 minutes into our shopping the lights go out – everywhere in the mall. I guess that kind of thing can happen on super hot days when everybody is running their air conditioners.

Fortunately we were not so deep into the furniture store that we couldn’t see some of the daylight filtering in through the skylights out in the center of the mall. However, if we had come in later and been in the mall a while, we would have now found ourselves in low light. If we had been all the way in the back of the furniture store, we would have been in low light conditions on a bright sunny day.

Moral of the story: carry a flashlight, even in the daytime.

Low Speed High Drag, LLC is the company that I have formed to both host and provide firearms training for average citizens. LSHD will be working closely with Grey Group Training in 2011 to bring some of the most experienced firearms instructors in the world to the Western Pennsylvania region.

While providing firearms training for the average Joe is certainly part of my mission statement, I felt that it was important to emphasize that knowledge – not a firearm – is the ultimate tool to defend your life or the life of a loved one. With that principle in mind, my new company tagline is:

Arm Yourself With Knowledge

The following is an email from my bud aray (who often acts as an AI for me) reprinted with permission:

I had been convinced that carrying a BOK was just paranoia for quite a while.  Between the winter Study Group session (thanks Gutshot John), and ToddG’s AAR on the ND by one of his students, I started to carry one.

I went with my Brother in Law and his buddy Sean (he’s SWAT, we’re not) to shoot at their ‘no rapid fire’ upstate NY range yesterday.  After we were done, we stopped in at the clubhouse for a refreshment and were told about the guy who ND’d into his foot hours earlier.  He was “Practicing his quickdraw with his safety off.”  Equipment involved: Blackhawk Serpa and a Glock 22. I didn’t ask about having the Glock’s safety off.  I just couldn’t bear to hear the answer.

Fortunately, I was not involved in any way, but it was a dang near thing.

aray

Here’s a ready-made drill set you can grab and run with…

You should be able to get in a lot of dry fire of your handgun at home. You should be able to get in dry one “shot” draws at home. You cannot really simulate shooting at speed or shooting on the move or dealing with grip vs. recoil at home… with that in mind:

◊ Hackathorn Three Target Test (round count: 18)
o NRA five-yard bullseye centers
o 10 yards, from the ready
o 6 rounds slow fire
o 6 rounds in 10 seconds
o 6 rounds in five seconds

◊ One – Reload – Two (round count: 15)
o round in chamber, empty mag in pistol, full spare magazine
o 5 yards, -0 body of IDPA target, from draw, 5 iterations
o individual par or par = 6.00 sec.

◊ Dot Torture (round count: 50)
o 3 / 5 yards (3 yards for par time stages, 5 for slow fire stages)
o #2 par time: 4 seconds
o #3 and #4 par time: 5 seconds
o #6 and #7 par time: 8 seconds
o #9 and #10 par time: 7 seconds

◊ Bill Drills (round count: 24)
o 5 yards, from draw, 4 iterations
o individual par or par = 3.5 sec.
o Six shots are fired as quickly as the shooter can achieve six hits on the target.

◊ Press Six = (round count: 62)

◊ Hackathorn Self Defense Practice Drill (round count: 30)
o IPSC target
o 5 yards, 1 ½ seconds, from the ready, one shot to head. (X3)
o 5 yards, 2 seconds, draw, one shot to head. (X3)
o 5 yards, 2 seconds, from the ready, SHO, two shots to body. (X2)
o 7 yards, 2 seconds, facing target, draw, two shots to body. (X1)
o 7 yards, 2 seconds, facing 90° to left of target, draw, two shots to body. (X1)
o 7 yards, 2 seconds, facing 90° to right of target, draw, two shots to body. (X1)
o 7 yards, 4 seconds, withdrawing to 10-12 yards, three shots to body. (X2)
o 10 yards, 3 seconds, start with gun on target and slide locked back, reload and fire one shot to body. (X3)
o 15 yards, 2 ½ seconds, draw and fire one shot to body (X5)
o Head shots only count if you hit the A zone. Body shots count if you hit the A, B, or C zones.

Total: 199 rounds pistol.