Shoot to Cover

We shot Quals last week. Did the M4 and the M11 (SIG 228). We had extra ammo for the range and the NCO Marko added a transition drill to it. Intriguing I thought so I left it in. Watched it run and made some notes relative to it. First one was they downloaded both M11 and M4 mags. I'm gonna change that one and make the the M11 mags full up and no dummies. Here's why, this was the first time most of these guys had ever done transition drills and frankly we really need to practice more. Second and I keyed on this, the guys would stop when they ran the weapon dry. Didn't matter if it was the pistol or rifle, the guys would stop to make the mag change.



I teach three different mag changes. Emergency, Tactical and Admin. First one is what it is. You go dry and it is a right now moment. The second is I'm getting low and need to top off. The last is I'm driving out the gate and am going hot. The only one not done from behind cover is the Emergency drill and you MOVE. Get off the dime, Move laterally, Just don't frikkin' stand there. The IDPA, IPSC and three gun guys have this going on and set up their rigs accordingly. The Big Green Machine Not so much, Frankly we suck at this. We're getting better but it takes some boots on the ground experience to change the Fobbit Mindset some senior leadership has. The guys who get shot at on a regular basis are getting real good at this and the rest of us are catching up.

Anyway back to my point. You are moving forward to another fire position, as you do you shoot your primary dry. You then transition to your secondary weapon. When you transition to your secondary weapon, Move to cover. I repeat "Move to cover". Continue to engage the threat and get your ass in gear. This reduces your exposure to hostile fire and gets to you a place where you can get your primary bang stick going again. Probably 4 of every five shooters stopped when they ran the secondary dry. Fairly good transition from primary to secondary but when we ran the pistol out, most shooters stopped to reload. Consequences of training. Next Qual, We are going to do just pistol with movement. Crawl, walk, run. We'll work in the rifle later.


Now go shoot.