Year: 2013

I know, I know, the title is grammatically incorrect. It should be “fewer” bullets. But I’m no English teacher, so please bear with me. 

Here’s the deal: most people I know who carry a handgun daily, whether LEO’s or private citizens, don’t carry enough ammunition. If you’ve followed my blog, or taken one of my classes, or you’ve listened to people who’ve BTDT and carry a boatload of ammo everywhere they go, you should know this. But I haven’t covered this topic in a while, so I’m going to put it out there again for those who might have missed it last time around. 

This blog entry was prompted by an article on a police website last week about an Illinois cop who got into a shootout with a “highly motivated” felon who was determined not to go down. The cop hit the felon multiple times with his service handgun, a high-capacity .45 ACP, and according to the ME at least 6 of those hits were fatal wounds. But the guy just kept on coming at him with murderous intent until the cop finally put a bullet in the felon’s brainpan, and finished the fight.

I wish I could say that this was an exceptional case… but it wasn’t, and it isn’t.

The plain truth is this: contrary to internet mythology, a substantial minority of “good” gunfights involve dozens of shots fired, if not scores of shots fired. For example, in the Pennsylvania shoot-out that made internet rounds several years ago (and which I review as core material in my Shooting WIth Xray Vision classes), a total of 107 rounds of ammunition were fired by 3 police officers, while the single felon fired in excess of 30 rounds back at them. The subject was hit 17 times and, yes, he died of his wounds en route to hospital, but he was still fighting the cops when they put the cuffs on him.  

My good colleague Chief Jeff Chudwin shows a video in one of his classes in which a lone officer gets into a shootout with a felon and is forced to take cover behind his vehicle with only the ammunition on his person, i.e., one hi-capacity magazine in his service handgun and two more mags on his belt. He ran out of ammunition within 2 minutes, and the only thing that prevented his adversary from stalking him down and murdering him was the arrival of a second officer just as he ran out of bullets.

I could go on, and on, and on. I have literally dozens of similar cases related to me. Not from “a friend of a friend”, but by the involved officers themselves.

Ammunition is dissipated amazingly rapidly in a gunfight. If you don’t put your adversary down, and I mean down, with your first 2 to 5 rounds, you’re almost certainly going to be dealing with incoming fire. Which means you’re going to be moving to cover, and your adversary is going to be moving, too. Hit ratios drop into the low single digits when both fighters are moving, the statistics show. And you know you’re going to be firing while moving to cover, because you want to keep your enemy off-balance so he can’t draw a good bead on you while you do so. 

So let’s do the math. Your attacker points his gun, you see a opportunity to fight, so you draw and fire a double tap to his “center of mass”. He acts like you didn’t hit him and fires back. Suddenly you’re both moving to cover and rounds are going both ways. Let’s say your route to cover was 5 yards and you fired rounds as fast as you could while getting there. That’s 2 initial rounds, then another 8 rounds while moving to cover. If you’ve got a hi-cap auto, you’re probably OK now without a tactical reload; if you’re carrying a revolver or a single-stack 1911, you were empty before you got to cover. If your enemy has a hi-cap auto and he heard your hammer going snap-snap-snap he knows he’s got you, and while you’re trying to reload (assuming you have a spare mag or speedloader), he may well close in on you and execute you.

It happened to the California Highway Patrol troopers at Newhall in 1970, kids, and it can just as easily happen to you. Unless you prepare for the worst.  

When I was still an active member of my county’s SWAT team in Wisconsin, on my armor vest I carried 9 single-stack magazines for my SIG P220 service handgun (72 rounds), and five 30-round magazines for my M4 carbine (150 rounds). Most of the rest of the guys on the team were similarly kitted-out. We read the reports, we did some training exercises that proved to us how quickly we could run dry with a “standard” load-out, and after that, we all carried a LOT more ammo. Regular patrol deputies initially carried only 2 spare mags for their SIG’s on their duty belts, but most quickly upgraded to a minimum of 4 spare mags in a quad magazine holder.

What about the armed private citizen? I know there are some folks who figure that if they carry a fully-loaded gun, they’re GTG. And honestly, since the chances of getting into a gunfight as a private citizen are miniscule, it’s hard to argue with them. But I do argue with them.  They’ve already acknowledged that there is risk out there, which is the reason they carry a gun in the first place. If a person is already carrying a deadly weapon, why not carry a spare magazine as well? The extra weight is too much? It’s inconvenient to add a mag carrier to your concealment rig? Come on!

I strongly recommend the armed citizen should carry at least one fully loaded spare magazine on his person at all times. 

I also strongly recommend the armed citizen to select a hi-capacity autoloading handgun as his primary weapon. I used to carry a revolver or a 1911 as my primary weapon, but over time I came to realize the folly of that. I now carry a Glock 19 as my primary weapon, but I’d be equally happy with a Springfield XD, S&W M&P, or SIG 229. I don’t care about caliber, as I have stated before. But I do care about having enough rounds on my person to finish a gunfight, if one should break out. 

 Everyone needs at least one 9mm pistol. I don’t mean your only pistol caliber should be 9mm, but if you find yourself with just one pistol, it should be a 9mm. 

The reasons for this are many and varied, and I can’t possibly put them all down in one blog session, but for starters just consider that it is unquestionably the most ubiquitous pistol round in the world. I would venture to say there are more loaded rounds of 9mm ammunition in the world than all other service calibers put together. This should tell you something about the utility of the round for general military and law enforcement sidearms use. 

But to get to some specifics:

1. The 9mm is a compact cartridge. This means you can carry more rounds in a given pistol chambered in 9mm than if you’re carrying a .40 or .45.  Example: the Glock 17 holds 18 rounds of 9mm, while the .40 caliber version of the same gun, the G22, holds 15 rounds. Does this really matter? Hard to say… but I know guys who work in Executive Protection who assure me that they all carry Glock 17’s, in no small part because they have plenty of anecdotal evidence from EP guys all over the world who have needed fast access to all 18 rounds in executing a successful protection/extrication. And because it’s compact, you can carry more reloads, too. 

2. The compact size of  the 9×19 cartridge also means gunmakers can chamber extremely small pistols like the Kahr M9/PM9, the Keltec PF9, and the Ruger LCP. I carry a Kahr PM9 as my “always” gun, which means it’s my backup gun (BUG) even when I’m packing a larger pistol, and my only gun when I’m in maximum concealment mode. And I can shoot it very, very well, even with +P ammunition.

3. The 9mm is about as light-kicking  a round that packs enough punch to win a gunfight. This means it’s highly controllable for just about anybody who can shoot a handgun. This means it’s more likely to be an accurate pistol in most people’s hands, and as the late Bill Jordan said, when it comes to gunfights, accuracy is the final word. 

4. The small size of the 9mm cartridge means it’s cheaper to manufacture (or reload your own, if you’re so inclined) than any other service caliber cartridge. Cheap is good. 

5. The 9mm has more than enough power to deliver lethal force to your attacker’s vital hit zones. I have plenty of stories in my files about the effectiveness of the 9mm in Officer Involved Shootings world wide. Members of this website can go to the members-only area and look at the photos of the would-be armed robbers shot by that cop in Brazil a few years back. He was shooting a 9mm pistol and his duty ammo, which was, IIRC, 115 gr +P Magtech JHP ammo. It’s a deadly cartridge provided you put your bullets where they need to go… but that applies to all service caliber handgun cartridges from 9mm through 10mm and 45ACP.

So now you’re convinced you need a 9mm handgun. Which one should you get? 

Well, I admit I’m biased very strongly toward the Glock 19. It’s a good sized pistol, but slightly more compact than the G17, a great shooter, and reliable as all get-out. I prefer my Glocks with a NY-1 trigger, which is more crisp than the standard Glock trigger, and with a shorter reset. Combine that with a 3.5 pound trigger connect and an internal polishing job, and you’ve got one sweet-shooting pistol that is uber-reliable. Other 9mm’s I know and trust in the fullsize category include the G17, the Browning Hi-Power, the Beretta M9 and its Brazilian clone, the Taurus PT-92, and the great Smith & Wesson Model 39/59/69 pistols plus their new M&P line.

You should probably get at least one sub-compact 9mm, too. The Glock 26 is a great pistol, if a bit chunky. The previously mentioned Kahr PM9/CW9 pistol is a phenomenal little 9mm handgun, and while it’s kind of ugly, the Kel-Tec PF9 is a rock-solid subcompact as well.

I have found a 9mm pistol that fits the hands of all the shooters in my family. My youngest daughter and my son both prefer the S&W 6906, while my elder daughter prefers the Glock 19. My youngest daughter has also obtained her CCW permit, and is planning to purchase a Kahr CW9 for her standard carry gun. With my G19 or Taurus PT92 on my belt and my Kahr in my pocket, I round out the group nicely, and we can all share and shoot the exact same ammo. I have a Dillon Square Deal B set up in my shop to reload 9mm ammo in quantity, so we have no excuses not to go to the range to maintain our proficiency.  

Low light training with your carry sidearms is an oft-overlooked opportunity in the non-LE world. And it shouldn’t be.

In my research over the past 15 years or more, I’ve read a lot of tales of self-defense shootings. Shootings that took place in the home, on the street, in the woods, you name it. But the thing that I realized with crystal clarity long ago is that the great majority of these shootings happened in dark places.

This makes sense, doesn’t it? Criminal activity goes up sharply after dark, as any cop (or ER doc!) knows. In fact, fully 60% or more of police shootings, depending on jurisdiction, occur between dusk and dawn. That’s why cops do (some) range training in the dark.

But non-LE citizens don’t train in the dark. I know this for a fact. I used to run an annual IDPA night match at my club in Wisconsin to give folks an opportunity to find out just how much tougher it is to shoot in the dark. Our usual club matches drew 40 people every month, more or less; but our Night Match registration never hit 15. Folks apparently don’t want to shoot in the dark. They don’t want to shoot when it’s cold and windy and rainy, either, but those conditions don’t correlate well with criminal activity.

But criminals love darkness. And that’s why chances are pretty good that if you ever have to use your defensive firearms, it’s gonna be dark.

So if you’re serious about self-defense with your firearms, get some low-light training. Do it yourself, or take it from a school.

If you belong to a gun club, especially a club that runs IDPA or IPSC matches, find out if they will sponsor or even just allow some low-light training. If they don’t want to do that, then get some buddies together and find a place in the country where you can shoot safely after dark, and then go out and do it. A word to the wise, though: do yourself a favor and call the Sheriff’s office and let them know where you’ll be conducting your training, and at what times. You REALLY don’t want the SWAT team showing up with flash-bangs and gas at this gig.

In my night matches, as in my more serious low-light training, I like to give people the opportunity to shoot in 4 different low-light environments. This allows people to familiarize themselves with their weapon(s) in the kinds of settings they’re most likely to encounter. You can expand on this at your discretion. For instance, in one of my SWAT team’s training sessions, we had the guys go from the vehicles in bright sunlight with their tactical Oakley’s on, and enter a building that was pitch-dark, and then put "live" fire on them (paintball guns and blank guns). You never saw so many pairs of $150 sunglasses hit the deck that fast!

So here are the four basic environments I like to start with:

1) Targets in front of you, and lights behind you. A car’s headlights will work for this. You want the targets fairly close, say 10 yards or less. This will be pretty easy for most people, as they can see the targets, and see their sights.

2) Targets in front of you, and lights behind the targets. You’ll need some yard floodlights for this. Protect the lights, or someone is sure to shoot ’em out. Trust me on this. This gets a lot harder than the first scenario. You can see your sights when they’re perfectly aligned, but once they drift out (like in recoil, after each shot!) acquiring them again is a bitch.

3) Targets, a gun, and a flashlight. Now, it gets interesting. You should try the various flashlight techniques… Rogers, Harries, etc, to find out which one sucks the least. Targets need to be close–3 yards or less. And you need to make sure BEFORE you go to the firing line that everyone has PRACTICED their flashlight technique, so they don’t cross their muzzles over their flashlight hands on the draw stroke. If you want to make it interesting, put a picture of a toddler in her jammies on a swinger and have her pop out once the shooting starts. This can be very humbling. If you’re going to try shooting while moving, this is NOT the place to do it. At least not in the first couple of tries. If your team works with weapons-mounted lights, so much the better. Use them.

4) Targets, a gun, and no light at all. This is my favorite course of fire, period. I know, I’m a sick f**k. Use a red light to illuminate the targets for 2 seconds, turn the light off, then have the shooter draw and fire on the targets. I will typically set out an array of 5-6 IDPA targets from 2 to 10 yards. You’ll find you can "see" the afterimage of the targets on your retinas from the light of your muzzle flashes. But if you don’t have night sights, you ain’t gonna hit much.

You can add as much as you want to these four basic elements, but I strongly recommend you use these four as your starting point. After you have these things mastered, introduce one concept at a time: shooting while moving, shooting at moving targets, non-threat targets, shooting from positions of disadvantage. You name it, you can do it in the dark.

I guarantee you that this is the most fun you can have in the dark, with all your clothes on. Naked, I expect there are other things that might compete, but still…

Range safety is paramount in a low-light shoot, and you have to ramp up your protocols accordingly. In the dark, you don’t want people loading and unloading; let them load in a lighted area, then come to the firing line "hot". Have one range safety officer for every shooter, and have them play man-to-man defense. Stuff can go sideways in a hurry in a low-light scenario! The only thing I can think of that is harder to do than shoot in the dark, is to perform CPR and critical first aid in the dark..