I was thinking...again.

This email from Gabe Suarez prompted me: 

http//www.warriortalknews.com/2010/08/i-recall-a-student-i-had-many-years-ago-he-was-a-kenjutsu-aficionado-kenjutsu-for-those-who-missed-that-day-is-the-old.html#tp

Gabe, like Ignatious Piazza at Front Sight, are in the business of selling themselves.  So not everything they say is a wake-up call.  Some is simply sales. But I have long been a fan of Miyamoto Musashi, known in Japan as The Sword Saint and his famous book Go-Rin-No-Sho.  This article from Gabe set me off.

I am a firm believer in simplicity.  One can never overtrain, but one can overcomplicate. As my good friend Collins Tomei advocates,  simplicity and repetition, until one becomes proficient at one 'Way' is much better than learning several 'Ways' incompletely.   This idea has been around since sun Tzu and has been repeated by every generation.  Bruce Lee said many times that he never feared a person who had practiced ten thousand things one time - but one who practiced one thing ten thousand times.

When I used to pretend to shoot matches, I could never take it seriously...and so I always came in dead last. Paper targets don't shoot back and gunfights aren't choreographed. The only thing that counts where the rubber meets the road is who walks away.  If one programs themselves to wait for a beep before starting, they will not maintain their skill at immediately moving from orange to red without hesitation.  I have been unfortunate in that I rarely know I am in a gunfight until I realize someone is shooting at me.  I have been fortunate in that they have not been very good at it and tend to stand there while I draw and return fire.  I am sure that if I ever faced multiple opponents I would lose because I develop tunnel-vision in a gunfight.  Almost everyone does.  And I have never had to break out of that in a heartbeat and switch to another opponent.

I don't worry about that anymore.  With the arms and optics available today, pure dumb luck is probably as important as most skills, except one.  Being on-target.  You almost have to be able to hit your opponent.  Rock, sharp stick, compound bow or a ten-thousand dollar spiffo weapons system, you have to hit the bad guy with it or it's useless and you are dead. 

So let's simplify, starting now.  The weapon you choose is up to you.  Conventional wisdom is to use the biggest bore you can handle because most gunfights occur at a distance of about five yards and you want stopping power.  I have been re-thinking conventional wisdom lately for a variety of reasons and I have stopped carrying my Kimber .45 auto 4" in favor of a physically larger firearm - an FN-Herstan FiveseveN.  I went from a 230 grain jacketed talon hollow-point +P  to a 30 grain non-expanding .22 round with almost no inertial stopping power.   I cannot defend that decision with conventional wisdom, so I won't try.

I switched from an inside-the-belt concealment holster to a Blackhawk Serpa.  It's more complicated.  You have to push a lever to release the firearm from the holster and it's not as concealable.  In fact, it's not concealable at all.  But it's almost the only holster made for the FN.  If I need reasonable concealment I have to switch back to the .45.  I like the Serpa quite a bit.  It's a secure platform and the firearm won't fall out.  You have to take it out and it's plastic. It won't rust or fail in wet conditions - at least for awhile.  Blackhawk would be well advised to offer stainless springs, pins and screws and make the Serpa re-springable.  When it goes, you can't fix it.

Sights.  I have tritium night-sights and a grip laser-pointer on my .45.  The FN comes with clunky adjustable white-dot sights that are neither attractive nor particularly useful.  The rear sight is too wide and it is difficult to center the front sight in it; so being adjustable is wasted.  That wasn't thought through very well in my opinion.  A much better idea is to throw the sights away and mount a Trijicon RMR on the arm.  That requires gunsmithing.  The weapon is not designed to be sight-adaptable.  As I said, that wasn't thought through and it's a pain in the ass.  But the Serpa WAS thought through and accepts the weapon with the Trijicon without any modification.  Blackhawk does an excellent job making tactical gear and I am glad they finally expanded into a line for left-handed shooters.

So let's summarize.  Pick your weapon.  Become one with it.  Don't switch between several different concealed-carry weapons.  Pick one.  Decide what sights you need, but remember this one absolute fact:  Anything with batteries is going to fail the instant you REALLY need it to work. Every time,  EVERY TIME!  Do not bet your life on that laser.  Bet your life on Tritium and make sure the sights are staked in tightly.  My DEA friend went shooting with me one day and was shooting off the paper.  The rear sight on his Glock, which was pressed in, had moved.  I pressed it back and it moved again after one round.  I...er...I mean an official DEA armorer replaced the sights with night sights that don't move.  I am going to the Trijicon RMR, but not the battery version.

ANYTHING WITH BATTERIES IS GOING TO FAIL THE INSTANT YOU REALLY NEED IT TO WORK!!  EVERY TIME!  EVERY TIME!

Pick your holster.  Skip ankle holsters and shoulder holsters.  Do not choose anything complicated.  Do not choose a holster that comes off your belt with your firearm.  the firearm comes out; the holster stays - AND THE FIREARM CAN READILY BE RE-HOLSTERED WITH ONE HAND!  Please be smart enough not to get a holster which requires you to take off your pants to re-holster your weapon.  OK, I have one like that, and I admit that I carry it.  But I realize that I cannot re-holster the weapon after I draw it.  I know that for a fact.  I understand it.  If the gun comes out it's out. whatever happens after that, the gun is going to stay out of the holster.  I am sometimes willing to go that route because I am no longer an active police officer.  But it's a chump move.

Wear your rig until you don't feel it anymore. Practice presenting from the holster.  That sometimes takes a couple of years, but eventually it will become part of your body and you won't be able to go out the door without it.  That's the idea. If your gun is at home when you need it, guess what? 

 

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