The way I define it this style of shooting applies to any discipline of shooting from tactical/defensive shooting to competitive shooting.
My first exposure to action type shooting was as a tactical shooter, after completing the Special Forces Qualification Course I attended SFAUC (Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat Course); basically shooting and CQB.
I had a passion for it and it was part of my job so I spent a good deal of time becoming as good a tactical shooter as I could be. I eventually took over as the Primary Instructor for Combat Marksmanship for an entire Special Forces Group. At this point I considered myself a pretty good shooter, humble but competent.
I decided to go shoot a USPSA match and promptly discovered what I didn’t know about shooting. I recall one event in particular that will drive me into the meat of this article. The classifier for that match was the El Presidente: three targets 10 yards away, turn and shoot 2 rounds per target reload then 2 more rounds per target.
When I shot it was something like bang bang *pause* bang bang *pause* bang bang reload then the same. An experienced competitive shooter shot it next and it went like this: ‘bang bang bang bang bang bang’ reload and then the same. I couldn’t understand what just happened and even accused the guy of just shooting AT the targets and not seeing anything. He assured me that he saw everything and his points reflected as much. I had to figure out what this was all about!
So I shot 2 shots per target on that multiple target array the same way nearly every tactical shooter I have encountered will shoot it. Target plus gun equals double tap, big pause moving to the next target then double tap etc.
Let’s dig into the curse of the double tap and how it causes failure for most shooters.
Regardless of other things I’ve read and even once believed when a shooter shoots a “double tap” they are seeing something for an aiming reference and running the trigger 2 times as fast as they can make it go. In that case the shooter is absolutely HOPING that their trigger speed and control over the gun will keep both rounds on the target. Most times it doesn’t. There’s a problem with trigger speed and trigger pressure for pistols.
When we run triggers fast some movement is going to come into the gun. Most pistol shooters put way too much pressure into running the trigger. Many times that first shot gets pushed low and to the support hand side, then since the shooter is firing the gun at a cyclic rate the gun fires again, and if the shooters doesn’t have good control over recoil the gun is not on the target when it fires again. The shooter that was hoping to win by running triggers fast ends up loosing hard core. Fast trigger speed doesn’t always equate to fast scoring speed.
Scoring speed is where it’s at and that’s what I train, how to score more points in less time. Some things I have found to be crucial are seeing and efficiency. Opening up to what is possible for you as the shooter – how fast we can easily process lots of information – allows us to be much more efficient and therefore faster and more accurate. There’s another problem that pops up for tactical shooters: “if you are shooting 2 rounds you see 3 sight pictures”.
The additional sight picture is taught as being all about follow though and for the tactical shooter ensuring the threat is eliminated. I believe once we get wrapped around how incredibly fast we can process information we can accomplish all of those task quicker and get on to the next piece of work.
A multiple target set up like what I use in the Time Machine exercise is a great tool to get us plugged into scoring speed and not focus on trigger speed. I believe that we need to plug into the gun and let it tell us how fast to shoot. Give it a shot and let me know what you think.
I think you’ll discover that scoring speed is what matters and break the curse of the double tap!
-Frank Proctor
Frank Proctor has served over 18 years in the military, the last 11 of those in US Army Special Forces. During his multiple combat tours in Afghanistan & Iraq he had the privilege to serve with and learn from many seasoned veteran Special Forces Operators so their combined years of knowledge and experience has helped him to become a better operator & instructor. While serving as an instructor at the Special Forces Advanced Urban Combat Course he was drawn to competitive shooting. He has since earned the USPSA Grand Master ranking in the Limited Division and Master ranking in the IDPA Stock Service Pistol division. He learned a great deal from shooting in competition and this has helped him to become to become a better tactical shooter. Frank is one of the few individuals able to bring the experiences of U.S. Army Special Forces, Competitive Shooting, and veteran Instructor to every class.
All this experience combines to make Frank Proctor a well-rounded shooter and instructor capable of helping you to achieve your goal of becoming a better shooter.
Gunfighter Moment is a weekly feature brought to you by Alias Training & Security Services. Each week Alias brings us a different Trainer and in turn they offer some words of wisdom.
Tags: Alias Security and Training Services, Frank Proctor, Way of the Gun
A, fucking, men. Thank you for saying this. Competition shooting (IPSC, IDPA, etc) is like PT, it better prepares your shooting performance for combat. It is not tactics, don’t confuse the two. And this article hits it on the head – seeing things as they happen is what controls your shooting, you can see where your shot is going even at warp speed before it even leaves the barrel if you just focus on seeing it. Check out Brian Enos’ book “Practical Shooting: Beyond Fundamentals” as a starting place. And of course Take a course with Frank.
Watching the “Time Machine” video made all the difference here. I was not really following the article.
Good stuff there. Thanks Frank!
If anything this should show the REAL difference between tactical shooting and comp shooting. The main factor is that paper targets die with ‘2 shots per’ in ‘minimum power factor’. Real humans don’t die unless you kill them (shoot till the target drops, not a ‘double tap’) and many times they are shooting back at you. Hence, Franks tactical training is keeping him alive and his comp training is giving him better scores.
Don’t make the mistake to think they are the same.
Thanks for the great explamation of el pres i learned this from a seal who got out and went thru our reserve officer program at out dept. as i have trained shooters over the years it is amazing how they initially believe the dbl tap is the way to be fast. I have had a couple of guys who never got it. Time machine may be the single best display of the fundamentals of marksmanship in 20 years of training!
So basically, don’t follow through, just move on to the next target after a set amount of shots without regard to what’s happening with the first target (injured, dead, or about to shoot your head off…whatever, move on)???
I have a hard time justifying disagreement with someone that obviously has massively more fighting experience than myself…but I can’t escape the thought that that is actually a prime example of where what works in competition gives a bad habit for actual fighting…not an example of a habit that improves both at once as is implied here.
Obviously this would better competition score, but can someone explain why this would be better for defense? I’m lost on that part. Not trying to be snarky, legitimately asking for clarification.
Good question Bryan, I was curious about the same thing. Granted it’ll improve your aim, but what’s the sacrifice in tactical situations?
Think you’re missing the point of what Frank is trying to accomplish here. Its not that when ever you have multiple bad guys, you should shoot two and automatically move on to the next without making sure the first threat is down. (In many of his drills, Frank will shoot varying numbers of rounds, getting you out of the habit of always shooting two…breaking the double tap).
Its about developing good skills: the ability to track sights, track the target(s), seeing fast, processing fast, and accountability, and not wasting time. This drill helps with all of that. Frank is not just hammering the trigger and then transitioning. He’s seeing and controlling every single shot, and tracking target.
A guy who can do well at this drill is someone who can track a moving target well, make every round count (no misses), and adapt quickly to other threats.
You say it trains them in “seeing fast, processing fast”. That specifically is what I disagree with. It’s not doing that at all. It’s teaching them to pre-process, e.g. “this drill I’m gonna do 3-3-2-5 down the line on those 4 targets respectively” and go down the line in cadence. That is completely different from learning to process what’s going on with the target as you shoot and decide to move on based on that.
Having a varying number of rounds you’re shooting other than 2 is not the point. It’s the idea of a set # of shots per target (even a different set # for each drill, or even per target in 1 drill) before moving on, as opposed to moving on after assessing a change in the target. Whether you’re doing 2, 3, 12, or doing a different amount every time, that’s still a drill focusing on the concept of moving on after a criteria has been passed on YOUR end (how many shots you’re going to do on that target on that drill) vs. a criteria that has been passed on the target’s end (incapacitation).
Obviously we aren’t practicing on humans, so we can’t practice watching them get incapacitated and then moving on. But even so, the idea of training to follow through and and taking a split second to assess seems infinitely better (from a fighting standpoint) than training to move from target to target without follow through on each.
I see what your saying, and agree in theory, but not so much in practice. Yes, it would be bad not to asses your target (threat) before moving on.
But, its also important to be able to track your sights and transition quickly…have the ability to see fast, track targets, move the gun from point a to b and get sights on target for each shot and call each shot.
But, short of spending a ton of time shooting movers (which most of us don’t have ready access to), I don’t see a good way to train that other than doing drills like the above.
I guess I don’t view it as a “tactical” drill, its a skill building drill that temporarily forsakes the “assess” part in order to get much much better at other skills that will make you a better shooter.
In practice, many (most?) two shot drillers aren’t seeing 3 sight pictures for 2 shots…they are seeing one sight picture, hammering two shots, then another sight picture as they assess. And this type of drill gets you out of that mode, gets folks tracking sights for every shot. In the end, you’ll be faster and more accurate.
In other words, shoot (some) cadence drills not because its a good idea to shoot in cadence in combat, but because it can help you to become a better shooter….and that skill developed can pay off shooting at people.
Its not to say that assessing targets isn’t important. Hope that makes sense.
Here’s an analogy.
By habit and nature, I’m a “turtle” shooter. I come from a high accuracy background (NRA smallbore rifle, bullseye, etc). Shooting IDPA and some USPSA, I dropped very few points, but was too slow. I worked at it and slowly got faster, but then hit a wall and plateaued.
What it took for me to break through was to purposely go to the range and shoot too fast, out of control fast, totally outside my comfort zone, and faster than I would ever do in a match or in “real life”.
I shot unrealistically fast for awhile so that it forced me to become a better shooter.
It worked.
When I backed off the pace to my comfortable, I was just as accurate as before, but significantly faster.
So, even though the drills had me doing something unrealistic (shooting near out of control), in the end it made me better.
Applied sparingly, drills like that can really help.
Brings to mind Pat McNamara’s line “don’t train like you fight, train for a fight”. (Hope I’m not butchering that!)
The second shot is all for naught if you miss the target. Slapping the trigger for two shots too fast (that would be faster than the front sight OR your body’s index can recover) will almost always produce a miss wide or over the top.