What’s up, shooters!

Today, I want to talk about safe gun handling and some of the valuable tools I have taken from competition, back to my world as a tactical shooter. Some of those main tools are aggressive vision, efficiency in movement and very safe gun handling under pressure. There is a video clip attached to this showing me running a stage in the shoot house at my range. This is a stage from my monthly 2 gun (carbine and pistol ) match. This is NOT CQB. But, some of the things it takes to do well at this game translate to tactical shooting. Aggressive vision and efficiency play a huge role but what I’m going emphasize in this article is safe gun handling under pressure.

In some other articles and videos, I have seen some push back about putting the rifle on safe during a reload with some folks even having an SOP of leaving the rifle on fire because “it might be too difficult to take the rifle off safe under stress”.

Well, I live by some simple gun handling rules and I find them very easy to do with just a little training. Rule number 1 is to keep the pointy end of the death machine (AKA the muzzle) in a safe direction at all times. Rule number 2 says that if your eyes are not connected to the gun then your trigger finger is connected to the frame of the gun with some positive pressure. For rifles, the gun is on safe with some positive pressure up on the selector lever using your thumb or finger, based on whether you’re a right or left-handed shooter. Those things are super easy to do and I have long said they will not cost you anytime in an engagement.

If you watch the video, you will see my firing hand moving every time I disconnect my eyes from the gun. I’m putting the gun back on safe. The movement you see is the firing hand grip loosening to allow the firing hand thumb to go forward and hook the selector lever and sweep it back to safe. Historically, I didn’t always do this in a competitive shooting environment.

Around 2008-2009, I shot some 3 gun and I did get into the habit of leaving the rifle on fire during a stage like all the other 3 gunners did and still do. It bugged me that I did that but was easily able to switch techniques come Monday morning when it was time to be a tactical shooter to train and teach CQB again. In 2012, I started my training company where I emphasized my 2 easy gun handling rules. I didn’t have time to compete, which hurt my soul a bit, but when I started again, I noticed that I was putting the rifle on safe every time my eyes disconnected from it and it wasn’t slowing me down! You can see that for yourself in the video. I had the fastest stage time against some pretty dang good 3 gun shooters and I was putting the gun on safe during every transition.

As mentioned earlier, this is NOT CQB and NOT TACTICAL shooting. It is a game or sport requiring fast processing, control over the gun, efficient mechanics, efficient movement and a strong mental game. ALL of those things translate to tactical shooting. This is also Competition Speed as opposed to CQB Speed. In my opinion based on my experiences, CQB Speed is 25% of Competition Speed so it’s much slower. If we can manipulate the selector switch at Competition Speed, we can certainly do it at CQB Speed.

In summary, I truly believe that it won’t cost you anything to put the rifle on safe every time you disconnect your eyes from it. It does take training to make it a habit but it is easy and fast to train it, if you train right. For many years, I kept the rifle on fire during bolt lock reloads. One day, I watched a video with Pat McNamara talking about putting the rifle on safe during reloads. I immediately saw the value in it and trained my hands to do it in about 30 minutes!

As always, I want to thank you for taking the time to read what I have to say about shooting. I hope that some of the things I have figured out, through experience and trial and error, will help you reach your shooting goals!

– 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 Bravo Company USA. Bravo Company is home of the Gunfighters, and each week they bring us a different trainer to offer some words of wisdom.

Hey Folks, we’ve all heard it or said it: Train like you Fight. A lot of times, folks think that means wearing full kit in order to train to better shoot your gun. I disagree with the party line that you have to wear full battle rattle to train to shoot better.

For tactical shooters I would strongly recommend shooting ‘slick with no kit’ and learn what they can truly do with their guns, what their full capabilities are, how fast can they really put bullets on targets, maneuver through a challenging course of fire, get into positions, etc. Once that base line of what’s possible is established then put your duty gear on and see if you can still do the same stuff.

If you can’t, why?

If it’s because your body armor is too restrictive, there are plenty of ways to keep the defensive capabilities of your body armor AND be mobile and able to mount your gun to shoot well, and give yourself and your team mates some valuable OFFENSIVE capabilities. This concept applies to all the gear you carry to duty; if it hinders your optimal performance I would fix it or get rid of it and stay as light as possible.

Here’s a proven concept that we all as tactical shooters can use to ‘Train to Win’. Every organized sports team in the country (especially the ones that win) use a similar concept to train. Football teams don’t go full speed in pads everyday in practice. That would be the conventional shooter’s wisdom of “train like you fight”. What they do instead is break down individual skill sets and train them to perfection. Then they’ll put on the pads and put all those things together and scrimmage. They take note of what went well and what didn’t go well, and then they take off the pads and train again. When it comes game time they are prepared to WIN.

That’s my ramble for now, maybe I’ll put together a video explaining it some more.

Thanks y’all!

-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 Bravo Company USA. Bravo Company is home of the Gunfighters, and each week they bring us a different trainer to offer some words of wisdom.

I wanted to share my thoughts based on my experiences regarding back up iron sights. In short I think they are a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist and many shooters hinder their rifles capabilities just to have them on the gun.

I’ve spent a lot of time behind an M-4 or AR-15 in a lot of different environments, combat, competition, training etc., and have also done so in the company of many other shooters. In all that time I have not seen a primary optic fail and a back up iron sight become necessary. Not saying it can’t happen, but I haven’t seen it; here’s what I have seen: many shooters who have back up iron sights on their rifles hinder their ability to shoot the rifle well and operate the things they WILL use just to have BUIS on the rifle. Many shooters with magnified optics on the gun will have to mount the optic forward on the receiver because the rear BUIS is in the way. That causes a problem with eye relief and most shooters will collapse the stock to get the correct eye relief and view through their scope. Collapsed stocks are not a better way to shoot a rifle. I’ve written several articles and have several videos about the subject of shooting the RIFLE with the stock extended for better control.

The next problem is where to mount lights and lasers so that they are accessible and still have a front BUIS. It can be a challenge. If a shooter is going to work at night they WILL need the flashlight and or laser, they MIGHT (once again never seen it happen) need the BUIS. As a Green Beret and a shooter I made a decision based on experience to stop fighting with BUIS problems and I don’t run them on my rifles. I have found it much easier to operate the rifle with he stock extended and without the BUIS I can mount every magnified optic I’ve seen and have a shootable, maneuverable RIFLE and use the optic with the correct eye relief. I’ve also found that it is much easier mount all my lights and lasers in very usable positions on the rail without BUIS interference. These are my thoughts based on my experiences and observations. Think about these when you are setting up your rifle and hopefully you end up with a really shootable rifle!

Take a look at the attached pictures:

The one on the ATV was my first SF deployment to Afghanistan. Based on the mission and I chose to run an ACOG over a red dot. You can tell in the pic that I had a rear BUIS on the rifle and had to mount the optic forward and collapse the stock; I also was just like other shooters and thought that the stock was supposed be collapsed because it was cool etc. I didn’t know enough about shooting then!

The picture out in the desert was my last SF deployment to Iraq. You can see the stock is extended, the Elcan Spectre DR 1-4 was mounted all the way back and no BUIS. The Spectre DR was a great solution to everything I might encounter from working in urban areas to open terrain. You’ll also notice the rifle has a longer free float rail, a CMC trigger, more ergonomically correct pistol grip and some other items that offered increased performance and solid reliability. In the time between these 2 deployments I got involved in competitive shooting and learned a lot more about shooting and how to set up my gear to be more effective! You’ll notice I have plenty of room on the rail for my flashlight and laser to go anywhere I needed them to be. You’ll probably notice there’s not a laser currently on the rifle. My TTP was to keep my LA-5/PEQ15 (laaaaaaaser) and NODS together, when I put on NODS, I put on the LA-5/PEQ15. The LA-5 was super easy to zero without shooting also.

The other picture you see of how my current rifles are set shows continued development as a shooter. A common them is they all have variable power scopes either 1-4 or 1-6. I have found that I can do everything I can do with a red dot with a variable power scope on 1x but when targets get small, are at distance or are hard to see……the 4x or 6x really shines and a red dot can’t give you the same capability. My current philosophy is ;if I’m going to put an optic on my rifle and add weight and spend money, its’ going to be a 1- something variable optic. Well that’s all I’ve got for now, I hope you all enjoyed this article. Take care and I wish you the best in your shooting!

-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 Bravo Company USA. Bravo Company is home of the Gunfighters, and each week they bring us a different trainer to offer some words of wisdom.