“It should surprise you when it goes off.”

That’s always seems like bad advice to me. I’ve been surprised when the hammer falls, and it’s usually called a ‘Miss.’

When we train, we should train to the point of knowing exactly when the hammer is going to fall. No surprises. In order to reach this point, proper repetition is paramount. To achieve proper repetition dry fire is necessary. Not the kind of dry fire where you are simply going through the motions, but deep practice and meaningful repetition.

We should work to the point of automaticity.

Automaticity is the ability to do things without occupying the mind with the low-level details required, allowing it to become an automatic response pattern or habit. It is usually the result of learning, repetition, and practice.

Of the fundamentals, one that is sometimes neglected in teaching is presentation. Especially important in pistol fundamentals, the presentation is how you present the pistol from a ready position to your firing position. As part of your draw stroke, the presentation should lie as flat as possible for as long as possible mitigating arching or scooping. In a perfect world, the hammer should fall right at the apex of your presentation.

Only through deep practice dry fire to the appropriate amount of repetition, can one achieve automaticity. When you’ve reached this point, with flat presentation and trigger preparation the dreaded ‘surprised shot’ will surprise you in that it will be an ‘A’ zone hit.

Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)

Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.

His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.

While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting). He also served as the Principle of TMACS Inc.

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.

We guys are notorious for practicing what we are good at. It gives a warm and fuzzy. I’ve made mention of this in the past and have encouraged folks to include more strong hand training in their range time. It is an elusive way to bridge the gap and to sneak off of a plateau.

I have modified the National Match course of fire and have included it in my current curriculum. This is a great bang for the buck drill.

The course of fire is as follows; Use an IPSC target. Firing lines are at 50 yards and twenty five yards.

Course of fire is shot in three strings.

String one is slow fire five rounds from the 50 strong hand only

String two is timed fire from the 25 yard line. Five shots, from the holster, strong hand only in twenty seconds

String three is rapid fire from the 25 yard line. Five shots, from the holster, strong hand only in 10 seconds.

It is a 75 point course of fire.

The scoring system I use is to deduct one point for ‘C’ zone or head shots. Deduct two points for ‘D’ zone hits. Deduct five points for misses.

Way more forgiving than the National Match course of fire but works well for varied skill sets. Good use of fifteen rounds.

Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)

Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.

His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.

While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting). He also served as the Principle of TMACS Inc.

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.

I recently started to re-incorporate ‘Calling Your Shot’ drills into my Basic Rifle Marksmanship (BRM) curriculum.

Knowing where the sites are when the hammer falls is not only good marksmanship training but a liability concern and a tactical necessity. We must know whether the shot is good or not, before the rounds impacts the target.

One should perform this drill at a distance where he cannot see the impact of the round register on the paper target. So,…50-100 yards.

One should also reduce the amount of stability in one’s shooting platform to increase his wobble area. There for, prone position is out. Use an alternate position like sitting, kneeling or standing.

Use a marksmanship data book or a simple notebook with your target drawn in it. Fire five rounds. After each round, annotate on your drawn target where you believe that round hit your target.

After the five round group, compare your note pad to your target. Your notes and target do not have to be an exact match. For example; if you called two high, two low and one left, and if your target’s feedback mirrors your notes, you have succeeded in this drill.

Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)

Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.

His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.

While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.

He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting). He also served as the Principle of TMACS Inc.

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.

Being able to perform focal shift is a skill we sometimes neglect to practice on the range. I call this being omni-cognizant. Learning to see things full spectrum while performing a focal shift is a necessary skill and easy to neglect as we get sucked into the flat range training mindset. We should train ourselves to train our eyes. At a minimum, to perform a focal shift from our sights to the fight and from the fight to reference points beyond the fight. A way to exercise our eyes is by using a Brock String (easy to find instructions on the web). This is easy to build and easy to use. A Brock string (named after Frederick W. Brock) is an instrument used in vision therapy. It consists of a white string of approximately 10 feet in length with three small wooden beads of different colors.

The Brock string is commonly employed during treatment of convergence insufficiency and other anomalies of binocular vision sometimes developed by those of us who work strictly one eye on the range. It is used to develop skills of convergence as well as to disrupt suppression of one of the eyes. It is worth the few dollars on wooden balls, spray paint and string.

Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)

Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.

His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.

While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.

He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting). He also served as the Principle of TMACS Inc.

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.

Social media has informed me that lots of people do not like LEOs. I have been bombarded by film clips of cops tuning up some POS. Sometimes the clips have subtitles or are put to music or include a narrative. A recent one was narrated by that pinko douche nugget Bill Maher. In his lefty diatribe, he pissed and moaned about how abusive LEOs are and referred to them as Jack Booted Thugs, because they wear assault kit. His rant included video clips of ass whoopings. As I watch these clips, one thing comes to my mind… 95% of the time, that is: “That shit licker deserved it.”

If I ever put my cops in a position where they have to question whether or not I am hostile, or compliant, because there is a clear distinction, I deserve to get throttled. If I am resisting arrest, and if I am not beaten to within an inch of my life by my LEOs, I will think of them as pussies.

Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)

Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.

His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.

While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.

He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting). He also served as the Principle of TMACS Inc.

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.

“Albert Einstein” Drill

I’ve got a new drill that I run on line and it’s been tough for me to put the proper vernacular to it. The drill is prefaced by asking where we should stand, time-wise, as far as single shot from the holster at 10 yards.

Opinions and answers vary, as they should. I then propose to set up timers on a par of 2.5 seconds and ask shooters to pick a zone on an IPSC target where they know, without a shadow of a doubt, they can maintain consistency. The zones are ‘A’ Credit Card Head, ‘B’ Head, ‘A’ Body, ‘C’ zone, or entire target. I tell shooters to outline their zone with a sharpie and stay in it for five consecutive, 2.5 second, single shot draw strokes.

The objective is not only to stay in it, but to strive to achieve better.

Thanks to Albert Einstein for assisting me in amending the verbiage for this course of fire; “One must develop an instinct for what one can barely achieve through one’s greatest efforts. Mark the boundary of your current ability, and aim a little beyond it.”

Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)

Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.

His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.

While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.

He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting). He also served as the Principle of TMACS Inc.

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.

I occasionally get push back or skepticism during courses when I have guys utilize the rifle’s safety while doing mag changes up close at say…7-10 yards. So I present them with this situation; you and I are fighting side by side from behind cover. The fight is mid-range. The cover is small. This is close quarters. I am within inches of you while performing a magazine change, or while moving around you to better my position. At times my muzzle may be oriented over your bow. Do you want me to use my rifle’s safety? I’m thinking your answer will be “Yes”.

If we are fighting together in close quarters, not only do I want you to use your safety while working alongside of me, but I am hoping that your safety manipulation is spontaneous.

Push back comes from those too lazy to perform the appropriate amount of meaningful repetitions until safety manipulation becomes an intuitive task or until one can perform this at a subconscious level.

If you can’t think to ‘Safe it’ at seven, what makes you think…you can think to do it instinctively, in close quarters?

Patrick McNamara
SGM, US Army (Ret)

Patrick McNamara spent twenty-two years in the United States Army in a myriad of special operations units. When he worked in the premier Special Missions Unit, he became an impeccable marksman, shooting with accurate, lethal results and tactical effectiveness. McNamara has trained tactical applications of shooting to people of all levels of marksmanship, from varsity level soldiers, and police officers who work the streets to civilians with little to no time behind the trigger.

His military experience quickly taught him that there is more to tactical marksmanship than merely squeezing the trigger. Utilizing his years of experience, McNamara developed a training methodology that is safe, effective and combat relevant and encourages a continuous thought process. This methodology teaches how to maintain safety at all times and choose targets that force accountability, as well as provides courses covering several categories, including individual, collective, on line and standards.

While serving as his Unit’s Marksmanship NCO, he developed his own marksmanship club with NRA, CMP, and USPSA affiliations. Mac ran monthly IPSC matches and ran semi annual military marksmanship championships to encourage marksmanship fundamentals and competitiveness throughout the Army.

He retired from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major and is the author of T.A.P.S. (Tactical Application of Practical Shooting). He also served as the Principle of TMACS Inc.

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.