Introducing the @tmacsinc Signature Steel Target. Click the link in the bio to buy yours. The dimensions were engineered by Pat McNamara to ensure you receive the maximum training value.
The top measures 6 5/8″ wide and the bottom at 11 1/2″, with a length of 18″. System includes the TMACS Inc Strike Face, Base, Post Top and Strike Face Bracket with Bolts. Ships unpainted. Patent Pending.
defensetargets.com/collections/systems/products/the-tmac-inc
“I bought this heavy barrel FN FAL back in 1985 because LAV told me it was a great deal.”
BCM is proud to feature Pat McNamara in the third episode of our ongoing series, American Gunfighter. American Gunfighter has given been a unique opportunity to pull back the veil and highlight both the history and motivations of the instructors in our BCMGUNFIGHTER program.
Pat McNamara has 22 years of Special Operations experience, 13 of which were in 1st SFOD-D. He has extensive experience in hostile fire/combat zones in the Middle East, and Eastern Europe. Today, he trains individuals at basic and advanced levels of marksmanship and combat tactics. He retired in 2005 from the Army’s premier hostage rescue unit as a Sergeant Major. But that is only a small part of the story. Watch to learn the rest.
I try to read as many of the online comments pertaining to my training as possible. The vast majority are positive, but some are simply a good ribbing. Either way, I love them all.
One such comment was generated from a photo posted of my gun box. The individual stated that my ACOG would not be zeroed since it was not attached. That got me thinking this Gunfighter Moment would be a good venue to personally field that one.
I commonly change optics on my carbine based on the training venue. If you’ve got a good rifle, high quality optic, high quality mounting system, correctly mount your sight to your rifle, understand how to zero, and how to correctly take off and re-mount your sight to the rifle, you will rarely lose much of your zero.
Perhaps a half minute to a minute which requires only minor tweaking on the range.
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).
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 am all about ‘Bang for the Buck’ when it comes to training. Both in information output and proper usage of assets available. In this case, the assets are rounds. I am in the same boat as everyone else when it comes to round scrounging. I do not need however, to fire several hundred rounds for a good training session. Many of my courses of fire require fewer than 10 rounds. An example course of fire is the Grid of fire; this drill provides even better bang for the buck when it’s run as the ‘Mod.’ That is, start strong hand, transition to support hand at the next cone, back to strong hand and so on.
Another easy one to set up that requires only seven rounds (10 rounds loaded) is ‘Turn and Burn’. Use a C-zone Steel target. Place cones at 25, 20, 15 and 10. Start at the fifty yard line with only 10 rounds loaded. On ‘Go’, run your ass off to the 25 and hit, then to the 20 and hit, 15, 10, turn and burn back to the 15, to the 20, and finish at the 25. Must hit at each yard line. If you do not accomplish seven hits with the ten rounds loaded, you are a ‘No Go.’ A good time for this one is thirty seconds.
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).
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, Pat McNamara, TMACS
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Last time Mac offered a tip someone wanted to see what the scanner was all about, so here’s the explanation.
Last post I mentioned the Scanner with Stroops drill.
Since you asked, here is the ‘Scanner’ set up.
This is labor intensive to set up, but is a good bang for the buck.
When setting up, place a table five yards from the closets target and a shooting box just on the far side of the table. Place your targets so all are visible, with a CLEAN SHOT’ from the firing box and within the range fan.
The array of should include 12 targets.
Place the cards on the table face down. Make them out of wood or staple to wood on windy days.
Make up three sets of cards. Each set is numbered on the back; set 1, set 2, set 3
Each set will have two false cards in it. Therefore, each set will consist of 6 cards.
The instructions state;
On the go signal, Turn over one card at a time.
Read the top and see the bottom
Shoot the appropriate target once anywhere but in the head (don’t want to screw up the markings)
When you are finished, each target may only show one hit. If more than one hit, you are a ‘NO GO’.
Now read the cards per instructions. The first one should read ‘8 Red’, the second ‘false card’, the third ’10 Blue’, the forth, ‘false card’, the fifth ‘3 Green’, and the sixth ‘5 Yellow.’
Repair targets for next shooter. Issue him set number two in the event he was rubber necking.
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).
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 am often asked for teaching tips. No magic elixir here. Working as a Selection and Training instructor in my former Unit was a gateway mechanism that lead me on the right path. Though my courses are ‘Train the Trainer’, there is only so much I can convey in a couple of days. One needs to be the right person who is going to say the right thing at the right time to the right person.
One needs the ability to understand how people learn at a primal level, how to manage time, work a line (this is an art form), understand the learning curve and how to extend it, work within a skill set disparity, develop a niche and a teaching style.
Keeping interests peaked and folks interested is important as is knowing when Not to say something. Sometimes, less is more. Too many of us are too eager to say too much. We can only process so much information.
Anyone can be a line instructor who runs mindless ‘Up Drills’, but a good teacher needs the ability to be flexible enough to veer from a rigid, lock-stepped POI but that takes creativity lots of curriculum.
I read an article lately where it was stated (paraphrasing) that all instructors teach the same thing. To some degree, this is true. If one is current and relevant, he is going to mirror, to some degree, what the next current and relevant guy is putting out. Delivery of the message however, will determine the palatability of what is to be consumed which will in turn, determine the effectiveness of the application.
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).
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.
