MAG 80 Pt III: Long Guns and Small talk

[Click here to read Part I, click here to read Part II]

Throughout the week our long gun training, our instructors emphasized the fact that stance is absolutely crucial to sustained, accurate fire. Case in point: during one strings I failed to take up a low and wide stance. Despite my 250lbs., by the fourth slug my front foot was literally lifted off the ground . . .

Shooting from the High Tuck was surprisingly comfortable and intuitively accurate. In addition to increased weapons retention and shorter profile, it’s also great for lightly built shooters who might struggle with supporting the long gun or reaching the pump.

Up next: we strapped on body armor to try the Pec-Vest technique. This involves squaring your torso and moving the buttstock from the cleft of your shoulder, inboard, so that the vest can absorb and disperse the felt recoil. We also learned other useful combinations of stances and close-quarter sight pictures.

Over the five days, range time was interspersed with a healthy variety of lecture and videos. Topics flowed from safety and technique into advanced pysio-psychology.

My favorite: the classic film Night Stalking. Mas prefaced the video with a statement to the effect of, “House Clearing is incredibly stupid and dangerous. However, if you must do it, here is the least stupid and dangerous way to do it.” He wasn’t kidding. In my hastily scribbled notes there are a dozen different circumstances and possibilities that I had never really considered.

• Don’t search with your weapon at low ready. It will tend to bump and snag on tables and chairs and other furniture.
• If you enter your kitchen to find the contents of your refrigerator emptied on to the floor, there is a very distinct possibility that the intruder is hiding inside.
• When searching kitchen cabinets, poke around randomly so as not to telegraph your position any more than necessary. Same thing goes for checking above ceiling tiles. Perps like to hide above the walls and corners.

The information relayed in the film came from actual interviews with with prison inmates. These unsavory characters were more than happy to brag about how they had outsmarted the cops. Once.