Firearms Training

This series of articles gives you a glimpse at the handgun techniques we teach at Front Sight.  Unfortunately, these articles cannot impart any actual skills.  The life-saving skills of gunhandling, marksmanship, and tactics can only be gained from attending a course at Front Sight.

Success in defensive shooting depends on three factors.  They are Speed, Power, and Accuracy.  Speed is how fast you shoot.  Power is the ability of the round you are shooting to stop your adversary.  Accuracy is how precisely you shoot.

Of these three, power is the easiest to discuss.  Power is what you brought with you to the gunfight.  It is your weapon and the round that you are shooting.  There is a lot of debate about the best handgun caliber and bullet design.  The fact is, any reasonable handgun round will do but will not do very well.  That’s because all handgun rounds have ballistic deficiencies.  On a ballistic efficiency spectrum, shotguns and rifles are up near the top; handguns are down at the bottom.  We don’t carry handguns because they are powerful; we carry them because they are portable.

Your standard response to an adversary will be to fire two shots, or what we call a “controlled pair,” to the center of the thoracic cavity.  We teach this as the standard response because the thoracic cavity is a very large, vital area.  It contains the heart, lungs, and major blood vessels.  Therefore, a controlled pair to the thoracic cavity will generally stop an adversary.  A hit anywhere in the thoracic cavity is a good hit.  So, a hit near the edge of the thoracic cavity has as much fight-stopping potential as a hit in the center.  With that said, let’s talk about accuracy.  On the range, after you have fired a few controlled pairs, a group or pattern will become apparent.  The goal is to shoot a group about the size of a hand-span in the center of the thoracic cavity.  A hand-span group is obviously much smaller than the entire thoracic cavity.  If any hit in the thoracic cavity is a good hit, why is the goal to shoot a smaller group?  On the range, you are warm, comfortable, well fed, there is plenty of light, and no one is trying to kill you.  With some, or all, of those factors working against you, your group will likely double in size.  Even if your group doubles in size under stress, all of your rounds will still be in the thoracic cavity.

Now, what about speed?  In other words, how fast can you shoot and still maintain a hand-span size group?  Your speed depends on how accurately you must shoot.  Generally, more accuracy requires more time.  The good news is you have a gauge right on the weapon which will tell you how fast to go.  It’s your front sight.  If you present your weapon and see a very small front sight against a large thoracic cavity, you can shoot very rapidly and still guarantee the hits.  On the other hand, if you see a very large front sight against a tiny target, such as a target at great distance, you need to slow down to guarantee the hits.  Generally, a small target is a function of distance, but not always.  A hostage situation at close range would also require you to take a slow, very accurate shot.  So, even at conversational distances you may need to shoot slowly, depending on the size of the target.

Balancing speed, power, and accuracy takes some training and practice.  So, let’s get to it!