Speed draw expectations

[Paladin]

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m ... _n14816183

Speed draw: don't have unrealistic expectations for speed of drawing and firing a hidden handgun

Guns Magazine, Sept, 2005 by Massad Ayoob

One of the most common questions we get is, "How fast should I be able to draw and fire my concealed carry handgun?" The answer usually has to be, "It depends."

The most common rule of thumb is starting with hands clear of a gun carried in an open-top, exposed bolster, you want to be able to draw and get two hits on a seven-yard target in 1.5 seconds. It's a standard part of the graduation exercise at Jeff Cooper's famed Gunsite, and widely used now in police training. Chuck Taylor gets his most committed students to draw and perform a two-shot speed rock in a second flat at arm's length targets, which is a part of his challenging Master course.

5 Regular Mistakes In Public Speaking That's all a bit optimistic for concealed carry unless you have a particularly efficient technique for clearing the garment, and lots of practice. I recently had occasion to be reminded of this at one of the excellent monthly IDPA matches sponsored by the Gateway Rifle & Pistol Club in Jacksonville, Florida. One stage opened with the shooter standing with the target at arm's length. The free hand was behind his back (to keep it out of the line of fire) and the gun hand at the side. At the beep, the stage began with the shooter drawing the concealed handgun and shooting the target one-handed from a close retention position.

Terrible Twos

As each of the 10 shooters on my relay completed the stage, I asked the range officer to review the electronic timer and check the time for the first shot. It turned out that not one of us had gotten under a second. The day before, while teaching a close quarters battle class, I had gotten the students well under a second for draw to the shot from an open holster and demonstrated same in around three-quarters of a second, but had also taught them that a concealing garment would add a good half second. This was proven here. Average time ran 2.12 seconds.

My time was nearly a quarter-second over the one-second mark. Times ranged from 1.23 to 3.33 seconds. The latter was posted by a fellow who carried his Beretta 92 on safe, but habitually used his free hand to flip the lever. It took him considerable fumbling to get the safety off. No one had taught him the proper technique. Another fellow got 1.37, but he was shooting from low ready, for fun not score, because he didn't have a holster for his new Walther P99. He should have been faster, but he seemed to hesitate. With those two times factored out, the average was still 2.06 seconds.

Some of the others hesitated an instant to fire after they drew as well. This has been observed before with point shooting. There is something in the subconscious of the moral man or woman that makes them hesitate before unleashing a bullet when their eye can't actually see where the gun is pointed.

Other Lessons

Two guns jammed: a Glock and a Beretta, two of the most reliable auto pistols made. Both choked for the same reason. Firing with the elbow touching the body, the forearm is driven back by recoil. This is irrelevant with revolvers, but any auto pistol needs a firm abutment of a flame for the slide to work against. With the unlocked forearm, like the unlocked wrist, the frame moves with the slide in recoil and dissipates the slide's momentum, causing a stoppage. When shooting like this, lock the forearm to keep your auto functioning.

This close, pasters get blown from the target by muzzle blast, and soon, the center zone of the target will blow out "along the dotted line." Do what we finally did and just cut the center out and shoot through it. Jeff Cooper's old Mik-A-Lik target was designed that way in 3-D.

No matter how good you are, the covering garment severely complicates the draw. Those with open front vests or shirts were faster than those who had to get their guns out from tinder pullover garments. For a couple of years I had the honor of being match director for the IDPA Mid-Winter National Championships hosted at Smith & Wesson Academy. One year there was a stage very much like this. The match drew some 140 shooters, including some of the best in the world. Only one beat one second for the first shot from concealment. The time was .98 of one second, and the shooter was World IPSC Champion Todd Jarrett, with his ParaOrdnance LDA 9mm drawn from an open-top hip holster tinder a concealment vest.

Rob Leatham was at that match. His first shot took over a second. Rob has been known to draw a race gun from an unconcealed Safariland speed holster and make his first hit at .60 of one second, or less on demand. Such is the "speed tax" imposed by the concealing garment and the real-world holster.

Bottom line: be realistic. Don't expect a sub-one second draw from concealment starting with the hands clear of the body, and arrange your tactical plans accordingly. Put in lots of practice in getting the cloth out of the way of the steel. Do lots of dry gun practice before you do it with live amino. And always remember the dictum of another world champion, Ray Chapman: smoothness is five-sixths of speed.

Mas Ayoob is highly skilled and I've seen Todd Jarrett in action with his "sub 1 second draw" from concealment...it's jaw dropping... but I thought this was a great article on what kind of time you would expect on a draw from concealment. I understand the Federal Air Marshal Tactical Pistol Course (TPC) requires 1.65 seconds from concealment.

[rm9792]

Good article but Massad needs to use a spellchecker. I saw the word "tinder" used in place of "under" in a couple places. Is "tinder" an actual word? Was wondering since it was used more than once.

[yerasimos]

I suspect the spelling quirks may be associated with scanning hardcopy text.

Paladin, thanks for sharing the article. A lot of good ideas there.

[flintknapper]

Good article but Massad needs to use a spellchecker. I saw the word "tinder" used in place of "under" in a couple places. Is "tinder" an actual word? Was wondering since it was used more than once.

O.K., where are all of our Boy Scouts and Outdoors-men?
Yes, a real word. When used outside it's usual definition, it can also mean to "kindle".

tinder
Noun
dry wood or other easily-burning material used to start a fire [Old English tynder]

[rm9792]

I knew that one, just forgot. I meant more is it a reference to "under" but someone else said it might be a scanner error.

[HankB]

I was at an IDPA match several years ago, where we had a "draw and fire at 3 yards ASAP" stage, done without a cover garment, and then repeated with a cover garment.

Only two of us were under 1 second for the "without" portion, and we were the only ones under 2 seconds for the "with" portion.

[Deaf Smith]

Keep in mind guys that self defense situations don't happen in a vacuum. Usually there are tip offs something is going to happen and it gives you time (if you recoginize the tip offs) to be primed to draw, that is if you haven't already without the BG knowing it.

You will find true drawing speed can be awful slow or awful fast. If your mind is not there it may take 5 seconds to go through the OODA loop and finaly decide to pull your roscoe. If,on the other hand, you did see the tip offs, then you are on 'D' almost 'A" of the OODA with the other guy finaly starts the ball rolling.

One needs to get skilled at drawing and firing fast. But also one needs to be skilled at seeing things for what they are.

[Jeremae]

I think it was Bill Jordan who said:

"The fastest draw is a gun already in hand"

Ayoob stresses this also. If you are aware and react early enough, you are not drawing on the clock.

[HankB]

I think it was Bill Jordan who said:

"The fastest draw is a gun already in hand"

Ayoob stresses this also. If you are aware and react early enough, you are not drawing on the clock.

That's one of the reasons I like pocket carry - on two occasions when I picked up a bad vibe, I just reached into my pocket and took hold of my 340Sc.

Fortunately, I did NOT have to draw either time, but once your hand is actually holding the firearm, once you decide you have to shoot, the time to draw and fire is on the order of 0.5 seconds or less.

And when you don't have to use your sidearm . . . all anyone sees is a guy standing casually there with his hand in his pocket.

[Photoman]

I think it was Bill Jordan who said:

"The fastest draw is a gun already in hand"

Ayoob stresses this also. If you are aware and react early enough, you are not drawing on the clock.

Gotta love the 642 in a Mika pocket holster. Draw the "back up" belt gun if needed.

[fm2]

Good info. I've seen drawtime cut in half by having established the #1 before the the start signal.

[yahoshua]

.....Two guns jammed:...

Note to Ayoob: Jam goes on toast and you eat it for breakfast. What happened was that two firearms had a malfunction.