Saturday, August 10, 2013

Saturday Sleep-In

I slept this morning to the glorious hour of 7:00, which might as well be noon, on my schedule.  I'm one of those guys who is usually up at 5:00, coffee and morning routine by 6:00 and ready to start the day.  Today I feel positively lazy and have nothing on my dance card.  Yesterday I was busier than a cat in a sandbox, watching a grandkid and taking care of household chores.  It's amazing how much energy a 5-year-old can put in the house.  After his dad showed up to take him home, I went to the auction, hung out with the guys that run it, and we went to eat afterwards, breakfast style, at a local dive.  I got back to the house about midnight, scratched the dog and went to bed.  Today, I'm going to revel in my sloth, do some light housework, and piddle in my shop.  I'm 'bachin' it' this weekend as Milady is gone to a family reunion.

In Thursday's post, the one with the video, Joe Mamma asks the question:
The low shooting was pretty interesting. My guess is that the video was not garden variety annual requalification....Do cops talk about or practice those kinds of things?
I don't know about all cops, but I practice it, and I thought it was interesting that the guys in the vid were getting as close to the ground as they could.  That's a good idea.  If you pick a standard sedan, get down and look under the vehicle.  You've got about eight inches of ground clearance, maybe less.  So, you've got to get low, much lower than a standard prone position.  The simplest way is to roll onto your shoulder and shoot the carbine sideways.  This causes some problems because your sights are normally atop the rifle and in this position they're on the side of the rifle, and the ejection port is pointed directly at the ground.

For lack of a better term, I call it "cruiser prone", and while it opens up opportunities, it also presents problems.  Still, low is good, and if you can get down and start taking out ankles, the gunfight will probably be over sooner, rather than later.  Use available cover, return effective fire, and make the bad guys worry about you rather than inflict damage on innocents.  Using a carbine is one thing, but for the true effect, shoot your shotgun like that.  It's a whole 'nuther experience and one that has to be felt to be believed.

2 comments:

Old NFO said...

Enjoy the down day!

Rivrdog said...

We used to practice Skip Shooting with the shotgun. You can be standing up, or low to the ground. You aim at your target, but before firing, lower the barrel so that the shot charge impacts HARD ground about 3/4 way to the target. The shot will NOT riccochet up at the same angle it went in, it will hug the ground, no more than 6-10" up. When it strikes the target, the pellets have been flattened, and give greater wounding effect.

Set up a weighted cardboard box at the range for a demo. Max effectiveness is 50 yards.