Some fun combat drills

[Signmaker]

Warning: The meaning of "fun" is highly subjective. Also, if you get hurt, don't cry to me cause I'll just laugh.

So I got to go out to range with my training buddy, and we tried out a bunch of drills that we had been thinking up. Here are some of the ones that I enjoyed, and felt had a positive impact on my training.

Blind Billy
3-5 silhouette targets in a row at 7-10 yards.
Shooter starts blindfolded, gun holstered and arms at side. While shooter is blind, partner walks downrange and attaches a cutout of gun or knife to one of the targets. Partner stands behind shooter and gives confirmation that range is clear. At will, the partner quickly removes the blindfold from shooter and backs away. Shooter must draw and deliver 3-5 good hits on the armed target, without hitting unarmed targets. To change it up, create multiple armed targets, or zero armed targets resulting in a no-draw scenario.

This made me quickly adjust to a violent change in perceived environment, and forced me to quickly identify a threat without having previous knowledge of it's position.

Bucked Off
Multiple color & number target(s) a any range.
Shooter starts seated on a low stool, gun holstered, hands in lap. At will, partner knocks the chair over, either to the front, sides, or rear (note, use extreme caution if knocking over to the rear). Partner simultaneously calls out color or number. Shooter must deliver 2-3 hits on declared target, either from prone or kneeling.

Combined the quick panic feeling of an unexpected fall with presenting from a less than ideal position. We used a long milk crate to do this drill, but a three legged stool would work great as well.

Yanker
Set up targets to taste. Partner gives starting command and/or target designation. At the same time, partner grasps the shooter's belt at the 6 o'clock and pulls sharply in random directions until shooter reaches hit requirement. Great for reload/malfunction drills.

Most effective when you dont pussy-foot it, and really try to throw the shooter off balance. It seemed going front/rear messed things up worse than side to side.

Gas Pump
This is a force-on-force drill with dummy guns or airsoft. Please dont live fire, or I will laugh. This was inspired by a real self defense shooting where a man was attacked while pumping gas, and I feel translates well to all the situations where we are vulnerable exiting our cars.

Park a vehicle against a structure so that there is about 3-5 between the structure and the driver's door. Drill starts with shooter seated in the car, attacker concealed towards the rear of the vehicle. To begin, shooter opens the driver's door and exits. Upon shooter's exit, attacker rushes in with a weapon. Shooter must defend themselves.

I learned a few things from this that will really stick with me:
1) Kneeling on the driver's seat, facing the rear of the vehicle and shooting around the B pillar of the car puts a lot of metal between you and a gunman.
2) On your back, with the gear shift in your kidneys and someone trying to cut you is not a comfortable place to be. However, it gives a pretty stable base for bicycling kicks into the bad guy, and you have enough room under the steering wheel to draw a pistol.
3) If the attacker backs down, and you want to escape by driving away, quickly opening the rear driver door on 4-door cars gives you a little barrier room between you and the bad guy. Using it to create enough time to get in and drive off worked pretty well.
4) Switching it up and being attacked with a drawn gun from the front of the vehicle is a bad situation to actively defend in. You're several feet from cover at the rear of the vehicle, the bad guy has a little cover from the open door, and your lateral movement opportunities are ziltch.
5) While it eliminates your ability to get back in and drive away, flinging a set of keys into an attacker's face makes a decent diversion to buy time for a handgun to come in.

Grocery Gun Grab
Again, force on force with dummy guns. Dont shoot people, laughing, etc etc.
Shooter carries a plastic grocery bag in each hand, holding weight (1gal jugs of water worked nice). Attacker approaches shooter calmly, and attempts a violent gun grab. Shooter must defend themselves and keep control of the weapon.

A good one for us open carriers. It's tricky to defend against a surprise gun grab with empty hands, but holding shopping bags adds another degree. The main thing I learned here was that the first few times we ran it, my hands did not want to let go of the bags right away. This meant they were too slow to lock down on the attacker's hand before he cleared leather enough to reach the trigger. We also wanted to try this while carrying a tired toddler in our arms, but no one would loan us the kid. Also learned that there was little difference between a thumb break and open top holster, but the Serpa was much easier to defend from, even when the attacker knew how to operate the release.

Hope you can use one of these to freshen your training, get you thinking about unique drills of your own, or at the very least gave you a chuckle at imagining two full grown men playing at this nonsense.

[ishoot4fun]

Consider these stored away from later. Great ideas. I'll look forward to the next round (pun intended).

[ar15jules]

Interested to hear more about the open top / thumb break retention results. What methods were being utilized by the "victim" with each holster that resulted in similar outcomes?
Jules

[Signmaker]

Open top holster was a Safariland, thumb break was an Aker's. What we found was that the attacker had just under a second between their hand touching the victim's gun, and the victim being able to lay hands on them. As long as the attacker was aware beforehand that the holster was a thumb break, they simply adjusted their grab to the same way the gun's wearer would draw, clearing the thumb break well before the victim could make a defensive move.

This was done with the same ease as grabbing the gun from an open top holster. With either holster, the attacker was never able to get the gun free and in their control. However with both, about half the time they could raise the gun far enough to get a finger in the trigger guard and fire a round.

The difference in the Serpa was that when the victim brought their hand down to force the gun back into the holster, it re-engaged the retention. With a thumb break, the retention stayed released. Once the victim had the attacker's hand held down and began to move their hips to get away, it was very difficult for the attacker to re-release the retention.

The only way we were able to get a full grab was to have the attacker use their right hand to lock down on the Serpa's release, and use the left to pull the gun.

This was just the tomfoolery of a couple guys with a handful of holsters, and in no way means the Serpa is grab-proof. If anything, it reaffirmed to me that some attacks are indefensible, and we must unfortunately rely on SA and passive measures to make sure we dont become the first OC gun grab statistic.

[ar15jules]

The fact that the attacks happened from the rear clear it up for me. I can only assume this from your last post. Would it be accurate in your opnion to conclude that if the firearms were carried concealed, the attacker would not have made an immediate move to the firearm before the "victim" could react to the "grab", but instead perhaps wrapped around the waste or torso? Just some food for discussion. The attacker could have just as easily stabbed the victim in the back. I am not trying to start an OC/CC debate, but merely point out that we shouldn't let anyone get within "touching range" or personal space that we don't want there.
Thanks,
Jules

[Signmaker]

Well, the king benefit of concealed carry is that it means concealed. A bad guy cannot try and steal what he doesn't know is there. If they do become aware by some unlucky printing, the gun grab would become easier to defend, because now the attacker has the additional layer of the cover garment to deal with.

The drills we ran were with holsters worn at the 2-4:00, and the attacker approached from the 6:00. Gun grabs were executed with their right hand, the left generally being used to shove the victim, or to try and control the victim's right arm.