CLOSE-QUARTERS COMBAT MARKSMANSHIP: A SUGGESTED POI, PART THREE

(It occurred to me this morning that, perhaps I should specify what I mean when I discuss the vital zone of the upper thoracic cavity, rather than telling riflemen to aim “center-of-mass.” While the specific aiming point on a given enemy fighter will be situationally-dependent, the best point-of-aim, whenever possible, is within the triangle formed by the base of the neck and the two nipples of the chest. This target zone maximizes the probability of the round penetrating to, and destroying, major organs and blood vessels, thus rendering the best chance of securing a fast kill with a minimal expenditure of rounds.

Optionally, if the upper thoracic cavity target area is unavailable, due to the use of body armor by opposition personnel, the pelvic girdle makes a good alternative. The pelvic girdle is rich in major blood vessels and nerves. A solid hit in this region will generally result in a mechanical collapse or dysfunction. Some argue the obvious point that a shot to the pelvic girdle is not as immediate a fight-stopper as a shot to the head. While this is true, a shot to the pelvis is a pretty solid method of anchoring the bad guy so you can shoot him in the head. --J.M.)

Training Session Four: Controlled Pairs

When engaging hostiles in CQC, ample experience and historical research has demonstrated that the most secure method of ensuring the rapid cessation of the threat potential is to place multiple rounds in the hostile's vital zone as fast as possible. Historically, double-taps have been taught as the preferred technique to accomplish this in limited-time multiple hostile situations. Fortunately, current doctrine teaches the obvious drawback to double-taps is that the second round fired is un-aimed. Every round the gunfighter fires must be accounted for. This is especially true for the guerrilla fighter, since not only is his ammunition re-supply limited, but he cannot risk being responsible for an errant round killing an innocent member of the civilian population if it is at all avoidable.

Instead, controlled pairs/”hammers,” are taught. Follow-through and recovery, as well as proper sight-pictures, are stressed throughout the training process. Trigger pull is accelerated, but never to the point of jerking. The trigger finger should never lose contact with the trigger throughout the firing sequence (this results in trigger slapping that will interfere with accuracy of rapid-fire strings). Shot groups should remain tight, but controlled pairs can be, with practice, executed extremely fast.

Task: From the holster, the shooter will engage the vital zone of a single, stationary silhouette target with controlled pairs with his sidearm.

Conditions: The shooter will be presented with silhouette targets and dot overlay targets at a measured range of 10 yards, during daylight hours. He will be required to utilize a sidearm with holster and four magazines.

Standards: The shooter will draw the holstered weapon and fire a controlled pair to the vital zone target in less than 2.5 seconds.

Task #2: The shooter will engage the vital zone of a single, stationary silhouette target with controlled pairs with his carbine.

Conditions: The shooter will be presented with a silhouette target at a measured range of 10, 25, and 50 yards, during daylight hours. The shooter will be required to utilize a carbine and four magazines.

Standards: The shooter will engage a single, stationary silhouette with controlled pairs to the vital zone target with the carbine.

Training Sequence:

1. Live-Fire: From the 10 yard line from the holster, draw and fire a single shot to a six-inch dot target with four magazines of five rounds each. Perform a speed-reload after each magazine. Utilize the Tap-Rack-Bang malfunction clearance when/if necessary.
2. Live-Fire: From the 10-yard line from the holster, draw and fire a controlled-pair to a vital-zone target with four magazines of six rounds each. Perform a speed-reload after each magazine. Utilize the Tap-Rack-Bang malfunction clearance when/if necessary.
3. Live-Fire: From the 10-yard line from the ready position, with the carbine, fire a controlled-pair to a vital-zone target with four magazines of six rounds each. Perform a speed-reload after each magazine. Utilize the Tap-Rack-Bang malfunction clearance when/if necessary.
4. Live-Fire: From the 25-yard line from the ready position, with the carbine, fire a controlled-pair to a vital-zone target with four magazines of six rounds each. Perform a speed-reload after each magazine. Utilize the Tap-Rack-Bang malfunction clearance when/if necessary (it should be obvious that a controlled-pair at 25 yards will be noticeably slower than a controlled-pair executed at 10 yards. Nevertheless, this can still be performed in less than a second, with practice, especially if you are running decent optics on your carbine. --J.M.)
5. Live-Fire: From the 50-yard line from the ready position, with the carbine, drop to the rice-paddy prone or a kneeling position, and fire a controlled-pair to a vital-zone target with four magazines of six rounds each. Perform a speed-reload after each magazine. Utilize the Tap-Rack-Banf malfunction clearance when/if necessary (I tend to use the rice-paddy prone more than the kneeling, due to old paratrooper knees. When I do use a kneeling position, for CQB purposes, I prefer the so-called “urban kneeling,” where I drop straight down on both knees...another reason for the use of high-quality knee pads for CQB. --J.M.)

Training Session Number Five: Sidearm Tactical Reload, and Multiple Target Transitions

Until now, the focus has been on speed-reloads. This is the most efficient method for a magazine change in a firing engagement. It gets the gun back into the fight in the fastest possible time. Lulls in action, or even just being behind cover while a partner fires, makes it possible for the fighter to reload his weapon to full-capacity without first firing to bolt-lock. This can be critical during sustained firing engagements. The argument is often correctly made, that the guerrilla fighter cannot afford to leave spent magazines behind, due to the obvious logistical limitations of the guerrilla supply train.

While there is a great deal of truth to this, the argument can and should be made, that in the middle of a fight, if the weapon is run dry, or suppressive fire needs to be brought to bear to cover the maneuver element, the least important concern should be worrying about magazines. The mantra that the fighter should remember in training for reloads is, “Use tactical reloads when you can; use speed reloads when you need to.”

(The traditional tactical reload, wherein the shooter brings the new magazine up to the weapon, releases and grabs the spent magazine in the same hand, and feeds the new magazine, before finally placing the spent magazine in the dump pouch, pocket, or shirt-front, is obsolete. It never really worked particularly well under stress, anyway. The current, cutting-edge doctrine is the “reload with retention.” Strip the partially spent magazine and shove it in the dump pouch. Grab and feed the new magazine. Get back into the fight! This is the method I teach, and thus is the method I speak of when I refer to “tactical reloads” within this article.--J.M.)

To this point, shooters have engaged only single targets. Real world shootings, whether in defense against criminal assault, or in combat, generally require the ability to rapidly engage multiple hostiles. The shooters should not begin to be introduced to multiple targets in the training program. There are two methods of identifying and engaging hostile targets. The first method is to identify the targets and engage them as individuals. This works well on targets that are well-spaced and relatively far away, although still at CQB distances. The second method, useful for extreme close-quarters, is target indexing. Instead of identifying and engaging the targets individually, the shooter identifies all the hostiles, as a group, and engages them as one target. Instead of recovering on the initial target after shooting, he recovers his sight picture, through the recoil cycle, on the next target without re-identifying it. This second method should be utilized by the guerrilla fighter only when he has already positively identified all members of the group as hostiles. It does not work as well when hostiles and innocents are intermingled.

Task: From the holster, the shooter will engage multiple silhouette targets with his sidearm, utilizing a tactical reload after each shot string.

Conditions: The shooter will be presented with multiple silhouette targets at a measured range of 10 yards, during daylight hours. He will be required to utilize a sidearm with holster and four magazines.

Standards: The shooter will be required to draw the sidearm from the holster, engage multiple targets with controlled pairs, executing a tactical reload between strings. He will be required to place every round in the vital zone of each silhouette target.

Task #2: From the ready position, the shooter will engage multiple silhouette targets with his carbine, utilizing a tactical reload after each shot string.

Conditions: The shooter will be presented with multiple silhouette targets at a measured distances of 10, 25, and 50 yards, during daylight hours. He will be required to utilize his carbine and a minimum of four magazines.

Standards: The shooter will be required to engage multiple targets with controlled pairs, executing a tactical reload between strings. He will be required to place every round in the vital zone of each silhouette target.

Training Sequence:

1. Live-Fire: From the 10-yard line from the holster, draw and fire controlled-pairs to a 6-inch dot overlay target, using four magazines loaded with six-rounds. Perform a tactical reload after each magazine.
2. Live-Fire: From the 10-yard line from the ready position, with the carbine, fire controlled-pairs to a 6-inch dot overlay target, using four magazines loaded with six rounds. Perform a tactical reload after each magazine.
3. From the 10-yard line from the holster, draw and fire controlled-pairs to the vital zones of 2-4 silhouette targets. Repeat 5 times. Perform a tactical reload following each shot string.
4. From the 10-yard line from the ready position, with the carbine, fire controlled-pairs to the vital zones of 2-4 silhouette targets. Repeat 5 times. Perform a tactical reload following each shot string.
5. From the 25-yard line from the ready position, with the carbine, fire controlled-pairs to the vital zones of 2-4 silhouette targets. Repeat 5 times. Perform a tactical reload following each shot string.
6. From the 50-yard line from the ready position, with the carbine, fire controlled-pairs to the vital zones of 2-4 silhouette targets. Repeat 5 times. Perform a tactical reload following each shot string.

Again, more to follow.

Nous Defions!

John Mosby

Somewhere in the mountains