CLOSE-QUARTERS COMBAT MARKSMANSHIP TRAINING: A SUGGESTED POI, PART FOUR

Training Session Six: Failure-to-Stop Drills and Weapon Transitions

Whether the enemy is equipped with ballistic protection in the form of body armor, is jacked up on some form of chemical stimulant, or just happens to be tougher than the fighter's ammunition is deadly, there are numerous reasons that even a properly delivered round of high-velocity ammunition may not put him down. For this reason, it is imperative that the shooter develop a consistent, trained plan for continuing to engage the enemy until the enemy is no longer a threat.

Traditionally, the method technique taught for this was the “Mozambique” drill (Named by LTC Cooper, for a former student who used it during the unpleasantness in that country a couple decades ago. For you young guys, go Google it. --J.M.). The idea behind the Mozambique drill is that, if two to the chest did not kill the bad guy, more may not work either, so shut him down in a hurry with a shot to the head. Unfortunately, even a person who just took two in the chest may still be moving his head erratically enough to prevent a solid hit to the brain box (While I do advocate practicing and mastering head shots with the pistol at near-contact ranges inside of 15 feet or so, to counter the body armor threat, I have my doubts as to its realistic application any further away than that. --J.M.).

Currently, it appears there are two major methods being taught, other than the Mozambique drill, for dealing with a failure-to-stop situation. The first is to simply continue putting rounds into the upper thoracic cavity, as rapidly as possible. The concept behind this is that pistol rounds, even the vaunted .45ACP, are really pretty anemic when it comes to putting bad guys down. There may be some legitimacy to this argument.

However, rifle rounds (yes, even the “mousegun” 5.56mmNATO!) tend to do serious damage at CQC ranges, If two rounds to the chest don't put a bad guy down-and keep him down-there is something else at work. In that case, the fighter must transition to an alternative failure-to-stop solution. One method currently being commonly taught (that I personally happen to agree with –J.M.) is the use of a follow-on “anchor” shot to the pelvic girdle, previously mentioned as an alternate aiming point. The idea behind this, besides the structural damage to the enemy's ability to remain standing is that, while it may not kill him as quickly as a shot to the head, it generally leaves him stationary enough that the fighter is able to walk up and put a round into the head, if necessary (shoving the muzzle of your weapon against the back of the dude's ear is a pretty good way to ensure you get a hit, regardless of how much he wants to move his head –J.M.). This is the method endorsed in this POI when the term failure-to-stop is used.

A weapon transition is the act of switching from the primary carbine to the back-up sidearm. This may be due to a malfunction of the carbine, running it dry, or simply the need for a more compact weapon such as clearing an extremely small room. All of the fundamentals of both carbine and pistol handling must be applied to the weapon transition. The shooter must fire quickly and accurately with his primary weapon, transition to a smooth, fast drawstroke, and then fire quickly and accurately with his sidearm as well. This last step is typically the most difficult for new shooters to master. The novice tends to rush the shot with the sidearm, throwing the first several shots away in the hurry to get the weapon into action and rounds downrange. Fire superiority is critical, but only hits count. As the old saying claims, “You can never miss fast enough to win a gunfight.”

Task: At the 10-yard line, from the holster, the shooter will draw and engage a single silhouette target using a rhythm drill.

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

Standards: The shooter will be required to draw his sidearm from the holster, and engage the target with a rhythm drill, ensuring that every round impacts within the vital zone of the upper thoracic cavity.

Task #2: At the 10-yard line, from the holster, the shooter will draw and engage a single silhouette target with a controlled-pair, assess that the target is still a threat, and re-engage with a controlled-pair to the pelvic girdle, for the failure-to-stop.

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

Standards: The shooter will be required to draw his sidearm from the holster, and engage every target with a controlled-pair, ensuring that every round impacts within the vital zone of the upper thoracic cavity. The shooter will assess the target as still presenting a threat. The shooter will re-engage the threat with a controlled-pair to the pelvic girdle.

Task #3: At the 10-yard line, from the ready, with the carbine, engage multiple silhouette targets, then execute a weapon transition and re-engage each target with a controlled-pair with the sidearm.

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 his carbine, a sidearm with holster, one rifle magazine, and one pistol magazine.

Standards: The shooter will be required to engage each target with a controlled-pair from the carbine, with every round impacting within the vital zone of the upper thoracic cavity. Upon bolt-lock, or malfunction of the primary, the shooter will transition to his sidearm, and re-engage every target with a controlled pair from the sidearm, ensuring that all rounds impact within the vital zone of the upper thoracic cavity.

Training Sequence:

1. Lecture/Demonstration of the “Rythm Drill.”
2. Live-Fire: From the 10-yard line, from the holster, draw and fire a rhythm drill to a 6-inch dot overlay target, from four magazines with five rounds each.
3. Live-Fire: From the 10-yard line, from the holster, draw and fire a controlled-pair to the vital zone of a single silhouette target. Assess the target as still a threat, and re-engage with a controlled-pair to the pelvic girdle. Fire four magazines of eight rounds each.
4. Live-Fire: From the 10-yard line, from the ready position with the carbine, fire a rhythm drill to a 6-inch dot overlay target, from four magazines with five rounds each.
5. Live-Fire: From the 25-yard line, from the ready position with the carbine, fire a controlled-pair to the vital zone of single-silhouette target. Assess the target as still a threat and re-engage with a controlled-pair to the pelvic girdle. Fire four magazines of 20 rounds each.

(The “rhythm drill,” sometimes called the “Bill Drill,” after gunsmith and IDPA co-founder Bill Wilson, is typically a string of six rounds fired as rapidly as possibly, maintaining a steady rhythm and speed, while ensuring every round impacts within the designated target area. I use a five-round rhythm drill simply because it rounds off more easily when running multiple iterations out of the same magazine load. In addition to teaching you to run the gun in rapid-fire strings more efficiently, it also helps teach the brain to continue shooting the threat until a conscious decision is made to cease fire.--J.M.)

More to follow, but probably not right away. This framework was intended to provide inexperienced readers with a model framework for developing their own training program, more so than it was to provide a specific POI. Hopefully it will help. The skills discussed, briefly, in this article series are some of the BASIC gun-handling skills needed to run a weapon in a fight effectively. They are not every skill you will ever need. They are not every skill I normally teach in a class. They are a beginning point.

Now, it's up to you to do the work to figure out what skill sets you need in your group of right-minded friends, and develop a training outline similar to this, but focused on your shooting needs.

Nous Defions!

John Mosby

Somewhere in the mountains