I apologize in advance the link will not post here for some reason. You will have to search Ammoland for the entire article but A comment after it was noteworthy.
Self Defense Skills & Drills: The Mozambique / Failure Drill
Combat and the street are different animals requiring different approaches/tactics. This is a really good practice drill but, on the street, it might be taken as someone looking for trouble to a left wing D.A. Case in point would be the Rittenhouse trial although he used an AR-15 and not a sidearm. There surely have been times when 2 in the chest and one in the head had to happen. Head shots are almost always lethal and should be reserved for absolute necessity on the street. I.E. A Church shooting in Texas two years ago in which the bad guy had already murdered two and was after a third innocent man. The head shot was done to prevent an imminent attack on the third innocent man. There was no time to put two into the torso of a rapidly moving attacker. In a case like that you have to put the lights out. That head shot likely caused the bad guy to discharge his shotgun although he missed his obvious target. It also, likely enough, saved the life of the targeted innocent man. Something like 6 total seconds between the first round fired by the bad guy and the third and final round fired by the good guy. All of this on video.
In the military things are a bit different. Typically you pour rounds at the target to keep his head down while you maneuver up into range and you shoot until they are done. This is a good drill to keep up on your marksmanship and timing.
The cops would do well to practice this drill. Most of the time when the cops engage someone they do a âmag dump.â Both techniques are lethal but mag dumps place a lot of rounds in the air and you/they are accountable for each one. When the innocent guy gets hit by accident bad things happen. His life is changed forever even if he lives. Now come the lawyers and trials and high dollar out pays. Better marksmanship is always a good thing. âFast is fine but accuracy is final.â Wyatt Earp. Mag dumps do have there place but accuracy, bullet placement, in a timely manor gets the job done.
Weapons; All things being equal, open sights, from the holster, from surrender, the two semi autos should be tied with the revolver about 3/10 of a second behind. So, if you have any choice in the matter use what you are comfortable with. I say this out of experience. Seven yards is close enough that all you need to see is the front sight on the target. Itâs a bit different on the âpresidenteâ but not much. At seven yards, from surrender, out of the holster itâs not difficult to put three rounds down range accurately in under two seconds for the decently practiced shooter. Something else; If you practice with a double action revolver, you will be surprised how much better you run your semi auto.
Arm up and carry on
My Take:
While the article is pretty good (and I really like AMMOLANDâS Articles) They are some of the best Gunnerâs writing today (MOO!) I have found reading the âcommentsâ to sometimes offer up 'Pearls of wisdom I HAVE to copy and keep for my Training.
especially guyâs like âDeplorable Billâ his training and approach to Self D is right up there with Our âEnzoâ and âWill Bâ. Actually ALL of you bring youâre own uniqueness to the table (of which I am eternally grateful to you all).
In my mind the 'Mozambique drill is VITAL to anyoneâs Self Defense Tool belt. I see folkâs @ my Range blowing huge holes in their Targets (and thatâs kool sometimes) but if you donât
access how you are shooting, you might as well throw your bullets in the trash and call it a day.
I AM NOT a Shot Timer, Note pad kind of guy. Iâve said this often enough because I consider myself âOLD SCHOOLâ. I donât have much of a use for Red Dots and Scopes because (for me) they loosen up (especially on my ARâs) until It dawns on my Iâm knocking the Insulation of the ceilings of the Range and they tend to frown on that behavior (kidding/SARC) But they do loosen because I down own the best equipment I could purchase and my LOVE of Iron Sights blinds me to new Technology.
That being said I Practice/Train as much as I can to get off the âXâ and do maximum damage with the least amount of rounds expended. That is why I copied âDeplorableâsâ comment here. (Donât ever tell him I praised him twice in the same ArticleâŚit will not end well for me.
I se to comment a lot on Ammoland but I found them too snarky for me sometimes. Then I found HERE (and often question my choice of staying here the snark is enough to choke a horse).
On a personal note I have HIT folks in the chest and they didnât go down as I had hoped. Then I relied on the Headshot to finish the job. The more I trained (on my own, I thought myself unique) It came as a Shock (honestly) to find the DELTAâS and SEALâS ALL DID THIS as part of their training and they were way faster than I was. (Humbling experience INDEED)
So, Train like your life depends on those shots (because it well and truly does)
Stay Frosty my friends.
WWG1WGA
In my humble and competitive opinion, drills like this are wonderful but worthless. You come upon 2 or 3 âbad guysâ, while youâre triple tapping guy one, 2 and 3 are tapping you. You need be aware, if you read the article it implies to me this came about because of body armor. If you see a vest or heavy jacket, going for center mass is in my opinion less than optimal. If itâs a t-shirt or I can make out the lack of body armor then OK. Also, if there are multiple bad guys as I mentioned above, it better be one round per customer from the simple standpoint of time. Every extra 1/100 of a second you give them is a 1/100 they have to ruin your day.
True, True but I take it in the Vein it was written.
He talks of single attacker
Triple tap that one, then be ready to face other threats.
Anyone can find fault with statements, Teachings Robert.
But this is the beauty of Situational Awareness.
I donât believe in my Limited Gunfights I was EVER surprised
by multiple attackers. I saw the threat(s) and Acted Accordingly.
My Foeâs didnât have Body Armor , they had âKhatâ a Mescaline type hallucination
or later âMethamphetaminesâ Same Same in my book.
The drugs made them feel INVINCIBLE my Boolits convinced them otherwise.
Itâs really all how you operate Bruh, thatâs why itâs so hard to post a Topic or teach this stuff.
We all come @ this with our own Lense how we view Stuff, If it donât sing, file it in the trash.
If a drill - any drill - enables you to put your shots on target, then it is the drill for you. Sure WWG1WGA but each may take a slightly different route. When the stuff hits the fan the last thing anyone needs to be worrying about is what some arse might think of a head shot when you are concerned with stopping the threat. IMHO.
I kind of like KISS. When 1/100 of a second counts, how much time does it take to look at the person or persons and think about what clothing they have, what clothing they donât, can you infer the presence of something under their shirt or not, should be shoot them here or shoot them there, should you shoot a specific number and then the next attacker, but what if the next attacker drops and turns to run after you shoot the first one before you swing muzzle to the secondâŚ
âŚof course the decision to shoot someone needs to be consciously made based on the totality of the circumstances but once you have decided you need to fireâŚIMO the fewest additional decisions possible, the betterâŚprecisely because 1/100 second may be the difference
It also does generally take a person longer to move from hitting one target/threat to hitting the next, than to put a second round on the same target/threat already being shot.
I think I"m with Larry in that it boils down to, do the drills.
Drills with accuracy and time standards. Do them. Do all of them
Now there is an example of a very well known and practiced drill that frankly, I donât see much (if any) relevance to private citizen concealed carry
A good skill builder I suppose but doing that actual processâŚturning around to people you canât see and immediately as fast as possible shooting all three isnât probably something Iâd want to ingrain as a habit anythng
Very true. But anyone whoâs concerned about how a head shot would look, howâs 2 to the torso then the insurance shot going to look? As said, itâs all how one trained. In my pistol competition days it was mostly a steel challenge format, one shot per target (hopefully) and speed to win. Trap was also a one shot per clay affair, and hunting was also usually a one shot proposition. If you can see the individualâs physic you know where the X ring is. Iâve tried my best to train a one shot scenario, only firing twice (if the plate) fails to fall. This is my opinion, I never intend anything I say to be considered as instruction or gospel in any way.
The way I was taught is that the objective is to âstop the threatâ. The easiest target to hit is thoracic cavity, so thatâs the primary target, whether you stop them with two shots or only one. If after 2-3 shots to the thoracic cavity doesnât work (heâs wearing a vest or high on drugs), then you aim for between the eyes to âstop the threatâ. The first shots didnât work so now a headshot was the best option.
The second reason for a headshot, which is more difficult to make, is when someone is actively shooting others or possibly if theyâre holding a knife/gun to someone you care about. The intent is that they will instantly lose their ability to even twitch a muscle.
Having said that, it needs to be a very precise shot between the eyes. A âHollywood headshotâ up on the forehead will likely just slide between the skull and the scalp, and not penetrate the brain. Hit too low and youâve got jaw and teeth that will potentially stop the bullet, as well as not much brain/nervous system that low unless you get lucky and hit the stem. To be effective, you need to be in the ocular cavity. Itâs not an easy shot to make for it to be effective.
Shot El Presidente countless times. On day after the match 4 of us set up a semi real life scenario. 3 shooters facing one target (the bad guys) right handed shooter (good guy) on right with back to 3 targets. Shooters ready, Buzzer goes offâŚwhen our hero hit the first target twice, that shooter had to stop, and so on. The final take was when our hero had dispatched all 3 targets, he had been hit 12 times. The final take, If you want to win this one youâll need to do a Capt. Kirk and reprogram the losing scenario. I hated losing when shooting competition, think Iâd hate losing on the street even more.
I like how Jon over on ASP puts it. If facing multiple threats give each threat a serving whether itâs a single shot or multiple. Then return back to the original threat to determine if he needs more. If not move on to the next. Situational awareness is key and not focusing on one target is a must. Engage the greatest threat first and move down the line to least dangerous.
If you are paying attention, you can engage them before they engage you.
Thatâs how I learned that one too. Donât train yourself to go one by one from left to right every time and then back right to left. Which assailant has which type of weapon and how far is each one from you? The order that you shoot targets while practicing should always be different. And if youâre not as fast as the guy in the above video, you might go with one shot per on the first run through before giving any one of them a second shot. If the 3rd guy with a bat can get to you before you put two shots in the other two, game over. Mix it up when youâre practicing. Real life is dynamic.
I think the Mozambique is simply good practice for firearm movement during a gunfight. It still doesnât make much sense to me to put two in the body and then try for a head shot. If you can get that good of a shot to the head area why go for the body first. I would reverse the drill and take one to the head first and then two to the body. That will be the time the head is moving the least. Hit the BG on the first shot you are most probably done, miss and at least you have a larger area to hit on your next two. I donât like head shots, too much movement there for a high pressure situation. At least for me.
Iâve thrown this up before on this forum, but it fits in pretty well with this thread. This is a target I like to use with my students when they are ready to progress beyond static shooting. Starting at the compressed high ready position I call out from behind them a single color, or shape, or number, and they extend and fire, returning to the compressed high ready. You can see now, I am sure, how this will progress. As proficiency increases the color/number/shape are called out at an increased pace. Then in pairs. Then triplets. Shots increase from single rounds to double and even triple taps. Ready position progresses from compressed high ready to holstered. I find this drill builds not only shooting skill, but mental agility as well.