Double Tap Training Dilemma

In the latest Proving Ground series, you saw MJ stop shooting after two shots. In the Live Training Broadcast last night, MJ discussed that she felt that her range training techniques (stop and look where the shot went between shots and after double taps) may have caused her to stop shooting too early in her defense.

Here’s the replay of the Live Training (It’s only available until July 31, 2019):
https://www.usconcealedcarry.com/live-training-broadcast/replay#comment-4542569937

She has been working on it at the range but said it’s a hard habit to break.

Are you in the habit of looking to see where each shot hits the target? What other bad training habit have you had to fix?

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Shooting a negative target helped me quit looking for hits.

My first tactical bad habit was not allowing magazines to hit the ground during reloads.

There’s always something to be working on.

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That was my bad habit during first visit on range. Thanks God, range officer told me to stop doing this. The shortest time I look at target for hits now is during Failure To Stop Drill - 2 hits at chest, then look at target for hits and third shot to the head…

Other bad habit -> not keeping muzzle down the range ALL THE TIME !!! :hot_face: Mostly I’m forgetting about this during reloads…

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I’d have to go dig to find the quotes but I’ve heard in lectures and seminars of people loosing gun fights because of some of these bad habits, looking for hits, only firing 2 or 3 rounds because that’s what you shoot to qualify, trying to put empty magazines back in a magazine pouch.

It’s amazing the habits you develop without realizing you’re developing them. I’ve taken the approach of not doing the same drills everytime. Just like when working out you gotta keep your muscles confused. I like to keep my mind guessing and having to think about what’s next. I avoid mental cruise control

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Like Kevin Michalowski said (24:58 on the video): “shoot until the person falls away from your front sight” :point_up:

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If you were on my range, we’d have issues, @Jerzees! That’s one of the scary bad habits. I’m sure you will remember from now on! :wink:

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@Dawn… I’ve been thinking about this since I was warned first time… Damn… it’s a bad habit, and nature to turn the hand with gun for reloads…
Don’t worry, safety first… I’m doing dry firing with reload at home now to make it right !!!

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Good idea to dryfire train to break the bad habit, @Jerzees

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In addition to what you mentioned, I’ve heard of a bad habit of people putting their spent casings in their pocket after swinging the cylinder open on a revolver.

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Great video.

At the range, I think checking shots is a common habit for those unable to see hit’s on target. I was taught by law enforcement 2 to the body 1 to the head.

My evolution for changing my shoot look habit was to purchase splatter targets. After that became expensive, I bought SSP Eyewear (the best), however, that only gave me a clear view of my front sight. Finally, I purchased XS BIG dot sights, because the reality is I won’t be walking around with unique shooting eyewear. Not to mention having the luxury of putting them on in a Self Defense situation. I discovered that regardless of what I was wearing and if I could see the impact of my shots, I was always on target out to 25yds. I like to practice headshots after the demand for compliance drills, and I have to say that I have been on target 100%. If this success would carry over to a real situation is unknown (I’m OK with that), but the sights give me hope and confidence that it may.

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I’ve been training for 3-5rds rapid fire center mass for so long I can’t even remember much of anything else.

The hardest habit to break for me is to not lower the gun to assess the target.

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Sounds good but in reality there are many situations such as attempted robberies where you may not initially realize it but there are multiple attackers.

Often you may have “lookouts” posted that are also armed or multiple attackers other than the one you are focused on approaching from different angles that may well be out of your line of sight especially once you are engaged and your focus narrows.

Personally I think it’s wise to attempt to control the number of rounds fired initially so you don’t run dry or put yourself in a situation where you must reload while others are dropping the hammer on you.

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@Sheepdog556 Pretty sure it’s from either On Killing or On Combat by LtCol David Grossman.
Dead officer with his revolver brass neatly tucked into his shirt breast pocket… that’s the one that really stuck with me.

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Current bad habit I’m working on is tipping the gun and checking the chamber when it’s at slide lock. It’s because I can’t shift focus fast enough to see the slide is back from the butt of the gun so I started tipping it sideways to check. I need to 1) count shots and 2) practice just going direct to the reload without the eyeballs.

Do not count shots… that’s a bad habit :point_up:

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Some people say do… some people say don’t. Tell me why you don’t?

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For warm up - I count… it just comes naturally (I’m not thinking about counting, I just know how many rounds have come already). And this is only because there is no stress.
During drills, under the stress, I always keep spare magazine, and once my slide locks I do reload.

For me, counting is OK, if I can manage it. But I know that under the stress, when I loose concentration or have malfunction, that messes up my counting. So I prefer to practice fast reload instead of counting.

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That makes sense. The Canik has 20 round mags so it’s a lot of counting. I mostly want to know if I’m near the bottom or not. If I’m near empty, I reload. If I’m not , I treat it like a stovepipe since that’s most likely… but I’ve started tipping it to check and that’s bad. Since I can react faster than I can get my eyes to make the adjustment to see the gun butt, I should be just clearing or reloading, and not looking first… that just adds time to the solution without giving time back.
My malfunction clears are getting pretty fast so I am probably faster if I clear then reload if I’m not sure where I am in the mag.
I’ll have to try timing that.

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Would you be able to keep an accurate count if you were in an incident that involved a reload in a stressful situation?

What if you carry guns with different capacity? What if it is a stovepipe, or type 3 malfunction? The trigger feel will tell you something is up (also the gun not going ‘bang’!).

One of the best classes I went to was taught by a 1911 fan, but all guns were allowed. We partnered up, and he would tell us how many rounds and how many mags for the drills. And your evil partner loaded your mags, so you never knew what would happen, get that gun running and hit the targets.

It was a great learning experience, because the instructor only told number of mags and number of rounds to load. After that was done he showed the shooting drill, so everyone got tons of reloads to practice.

I am not a shooting expert, but have done drills random or with counting. I can run a drill faster if I count, and load for it, but is that really the way to train for what we don’t know?

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This is why I carry extra mags. The extra ammo is nice but it makes clearing a malfunction very fast.
Drop the mag clear the malfunction reload with a fresh magazine and stay in the fight. If time and the situation permits pick up the other mag.

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