A New Years Eve of Training

This weekend we went to our private training facility to put in some much needed trigger time. As the cost of ammunition continues to rise, some select students got a Christmas present from their coach: a Taurus TX-22 pistol. This is a full size 22 LR pistol with a 16 round magazine. What's great about it? It has the same feel as a similarly sized 9mm pistol which makes it an excellent tool for training on a budget. So, the gentlemen of Texas Marksmen purchased a few thousand rounds of 22 LR ammo this weekend and went to work.

The focus of this weekend's course was turreting and shooting on the move. However, I felt that the increase potential for violence in America - especially from armed leftist terrorist organizations (e.g. Antifa, JBGC, BLM) - needed to be encountered. We talked about the dangers of these organizations and how they tend to travel in packs armed with AR-type weapons. A pistol versus and AR (or even worse, multiple ARs) is a particularly bad day - especially in the areas where these groups operate where there may be little cover or access to appropriate cover may be blocked off. So, we ended the class with a very topical live fire scenario.

We started out the class with an exercise on turreting. These students are turreting (one at a time for safety) to engage a threat coming at them from the rear.

As we transition to shooting on the move, this student is being made to walk holding a water bottle between his legs to help learn the speed and heel-to-toe steps associated with shooting on the move

Then we took away the water bottles and this student is beginning to walk forward while engaging a target as the other students look on and critique

Here is where we started getting into team work. They are being taught about getting a "fallen brother" (wounded, non-ambulatory) to safe cover in an area with very little such cover (safe cover was a vehicle parked out of view of the camera). The two shooters in front are engaging the threats while another is picking up the fallen so that all can then move to appropriate cover.

This is one of the most dangerous live fire drills we do. I added more shooters to the mix and stipulated that the wounded was shot in the leg but could still hop. The three shooters need to protect the wounded and his helper. Here, the stipulated that the helper could return fire against the antifascist threat as well as the three other shooters (provided that he could do so safely). It was an awesome drill and I left it confident that, with this group, I would be in good hands if an antifascist ever shot me in the leg.


Why did I specifically mention an antifa threat in this article? It was to make the situation real. This is not an organization that is about bashing antifa; it is one that is all about knowing what threats are out there. It was not an "Antifa Drill" - it was really a "multiple active shooters" drill: the students had to engaged multiple active shooters while getting a wounded "good guy" to safety. To further emphasize the point, we are going to spend some time next class learning about tactical tournquiets, Israeli-style bandages, and chest seals so that - when the wounded has been moved to cover - appropriate First Aid can be rendered.