The small town P.D. next door to mine had the good sense to promote my buddy Bryan to Lieutenant. He's a very friendly person, enthusiastic and pro-training. His attitude is that we don't stop preparing ourselves when we clock out. So once a month, he puts on a little informal, off-duty, not-for pay, not for credit-hours of training, all cops invited, training session. By "training," I mean that we train ourselves and practice, though there are always multiple instructor-rated trainers and RSO's involved.
We usually put on an informal match. This time, the deal was to try to get some adrenaline up while shooting, and to multi-task. We wanted to practice some weapons transition, too.
We got a FIST suit that Bryon bought on eBay and put it on him. Think RedMan suit with more padding. And here's what we did for our last little stage:
Disarm and put pistol and rifle on the ground near a tree 40 yards away. At the whistle, try to run to a table in the middle. The man in the FIST suit does his damndest to stop you, and you must use intermediate force to quell him. Upon arriving at the table, do a puzzle (8 piece wood puzzle) and a math problem (4 digits minus 4 digits) on paper, all while your buddies bean you from the back and sides with tennis balls, thrown altogether too hard. Then jump up, run to your weapons, holster the pistol and charge the carbine, and make two 25 yard shots on two paper plates. (with spotter calling hit before moving) Make carbine safe, sling it, and move laterally to a 15 yard position to shoot a swinging steel plate with pistol. Move to another 15 yard barricade, transition to carbine and shoot through a 4" slit under the barricade at a man sillhouette and plate. Then move back and laterally to a 20 yard tree, and pop the stop plate with the carbine.
The adrenaline and divided attention makes a difference. One shooter, a 35 year old man who's normally a dead shot, missed the stop plate 6 times, while swaying like a flag in the wind.
Invitation was open, so I asked a certain Lieutenant that I'm fond of, from the local S.O. (He also does a little THR H&R moderatin' on the side. )
So, we gots pictures!
We usually put on an informal match. This time, the deal was to try to get some adrenaline up while shooting, and to multi-task. We wanted to practice some weapons transition, too.
We got a FIST suit that Bryon bought on eBay and put it on him. Think RedMan suit with more padding. And here's what we did for our last little stage:
Disarm and put pistol and rifle on the ground near a tree 40 yards away. At the whistle, try to run to a table in the middle. The man in the FIST suit does his damndest to stop you, and you must use intermediate force to quell him. Upon arriving at the table, do a puzzle (8 piece wood puzzle) and a math problem (4 digits minus 4 digits) on paper, all while your buddies bean you from the back and sides with tennis balls, thrown altogether too hard. Then jump up, run to your weapons, holster the pistol and charge the carbine, and make two 25 yard shots on two paper plates. (with spotter calling hit before moving) Make carbine safe, sling it, and move laterally to a 15 yard position to shoot a swinging steel plate with pistol. Move to another 15 yard barricade, transition to carbine and shoot through a 4" slit under the barricade at a man sillhouette and plate. Then move back and laterally to a 20 yard tree, and pop the stop plate with the carbine.
The adrenaline and divided attention makes a difference. One shooter, a 35 year old man who's normally a dead shot, missed the stop plate 6 times, while swaying like a flag in the wind.
Invitation was open, so I asked a certain Lieutenant that I'm fond of, from the local S.O. (He also does a little THR H&R moderatin' on the side. )
So, we gots pictures!