Guns Still Feel Familiar, But...

I can still ride a bike, cast a lure and drive stick shift even though I haven’t done any of those in years.(I was very good at all of those in my younger days)

Practice regularly is best but if you’ve been shooting all your life and you have good situational judgment, I bet you’ll be ok to carry until you get some practice in. JMO

Snap cap dry firing at your home ought to give you a restarting point.

I have a drawer full of snap caps that I use when I don't have time for the range.

Yep, snap caps are your friend. Practice your technique as much as you are able. People retain skills for a long time, once they are trained.

I haven't had emergency vehicle training since the late 1990s, but the knowledge I internalized helped me avoid what would be serious car accidents caused by others decades later.

I don't practice or get to the range as much as I used to, but my situational awareness and shooting skills haven't suffered.

Stay alert, stay vigilant, but don't worry about your present situation too much.

I’d say you are totally fine if you dry fire at home several times a week. Practicing the fundamentals is the key to keeping up.

I find that my "floor" both in speed and accuracy is about 70% of my best. That is to say that I lose about 30% of my shooting ability after a few months off, but do not drop below that threshold even after a year off.

That 30% loss is lamentable, but no reason to think that I am then so incompetent that I cannot trust myself around guns.

Devil's advocate here....

Get out and shoot a little.
Make sure everything is good to go and you're fit.
Who knows....?
You may need a new gun!
How long have you been out of circulation?
I don't mean that i think you shouldn't carry....I assume you're still practicing good safety habits.

In all seriousness, I think you should shoot asap.
Confirmation is wise.

Next month I’ll be 81. Learned to pistol and rifle shoot in the Marines fro 1960 through 1970. Other than taking a course in Center Axis Reflex shooting, I never had additional instruction. As a civilian I used to visit pistol target ranges twice a month starting about 1989 when I got my first carry permit. Today, I go once ever other month just to keep up tweak my combat accuracy. I EDC 24/7 in a dangerous world outside and in the home. I have one pistol on which I stake my life. I need to be good with it. I have had this disposition for decades. In 2016 when my wife succumbed to cancer It had been three years that I had not fired my pistol. I went to the range and shot 2 or 3 inche groups at 25 feet with compact 9mm, but I was slower than I had previously been. My skill set had not changed but my agility had. I went to work on that and spent more time at the range. I got back to where I wanted to be speed wise. Now I go to the range once a month to keep a check on pistol performance and to keep my skills as honed as I can without going fanatic. My experience is a hiatus I shooting affect spee more than other skills. It’s like running track the way you get faster is to shoot more.

I don't think you would ask unless you had some doubts. Hold off on carrying until you can make a range trip and confirm that you still have it. Unlike riding a bike, shooting is a perishable skill, especially high stakes shooting like self defense.

I have 3 different friends that work for 3 different police departments (involved with training and testing), it’s interesting to listen to their stories around qualification time. It’s seems that the only time some officers shoot is when they have to. Not uncommon for them to bring their non functional side arm with them too, although that is a tiny fraction usually with less than eventful LEO jobs.

It’s probably not ideal to not be as familiar with a life saving tool as you can be but that doesn’t equal it being bad to have said tool, just that you might not be as proficient as you could be in its use.

TarDevil said:

Do you know how long it's been since I went shooting? Like, way back before a bunch of health issues.
Am I safe to continue carrying until I do?

I'd love to hear a good discussion on the perils (if they are real) of carrying after a long hiatus from shooting.

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Just "going shooting" doesn't really do most people a whole lot of good anyway, unless they have the knowledge to know if they're practicing what they should be. The old adage that "practice makes perfect" is only partially correct. Practice makes permanent. It can do more harm than good if what is being practiced is making the wrong TTP's permanently ingrained in a persons mind and muscle memory. Do you have some good training that you're drawing from when you practice? If not, consider getting some. It should be the top priority when it comes to preparing to use a firearm in a defensive/offensive role. More important than the gun itself.

Handgun proficiency is the hardest of the three (handgun, rifle, shotgun) to keep up. I have literally gone ten years without shooting a shotgun, and went out and shot as good as I ever had. With rifle, I tend to be a bit rusty in the spring, but it comes right back. If I don't at least practice drawing, my accuracy goes down some, but it's the smoothness/speed that suffers the most.

TarDevil said:

This June will be two years.

Gonna call a friend who has a nice target setup at his house.

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Ooh. Yeah...
Glad that you're back in the saddle instead of draped over it!

jmorris said:

I have 3 different friends that work for 3 different police departments (involved with training and testing), it’s interesting to listen to their stories around qualification time. It’s seems that the only time some officers shoot is when they have to. Not uncommon for them to bring their non functional side arm with them too, although that is a tiny fraction usually with less than eventful LEO jobs.

It’s probably not ideal to not be as familiar with a life saving tool as you can be but that doesn’t equal it being bad to have said tool, just that you might not be as proficient as you could be in its use.

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The problem with that is one is responsible for every bullet that leaves the muzzle. If someone has serious doubts about their ability to safely handle a firearm and put rounds where they need to go they shouldn't carry the tool until they refresh themselves. A quick range trip and a box of ammo should be enough to assess whether or not they are good to go.

shafter said:

The problem with that is one is responsible for every bullet that leaves the muzzle. If someone has serious doubts about their ability to safely handle a firearm and put rounds where they need to go they shouldn't carry the tool until they refresh themselves. A quick range trip and a box of ammo should be enough to assess whether or not they are good to go.

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Yeah and here police have to qualify annually. Maybe they should have to do so more often….

If the OP is not safe to carry he shouldn’t even keep his firearms. He didn’t even ask about proficiency in their use.

I screwed up my dominant-side shoulder and had surgery last year. Drawing and shooting strong-side stopped for six months. I also shifted to carrying a BUG in a non-dominant side pocket.

While I was on the shelf, I changed my EDC, holster, and shifted from irons to an RDS.

With doctor's clearance, I started some dry practice last week, and live fire this week using the new EDC.

I wanted to quantify how much I had lost while I was out and due to the shift to the new EDC, so I shot three FBI qualifiers. Scores were about the same as before my injury (96-100%). But I found that my times to first shot and for the emergency reload were slower, and I was much faster and more accurate at 15 and 25 yards (due to the RDS).

Got to work to regain that speed in coming weeks.

YMMV, of course.

jmorris said:

Yeah and here police have to qualify annually. Maybe they should have to do so more often….

If the OP is not safe to carry he shouldn’t even keep his firearms. He didn’t even ask about proficiency in their use.

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Actually he mentioned carrying which implies the potential need to use them defensively. If a person can't safely carry because of physical (not mental) ailments then I see nothing wrong with still owning and possessing firearms. Perhaps they are displayed where they can be admired or perhaps he wants to keep them for when he is recovered or to pass on etc. That's much different from carrying and shooting them IMO. I would only advise getting rid of them altogether if one was in a dangerous mental state of mind.

That’s a great point, I have never used a firearm in self defense against a human despite carrying them for decades (and using them for other needs) but I can think of a number of situations where we all need the mental capacity to keep them holstered.

No CCW here, for a variety of reasons, other activities, etc. I had a long shooting layoff 2013-2016, when I started back I shot 22s till I got my eye and other skills back.

TarDevil said:

I draw only when ready to shoot.

I shoot only as a last resort.

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That sounds reasonable. So the question is would you rather have or not have something to draw as a last resort?

Of course in the time this thread has been active, one could have “freshened up”, so it’s not like you have to start over or is that not the case?