Ever have to defend yourself in dreams?

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I consider myself to be fairly well trained with a pistol at this point. I've taken a decent amount of professional instruction, and I've studied up on strategy, safety and legal issues.

But in every dream I have where I have to defend myself, I can never seem to stop the bad guy. Before I took a few classes, in my dreams I would often fumble endlessly with the pistol, unable to operate the manual safety or get a good grip. In recent dreams, I can draw effectively but my bullets just bounce off the bad guy's chest. In the one I had last night, I was thinking to myself, "damnit, why did I carry the LCP instead of the .45?"

I know what my dreams mean for me, and I'm hoping they change for the better soon. Waking up from a dream where you weren't able to defend yourself or your family is extremely disconcerting.

So I'm a bit curious you all. What happens in your dreams?
 
These are very common dreams. It's part of the 'joy' of learning to live as an armed person. I had them when I started. They got less and less frequent as time went on. They weren’t all the same but, like yours, they are all variants on 'the gun won't work.’ As you become more proficient and more accustomed to lugging the gun around they will mostly go away. I think the memory of all those targets with good solid hits remove the doubt that feeds the dreams.

Then if you have to actually use the thing a whole new set start....
 
Wow, that would be quite bothersome I would think. Maybe you're just too antsy about the whole defense deal? I've noticed that the more I read about other people's weapon setups and strategies, etc. the more it's on my mind and the more I feel inadequate about it all.

As to your question, I don't really have many dreams lately. I had one once that involved my friends being killed off in a field by something black and shapeless. Eh.
 
Yes I have, and I woke up looking for my M16 and my gas mask. Was really common when I first got home. That was a whole level of panic I never want to experience again when I wasn't able to find either.
 
Some of mine are based something stupid. Wrong mags mostly.

Most of mine aren't very realistic, although they sure feel that way till I wake up. Zombies, aliens, robots, etc. Depends on what I'm watching when I fall asleep.

One night I fell asleep watching aliens and woke up to a spider crawling up my chest...
 
Last night i dream i was being eaten by sharks over and over again...
I was thinking at the time, "I wonder if my AK will fire underwater..*chomp!*..i know my 1911 will..*chomp!*.."
 
In one dream I had recently there was a grizzly bear in my Father's backyard and it was going after someone. Suddenly, my rifle is loaded and in my hands and I aim at center mass and fire- just to have the bullets fall out of the end of the barrel. There is no sound when I pull the trigger. It's like I have .22 cartridges in a .50 rifle.
 
My guns have never malfunctioned in my dreams but if I ever did those kind of things IRL I'd be in big trouble... Unless I lived in Texas :D
 
I have those dreams once in a while. In my dreams it almost never fails that the gun seems to be locked up and I can't for the life of me get the trigger to pull.:fire: I always wake up before something bad happens to me though.:eek:
 
I have had frequent dream where I am trying to defend myself and my gun either jams constantly or feels like it's shooting airsoft instead of real bullets :(
 
Oh sure, dreams--or rather nightmares, which virtually always occur during REM sleep, unlike other dreams--like this are common, and I seem to have at least my fair share of them:

When I have to fight using firearms, something malfunctions or I'm out of ammo.

When I have to run for my life, my legs feel HEAVY.

I can sometimes read things in my dreams, but when I HAVE to read something VERY important, my "mind's eye" can't focus and everything is blurry.

I'm walking up some stairs and for no reason whatsoever I fall backward (with all of the associated sensations).

OMG! I'm back in high school, it's finals day, I never studied, I've never even been to class, and I don't know where my classroom is! In reality, I did great in high school, and literally never missed a single day of attendance--why I keep getting these PTSD-like dreams is a total mystery, but in my dreams it's even scarier than dying! :uhoh:
 
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i used to have this recurring dream about having to punch somebody and it was like slow motion and swatting air.
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I have dreams similar to this. I'm trying to punch a bad guy (or a group of them) and my punch is in slow motion and there is resistance, like I'm punching under water. When I do hit him it is just a tap and has no effect.
 
Some years ago I ate a 16" pepperoni and jalapeno pizza then went to bed. I had a dream in vivid color that the pizza was rolling after me (picture that Indiana Jones movie) shooting buzz saw like pepperonis at me as I ran and dodged.:what: Could not get my revolver out of the holster, even using two hands. Then I tripped and fell into blackness.:banghead: Woke up with all the blankets on the floor sweating. WOW Now I leave the hot stuff off!:D
 
I have strangely fantastic dreams all the time. Sometime I have to defend myself and sometimes I have to liberate an a group of imprisoned Korean supermodels. :what:

When I took Chantix to quit smoking my dreams got stranger. I had a dream my noisy (in real life) refrigerator had been making noise all this time to challenge me in battle. What followed was something like the end of Kickboxer crossed with the lobby scene in the Matrix. Does that count? :D
 
Straight Shooter said:
I have dreams similar to this. I'm trying to punch a bad guy (or a group of them) and my punch is in slow motion and there is resistance, like I'm punching under water. When I do hit him it is just a tap and has no effect.
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I have had that one also.
 
When I was in LE I'd have what I would call nightmares about having to use my gun and the bullets came out of the barrel a couple of feet and plopped on the ground. Pretty vivid, as I recall, and I invariably went to the river bottom on patrol the next day and fired a few mags full. Always seemed to help.
 
I can draw effectively but my bullets just bounce off the bad guy's chest.
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Another version of the, "Being chased, but can't run" dream most kids have.

When I was stationed in Japan, I had a recurring dream about escaping from a Japanese POW camp and having to fight my way through the swampy area close to where I grew up.
 
Odd, last night I dreamed the sun exploded and a piece of it hit the earth and slowed the rotation. There would be 1 year of darkness and 1 year of sunshine. During the darkness we (a group of people) moved under ground. We had a green house and a nuclear reactor for electricity. during the Year of the sun we would move above ground to grow staples for the upcoming year. My job and was to watch over the people tending the garden. Had a M-4 and a .45 side arm. The dark livers would try to steal or destroy the crop, I would fire warning shots to back them off. then they saw we had an electric fence around the garden and wanted in. I couldn't allow this to happen, they came charging at me on horse back ......then i woke up
 
For me, my nightmares seem to always involve large wild animals. Like dreaming Im getting into my truck and a bear comes charging and grabs my door just before I can close it. So im fighting with all I got to try and close my door but cant. Then I shove the door open and run for my house and same scenario. Im trying to close the door of my house, but the bear has got that one also. Then I wake up. Out west Id have reacurring dreams of fighting a mountain lion with bare hands. Like one would come crashing thru the window of my house. Id wrap my arms around its waist in a bear hug. and fight for my life trying not to get scratched up, then Id wake up fighting with my pillow or something.
 
Back in the '80s I was attending a school at Tyndall AFB. One night I dreamed I was in a chemical attack and couldn't find my gas mask. I woke up to a terrible stench. Later learned there is a chemical plant in the area and the wind had shifted.
 
I used to have dreams of inadequacy regarding guns.

I got some training, went to lots of shooting matches and the dreams started to turn out a lot better.

I definitely recommend shooting matches. Seeing lots of other people perform worse than I did under stress boosted my self esteem. I typically finish upper-middle (not first, but in the top half)
 
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