In our CWP classes we get a lot of questions concerning the best gun to use as a concealed carry firearm. Make, model, and caliber of pistol are the usual topics that arise. In a day when the .22, .32, and .380 caliber pocket pistols are very popular we spend most of our time trying to convince people that these are inferior calibers for first gun carry choices, and it is a big deal when it comes to a self defense handguns. It is important to realize the purpose of carrying concealed in the first place. It is to neutralize a lethal threat with extreme prejudice (take the life of another individual if necessary). To do that it is going to require speed. Not just the speed in which you respond, but the speed in which that response takes place, i.e. the time it takes for the shot to take effect upon the assailant or intended target (human, mad dog, mountain lion, or a bear…..you get the point).
There are two ways to completely neutralize a threat with a handgun. The first is exsanguination: that is by bleeding out. Now, I know that is graphic, but so is shooting someone in self defense. We know that blood equals energy, and as one bleeds from wound channels and cavities created by projectiles (bullets) one loses the ability to present themselves a lethal threat. Effectiveness of wound channels and cavities is determined by several factors. Speed, size, and design of projectiles are some of the factors to take into consideration as well as the area in which the target is hit. In this post I am only taking a brief look at the size of the projectile. Logic will tell us that at least the bigger the wound, the more opportunity there is to bleed. That’s why experts’ state that minimum handgun calibers for self defense are .38’s for revolvers, and 9mm’s for semi-autos. Any caliber smaller than that in some cases, depending on your clothing, make a descent back up gun but an inadequate first gun. Remember the statistics state that most violent encounters take place in a relatively close range (within 3yrds) and at a fast pace. It makes sense to carry the largest caliber that you can comfortable carry and operate. It’s not that a target can’t be neutralized by small calibers, but it will take either a well placed shot or a lot of time and multiple hits to accomplish that goal.
The second way of completely neutralizing a threat with a handgun is to shut down the central nervous system, mainly placing a shot in the cranial vault (head). This is a relatively small target area considering that you will be aiming at the soft tissue of the eyes and nose. Now remember your assailant or attacker is not going to be standing still for you to make that shot. Even if you had ample time to aim at an attacker 25yrds away, the attackers face will sway from left to right and, and up and down as they move toward you. To hit this small area of the face will take a great deal of control, precision, and skill. It is the high center chest area that will present itself as the most viable first option. And since we are looking to that being the first and primary area we discuss the larger caliber handguns. Carrying a .22 or .32 pocket pistol just does not make much sense when we talk about self defense.
Now when we look at what we have discussed it doesn’t take long to figure out that you need a caliber that is going to transfer a large amount of energy and act quickly on the target to get the job done as quickly as possible. We recommend that folks carry a .45 caliber in whatever configuration that is proven over time to be manufactured with quality and proven reliability.
To keep this as brief as possible we recommend that you take some time to research the issue. There are some really good articles out there on this subject. One place that has a collection of articles of this nature is Backwoods Home Magazines website. Massad Ayoob, one of the most knowledgeable authors in this area of self defense has several good articles at the following link. Take a moment and check it out. http://www.backwoodshome.com/ayoob_index.html
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In the context of self defense it is not enough just to carry some type of weapon on your persons. Self defense is more of a life style with many facets than just one particular aspect of defense. We often get the impression from people that we talk to, that having a concealed firearm, for example, make them safer in their day to day routine. We could not disagree more with that ideology. Let me give a short explanation.
Self defense is a life style in that it isn’t something that you put on in the morning, carry through the day, and then set on your night stand as you go to sleep. Realistically having a weapon is only a small part of the overall idea of self defense. It starts as a mindset such as awareness of your surroundings and avoidance of dangerous situations. Most criminals are looking for the distracted and vulnerable, easy prey. You must learn to be alert for potential crime and avoid areas or situations where crime would be more likely to take place, even if you are armed. I once stopped at a bank ATM to draw out a few dollars after pulling a 2nd shift at work when I notice a man standing nervously about twenty feet from the ATM. My first thought was could I take him if he tried something. Well, I decided not to chance it and just avoided the whole situation be driving further down the road to another bank. Even though I was carrying, avoiding the man is always the best option.
In a nutshell the individual serious about self defense uses their mind along with the other tools needed for a well rounded defense plan. Mindset, research, planning, weapon(s), frequent and realistic training, and skill development are essential for your survival in a critical incident. Be alert; take a few extra seconds to scan a gas station before getting out of your car, make sure you have your keys in your hand when walking out of the mall or Wal-Mart so you can scan ahead to your car without being distracted. Have a plan for home, office, or where ever you spend your time or plan to go. It will not take long to develop good habits of awareness and avoidance when you get the bigger picture of self defense. Don’t let your guard down. It is the moment you let your guard down that you are most vulnerable.
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In our firearms training classes we teach that you must be able to operate and run (including loading, reloading, and malfunction clearing) your firearm in the dark as well as the day. The initial logic behind this is that the probability of an encounter with a perpetrator of a crime is higher in low light than broad day light, depending on your environment, and your specific circumstances. But actually there is a far better reason than just the low light factor.
In our Combat Focus ShootingTM classes we discuss that when in a dynamic critical incident (when you are in fear for your life), there a distortion in the perception of time. A good example of this is a car accident. If you have ever been in one you know what I am talking about. In a car accident in 1992 in which my car rolled after striking a car head on at 55mph (by the way, the driver of the other vehicle swerved to miss a dog, and I happened to be there in her way …“in my lane”) I can still vividly recall that everything was in slow motion, the windshield shattering, the pavement going by the passenger side window very slowly, and the car finally resting on the roof, upside down. Wow, I can still see it all. And I wondered back then why the body reacts in such a way to a dynamic critical incident. Well let me give you a brief and very simple synopsis of that whole process. We will liken our eyes and brain to a video camera taking 6 frames of film per second (this is only an example people), as compared to 12 frames per second when we are afraid for our lives. What is happening is that our brain is taking as much information in as it can, as fast as it can, so that it can assess the treat, and cause the body to respond accordingly. We only comprehend at the moment about every other frame, so it appears to us that time has slowed down when in reality everything is moving at real speed. This is the basic concept of what is taking place, now lets look at how that might affect our defensive shooting.
If we in fact are looking at our handguns while in a dynamic critical incident, our perception of time being slowed down will cause us to drive ourselves to perform whatever task we are trying to perform faster than real time. For example, if I am performing a critical incident reload (also known as a speed reload) while looking at my handgun I will see myself as moving way too slow, and will try to speed up my efforts which in turn can cause me to over shoot my magazine well, not to mention it takes my eyes completely off the threat which is bad for the home team. We could spend a lot of time on example after example of how this is detrimental to our defensive shooting, but for the sake of simplicity we will leave it at that. You should be getting the big picture by now. Remember how we practice is how we will respond. Make a point to run through the operations of your hand gun while at the range, and at home using dummy ammunition.
This is one of the reasons that we sell A-zoom Snap Caps. Hey, they are great for dry fire practice, but they are even greater for running through drills like loading, reloading, clearing malfunction, and press checking in the dark instead of using live rounds, which can cause a negligent discharge during practice in the home. This is not a sales pitch for our products; we don’t care where you get them.
But you should have as a regular training schedule to practice these operations in the dark for all of the reasons listed above.
- Keep your eyes on the threat until it has been neutralized with extreme prejudice,
- then assess the area.
- It will be through frequent and realistic training that you will act intuitively in a dynamic critical incident.
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As an instructor for Dry-Fire, I wanted to write today about a product that can transform your Ar-15 in about 45 min. I’m talking about the AR-15 Trigger Job in a Bag. We at Dry-Fire were introduced to this product about one year ago. We kicked the idea around for awhile, trying to decide if a $30 product could really perform like a $120-130 gunsmith job. We finally caved in and purchased a kit.
After examining the contents and instructions I figured it was worth trying. After about 45 min. I had the kit in, the take up screw adjusted, and the fire control group functioning. Upon the first trigger pull against a snap cap, I couldn’t believe the night-and-day difference! The trigger was crisp and immediate with almost zero take-up in the trigger. Best of all, it took my awful, heavy trigger and turned it into a light, crisp trigger! I fell in love immediately.
I later added just a couple of drops of STP motor oil treatment to the fire control group components and continued dry-firing. Over the next couple of pulls, the trigger became consistently light and easy to manipulate.
All in all, I couldn’t believe the performance of a $30 product as opposed to spending well over $100 at my local gunsmith. This product is a MUST for ANYONE with an AR-15. And for $40 with FREE SHIPPING, it’s hard to say no. I would encourage you to give it a try. We were so impressed that we started carrying them in our online store to make them available to our customers.
Tim Bork, Instructor
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The thought of your first gun purchase can be confusing at best. Most of the people that we run into, who are looking for a first time handgun purchase, are fraught with unanswered questions. So we at Dry-Fire wanted to share a few thoughts that might help those of you who have not yet purchased a handgun, but are in the process of doing just that. Let’s consider a few things that will aid in your first purchase.
First, you should take into consideration your experience. If you are a novice, you are better off staying in the revolver category. Semi-auto pistols can and will malfunction when you need them the most; we don’t care who makes it. We see them malfunction consistently on the range. Semi-automatics can be a great defensive weapon as long as you are willing to master the operation and clearing of the four possible malfunctions. The major advantage of the revolver over the semi-automatic pistol is its simplicity. The drawback to the revolver is its limited cartridge capacity. On the other hand, the major advantage of the semi-automatic is therefore its cartridge capacity, and of course, the drawback would be its lack of simplicity. This may sound elementary, but it is crucial to understand for a first gun purchase. We have dealt with too many people who think that having a semi-automatic pistol will turn them into a master pistol shooter because the movie stars can do it, but in reality they can’t figure out which button or lever is the safety and think that a “press check” has something to do with squeezing their pocket book to pay the bills last month. A revolver represents reliability and user-friendliness. With a revolver, in a critical incident, the main malfunction clearing technique you need to know is, “point and shoot again.”
Second, you need to understand that a firearm is a tool. What exactly do you plan to use the gun for? Maybe it is for hunting, competitive shooting, recreation, home defense, or personal defense. I mention these for the simple fact that if I were to choose a firearm with a liberal budget, I most likely would not choose the same gun for all categories. If you’re on a limited budget you will probably want to choose a gun that would meet more than just one of the categories with size of gun and caliber of ammunition in mind. Let me give you an example. If you just wanted a home defense pistol, a 6” 357 revolver would be a good choice for someone who is inexperienced with how the semi-auto pistol functions, and the malfunctions that can arise. But for a first time self defense pistol this would not be a good choice because it is going to be uncomfortable to carry and conceal for some people, especially if you are a small framed individual. The rule of thumb is “if it is uncomfortable you are not going to carry it”. That’s why we instruct people that when purchasing your first hand gun, get a gun with a dual purpose in mind. A gun suitable for self defense in the home and outside the home as a conceal carry weapon makes a great first purchase because of its dual purpose. For example the Smith & Wesson model 442 is excellent due to its light weight, concealable size, and it’s capable of firing the more powerful (plus p, or +p) rounds in the .38 special caliber. Good information to think on.
And to keep this from becoming a vortex that sucks your brain out, finally you should consider ammunition caliber, or size. Listen, you can neutralize a threat (to put it lightly) with a well placed shot from any caliper from a .22 rim fire to the bigger magnum pistols. The problem comes in with the speed of actually neutralizing the threat. Our advice is that you choose a caliber of .38 special or larger in a revolver, and 9mm in a semi-auto pistol. We find a lot of people choosing for example the famous pocket .380. Hey, it makes a fair backup gun, but in our opinion it’s not enough gun for a main carry weapon. Make sure you talk to several people in gun circles out there before buying a gun. The Bible states there is wisdom in the council of many. Don’t make a hasty first purchase, you will only regret it. We have already seen students that have bought sold and traded because they didn’t take the time to do the research first. Remember it is a tool that you will use to defend your life or the life of a loved one.
Mike & Tim
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2. Introduction to Combat Focus Shooting™
3. Combat Focus Shooting™ All Day Course