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Book Title:
Women's Guide to Buying Your First Handgun
Series:
Firearm/Pistol For Life Series
Author: Ruperto
Elpusan Jr.
Be sure to look for
ISBN #0-9772088-3-4 at Amazon, Powells and other fine
online retail bookstores. |
Chapter
Ten: Why
Practice is Important
There’s
a saying that goes, “When danger accosts you, you fight the
way you train, so it behooves you to train the way you fight”.
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Insight:
When danger accosts you, you fight the way you
train, so it behooves you to train the way you fight.
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In
a time of crisis when you need your defensive tools and skills
the most, when adrenaline is rushing through your body and your
unconscious reaction takes over your conscious train of thought,
your body relies more on gross motor skills and muscle memory to
do the right things to protect yourself.
If
you don’t know this: Hello,
gross motor skills and muscle memory come from training.
One
lesson with a firearms instructor prior to purchasing your
handgun is not enough. You
really need to practice shooting at the range with some type of
regularity with the weapon you have purchased.
In addition, some amount of dryfiring at home with an
unloaded gun is needed, as well, to practice crisis scenarios
including drawing the gun quickly when needed, and doing quick
reloads also.
The
amount of practice time will vary with each individual, as each
of us retains more or less with practice in comparison with
other people. Here’s
a little rule of thumb that seems to work for many women.
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Tip:
Practice live rounds at the range at least once a
month with your defensive handgun, for a minimum of 50
rounds each time.
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Of
course, it will be better if you practice more than the above,
but that should be considered the minimum.
Some
warrior type gun enthusiasts among us may guffaw at the low
number. However,
lest we forget, most people have other things to do with their
time than fixate on weapons --- like living a life.
The
above frequency should allow you to maintain a minimum level of
practical marksmanship. If
you find that you’re not hitting paper, you should consult the
help of a firearms instructor and practice a lot initially to
get to an effective level of practical marksmanship and find out
what the minimum frequency of practice you need to maintain that
level of marksmanship.
In
addition, perform some dryfiring at least once a week, for at
least 10 minutes each time.
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Tip:
Practice dryfiring at home at least once a week.
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Dryfiring
is practice without live rounds.
You practice the basic fundamentals of shooting, minus
the recoil of a live round.
In addition, you can practice crisis scenarios.
That includes drawing the gun quickly from your purse,
practicing shooting from various positions including on your
backside on the floor. That
includes quick reloads. Do
several repetitions so that you can perform various scenarios at
first smoothly, then try to practice for speed.
If
you have more time at the range, and you have more resources,
you can get more firing repetitions with the use of .22 caliber
pistols.
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Tip:
Practice a lot with .22 caliber pistols to train in
the basic fundamentals of shooting.
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This
tip applies if you have more time and resources. By resources, we mean money.
With .22 caliber pistols, your money actually goes a
longer way. 50
rounds of a 9mm caliber ammunition for your main weapon will
cost you around $10. For
that same $10, it’s possible to purchase 500 rounds of .22
caliber rounds.
So,
if you have $20 to purchase ammunition for practice, you can
either practice with 100 rounds of 9mm ammunition, or 50 rounds
of 9mm ammunition and 500 rounds of .22 caliber for a total of
600 rounds. 600 rounds of practice will give you six times the
repetitions for practice.
When
you practice with the .22 caliber, you won’t be able to
practice the recoil of your larger caliber handgun.
But you can practice all the fundamentals of shooting –
position, grip, breath control, sight alignment, trigger press
and follow-through.
One
other thing you can do, is to determine if your main handgun has
a .22 caliber conversion kit.
For example, Glocks have a .22 caliber conversion kit
from the vendor Advantage Arms.
When you want to practice with .22 rounds, you remove the
slide of your Glock and replace it with the Advantage Arms slide
and use a special magazine.
Nothing more than that.
And when you’re ready to practice with larger caliber,
you just reverse the process and change the slide and magazine.
It’s as simple as that.
If
a conversion kit is not available for your handgun, you can
purchase a .22 caliber handgun that’s as similar to your main
caliber handgun as possible.
That, of course, will require a little more of a budget.
Some
shooting ranges can rent you a .22 caliber handgun. For example, in the Los Angeles area, $5 is a common fee to
rent a handgun. If
you do this once a month, that’s $60 for the year.
In
any case, we’ve conveyed the importance of practice. There are entire shooting books that focus on the subject of
shooting practice, and our purpose here is to get you to acquire
an appreciation for practice.
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