Give ’em a hand….but just one…
I’ve spent a lot of time at the range lately. Although it seems that since I started this site I’ve spent less time at the range than before but I digress. When I’m at the range, I practice with the recommended grip in the recommended stance. When I get home, I log on to this site and talk about practicing shooting like you will be shooting when it counts.
Then, a couple weeks ago, it sounded like something was hitting my front door at 3am.
I grabbed my gun from it’s special bedside location and cautiously went to investigate. My schnauzer, Ms. Pepper, accompanied me. Schnauzers are known to be alarm dogs. It’s one of the things they were originally bred for (that and killing rodents). She was, for once, being strangely quiet. My three other dogs who normally go nuts when someone slams their car door 2 neighborhoods over were also still asleep, as was Mrs. Noob. Upon investigation, it turns out one of the local stay cats was trying to catch a moth that happened to be on my front porch.
Crisis over, I said a few curse words concerning the cat and returned to bed. I went over the situation as I was trying to go back to sleep while the last traces of adrenaline was working its way out of my system. What if it had been someone? What would my priorities have been? Ms. Pepper, for example, is as precious to me as a child. Although it would make every home defense expert out there cringe at the thought, I probably would have instinctively been holding Pepper back to protect her from the home invader. What if it was a child? I would be making sure that I stayed between the child and the criminal. If it was just me? Trying to call 911 on my phone while the criminal tries to kick in the front door, perhaps?
Each of those, and pretty much every other scenario I can think of, has one thing in common: I rarely have the luxury of holding the gun with two hands.
With that in mind, it begs the question: “Why in the blue hell do I constantly practice as though the conditions are ideal?!”
So the next time I go to the range, I will be practicing like I’ll be shooting. I will be trying to master the following techniques:
- one handed shooting
- shooting one handed while retreating
- one handed while crouching
- one handed while holding a flashlight
- one handed while holding a phone to my head
I know that, ideally, I should drop the phone and shoot but things are not always ideal. If the burglar isn’t in my house yet and I’m talking to 911 when he finally gets the door open, there’s no way of knowing how much time I have. It takes a moment to drop the phone and bring my left hand to the gun. Let’s put it this way: preparation is about accommodating for every feasible situation.
I still have my desires to try IDPA shooting at some point and will still be practicing for that. They usually require the typical 2 handed grip. To me though, practicing for self defense is the much more important practice and that’s the one where you don’t want to be weak.
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