Training Notes: Beyond Weapon Selection

How many of you have more than one handgun? How about the holster?

How many have more than one of the same type of handgun?

Can you say the same about your combat carbine, whether that’s an AR, AK, etc?

One of the things I emphasized to the last Combat Carbine class was the necessity of going beyond what I call simple weapon selection- meaning in basic terms, running that one particular weapon, even if you have multiples of the same type of weapon, whatever that might be.

The reason behind this is simple. We all know two is one and one is none, right? Normally if there’s a weapon setup I prefer (and there’s a few), that’s what I plan on running- down to my everyday carry selections to the carbine I have on standby in the vehicle.

For the past several months I’ve been running a PSA AR-15 pistol nearly exclusively. Its light, handy, accurate, reliable and fast. But in saying that, its a different weapon than my other ARs- the center of gravity and weight is different than on my 14.5in carbine, and worlds different than my BCM SPR. They have different roles for sure, but since I’ve been primarily running the short weapon, my dry fire drills and magazine changes are all slightly different with a different handling weapon. Since I demand familiarity with that weapon of myself when I need it, I practice with that one and only that one. When I anticipate carrying another, I’ll practice with that one and exclusively that one.

But what about with your secondary? Certainly one Gen 3 Glock 19 can’t be that much different from another, right? Yes and no. What’s the round count? How many drills have you run it through lately? When was the last time you cleaned both of them together? If you’re like me, you’ll have one as a carry weapon and one stored somewhere- either hidden in the house or (at worst) a safe queen for that rainy day. Our weapons handle slightly differently with use- triggers and actions get smoother, but that’s because of the increased wear. If you’ve got more on one than with the other, the takeup and breaking point for the trigger, slide and magazine releases will be slightly different as well. And while that might not seem like much to you, it might matter one day. Sameness across the tools in the box go beyond just having the same class of weapon- if that’s the one you might need to grab n’ go, you need to be training with it regularly.

And on that topic, training around one particular weapon setup should be centered on mastery of the basic movements. As I tell every class there’s no such thing as ‘advanced’ weapons handling- its simply mastering the basics and that only comes through repetition after learning what right looks like.

What’s your training schedule looking like? Come check out mine.