One of the sexiest displays of tacticool is switching from your primary/carbine to your secondary/pistol with great speed. I know a lot of people find it to be a sexy maneuver, but it is actually a basic and necessary skill that requires a lot of practice. There are a few reasons why someone would switch from their rifle to their pistol. Much like conducting reloads, it will be because they HAVE TO or WANT TO. The HAVE TO scenario is the rifle no longer functions due to no ammunition or a stoppage, and the threat is still active. The WANT TO scenario is clearing a small space where a carbine/SMG is too big to maneuver around. Now let’s look into the fine science of this sexy maneuver. HOLSTER TYPE/PLACEMENT If you are planning to draw your pistol in a timely fashion, it will need to be holstered properly and in the right place. When I say holstered properly, I mean it should not require fine steps on the draw or holstering. You shouldn’t need to fiddle with the holster in any way other than deactivating a retention device intuitively so that it seems almost passive. When holstering, you should only have to worry about putting the pistol away and not fiddling with a retention device. The only exception is a flip up retention device like those on level 3 holsters, which merely requires a flick of the index/middle finger to set. And yes, I want a retention device on my holsters because I have seen and experienced the failure of friction fit holsters outside of a concealed carry role. As far as placement goes, your holster should not inhibit rifle maneuvering/manipulation. Just as well, your gear should not prevent you from being able to reach it with ease. I prefer either a 3 ‘o’ clock belt/high hip ride, or canted on the lower right side of my plate carrier. The key is placing your pistol in natural areas of reach. You shouldn’t have to turn or bend your body, like with drop leg holsters. If you have to lean down or lift a leg up, your positioning is messed up. For drop leg positioning, rest your arm at your side naturally. Adjust the holster height to have the side of the pistol grip touching right where your hand meets your wrist. TECHNIQUES Okay, so now it is time to talk about the million ways we can skin this cat. I have seen and tried a lot of different techniques over the years and each has a purpose/reason for existing, but some have very little good returns, as you will see. I have nicknamed all of these because I am unfamiliar with any official labels. “Drop & Draw” Talk about a tactical ball or knee smasher in the making. I saw this being used by Marine Security forces originally, and I found it to be full of disadvantages and potentially causing more harm than good. It may have been started in order to teach window lickers how to switch to their pistol, but there are better ways. First problem is dropping a slung rifle to hit whatever it may, like shins, knees, crotch, etc. After the initial hit, you still have a rifle that is swinging freely in front banging on legs during movement and possibly covering spare pistol mags if you should have to reload. Not to mention that the free swinging will add extra sway to your aimed shots. Not good and really not comfortable. “Drape & Draw” This technique requires you to hold your support arm up and throw your rifle over to drape over. The sling will tug on your neck and feel like a triangle choke. The more your rifle weighs, the worse it will be. The idea here is that your support hand will wait for the pistol and supposedly help you get on target faster. This takes time to get relatively good at, and never really gets fast since your shooting hand has to both move the rifle and draw the pistol. This is a bad technique if you should need to reload your pistol since the rifle will typically fall in front and tangle your hands. Also, sometimes the rifle follows the arm, travels behind you, and will legitimately choke you with. Not a good technique, but it looks like you are preplanning for continued tacticoolness. “Be Nice & Draw” I do not have pictures for this because there can be a dozen different versions. This technique relies on the user neatly and gently setting the rifle down with the support hand while drawing with the strong hand. Typically, this incorporates a gentle rotation so that the rifle sits perfectly where the shooter can find it. This is a bit ridiculous and looks kind and nice on the range, but it absolutely dismisses the need for speed and efficiency. We have slings to hang onto the rifle, like a dummy cord line. So let's be quick about it and not be nice and gentle with our newly acquired paperweight. Being fast and rough won't hurt your rifle, only the enemy. “Retire & Draw” For those fellows that roll without a sling, this might suit your fancy. The idea is to use your support hand to set the rifle down from butt to muzzle while kneeling and drawing your pistol. By the time you get to a kneeling position, you should be on target with your pistol. This is a relatively solid method except for the fact that you are losing mobility by kneeling. “Come Along & Draw” This is a more mobile version of “Retire & Draw”, but will require you to reposition your support hand to the center of balance prior to going for your pistol. This will take a bit of time to master, but will also be an issue when you run out of pistol ammo. “Hold Back & Draw” This technique was shared by an FBI HRT Instructor. This is a viable option in CQB against combative opponents whether you have a sling or not. The problem is doing a fast pistol reload is not viable like this. “My Way” I am not going to pretend that my way is some highspeed way of doing it all. I developed this out of necessity because I want to be able to reach my pistol mags and move without having the rifle in the way. Unfortunately, I need to use a lot of force to get the rifle to stay to the side. This technique does block my dump pouch, but that is the least of my concerns when I am reduced to using my pistol. FIGHT BACK TO YOUR RIFLE Once I have dealt with the threat and am confident that I have time to diagnose and correct the problem with my rifle, I follow these specific guidelines. If you feel the need to top off your pistol after taking care of the threat, make sure that you do so at this time. To fight back to my rifle, I keep my eyes and pistol pointed toward the next potential follow-on threat location. I reach down and grasp my rifle at the center of balance and raise it up to my line-of-sight where I will give it a brief glance. This glance will be sufficient for me to make a judgement about what may be wrong, and how long it will take to get the rifle running again. Once I feel like I have the time, I holster my pistol and get to work on my rifle. During the correction, I never glance at my rifle unless there is a legitimate problem that I can not figure out without looking. Just so you know, there is no way that you can legitimately claim that you are proficient at using your weapon if you look at it while reloading or correcting common malfunctions. I understand giving a glance for the sake of diagnosis, but there is no excuse for STARING at your piece. TIMING My technique for getting to my pistol has not been super-refined, but it works for getting me back in the fight with aimed shots within 2 seconds. It takes a lot of practice and testing to get to the point that you reactively transition to your pistol. This should not replace learning and getting good at quickly reloading your rifle. But this is a necessary skill to have when reloading will take too long. It is all about training your brain to do the transition as soon as you recognize that your rifle is down. Repetition, intentional application of speed, and a desire to fight faster will help you develop a good time on your transition.
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