I’m not talking about the sibling-induced bickering that takes place in the backseat on long car rides — my sister honed my skills for that scenario — I’m talking about a gunfight. Do you know what to do if you need to pull your gun in a car? Have you ever trained for a carjacking? How do you even start to process that kind of situation? Luckily, I’ll soon be finding out as I fly to Gunsite in Arizona tomorrow to attend a two day event . . .
Ever since Iain Harrison joined the Crimson Trace crew, his team has been putting on some amazing events that brilliantly combine an enjoyable time with some real-world uses for CT’s products. Seriously, after the Midnight 3-Gun (Day One/Day Two), the one thought I had was how it perfectly showcased the abilities of the gear being demonstrated. So when I got the following email from Iain a couple months back, I was as giddy as a schoolgirl being asked out to the prom:
Hey Nick,
I’m putting on an event @ Gunsite in early December, shooting the shit out of cars with Ruger & Safariland. You available 3-6th?
I mean, how exactly does one turn something like that down?
I’ve done some shooting out of vehicles before. I took my first deer while seated in Tyler’s Mule, did an exceedingly crappy job deploying from a vehicle for the bug out bag challenge, and even started a 3-gun stage seated in a car. But I get the feeling that this will be unlike anything I’ve done before.
Here’s a list of the titles of the evolutions that we’ll be going through over the next couple days:
- Construction, Materials, Deployment of Handgun, Use of Cover
- Drawing from seated Positions, Holster Considerations, live fire.
- Vehicles and carbines. deployment from vehicle, vehicle as cover, shooting positions
- vehicles, self defense handguns & low light environments
- Intermediate barriers (Ballistic Gelatin)
- Team Tactics
- Simunition – carjacking scenario
And naturally, as with everything that Iain organizes, we’ll be meeting the night before in a local pub. Somehow that always gets worked into the schedule, but I guess you can’t take the Brit out of Britain.
I’m renting a car with one of the editors from Guns & Ammo as well as a couple other attendees from PHX and driving out on Monday and I’ll report in as soon as I have something cool to share. Don’t worry — I’ll make sure to take TONS of video.
K. Now this is training I understand a civilian wanting to have. Carjackings are a real world event that can happen in any city at any time. This would be usefull info to have.
Someone once recommended to me that a gun kept in the car should have fully jacketed bullets so you can stay seated and shoot through your own door.
Be interested to duplicate the CIA contractor shooting in Pakstan who nailed two BGs thru the windsheild with X ring shots.
Make sure you have at least one window open or you will be paying to reconstruct both ear drums.
Looking for a great report from this venture, Nick. Be careful and don’t shoot yourself in the leg or elsewhere!
Deployment of firearms is part of the FBI test protocol, especially the windshield and sheet metal tests. The windshield is a relatively tough barrier, and can deflect rounds. The .40 Smith 180 JHP does a decent job of penetrating windshields without a whole lot of deflection.
Drawing while seated is a pain in the ars. A car represents some challenges, but I’m excited about your course. My training is not something that I have a whole lot of liberty to write about.