I carry a Glock 30SF. For me, Gaston’s compact semiautomatic pistol offers the best combination of attributes for everyday carry: concealability, lethality, Massachusetts compliance, reliability and accuracy. I pray to God I never have to cash this check, but I reckon I could bring my weapon to bear in a couple of seconds and score multiple hits on the center mass of a [slow-moving] bad guy at five yards or less. If I keep my wits about me and no other variable conspires against me. At the range, I can drill a piece of computer paper at twice or three times that distance. At the range. How about a hundred yard shot in a defensive gun use (DGU)? Over at Gabe Suarez’s warriortalknews.com, Instructor CR Williams reckons you should be able to make it happen . . .
Assuming no physical limitations to prevent it, most people can learn to make shots of fifty to one-hundred yards and beyond and maintain that ability without having to invest huge amounts of time and effort. It is not a special skill, it is an extension of skills you already have, and worth it to you to get them even if you never, ever have to do it to save your life. Even if you never do manage to get to where you can go to a hundred yards or more, shouldn’t you at least make the effort to find out how far you can go? What price “in the event” would you pay to know for certain that you’re good out to fifty yards or seventy-five yards and no more? Why not take a little time to know how far you can reach with your short-barreled carry weapon? Why not find out what to do to be sure of your shot at over twenty-five or thirty yards?
While I practice shooting my Glock at 25 yards (the maximum length of American Firearms School’s main range), I find it hard to imagine a DGU where I’d HAVE to take that shot. And none where I’d feel 100 percent confident doing so.
CR Williams’ post suggests one such encounter. As you’d expect, gun guru Gabe Suarez takes it to infinity (and beyond) in a previous post about the 100-yard shot that wasn’t at the Carson City, Nevada, IHOP spree killing.
What’s your ballistic comfort zone? While a man’s gotta shoot what a man’s gotta shoot, what’s the maximum range that you’d feel reasonably confident that you could git ‘er done? Realizing, of course, that a real world DGU is a crap shoot no matter how you cut it.