Shooting On The Move at 60+ Yards With A Subcompact!?!

There’s always a lot of talk about whether or not it’s possible to make distance shots with guns that are small enough for most people to carry on a regular basis…especially with the size of some of the new big-box stores and churches.

Ironically, one of the last trainings I ran for my church’s security team included shooting targets at the front of the church from the back of the church.  That part was an eye opener for many.

So, today, I’ve got a different sort of video for you.

A lot of what you see online for shooting videos are shots that were attempted 10, 20, 30 or more times before a success gets caught on film.  And those successes are edited together to make a highlight reel.

This was all shot in 1 take…no splices or cuts.  You’ll see misses and a malfunction and, more importantly, what happens after those misses and malfunctions when they’re not scripted.

I’m going to demonstrate reacting, turning, drawing and engaging a target at 60+ yards while moving to cover and then leaning back out from cover and engaging it again…all in just over 3 seconds.

Then, engaging at 85 yards, an 8″ popper with a 4″ head at 60+ yards, a 10″ plate at 65 yards, and a 5 shot string, on the move, at the 60+ yard torso target…all in 1 take.

There are a TON of lessons here, but here’s the video…

Here are some of the biggies…

  1. When you build a foundation of solid fundamentals (primarily muzzle alignment and trigger press, but grip is pretty darn important too) all of a sudden it makes shots that are further than normal, faster than normal, or shots that require more movement than normal much MUCH easier.  Skip the fundamentals and everything you want to do is going to take more time, take more money, and be more frustrating.
  2. What you do between shots is critical.  Most people shoot one shot at a time and lower their sights & lift their chin between shots.  This leads to an unacceptable lag between shots.  What you need to do is trust your sights, run the gun, and for targets that you’re expecting a reaction on, assess it with your peripheral vision or sound.
  3. What you do after a miss is critical.  Most people chase their misses (blaming the gun) rather than trusting their sights and focusing on technique.  On the 8″ popper with the 4″ head, I missed it.  5 times in a row.  But it wasn’t because of the sights, ammo, or wind.  I could see the dirt popping up between shots to the left of the target with my peripheral vision.  Looking at the video after the fact, I could tell that I was disturbing the sights about 1/64th-1/96th of an inch based on where the bullets were hitting.  That’s between 1/2mm and 1/4mm…almost nothing.  But instead of shifting my aim, I paid more attention to my trigger press, stopped pushing my shots, and made the next 3 hits in a row.  That kind of accuracy doesn’t matter diddly squat at normal self-defense distances…but the ability to press the trigger without disturbing the sights matters A LOT.  In a lot of self-defense shootings, people miss at in-home distances because they can’t press the trigger without moving the muzzle so far off target that they completely miss.
  4. Reloads happen.  I wasn’t counting rounds and I wasn’t planning on reloading on film.  And I wouldn’t have if it hadn’t been for that pesky popper.  I didn’t realize I’d reloaded until I saw the empty mag on the ground after I was done filming.  When I looked at the video, I could see that I started the reload about .15 seconds after the slide locked back, which is faster-than-conscious visual processing speed.  Takeaway:  Reloads are a skill worth practicing until they’re automatic.  Ideally practice them so that you are identifying them by feel and not by sight.
  5. Don’t make major adjustments to your point of aim on a torso-sized target inside of 100 yards with a pistol.  At 100 yards, put the top of your sights level with the top of the shoulders and you’ll hit center mass with a .22, 10mm, 9mm, .40, .380, .45, .357, .38, etc.
  6. Don’t adjust your point of aim with a pistol for wind inside of 100 yards.
  7. Stock guns with off-the-shelf ammo (Fiocchi 147gr JHP in this case) are probably more accurate than you are.  Doodads are awesome, but time spent maxing your ability out will help you get the most money and fun out of whatever gun you pick up.
  8. Even though I have an obscene amount of steel targets that I can shoot from my deck (I showed less than half), I do 99-99.9% of my training with dry fire.  Usually between half an hour and an hour per week.  Inside, where it’s dry and warm.  It’s cheaper, quicker, and WAY more effective…especially when you are focusing on higher level skills like vision, balance, and hand-eye coordination.  In addition, the ONLY way for a shooter to develop flinch is with live fire…and the best way to fix a flinch is the proper integration of dry fire and live fire.

What this means for you is that, with the right step-by-step training, you can hard-wire life-saving gun skills…dynamic gun skills that will work at ANY reasonable distance…in less time than what has ever been possible with live-fire-only or old-school dry fire training.

So, the next question is…where are you at and where do you want to go?

If you want to build that solid foundation, than 21 Day Alpha Shooter is the place to start and you can click >HERE< to learn more.

The Texas church shooting highlighted the need for a smooth, efficient, and fast draw stroke.  Draw Stroke Mastery is the ONLY course of it’s kind that will show you, step-by-step, how to build a sub-second draw stroke…first from open carry, and then from concealment.

Very few self-defense shootings are simple, or stationary.  They involve movement, decision making, and stress modulation combined with fundamental shooting.  The Dynamic Gunfighter presentation will show you more about how to train for real-world self-defense shooting than 99% of all live, in-person concealed carry training being taught today.  This one-of-a-kind training will show you how you can do it yourself or how you can plug into the same proven step-by-step system that I use.  It delivers dramatically different results than any other training available today, and takes a little explaining, but what you’re going to see is what training that’s considered “elite” will look like 5-10 years from now.  Learn more now by going >HERE<

Whatever you do…make sure you train often and train SMARTER than the other guy.

Questions?  Comments?  Fire away by commenting below

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4 Comments

  • Frank R.

    Reply Reply January 9, 2020

    Well I sure can’t do that! As someone who didn’t start shooting until I was almost 60, I’ve always been a little insecure about my marksmanship and gun handling skills. I’ve trained hard, with lots of classes and practice, including a decent amount of dry fire, and I’ve gotten to a respectable level.

    Just yesterday I went to my outdoor range, where I was able to shoot closer and farther than I am permitted at the indoor facility where I usually shoot my handguns. I attempted to shoot one inch groups at 10 feet, but was more like 2-3″, even up that close.

    Then I put shots on torso-sized steel targets at 40 yards, and was able to hit it around 7-8 times out of 10, but untimed. (Also, I can’t draw from a holster at that facility.)

    Ox, I’m wondering if you could offer specific suggestions on how to improve close-in accuracy to shoot those 1″ groups as you do so beautifully on your videos?

    • Ox

      Reply Reply January 9, 2020

      Hey Frank, absolutely…the 2 part secret to tight groups at any range is simply muzzle alignment and trigger press.
      1. Can you line up the muzzle with the target (normally this is a question of whether or not you can line up your sights correctly)?
      2. Can you press the trigger without disturbing muzzle alignment?
      You can shoot precisely with a bad grip, bad stance, improper breathing, and “bad” finger placement on the trigger. Getting those right will all help, but sight alignment and trigger press are the 2 keys.

      I had planned on releasing a mini-course on this before Christmas, but it got pre-empted by the Tough Targets.

      In the meantime, I’m giving the full-resolution mindmap of the process I use with shooters to get them dialed in to people who attend our Gunfight Training Presentation

      The fact is, there are a lot of simple factors that go into lining up the muzzle correctly and pressing the trigger without disturbing muzzle alignment.

      Fixing Low-Left Groups / Shooting 1-Hole-Groups

      Most shooters / instructors miss some or many of them when they’re trying to get groups dialed in.

      Now…back to your comment…I’m excited that you tried the 40 yard targets and it sounds like you did great! If they let you go downrange, something you could do is get a can of 2x white or yellow paint, make sure that the target is freshly painted, and then use black duct tape or wide blue painters tape to make a big “X” across the target. If they’re OK with it, you could even paint in the top & bottom quadrants with a darker colored paint. This is the same pattern that I use on the Tough Secchi Target https://dryfiretrainingcards.com/tough-secchi-target/ and it allows you to keep a hard front-sight focus and adjust sight alignment with your peripheral vision…even though it’s blurry. A hard front-sight focus will help you align your sights more precisely AND it will make it easier to see if you’re disturbing sight alignment as you’re pressing the trigger.

  • Harding Dies

    Reply Reply January 8, 2020

    He was only moving on the first target, and the others weren’t shot from cover! And I can make those standing shots with my 1970 Walther PP in .380, so why would I watch this video?

    • Ox

      Reply Reply January 8, 2020

      Hey Harding, that’s excellent that you can make those standing shots with a 50 year old Walther. That’s a great piece of history you’re shooting. If I’m shooting like that with only 30 or so minutes of practice a week, there better be A LOT of shooters who can do it, so I’m glad to hear you can. Granted, I’m able to do that while investing so little time because of the effectiveness of our training, but the unfortunate fact is that when you actually put people on the line, most can’t.

      And as you talk with shooters, most will tell you that you can’t aim subcompacts and that they’re no good past bad-breath distances.

      Go shoot a USPSA match and you’ll see people missing 10″ poppers at 10 yards all day long. Shoot an IDPA classifier and you’ll see people completely missing torso shots at 20+ yards. You should be proud of the fact you can do that…but I’d think that if you ever shoot with other shooters, you’d know how unusual it is. In any case, shoot some video and share!

      It appears from the first part of your comment that you didn’t actually watch the whole video and you missed what I consider to be the best part.

      As to why you should watch the video…that’s a fair question.

      As I said, most people don’t believe this is possible, and there is a Roger Bannister/4 minute mile effect that happens when they see it in action. I used to have a line of shooters take shots at 100 yard steel and almost nobody would hit it. They didn’t think it was possible. Then, I’d step up and hit it 4/5 or 5/5. Then I’d have them shoot again and the simple shift in belief and expectation would cause them to make A LOT more hits. As far as I’m concerned, that’s enough reason right there.

      I listed 8 more reasons why the video is helpful in the article above. Did you get a chance to read them?

      Let me know your thoughts.

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