Break It Down....Tiger Mckee

Skill Set: Break It Down

The techniques required to operate your firearm efficiently and safely are made up of a series of steps, individual actions combined to perform the necessary sequences. This is true for drawing the pistol, loading your AR or any other techniques you use. When there are problems it usually isn't with the entire process; there will be one step in the sequence that isn't working exactly right. You break the steps down, examining each one to determine where the problem is, and then isolate and practice that one step until it works in conjunction with the others to create a seamless sequence.

Let's look at reloading an empty pistol as an example. In the beginning everything is broken down into a series of steps. After repetition one step smoothly flows into the next. The biggest issue with shooters, especially in the beginning, is pressing the magazine release to get the old mag out. The other steps before and after releasing the mag are good, but the whole sequence - reloading the pistol - is slower than it should be because they are not efficiently releasing the mag. The solution to making the whole sequence efficient is spending time practicing this one step.

While there are exceptions, most pistols have the mag release on the left side. Normally a right hand shooter uses the right thumb to press the mag release. The button must be pressed in, towards the center of the pistol to release the magazine. Most people will have to shift their hand around the pistol – keeping the muzzle pointing in a safe direction - to hit the mag release. Think of this one step - releasing the magazine – as a set of smaller actions: Shift the pistol, release the mag and reacquire your grip.

Dry practice, as usual, is the best way to practice this act. You don't even need to use dummy ammo for this practice. Make sure you have a safe area to practice, with no live ammo present and a backstop capable of stopping a round if you do make a mistake. You put an empty mag in the pistol. Acquire your regular grip on the pistol. Shift the hand around the pistol and press the mag release. (Some pistols mag require you to strip the mag from the pistol.) Once the mag is out reacquire the proper grip on the pistol. Set it up again, and repeat. Do this a lot, until releasing the mag becomes a fluid action.

If you only work on the mag release as a part of reloading, working fast in order to get a shot on target, you'll be thinking about a lot of other things as opposed to releasing the mag. Isolating and concentrating on this one step improves the learning curve, instead of thinking about what needs to be done before and after the mag is released. Once you're working the mag release cleanly then you plug it into your other sequences such as unloading, reloading and clearing malfunctions.

This learning technique, isolating one step of a sequence to practice, works with any skill. The key is identifying where you're having problems. Once you discover the source of difficulty you break it down and concentrate on that one step, which may itself be a series of small steps. After practicing you plug it back into the complete sequence.

Learning requires discipline. You have to practice. During practice you critically examine your actions to find problems. You isolate the problem and practice until it's working. Then comes more practice, making sure your technique is flowing smoothly. Now it's time to find the next problem. The more "problems" you solve in advance the better your performance is when "that" time comes.

Tiger McKee is director of Shootrite Firearms Academy