Tag: equipment placement

Dust Collection Technology on the Range

Action Target has worked closely with Carey’s Heating and Cooling to provide industry-leading ventilation systems that improve the safety of ranges around the country. However, it is sometimes unclear as to why ventilation systems are needed in the first place. For this reason, this week’s Action Target Journal explains why such systems are essential in today’s ranges.

Every time a bullet impacts the plate in a steel bullet trap, there is a small amount of dust (bullet fragments) that is generated from the collision. However, with dust collection technology, as the bullet enters into the chamber of the bullet trap it takes in air with it. Because the chamber is a sealed environment, taking in this air creates an element within the high-pressure chamber. A dust collection system is required because of the air that is brought into the chamber. One of the technologies Action Target has developed to optimize dust collection is called Negative Pressure Technology. To better understand this concept, let’s look at an example.

Imagine a person holding a glass in their hand as if they were going to take a drink from it. Then, imagine the person placing a cotton ball on the closest part of the rim of the glass. It would be impossible for them to blow the cotton ball to the other side and have it land on the opposite edge.

Action Target's Total Containment Bulle TrapThis is the same concept that is taking place when a bullet travels into the bullet trap. In front of the bullet there is a large wall of air that is being pushed into the trap. When a supersonic crack sounds, what is actually happening is that the bullet is breaking the shockwaves of air. This same air is what is being pushed in the bullet trap. If there were no dust collector on the bullet trap, the overpressure of the air entering the trap would collect surrounding particles and lead dust and shoot it back onto the range. This is where the dust collector becomes essential. The dust collector enables a negative pressure to be established inside the bullet trap, and it functions at a rate that is high enough to overcome the bullets and air pressure entering the trap. Referring again to the example of the cotton ball and the glass, if there was no back on the glass it would be easy to push the cotton ball to the rear of the glass by blowing on it. This is possible because there is no overpressure in the glass.

Although many other systems have attempted to use Action Target’s patented negative pressure technology, none have succeeded. Action Target continues to hold the patents on the negative pressure systems utilized in many bullet trap chambers and this system continues to provide a pressure and cleaning method that allows the minute particles of lead to be picked up and safely gathered together for recycling.

To learn more about Action Target’s dust collection technology visit, https://www.actiontarget.com/indoor-shooting-products/ventilation-systems.

Removing Roadblocks with the Action Target Academy

In 650 B.C., Archilochus said, “We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training.” Although this saying is thousands of years old, it still holds true today. In a way, it governs Action Target in its training development.

Action Target Academy LogoAction Target developed the Action Target Academy (ATA) to provide world-class firearms and range development training to agencies and individuals throughout the country who have not had the opportunity to train with Action Target Portable Targets. The entire foundation of Action Target’s approach to firearms is embodied in the Action Target Academy. In today’s industry, there are many roadblocks to having successful firearms trainings, but ATA courses examine the challenges facing today’s firearms training requirements, shooting range management issues, and also demonstrates how using modern shooting range equipment helps alleviate roadblocks, creating safe and efficient firearm programs.

Action Target found recent success through their academy. Both the Phoenix Police Department and Maricopa County in Arizona invited Action Target to come and teach some of their firearms instructors. The course gave both law enforcement departments a chance to experience a full line of portable targets under various scenarios that tested and evaluated their combat shooting skills. In addition to learning how Action Target Portable Targets can be used in everything, from basic marksmanship to advance combat tactics, both groups participated in live fire drills, creating a more realistic approach to training. More importantly, they learned how easy designing an effective job-related firearms training scenario can be. ATA realistic training scenarios prepares shooters for the real thing and also allows participants to mirror the psychological response of combat stress, helping them to define how they would engage in real life combat.

Host an Action Target Academy event and learn more about topics such as: the realities of today’s gunfight, qualifications versus training, legal and financial consequences of inadequate training, shooting range design, and equipment. To find out more about removing the obstacles keeping your agency from training as you would fight, please visit: https://www.actiontarget.com/shooting-academy or contact Richard Matthews at [email protected].

New Addition to The Action Target Journal

To Our Action Target Journal Readers:

We want to thank each of you for making 2011 a great year for Action Target. Over the last 26 years, Action Target has been proud to provide training equipment for the police, for the military, and for the sport shooting industry as a whole. We are thrilled by the success of our weekly newsletter, The Action Target Journal, which has now kept our law enforcement, military, and the general shooting industry informed for more than a year.

The goal of our weekly newsletter is to inform our loyal readers about the happenings and developments within the firearms industry. Due to the enormous success and participation in our newsletter and to better fulfill the needs of our readers, Action Target is proud to announce that starting March 2012, we will begin publishing two separate Action Target Journal newsletters each week.

Because our readership has grown to cover a diverse group of readers, having two weekly articles allows us to better meet the different needs of a greater number of our readers. One newsletter will focus on law enforcement news and events while the other focuses more on the sport shooting community. Both newsletters will continue to offer Steel Deals and readers are more than welcome to participate in both newsletters. We are confident the additional newsletter will continue to be beneficial in delivering timely and relevant articles to readers.

Again, thank you to everyone who has participated in the newsletter and has offered suggestions and input. We want you to know that we do listen and value your needs and opinions. If you have any comments or feedback regarding our exciting new newsletter addition, please contact us or post your comment to this article.

Sincerely,

Addison Sovine
Co-Founder
Action Target, Inc.

Law and Order (Part One)

Written by Keith Mehlin

Editor’s Note: This article was originally published on August 26, 2010. Due to the popularity of the article and the number of new subscribers since it originally went out, Action Target has decided to republish this two part series.

The Council Bluffs Police Department had an outdoor 50 yard range for 30 years plus located near the Council Bluffs Airport. This range was built in a large depression which was protected by dirt berms on all sides, including a wall of dirt approximately 20 feet high behind the target area. Approximately 5 years before the range was closed we had added computer controlled turning targets from Action Target and a two story control tower. The tower was built with the help of the FBI. Our range was built in such a way that we could easily place vehicles, both cruisers and simulated suspect vehicles, and other types of items to simulate cover and concealment on the range, quite easily. We also had a small structure in one corner of the range that we could use as a shooting house.

The Department scheduled four firearms training sessions yearly for all sworn officers, which were integrated with defensive tactics training. Our tactical team would shoot once a month. Having been a firearms instructor and defensive tactics instructor myself, I know that we were consistently providing for our officers realistic training that would mimic as best we could combat situations on the street.

Once we added the computer controlled target system and the control tower, we did not feel that we were lacking anything. At that time we had no patrol rifle policy so the 50 yard range was adequate for our needs. Nor did we have any safety issues for the officers using the range, which at the time was being used by 24 different agencies in the Omaha metro area. We were not getting any rounds coming back at the officers from the berm behind the target area. We had mined the lead some years before and it appeared to us that it did not need to be done again. We also had no liability issues on the range as far as officers using the range. We had not had an accident or serious injury on the range for the 32 years that I have been a police officer here. The only injury that I can recall came from a top strap blowing on a revolver several years ago, and fortunately that injury was not serious. We were under the impression that with the improvements that we had made, we were good to go for at least another 30 years on the range. Little did we know that was about to change very quickly.

Our troubles began in mid summer of 2002. One of the tenants at a hangar claimed that he had heard a deflected round hit the roof of the metal hangar when he was working on his airplane. He went to the city and the police department and demanded that we immediately close the range. We did not close the range but did an investigation and concluded that a deflected round did leave the range and land on the roof. We contacted Action Target, who immediately flew out and inspected the range. They made some recommendations, which were implemented, and we continued to use the range, believing that was an isolated incident and that we had fixed the problem. This did not please the individual whose roof the spent round landed on.

A few months after that, this same individual made another complaint outlining the same circumstances; however, this time he had the spent round as evidence. After a very brief investigation, we were able to determine that the rounds that were being fired on the range that day were not of the same caliber of the spent round that this person offered up as evidence. Again, we thought we were safe and continued to operate the range.

Action Target Law and Order

That all changed a few weeks later when several construction workers, who were working on a building project near the range, reported hearing deflected rounds going over their heads while they were working. I immediately closed the range because of safety concerns. While we will never know exactly how long rounds had been leaving our range, we feel that we became aware of it because of the encroachment upon the range by an airport expansion project and other building projects near the range. Before those projects, we were isolated enough that spent rounds leaving the range was not a recognized problem.

It was at that point we knew that we needed a new range. Not only were we suddenly without a place to train with our firearms, so was 23 other federal, state, and local agencies. I will always remember the feeling of despair when I realized that my officers and many other officers were suddenly without an adequate place to train to defend their lives and the lives of the people they were sworn to defend. We had to build a range.

The questions that we had when we faced up to the task was where to find the money, where to put the range, how big to build it, and what type of range equipment did we want to use. I knew that I wanted to build the best training facility possible for the officers, but I had no idea how to go about it.

Because the city had been caught flat footed with the range suddenly closing without warning, money was definitely the biggest problem. I decided to attack the problem on three fronts: local money, federal money because several federal agencies used the range, and through a local foundation. Early on in the process I came to realize that without more local involvement, the federal and foundation money would not come into play. I contacted Sheriff Jeff Danker, Pottawattamie County Sheriff, the county in which Council Bluffs is located, and we agreed to make this training facility a joint city county venture. After that decision, and jumping through a lot of political and bureaucratic hoops, local, federal and foundation money was obtained for the building of the training facility.

The research and planning stage actually went quicker than I anticipated. We already had a history with Action Target and were pleased with their target equipment and level of service. I had no knowledge of Action Target bullet traps, or any other traps on the market, but I knew that my biggest concern beyond safety was ease and cost of maintenance. After a short amount of research, I thought that Action Target had the corner on the market on ease of maintaining and simplicity of a bullet trap. The decision was made to go with that company for range equipment.

(This article continues in next week’s newsletter)

Action Target at the Bianchi Cup

Action Target, Inc. recently upgraded the target systems used at this year’s NRA/Midway USA Bianchi Cup match range in Columbia, MO. This year’s upgrade was completed as part of Action Target’s sponsorship of this prestigious championship, preserving the long standing relationship Action Target has with this event.

Nearly 20 years ago, Action Target’s Co-Founder, Addison Sovine, traveled to the Bianchi Cup to install new target systems at the Chapman Academy Ranges. Since then, Action Target equipment has powered all the range systems for this event.

“I remember when we first arrived at the range, Ray Chapman took a look at what we were doing and you could tell he was a bit skeptical,” said Sovine, recounting his first year at the Bianchi Cup. “But by the end of the week, everything had worked great, Ray was convinced, and he and I became good friends.”

Even though Green Valley Rifle & Pistol Club has taken over range operations, Action Target continues to provide the target systems for both the range and the Bianchi Cup. This year, Action Target upgraded the turning target systems on the Practical and Barricade ranges by including a new control system that retains compatibility with the previous shot-timer controls while adding the option of computer or wireless controls for the future.

Action Target also manufactured new steel plates for the Falling Plate and Colt Speed events. They also upgraded the control system for the Falling Plate event. This event was controlled by a computer for the first time this year.

In addition to the main event ranges, Action Target provided a new Reactive Target System (RTS) to the Bushmaster Tactical Carbine side match and new portable plate racks to the Bianchi Cup Practice Range. RTS targets are designed from a self-healing polymer capable of receiving several thousand rounds each and also features an electronic scoring system to record hits on each of the targets.

“It’s been a great privilege for us to be involved with the Bianchi Cup. This is one of the longest running championships in the shooting world and Action Target is honored to be able to add our name to the list of organizations that support and sponsor the match,” stated attendee David Mathis, Director of Marketing at Action Target. “The match has operated with Action Target systems for years and we plan to continue our support to keep the Bianchi Cup going for many years to come.”

In addition to being the official target sponsor of this year’s match, Action Target also sponsored the Women’s Award with Jessie Abbate winning the Women’s Championship.

Dave Mathis and Jessie Abbate
Director of Marketing for Action Target, Inc. David Mathis with the 2011 Women’s Champion, Jessie Abbate.

Action Target Completes SharpShooters Commerical Range Project

Commercial indoor firing range developments are a vital addition to any community. They not only provide a safe and accessible shooting location for private citizens, they also provide a firearms training facility for local law enforcement agencies. Action Target Range Consultant Robb Anderson recently completed the SharpShooters USA commercial shooting range project that demonstrated Action Target’s desire to provide shooters of all skills levels with an enjoyable and safe training facility.

The Sharpshooters range project began two years ago and, with the help of Tom Deets, Ken Burson and Action Target, became the most efficient, innovative and modern indoor shooting range in the Atlanta market.

Some of the features of the SharpShooters Range Project include:

  • Three separate bays with eight lanes in each bay
  • Bay #1 is a “Fixed Firing” range consisting of two 50 Cal lanes and six lanes designed for 223 and 308 rifle use
  • Bay #2 is a “Fixed Firing” range consisting of eight lanes designed for 223 and 308 rifle use
  • Both Bay #1 and Bay #2 are installed for ADA handicapped shooters
  • Bay #3 has a hybrid range design for public and Tactical Training for local law enforcement community
  • All three bays include the Mancom Instructor Stalls and are equipped with Mancom “Touch-n-Go” Target Retrievers
  • All rear and side walls are covered with PEPP acoustical tiles by Acoustical Services.

AT Installs Total Containment at Sharpshooters Range

Action Target installed both the Total Containment Steel Bullet Trap and Containment Baffles for each firing range.

AT Installs Mancom Instructor Stalls

All three bays include the Mancom Instructor Stalls and are equipped with Mancom “Touch-n-Go” Target Retrievers.

The SharpShooters Range has quickly become a popular favorite among Atlanta’s shooters and law enforcement. Recently, 20 agencies participated in a two day seminar – Modern Firearms Training – that allowed attendees the opportunity to give back to the communities that supported this range.

In a testimonial, a member of SharpShooters USA wrote:

“Since the doors were opened to the public, your staff has made it their policy to ensure everyone feels welcome. It is obvious they intend to make the experience comfortable and enjoyable to all comers. Yesterday I had the privilege to witness a situation that took that attitude to a unique level.

In the lane next to mine were a father and son. The son appeared to be in his early teens. It was obvious they were a bit new at this and enjoying a genuine “father-son” afternoon together. Each took turns with a pistol and one could sense they found the experience both new and exhilarating. I noticed a short lull in their shooting and soon realized it was because they were changing weapons. They had an AR.

Moving away from my lane to dispose of a spent target, I saw Range Safety Officer Shaun Kennedy stepping forward to ensure all was about to go well. As I approached the trash can, the father and I exchanged a nod and I asked if that was his rifle. “No, it is a rental. We are visiting from Canada and don’t have access to anything like it there. This may be the only chance my son will ever have to shoot one.” As the dad and I stood back closer to the wall, Shaun continued a brief explanation to the son of the mechanics and safety issues of the weapon. From the gentle manner with which he talked to the young man you could see his intent was to ensure the son was comfortable, safe, and confident enough to enjoy what he was about to experience. The youngster thoroughly enjoyed what followed while a very proud father watched. The look passed between them after the last round was fired was priceless. They asked if they could have a spent casing. Shaun retrieved one with a broom.

For all the right reasons, nothing happened that you should be aware of. Nothing went wrong. An alert Safety Officer made certain of that.

For all the right reasons, something happened that you should be aware of. An alert Safety Officer made certain two novice shooters, a father and son, went home with a newfound sense of shared pride from what they accomplished and an afternoon of great memories.

Kudos to your staff.”

Congratulations to all the SharpShooters USA Staff and Robb Anderson for a job well done!!!

Other Recently Completed Projects:

  • Belmont Firearms & Range, NH (Matt Brinkerhoff)
  • Federal Reserve Bank, Memphis, TN (Jason Snell)
  • Duke Nuclear Energy Plant, NC (Mike Stillwell)
  • Houston Police Department, TX (Aaron Ludwig)
  • Ankeny Police Department, IA (Chris Hart)

If you are interested in our products and are in the south-eastern states, contact your Regional Representative Robb Anderson. For all other areas, please visit our Contacts Page to find the territory manager for your area.

Contact Info for AT Robb Anderson

ROBB ANDERSON
801-377-8033 ext. 124
801-319-0977 cell
[email protected]

Action Target Completes New Shooting Range and Retail Store in Piney Flats, TN

Action Target is excited to announce the completion of the Shooters Edge Commercial Shooting Range and Retail Store located in Piney Flats, TN. This facility offers 5 Star accommodations and a clean and well designed atmosphere with extraordinary customer service.

Having the help and dedication of Joseph Bush, Don Reimer, Action Target Great Lakes Territory Manager Jason Snell, Project Manager Bryan Dahlberg, Bill Provencher from Carey’s Heating and Air Conditioning and many others, allowed us to create a range that is innovative, effective and accommodating to all types of shooters.

Equipment provided and installed by Action Target in this Action Target shooting range includes the following:

  • Tactical Baffle Layout: Provides for realistic training, including movement and shooting from any given point on the range with full errant round containment.
  • 360 Degree Turning Target Retrievers: These retrievers for shooting range targets are perfect for decision making drills, qualifications, and tactical training. Also, includes Master Control for RSO.
  • Track Runner: A running target that moves back and forth the width of the range.
  • Shooting Stalls: Installed stalls came with lighting, keypads, barricades, and signal lights.
  • Photo Eye Beam Security: Ensures all civilian shooters remain behind the firing line.
Stalls with new lighting, keypads, barricades and AT 360 degree target receivers
Stalls with lighting, keypads, barricades, and signal lights looking at one of the targets hanging from the 360 degree turning target retrievers.

New stalls with lighting, keypads and signal lights
Stalls with lighting, keypads, barricades, and signal lights, including Photo Eye Beam Security.

Congratulations Shooters Edge for a beautiful facility and phenomenal shooting range!

Other Recently Completed Projects

  • Martin CSO – Robb Anderson
  • PA State Police Academy – Matt Brinkerhoff
  • Shelby County Sheriff’s Department – Jason Snell
  • Fairfax County Law Enforcement Academy, VA – Mike Stillwell
  • Odessa Police Department, TX – Aaron Ludwig
  • Appleton Police Department, WI – Chris Hart

If you are interested in our products and are in the Great Lakes area, contact your Regional Representative Jason Snell. For all other areas, please visit our Contacts Page to find the territory manager for your area.

JASON SNELL
801-377-8033 ext. 158
801-809-6966 cell
[email protected]

Introducing the Pelvic Torso

As a leader of innovative solutions for firearms training, we recently announced the addition of two new items to our product line, the Pelvic Torso and Sport Rack, at the 2011 Shot Show in Las Vegas, NV. In this week’s newsletter, we will highlight the Pelvic Torso and how to utilize it to enhance your training.

AT Pelvic Torso and Mini PlateUntil recently, there were only paper targets replicating the pelvic area of the body, but with the Pelvic Torso, you now have the first and only steel target option in the world that simulates this area. The steel provides instant feedback to multiple senses as you hear the bullet strike and see the steal plate swing upon impact.

The idea to design the Pelvic Torso came from inquiries from law enforcement and the military for a training element that gave them a tactical solution when engaging with a specific type of threat. As they engaged with threats wearing body armor and no clear head shot, the pelvic girdle became the optimal target area. When an individual is struck in the pelvic girdle, the bullet strikes the ball-and-socket area, which not only causes immense pain but immobilizes the threat completely. If you are participating in disabling drills, the Pelvic Torso is the best training option in the market.

The Pelvic Torso is designed to have two 4” round reactive and auto-resetting head plates added to a non-reduced torso-type head plate. These “bolt-on” options are able to attach to your existing Static Target Stand or PT Practice Stand . We recommend using the torso head plates to protect the reactive components and keep all bolts/brackets out of the shooting zone, although it can be used with the Hostage and Full Size IPSC Torso Head Plates . This allows the splatter to continue to be directed down from the head plate and will not be redirected toward the shooter.

Since the Pelvic Torso is still in prototype mode, it is not yet available for sale. However, if you are interested in purchasing one of these in the future, please let us know:

Person Information
First Name *
Last Name *
Email *
Options
Please select one:
Yes, I am interested in the Pelvic Torso and would like to be added to the list so I will be sent more information about the final products price and release date when it becomes available.
Yes, this looks like a product that I would buy when it is released, but I do not want to be sent more information about it.
No, I don’t imagine ever purchasing this product and would prefer not to receive any more information about it.

For more information, download the Pelvic Torso Cut Sheet here (PDF). Stay tuned to for next week’s newsletter focusing on our new Sport Rack.

Crucial Equipment Placement

Written by Ben Kurata

Thoughts on equipment placement, conditioned response, reaction time, Hick’s Law, the 21 foot guideline, and the OODA loop

Disclaimer 1: I do not consider myself to be an expert on any of the above topics. I am, however, really good at asking questions. I am a serious student of human behavior under stress.

Disclaimer 2: In no way what I write should be misinterpreted as passing judgment on the Officer(s) involved. In the past, I have been judged by people who were not beside me when bad things happened. I refuse to be a “Monday morning quarterback” to situations I was not involved in.

Disclaimer 3: The above title gives the reader an insight into how my mind works. I struggle on a good day to have an independent thought. I have had the privilege, however, to have trained with some absolutely brilliant thinkers / operators / teachers. I will attempt to give them the credit they deserve.

Recently, a transit Officer was convicted of homicide after he shot an individual to death while attempting to control the subject’s behavior. According to the Officer’s testimony, he thought he was reaching for his Taser but discharged his duty firearm instead, killing the subject.

Now, I am not here to pass judgment on the Officer’s actions, as I was not there. But for some time, I have recommended that Tasers be mounted on the duty belt on the non-dominant side, with the grip pointed backward, NOT in a cross-draw position. Why? Well, over the course of his / her career, a LEO may pull their handgun from its holster hundreds, maybe thousands of times during in-service training and qualification. A LE Trainer may pull a handgun from its holster tens of thousands of times.

Question:

How many times does an average LEO pull a Taser from its holster and discharge it? In most departments that I have trained with, after initial training (with its “special” videotaped moments), the only time a Taser gets pulled from its holster is when it is used on a subject. I know of no in-service or qualification live fire course of fire for the Taser.

What’s the point?

Well, many years ago, someone much wiser than I will ever be said:
“Under stress, you will revert to what you do most often or most recently.”
I only wish I could remember who told me that so I could give them credit. The point is, the dominant hand has been conditioned by hundreds (if not thousands) of repetitions to access and fire the handgun, not the Taser.

Similarly, I wish I could have a dollar for every time I saw on the range a cell phone or pager get pulled from the belt and forcibly stuffed into the magazine well of a weapon. Why? Because the operator was reverting back to the location and object on his / her duty belt that (s)he accesses most often in the course of a day – dozens of times.

Many years ago, fellow Action Target Instructor Dennis Tueller established the 21 foot guideline which has been misinterpreted over the years as the “21 foot rule”. While not diminishing the validity of what Dennis established, I can say that for the average LE Instructor (who, in theory, should be smoother and quicker at presenting the duty handgun from the duty holster) the average reactionary gap when wearing a Level II or Level III retention holster is more like 40 – 60 feet. That is with the outcome pre-determined – draw the handgun and place one or two well-placed shots on an inert practice target. Under the stress of a life -threatening attack, reaction time can double, quadruple, or deteriorate even more. Why? Well, some definitions may be useful:

Reaction Time:

“Reaction time has sometimes been described as a function of Hick’s law:
(1) H = log2(n + 1).
(2) H = Σ pi log2(1/pi + 1).
H = the information-theoretic entropy of a decision.
n = the number of equally probable alternatives.
pi = the probability of alternative i for n alternatives of unequal probability.
The time it takes to make a decision is roughly proportional to H, the entropy of the decision (the log of the number of alternatives), i.e. T = k H, where k ~ 150 msec” 1

Now, I have no idea what that means, but it may be useful in calculating the probability of getting a raise or the budget you submitted. “Entropy of the decision” is the scientific way of saying “brain cramp”! What is important to note is that formula was established by test subjects that were not being presented with life-threatening stimuli, and under ideal conditions, reaction time is a logarithmic, (12, 22, 32, etc.) not an arithmetic (1 + 1, 2 + 1, etc.) variable.

Now, how many use of force options does the average Officer have?

  1. Presence;
  2. Verbal instructions / commands;
  3. Empty hand techniques;
  4. Aerosol spray;
  5. Baton;
  6. Taser;
  7. Radio;
  8. Lethal force, which can include:
    1. Handgun;
    2. Folding knife;
    3. Baton, if targeted on “red” areas of the anatomy;
    4. Shotgun;
    5. Patrol Rifle;
    6. Improvised weapons (“Bumper – 06”);
    7. Etc.

And, let us not forget that word that has been pounded into every Officer’s head (and we have to share the responsibility for this one): Liability.

Now, let’s add the one factor that throws almost all probability theory out the window: Life – threatening stimuli.

A concept which may be more useful in understanding actual reaction time under life – threatening circumstances may be USAF Lt. Col. (Ret.) John Boyd’s OODA loop. It is not my intention here to recap my understanding of the OODA loop. (For an excellent summary, please locate and read Ken Good’s article, “Got a Second? Boyd’s OODA Cycle in the Close Quarter Battle Environment”.) Suffice it to say that after being in and running a few force-on-force simulations, most people (including myself) make mistakes in the initial Observation phase and then get caught in what Ken Murray describes as a “goofy loop” 2 – unable to make an appropriate decision as to what to do next. Or, caught on the reaction (wrong) side of the action / reaction curve.

So What?

Well, let me just throw this out for thought:

  • All less lethal tools (including radio, pager, and cell phone) on the non – dominant side of the duty belt / LBE, etc., accessed and practiced with the non-dominant hand.
  • All lethal force tools on the dominant side of the duty belt, accessed and practiced with the dominant hand.

Now, please don’t misinterpret me. I am not saying to stop practicing wounded / disabled drills. Now, more than ever, I practice accessing, shooting, reloading, and clearing stoppages with the non – dominant hand AND EYE only. It all boils down to, “Under stress, you will revert to what you do most often or most recently.”

(If you are the trainer who said that to me many years ago, please contact me so that I can give you proper credit.)

Notes:

1.   https://www.usabilityfirst.com/glossary/hicks-law/
2.   Kenneth R. Murray, “Training at the Speed of Life, Volume 1”, copyright Armiger Publications, 2004.