My first post of this year briefly discussed my goal of doing 3,650 minutes of dry practice in 2019. These posts are mostly for my own accountability. Here are my results to this point in the year.
January 1 – 11: 200 minutes, January 12 – 31: 140 minutes
February 1 – 15: 140 minutes, February 16 – 28: 130 minutes
March 1 – 15: 160 minutes, March 16 – 31: 160 minutes
April 1 – 15: 140 minutes, April 16 – 30: 160 minutes
May 1 – 15: 140 minutes, May 16 – 31: 170 minutes
June 1 – 15: 180 minutes, June 16 – 30: 160 minutes
July 1-15: 150 minutes, July 16 – 31: 130 minutes
August 1-15: 150 minutes, August 16-31: 170 minutes
September 1-15: 140 minutes, September 16-30: 140 minutes
October 1-15: 190 minutes, October 16-31: 150 minutes
November 1-15: 150 minutes, November 16-30: 110 minutes
December 1-15: 220 minutes
December 16: 10 minutes SHO presentation
December 17: 10 minutes WHO presentation
December 18: 10 minutes malfunctions
December 19: 10 minutes reloads
December 20: 0 minutes
December 21: 0 minutes
December 22: 10 minutes presentation
December 23: 10 minutes reloads
December 24: 10 minutes malfunctions
December 25: 10 minutes SHO/WHO presentation
December 26: 10 minutes transition from less lethal (OC spray)
December 27: 10 minutes presentation
December 28: 10 minutes transition from less lethal (OC spray)
December 29: 10 minutes reloads
December 30: 10 minutes transition from less lethal (OC spray)
December 31: 10 minutes presentation
Monthly Target: 310 minutes
Monthly Actual: 360 minutes
Cumulative Target to date: 3,650 minutes
Cumulative Actual to Date: 3,740 minutes (62 hours, 40 minutes)
First: it’s done! A year of dry practice is under my belt. No matter what, those reps are in the bank and can’t be taken away. Also, it’s going to be weird not doing these reports in 2020 (I may continue them on SwiftSilentDeadly.com – having accountability helped me immensely). Whatever I do, I promise I won’t post them here on RevolverGuy.
Focus Areas
One brand new skill I added this session was transitioning to my handgun from less-lethal force (OC spray). I almost always have OC spray on me, including many times I can’t have a firearm. If you don’t, I’d strongly encourage you to reconsider. I’ve written about this before, but it sort of blows my mind how hung up we get on the gun, and how blind we get to the potential for non-lethal confrontation. The gun is important, but it only applies in a very, very narrow range of situations. Pepper spray is much more flexible and is allowed in many more venues than firearms, and it gives you an option between taking a beating and taking a life.
It makes sense that one might have to escalate from using less-lethal force up to lethal force. For these drills I began with empty hands. I made a “cage” around my head with my left arm while going for my OC spray (I used an inert canister). I drew/presented the OC, then dropped it and drew my firearm. I worked on some variations of abandoning going for OC and moving to the gun at different stages in getting the spray out. There’s probably a lot I haven’t imagined (and thus haven’t practiced) but this is a start of working less-lethal force into my regime.
Stay Tuned
I know we’ve been quiet for a couple of weeks. Twenty-twenty will begin with some exciting articles, including a couple of gun reviews I think you guys are going to enjoy. Also stay tuned for a lessons-learned article about a full year of dry practice.
If you aren’t dry practicing. . . WHY NOT? It’s not hard to find 10 minutes a day to dry practice, and it’s COMPLETELY FREE. Take ten minutes you’d be spending vegging out on Instagram or in front of the TV and turn it into a tangible skill.
Practicing drawing OC and transitioning from OC is a great idea.