Reality of Combat

This is a good article I found over at the "SHTF School" blog, and wanted to share it with you guys. It is relevant, and has good information from someone who has lived through much of what we will have to soon enough.

The reality of combat March 26, 2013

SHTF School

When SHTF nobody told me how hard is gonna be and what things I will have to do to survive, there was no training or simulations, through most of the stuff I was going for the first time in my life, and I was hoping it is only temporary situation, it is not going to last for whole year. Few events opened my eyes, and somehow make me survivor right at the beginning, and I can say I have luck to understand in very early stage how hard it is, and what it takes. During one of the first bigger events of killing in the streets, I was out together with my friend who also was medical professional. Fire from machine guns was on people who were standing in front of the main city bread factory, and people started to scream and run over each other.

My first impulse was to run to nearest cover but my friend got down to help some lady, so I stayed one meter next to him. I was confused about my decision and not sure to stay with him or run. Bullets from machine gun hit him over his legs, and I saw how his knee cap exploded, it looked like some bad movie special effect. He just looked at his legs, then at me, in silence. Even that was just seconds moments like this feel very long. I took him by the hands and drag him some 20 or 30 meters to safety.

Only there I saw that he was missing his leg under the knee. It stayed with dead lady on the street. And only then he started to scream. I used belt to stop bleeding, ambulance still worked in that period. He went to hospital and then evacuated from the city. He survived but never came back. Lessons learned? In moments of chaos always listen to your instincts and do not hesitate. Especially if you are involved in situation when someone is shooting at you with high caliber machine gun. Just accept that people will die, and you have to survive.

To help others is great thing, to survive is even better, also I realized that human being is so fragile and easy to destroy. Later I learned some things about weapons and how to use them, so I realize that more firepower does not necessary mean more dangerous and better chance to kill. Owning a weapon is just absolutely necessary in preparing for a survival scenario, even more in urban survival. You just need to go and get as close as you can to the real stuff while you are doing the preparing and training for the SHTF, so it makes sense to go out and check your preps, to check your gear and yourself. For example pair of boots that you bought and store for bad days will not be used for walking only, it will be use for running, squatting, jumping, in mud, junk, blood, guts maybe or just running trough a shallow river.

Everything that you have prepared and stored for SHTF will be pushed to the limits. One thing is to go out into woods nearby and do recording of your weapon testing on some beer bottles with your friends, and after that concluding that particular gun or rifle is best for SHTF, and that you are dangerous dude because your accuracy rules. Some people gonna put that clip on you tube and go home convinced that they are ready and prepared.

In reality you do not know if you are prepared. A lot of survival stores that sell things sell idea of buy this and you are safe. No you are not. Also you learn more about real urban survival scenario in my survival course and this helps you to mentally be better prepared but real deal when SHTF always comes as surprise. When time comes again it gonna hit everyone like a hammer. Good news is that when you know you will get hit like that you can recover fast and use your skills, knowledge and preps to make best out of situation.

Using weapon in real life, in real survival situation is something absolutely different from shooting bear bottles, and if you could do some real training that is realistic that would be maybe going to camping with trash bag as a tent, being on camping for 10 days with 10 small cans of food, and 10 liters of water, walking every day for 10 km. And then on 11th day run few kilometers and then shoot and see how accurate you are when your body is wasting away. And still the most important thing is missing. While you are shooting at the beer bottles they do not shoot back at you in order to kill you. During some of the first battles in city I was moving trough the building behind a guy, we both had rifles. He was sweeping the rooms and shooting, it was the closest urban combat as it can be. In the moment when he run out of ammo he used his rifle as something between spear and bat.

Now someone could say why he did not just switch to pistol? He did not have one, also he did not have time to look for ammo. But there I learned how it is useful to have folded stock of rifle when shooting and moving in very confined spaces. Also I learned that rifle with pretty sharp parts at the barrel can be very handy. He stabbed guy to the cheek, ripping his face down and finishing him on ground. One of the biggest misconception at the people who do not have fighting experience is what they need to practice. It is all about pressure.

You need to learn:

1. What your weapon can take In terms of kicking, throwing, how often and when will it malfunction, and what the most common malfunctions are, and how to fix it, of course how to fix it in middle of fight. If you find yourself in the middle of fighting, and your weapon „jams“ do not be as we called “zblesavljen” or in English is probably looking like idiot. I have seen that: guy is shooting and in the middle of fighting his weapon jammed, and he surprisingly look at the weapon in a „what the heck?“ state. And of course in two seconds he ends up dead. You absolutely need to know how to manage small weapon jams without looking at the weapon, you need to look at the target while you are „repairing“ weapon (clearing the bullet, switching to other magazine etc.) Other option would be to MOVE immediately when your weapon jams, move to cover in same second, or to dropping it on ground, or on your back, and switching to your other weapon. But you need to learn to do all of above without thinking. You need to train that this becomes automatic. Small things like how quickly you can put your rifle on your back and a switch to pistol can be difference between life and death, if you somehow „trip“ yourself while you are trying to put rifle on your back in order to take pistol you can end up dead.

2. What you can take Remember this: while you are shooting at the bad guys, those bad guys will be SHOOTING AT YOU TOO. So shooting at the beer bottles in the woods with your buddies will not really do all the training you need. I am doing it often, but it just not covering everything. Fighting and surviving combat means constant moving and outsmarting the guys on the other side, you gonna need to run, squat, throw yourself in the ditch, lay down in all kinds of crap and shoot at the same time, and probably fix your rifle from jams, or switch to another weapon. Do some basic weapon training and learn about line of sight and how to get out off it. Very great percentage of shooting is done without aiming, just spraying bullets. It makes sense to do some airsoft or paintball in the woods to check how constant moving change whole game, and what kind of moving makes sense in order to survive gunfight. For example how often you shoot from your weapon with both hands, dominant and not dominant? In urban fighting you will need switch weapon around very often (moving through the apartments, rooms, around the corners etc.). When you are shooting behind corner, and you are having rifle in your right hand and corner is on your left side it make sense to transfer weapon to left hand. otherwise it is dangerous to stick your left part of body out in order to shoot form right hand. For all you who have some military experience this all is basic stuff, but I have seen many guys who were killed in stupid ways. Real gunfight is dynamic thing. Adrenaline is weird thing too, so people can do tremendous things while adrenaline is pumping, but also with lack of training and common sense guy can do tremendously stupid things. I have seen man who was pointing to something and he stood up from the cover, and got shot.

3. How to train yourself Training is the key. You can not do anything else today except to train very hard. You can not experience real stuff today of course, but you can take it as close to real stuff as you can. Go out with your friends and think about all possible scenarios. But think about worst case scenarios. SHTF is not gonna wait for nice and sunny weather, you gonna be maybe hungry, dirty. Maybe have to give up your shelter and food storage on second day of SHTF. Or you gonna be forced to use other weapon that you are not used to. Maybe you gonna be forced to hide for hours hidden under a pile of rubble and then you are gonna be forced to jump out and „kill“ ten beer bottles. Sounds like fun? This is why resilience and mental strength is so important. Maybe you are gonna be cold and thirsty and in the middle of the battle. One thing is sure – very rarely it goes the way that you planned. So just be ready for many options and do not panic when things go other way. Want to get some funny sounding advice? Get good at suffering while still being able to work towards a goal.

4. What weapon, caliber, stopping power etc? It is very hard question (that I get asked a lot). But think about fact that everything today is about mainstream and commercial. And somehow it is more about what other people say is good and not necessarily about what you need and what is good for YOU. You and your hand kill, weapon is only tool. I have seen fight when man with knife is killing the guy with rifle. He had mastered fighting with knife and had will to kill. Other guy had a rifle only, and he ends up dead. I also seen more than once people shot with rifle bullets still fighting, running for good amount of time. Some of them were not even aware that they are wounded before someone else pointed that out to them. What I am trying to say, do not expect miracles if you own weapon that is at the moment most popular, having great stopping power, cool reviews. It is about practicing , weapon mastering and correct bullets placement. I said bullets for a reason, I have seen many things, but I did not see someone survive multiple shots in correct place at the body. Have weapon that is best for your case, and achieve perfection in using it. Do not expect that people will fly back if you shoot them with one bullet from some widely popular weapon and caliber (not talking about shotguns).

So I am not gonna tell you what is the best weapon because what works for me maybe does not work for you or others. Having a weapon that is too rare, too good or too bad does not make too much sense for me. Do not find yourself in situation when you lose your weapon and pick someone else and then find out that you do not have clue about it, because your weapon was special and rare. Just have what everyone else around you has, because of gun parts, ammo and you look like everyone else. Your weapon is only tool to survive, be ready to lose it if you need to lose it, and pick some other from ground in the middle of fight. I knew a guy who did some scary stuff with rusty shortened M48. He was old and poor looking dude, he played that part good, until he would take out this old gun from under his coat and rob and kill people. Simple strategy but it worked for him. So look around and think what works for you.


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Training Plan Part 3a

Kalashnikovs

Despite the simplicity of the weapon, loading an AK is actually slightly more error-prone, in my experience.

1. You can’t—on most variants—lock the bolt to the rear.
2. Insert the magazine, being sure to insert the front portion of the magazine first, and then rock the magazine up and in, seating it firmly. I watch this get messed up ALL THE TIME. People that hate the AR15, because “it’s too finicky,” end up not seating the front of the magazine properly, or they end up not rocking the magazine all the way in and seating it. In either case, they almost invariably end up spending way too much time messing around with getting it seated properly.
3. Once the magazine has locked into the seated position, try and tug it in the reverse direction, ensuring that it is, in fact, locked in.
4. Use the charging handle to pull the bolt ALL THE WAY TO THE REAR, and let it go. Allow the gun to go into battery under the tension of the spring. Then, grasp the charging handle and perform a press check.
5. Congratulations, you loaded an AK.

Reloads

There are two basic categories of reloads in “combat shooting:” the “speed” or “emergency” reload, and the “tactical” reload, or the “reload with retention.” Speed reloads should be utilized any time your gun runs dry in a fight. This is—again, in my experience—the single most common “malfunction” you will face, using most modern weapons, manufactured by reputable companies.
Tactical reloads, and reloads with retention, are done “when there is a lull in the fight.” Often, you may have to induce that lull yourself. If your partner is providing suppressive fire, and you are getting ready to move, or have just moved, take the time to perform a reload, if you feel you need to.
You are NOT going to know the exact number of rounds you’ve fired. Anyone who tells you that you will is either, a) a savant, or b) full of it. I’ll let you wager your life on which one is more likely.
What you CAN know is a rough estimate of “I’ve fired more than half my magazine,” or “I’ve fired less than half my magazine.” If you think you’ve fired more than half? Take the opportunity to top off, if you’ve got it. If not? Hope you finish the fight before the mag runs out, or that you’ve mastered the speed reload.

For most of us, the chances of needing to speed reload are pretty slim, as a result of “I shot my gun dry.” This is especially true with “normal” CCW pistol work. Nevertheless, there are two considerations here:

1. We’re not just talking about “everyday” CCW encounters here. You get ambushed by a crowd of bad guys, or are dealing with a herd of cannibalistic San Franciscans, post-SHTF, it is entirely plausible that the 18 rounds in your Glock 17, or even the 30 rounds in your AR or AK are not going to be adequate.
2. Stuff happens. Whether you miss a lot, or the dude you shoot just takes a lot of killing, or your magazine breaks after a round or two, there are reasons to practice and master your speed reloads.

Malfunction Clearances

I don’t know how many times I’ve had students in a class—even a more advanced class, ranging from CQB and patrolling classes to vehicle classes—that had a malfunction and suddenly realize they are not qualified for the class they are in because they don’t know how to clear the malfunction. Sometimes, they’re legitimately under-qualified. We back them off, and have them run some of the more remedial aspects. Other times though, they know HOW to do the corrective action, they just don’t KNOW how to do the corrective action—under stress. Their brain just stops and everything falls apart.
Whether you use SPORTS, TAP-RACK-BANG, or transition to your sidearm (which is fine, if you’re close enough for your sidearm to be more efficient than corrective action), this is something that has to be practiced until you don’t even think about it. The only way I know to do that is to set up malfunctions and drill them, over-and-over-and-over-and-over-and-over. Sorry, but “Oh, I did 10 reps of Tap-Rack-Bang last year, in a class,” is not going to cut it. You will fail when you have to do it under pressure.

Practice

During Q2 of my annual training plan, I limit the amount of repetitions I do of my snap-firing and drawstroke drills. I just hit 10-15 dry-fire drills and then move immediately on to working my reload drills dry-fire. When I do live-fire range work, I intentionally download my magazines, randomly loading 5-10 magazines with anywhere from 3-10 rounds. Then, I randomly grab the magazines and stick them in my mag pouches and gun, so I cannot be certain what load is in the gun at any given time. This incurs a “surprise” factor when the reload comes up.

Dry-Fire Speed Reload

Ben Stoeger has written that he likes to see speed reloads in less than 1.1 second. I’ve witnessed guys hit speed reloads—during drills—in less than one second. I generally aim for the actual reload to run just under 1.5 seconds. For most people, for most purposes, anything less than 2.5 seconds is probably adequately impressive. It’s not like you should be standing still, not moving in the middle of a fight, to conduct the reload. You should be moving to a position of cover—if you’re not already there—and then executing the reload. Ideally, of course, your reload should be protected by your partner providing cover, so in either case, 2.5 seconds is more than adequate—as long as it’s legit, and you can hit that time, under stress, without fail.

To set this up, I’ll set a par time on my shot timer that is my current training par time. I will then execute speed reloads, dry fire, consistently hitting 10-15 repetitions under the par time. Then, I’ll drop a hundredth of a second, until I can beat that. When I hit a time that I can’t beat for 10 repetitions in a row, that becomes my new par time for the dry-fire training week.

Dry-Fire Tactical Reloads

First off, I don’t advocate or really even teach—let alone practice—the old fumbling two mags in one hand method of tactical reloads. What I teach and preach and practice is what has become known as the “reload with retention,” that I learned as a cherry private in the Ranger Regiment, with an M16A2. I will drop the partially-expended magazine into my support hand, and stow it away. Then, I will grasp a fresh magazine and insert it into the weapon. It’s demonstrably faster and less error-prone, whether with rifle or pistol.

I don’t really “practice” tactical reloads much anymore. That’s probably not something I should admit to, but it’s true. I’ve got hundreds of thousands of repetitions of performing them, and anytime I change a magazine in a weapon, outside of speed reloads, I get practice in anyway, so I’m not too worried about it. I’ve yet to have it cause a failure.

For novices learning though, setting the tactical reload up, sans ammunition, is pretty simple. Empty magazine goes in the gun, bolt forward on an empty chamber. On “GO!” drop the mag into the support hand, and stow it. Grab the fresh empty mag from your pouch and seat it. Bring the gun up. Done.

Dry-Fire Malfunction Clearances

I legitimately don’t know a way to practice malfunction clearances dry-fire. Nor do I have any reasonable suggestions for time hacks to aim for. I can hit tap-rack-bang in less than two seconds. I only know that because I’ve seen the split occur when it has happened during shooting more complex drills.

What I typically teach guys to do for dry-fire of tap-rack-bang, is to seat a magazine, with dummy rounds, and simply do snap-drills, through the whole magazine of dummy rounds. You WILL master the instinct to tap-rack-bang when you feel the click. That only works for failure to seat and fail-to-fire malfunctions though, of course.

For more complex malfunctions, I like to set up the Three Little Kittens drill that SGM Kyle Lamb teaches (there’s a YouTube video of it, I believe, or you could avoid being a cheap fucker, and order his videos…). This is three different rifles down range (good excuse to get to shoot your buddy’s pimped out rifle…), each with a different malfunction set up. On “Go!” you move to the rifles, clear the malfunctions, and fire one round (To be honest, I haven’t watched the video in a while. That’s how I set it up).

Conclusions

Successfully hitting your target with your weapon’s fired projectile is the single most crucial skill in combat shooting—or shooting, period. Unfortunately, achieving that is not the total sum of all combat shooting skill. You need to be able to keep your gun in the fight, throughout the duration of the fight. That requires learning and practicing gun-handling core skills as well.
Go forth and do good things. Who does more is worth more.

Addendums

1. The new book, “FORGING THE HERO: Who Does More Is Worth More, A Tribal Strategy for Building Resilient Communities and Surviving the Decline of the Empire” has gone to the printer. I waited an extra week, because the cover art got hung up. It still hasn’t come through, because the artist had scheduling conflicts and didn’t get a chance to get it done. Hopefully, we’ll be able to make it a poster in support of the book, or something. The design is AWESOME!

2. Sam Culper and Forward Observer also have the artwork for a t-shirt that will be produced for MG, in support of the book’s message. So, all of you who have been bitching about getting your hands on some MG swag…it’s en route.

3. Finally, Gadsden Dynamics has the MG Underground Chest Rig in stock and available. I designed this because I couldn’t find a single rifle mag pouch set up that could be worn “concealed.” This is not going to work for “non-permissive environments” under a t-shirt. It was designed for “underground” urban work though. Think, “I’ve got to roll through a really shitty ghetto, and I’d really like more than one magazine for my rifle, on my person.” This, thrown on under a light jacket or button-down, untucked shirt, conceals really well, from as close as five feet away. It’s pretty slick, and they did a good job refining my design, and producing it.(In the interest of intellectual integrity, I get no percentage from sales of the product. I just wanted a piece of kit that would be useful to people, and I couldn’t find one that fit the bill. The guys were willing to design it and manufacture it. Go thee forth and procure one!)

https://gadsdendynamics.com/product/mg-underground-partisan-chest-rig/

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