I am a fan of Clint Smith. I’ve never met him nor have I ever taken a course from Thunder Ranch but I like the way Clint talks. He is what I would call “Plain spoken”. Some may not like him because he uses “colorful” language. I don’t speak that way, but Clint does and I can tell it is something he has done for some time. I focus on what he has to say, not so much on how he says it. He did a short video a year ago or so that I want to write about. He called it “Continuity of fire”. It is all about ammunition. Many years ago I was called upon to defend a position. I was with about 15 other guys and we had a difficult time, but we succeeded. To be honest, all we were trying to do was to survive. Ammunition and water was all we needed for those 3 days. We had food and med supplies, and a place to sleep, but truly those two items were all anyone was focused on. We were grateful that there were thousands of rounds in that location. I don’t know what we would have done if we ran out. We were ambushed and were not expecting any trouble.
When you go to Wal-mart are you expecting trouble? The people in Thornton, Colorado last November didn’t. Yet three of them died without so much as a fight. Mostly we do not expect having to fight for our life. But in light of the world we live in, we should be prepared.
Rudyard Kipling said, “A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition.” I don’t know about the wine, but I agree with the last two! I’ve never heard anyone in combat complain about having too much ammunition. So how much should you carry? For the average soldier on an average mission it was 210 rounds for their primary weapon (M-16). After my first firefight, and having access to a lot of ammo, I went into a fight with the standard 210 (7 magazines) + 5 which = 360 rounds. I also grabbed 70 to 100 additional rounds in 10 round stripper clips. I seldom went to the stripper clips. But I do recall reloading a few magazines a few times. I also had a Beretta side arm with 5 extra mags for that. I drew the gun a few times but never actually had to use it. So does that answer the question? No. I don’t think it does.
Nowadays I carry a Taurus PT-111 G2. I love the 12 round magazines. I also carry a spare. That is 25 rounds. I like that option. “Some say if you can’t get it done with 7 don’t get in the fight.” When I hear this statement I immediately want to ask if that person has ever been in a real fire fight? I feel I’m a pretty good shot. But there are many aspects to a fire fight. I want the option of more ammo. That is only my experience. Someone else may have their different experience or ideas. That is fine. One thing the gun world is full of is ideas. That is a good thing.
Many who have been in a self-defense event have emptied their gun. Then when asked how many shots they fired, they usually remember about half. “The fog of war” can make you act without really knowing what you are doing. This is why training and practice are so important.
Staying in the fight because you prepared is what you want to do. Avoiding the fight is actually what you really want to do, but if the fight comes to you, you need to overwhelmingly finish it.
Keep Your Head Up
How many times have you heard “They came out of nowhere!” Situational awareness often is winning half the battle.
Learn to Identify What’s Significant
Turn on your “baloney” filter. Most of what we see and hear is baloney, or insignificant. We have to be able to sift through it quickly and assess the real situation. Don’t be overly suspicious but see things as they are and if the threat really is a threat.
Have a Plan
The normalcy bias may say to you that what is really happening is not happening. We must be open to the fact that evil exists and sometimes it touches our lives. Training will help a lot. You view the world through a filter that’s composed of your collective life experiences. The more diverse your experiences, the more sophisticated you’re likely to be in analyzing and reacting to what you see.
Extensive and varied scenario training, like real-life time on the street, adds to that diversity. The more exposure you have, the more likely you are to recognize a potential threat situation and relate it to something you’ve already confronted and controlled in the past. You’ll have a greater sense for what will work and what won’t, based on previous results.
You can’t lock in to a detailed plan from start to finish. Also, you should not expect that whatever you do will be perfect. Aggressive action is far more important than perfection. But you should have in mind at least the beginning of what you will do, a starting point, when things go bad with any contact. Rehearse potential responses in your actual training and in your imagination.
Having ‘When/Then’ options in mind is critical. Your worst enemy is freezing, not knowing what to do because you haven’t thought about it. Don’t depend on making up a blueprint as things are going bad. The action may unfold so fast you can’t keep up with it. The creative part of your brain will shut down under the sudden stress load, and you’ll be forced to rely on what you’ve already practiced and muscle memory.
It doesn’t take much for most of us to become overwhelmed. During World War II, many soldiers froze up or didn’t shoot at all in combat. Or they fired into the air with “comfort shots”, making themselves feel “comfortable” by making their gun go off.
Scenario exercises that are progressively more difficult can help you learn to flow through your plan, moving smoothly from whatever you’re doing to what you need to do next to stay ahead of a developing situation.
Keep breathing! Hard believe you have to say that and practice that! It’s another important discipline you can develop through repeated scenario training. Holding your breath is a part of panic. When you don’t keep oxygen flowing to your brain, you can’t think very well. You want to be as clear as you can.
Don’t stop! Stopping and standing still (freezing) is a frequent reaction to scenario attacks. That is just the opposite of what you should be doing. To maximize the chances of a successful attack, a predator needs to get you stopped in a particular place. The longer you stay in one spot, the more likely his plan will progress to completion. The Army teaches “Shoot, Move, Communicate” for a reason.
Get off the X. When you sense danger, move laterally to the threat. When you move forward or backward in a straight line, your relative positioning doesn’t really change.
Keep moving until you’re behind cover, when it’s available. Your moving will cause your attacker to continually reset his plan (see articles on the OODA loop) and make you harder to hit.
If you’re driving when attacked, stay in motion. Don’t stop. Bullet penetration is much less likely when a vehicle is moving.
Use cover. Often those in a fight stand right next to cover and fire from there without ever moving behind it and getting actual protection. Standing beside a tree is common. Get behind it.
Always be aware of your nearest cover. That means something that’s big enough to allow most of you to get behind it and thick enough to stop bullets. Especially lower-caliber handgun bullets, which you’re most likely to encounter. Be careful and do some research. An empty filing cabinet won’t stop a bullet, but one full of paper may. Be very careful about what you fix in your mind that will stop a bullet.
Concealment. When nothing better is available, getting behind even something that probably wouldn’t impede most ammunition may be superior to standing in the open. Attackers usually will try to shoot around any obstacle rather than through it. Most bad guys haven’t really researched what cover is. If the bad guy hesitates to shoot because he thinks you’re behind cover, then it is cover in his mind.
Your goal is always to be as hard target as you can without compromising your ability to defend yourself.
Often we needlessly turn solvable problems into mountains. Running out of ammunition, stoppages, being wounded, they’re all just speed bumps. Get over or around them quickly and move on. Don’t count yourself out of the fight until you really are. Don’t spend time looking for excuses to lose. Get out of self-defeating thinking and focus on ways to win! Outcomes are often determined by who gives up first.
To win, you have to overwhelm the attacker with so much precise force that he can’t deal with it and he is defeated. You eliminate his options until he has none left but surrender, or running away.
Often this can be done without a shot being fired. That’s the ideal. Establish control early on. Don’t hesitate in applying your best justifiable force option to shut down resistance fast. Have more than lethal force in your bag of tricks. A less than lethal weapon can often stop a fight. Once you seize the offensive, don’t give it up. Stay in control and carry through to completion. The longer the fight goes on, the likelier you are to get injured. Don’t drop your guard if the threat stops being a threat. A strong finish is as important as a strong start. A threat can just as easy become a threat again.
Practice and training is so very important. A lot of people feel they don’t have the time or money. If you take the responsibility of carrying a gun, take the full responsibility of training with it.
There is a way to win a fight, you must find it!
Semper Paratus
Check 6
Burn
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