Survival Weapons Training

Harold wrote me via e-mail and asked: "I am now totally focused on prepping. I think that within the next six years we will be without cars and electricity and that means without cell phones and computers. There will not be anyone to protect us except ourselves. My old friend is a local Deputy Sheriff and believes the same thing. We have stocked up an old hunting cabin that we use here in Kentucky. Both of us are in our late 50's. I have hunted all my life and can easily live in the woods, real comfortable there. I have a Browning BAR in .30-06 and am no stranger to taking deer but I am knowing that my rifle skills for defending my home or my cabin can be much improved. What are your recommendations for using a rifle for defending? God Bless. "

UrbanMan's comments: Harold, you are on track preparing a Bug Out location and having perhaps the beginnings of a survival team with your Deputy Sheriff friend. I find it interesting that you have a six year time frame for what is commonly called the collapse, the economic collapse, The End Of The World As We Know It (TEOTWAWKI) or simply SHTF. ...take your pick of monikers,...end result the same - our survival at risk.  The larger the collapse, the higher the threat to our culture surviving.

The BAR is a great rifle. I like the detachable magazine capability of it and hope you have several extra magazines. However ammunition is expensive for routine battle rifle training. Even a semi-auto .22 rifle like the Ruger 10-22 would allow you to train consistantly and not going broke.

Some of the skills you need to have to employ a firearm sufficiently for any purpose including defensive purposes include:

Accuracy. Being able to hit what you aim at.

Train on multiple targets. Most people go out and shoot one target. Taking a page from the practical pistol, rifle and shotgun community, some of they drills they incorporate includes multiple targets.

Speed. Shooting multiple targets,....... accurately!

Magazines changes or re-loading. This is a muscle memory drill that the more you do it the better and faster you will become. If you do not have a magazine fed gun, then you will rapidly appreciate one.

Clearing Malfunctions is another task. You may rarely get them so you will have to intentional make up the scenarios and it helps to have a training partner so you can do to for each other.

Positional shooting - shooting from all different positions.

Weak hand and strong hand only shooting, in case you are wounded or injured you can still operate the gun.

Stress situations. When you are being shot at your stress level goes up (duh!). What this causes is increased heart rate; rapid, shallow breathing; sometimes tunnel vision; increase in gross motor skills; decrease in complex motor skills. It's hard to replicate in training, but physical exertion followed by conducting your shooting drills will give you a small idea of what stress does to your skills sets.

Tactics. Learn how to use cover and concealment. If you have a survival buddy or team learn how to fire and manuever as a team.

Prepare for the Defense.  Look over your properties where you think you may have to defend yourself.  Consider what the natural and concealed routes are that attackers would use.  Consider clearing areas you need to clear to give our fields of observation and fire.  Consider early warning devices to alert you, and emplacement of  obstacles to force attackers into areas to your advantage.

Bug Out route.  What if you are in danger of losing your position?  Consider a Bug Out route or method of safely as can be withdrawing from your home or cabin.  Establish a rally point if you have a team so in case separated, you can link up.  

A cache of supplies would be a good idea in case you are forced to Bug Out without much gear, equipment or supplies.

Consider going to a shooting school. Kyle Lamb of Viking Tactics hosts many such course mostly for military and law enforcement types. People and agencies I have worked with have contracted Kyle Lamb to run training for their personnel and tactical teams. You may not be able to attend any training but as luck would have it Kyle Lamb hosts training videos on You Tube, just enter "Kyle Lamb Viking Tactics" and see a slew of videos on shooting drills he recommends. Here is the video on a drill he calls the "396". Good luck to you Harold. .....Oh yeah, consider getting a magazine fed rifle.

Urban Survival Firearms - Weapons Training from Viking Tactics

We talk a lot about the necessary items for survival: food, shelter, packing Bug Out Bags, developing a bug out plan, procuring survival equipment/gear and of course, alot of talk goes into survival firearms. What we don't talk very much about is the training required to be proficient in using firearms, or weapons if you prefer.

People have asked me to give them an idea on how skilled they need to be. I really hesitate to address this. Imagine if I wrote a series of skill standards, maybe something to the effect "the Survivalist must be able to load a magazine, charge the weapon and engage four targets with one round, at one each target at ranges of 25 yards, 50 yards, 75 yards and 100 yards, in 10 seconds keeping all his rounds on target". Well the difficultly in establishing a training and performance standard while considering all different types of firearms and the different capabilities and restrictions of the shooters would be immense.

However, I would suggest that everyone develop and increase their proficiency as much as their resources (time and money) allow. Attendance at any number of shooting schools is a great place to start. Joining gun clubs and competing in many diverse firearms competitions from International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC), to the International Defensive Pistol Association (IDPA), to Rimfire and Centerfire Bullseye competition, maybe Metallic Silhouette shooting or any number of other shooting disciplines are also an excellent place to learn and grow your skills.

Some people learn by seeing what is possible than training to replicate that skill. The below video is from Viking Tactics. I won't go into deal on the background of Kyle Lamb, owner of Viking Tactics, but suffice it to say he is probably the best in the world,...yes, the best in the world at what he does.
It is almost impossible to get a slot in one of his classes,...but you can try,..the next best thing is to look at his videos and see what is possible.



Additional videos can be viewed from Kyle's You Tube channel:

The book, "Green Eyes and Black Rifles", is a classic and needs to be in everyone's library even if you do not own an AR.

Book Review – Green Eyes, Black Rifles, By Kyle Lamb

Although the beginning of this site is to provide an initial exposure to Survival and Preparedness oriented towards the relatively unprepared urbanite (or suburbanite), we are intending in the future to address issues and concerns for more serious practitioners of Survival preparedness and those would certainly include owners of M-4 or M-16/AR-15 type carbines and rifles. However, we have decided from time to time to reach past where we currently are and jump into advanced issues, equipment and concepts.

In that vein, we wanted to share our look at the book “Green Eyes & Black Rifles: Warriors Guide to the Combat Carbine”, by Kyle Lamb.

The readers of this site may not be familiar with Kyle Lamb, a retired Special Forces Sergeant Major, but anybody who is anyone in the shooting and training world know who he is. Kyle is probably the most experienced and talented firearms instructor currently plying his trade. From Mogadishu to Bagdad, and other places to be sure, Kyle Lamb certainly has the credentials to explain the basic and advanced employment of AR type carbine/rifle.

If you own an AR type rifle (M-4 or various clones, M16 or various models) you WANT a copy of this book as it covers everything and more, from zeros; to positional shooting; to mounting, zeroing and using scopes; to training courses, etc. Our copies of this book are highly prized and even more secured (so they won’t wander off as good kit tends to do).

Publisher: Trample & Hurdle Publishers; 1st edition (January 17, 2008); ISBN-10: 0615166547; ISBN-13: 978-0615166544