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Do you go to the square range? Do you do work that you could do on a square range?
Do you go to the square range to practice self-defense? Should you?
Last week I went to the square range and worked on my self-defense shooting with my friend from Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership, John.
We shot his new Colt Python (if you want to hear about that you will have to become a Shooter’s Club Member) and I worked with my self-defense gun.
Most people in the self-defense world make fun of going to the square range to work on self-defense shooting. But a lot of those same people will tell you the fundamentals of shooting are everything. Can’t you work on your fundamentals of shooting at the square range?
I know it’s dangerous. Most indoor ranges are pretty scary when it comes to the people that show up. I’ve found the guntry clubs to be a little better. If for no other reasons than the ones I’ve been to have bullet-resistant dividers. And those dividers hang out behind you.
John and I went to the local guntry club, Mission Ridge. They have bullet-resistant barriers between shoots and the barrier continues with a bullet-resistant glass piece that extends back behind the shooter. So as long as you stay in the booth you are pretty good.
And Mission Ridge eliminated the range bench behind the line. At first, I hated this, but the only place people have to set things down and take guns out is at the shooting line. That way no one can even take their guns out behind the line. It actually works well.
I worked with a new carry load. I’ve been shooting 124gr +P Federal HST’s and now going to 147gr standard pressure HST. I need to know where they are going to hit in my carry gun. A little five-inch circle with a dot in it works great. I started at five yards, shot a ground, moved to seven, and then to 10. My gun shoots dead on with the 147s at five and seven, but groups a little high at 10. Something to know. And it has less recoil with the standard pressure 147gr load than the 124gr +P. Something else nice to know.
But the square range can be used to work on your self-defense shooting. You can work on recoil control by simply seeing how fast you can get back on the sites and trigger after a shot breaks. You can’t shoot rapid-fire, but you can still work on it.
I like to work on my accuracy at the square range. I do the Dot Torture Drill all the time. Sometimes I can draw from the holster, or I just pick it up from the bench. It’s incredibly hard. Unless you can clean it, don’t knock it.
I also like to use a 5×5 drill target (get one here) to see how far I can move the target back and get all the round inside the 5inch circle. Don’t make fun of it unless you try it. It’s harder than you think, especially out at 25 yards.
What do you do at the square range to improve your self-defense shooting?
Stay Safe,
Ben