Outdoor Hub by Terry Nelson 11.04.20
Are you ready? That question was the theme at this year’s shooters retreat, held at the Felix Canyon Ranch in southeastern New Mexico. The annual event is held for the benefit of our students that have an ongoing interest in maintaining shooting skills. Many of these students have been attending for the last eight to ten years. On top of that, most have been regular students throughout the years. Our goal this year was to put the past defensive training and taught shooting skills to the test, along with other lifesaving knowledge, tourniquet use for example.
With the current state of affairs around the country, the quest of readiness is or should be on everyone’s mind. I would challenge you to ask yourself, am I ready? It is a bit perplexing to me, that dedicated students continue to train, and agree that training is beneficial and should be done. But when the time comes to actually put some of that training or doctrine to use in a course that is reality based it would appear many have not kept up with taught skills since previous training sessions. In many cases those training sessions were literally months or even a year ago.
All defensive and preparedness skills are perishable and should constantly be updated, practiced and refined. Keeping your skills honed in the skills of defensive living may well be worth your time in today’s world. Let’s take a look at some categories of training for the everyday defensive lifestyle.
The gun itself
No surprise here. Shooting skills, to include concealed carry methods and options are under constant refinement in my realm. Developing and maintaining good concealment techniques and efficiency of drawing your handgun takes continued practice. Drawing from concealment and making defensively accurate hits on target with your handgun in quick times is the goal. Do you ever train in dim light conditions and do you carry a flashlight? You should. Do you carry a carbine style firearm in your vehicle on a daily basis? Is it accessible and ready within the confines of your local laws? I believe in carbine carry in a vehicle on a daily basis, something you may want to consider.
Emergency medicalI like the phrase “last ditch medicalâ€. This training is intended to deal with grievous bleeding events no matter the cause. Most often we are talking a situation where emergency services cannot reach you or others in adequate time. This skill set teaches the use of tourniquets, pressure bandages, occlusive dressings for penetrating chest wounds, and establishing an airway. It is not your everyday basic first aid or CPR, although you should include those topics in your training regime as well. I carry a tourniquet every day, you should too. A discussion of this topic is included in all gun courses I provide. A more in-depth course on this critical topic is available in many locations around the country.
More:
https://www.outdoorhub.com/stories/2020/11/04/are-you-ready/