Jul/Aug - uspsa

Exercise 2: Here is an exercise that
will increase your speed of visual acquisition
of the sights on target and
from target to target.
Point your finger at an object. Now,
without changing the orientation of
your hand, lower your hand back to
your natural handclap position where
your hands would come together when
you clap. Keeping your finger level
with where you were looking, bring
your finger back up and stick the end
of the finger straight into the object
you are looking at.
Now, put your gun in your hands
and bring your gun up to the target and
properly align the sights. Without
changing the orientation of your hands
or wrists, slowly lower the gun to your
"natural handclap" position where you
would normally clap your hands together.
Keep your trigger finger, which is
alongside the frame, level with where
you are looking. Bring the gun back up,
using your kinesthetic awareness to
feel the slide coming up level with
where you are looking.
Start doing this at different levels:
knee high, waist high, head high; each
time, bringing the gun up level with
where you are looking.
In both of these exercises, you are
developing kinesthetic awareness of
the attitude of the gun as you are lifting
it to eye level. This allows your
brain to recognize a properly aligned
gun prior to it getting to the visual
field. Your vision will confirm the
alignment, which should be close to
perfect when it got there.
Now try doing this from the holster.
Now do it with eyes closed. Now,
move the gun from target to target,
feeling it staying level for your eyes as
you move it. See it pause on each target
and confirm sight alignment before
you move on. As you move the gun,
monitor the tension in your solar
plexus and midsection and try to keep
that area relaxed as you move.
The concept here is that the body
points and the eyes verify. Kinesthetic
and visual skills work together for
maximum efficiency. Pay attention to
what is happening in your body as you
are executing your skills.
Obviously this is just a preliminary
discussion of training for skills improvement.
There is a whole range of
training that I do to prepare students to
maximize their performance in the environments
they operate in, both tacti-
FEED
TUBE continued from page 71.
ing the shell carrier closer to his body.)
The downside to the system appears
in weight and fragility. DeSimone's
suspended tube has some obvious
problems with fragility, but Roessel's
system is protected and supported
by the barrel and magazine (see photos).
DeSimone has nearly perfected
the shell stops — a major improvement
over Roessel's friction system, so together
the pair may soon develop a
truly marketable design. Feed tubeequipped
shotguns are heavy and slow
from target to target, but the reloading
speed bonus seems to make up for a lot
of that.
How heavy? You be the judge. On
DeSimone's Open Division Remington
1100, between the magazine (10), the
feed tube (11), a sidesaddle (6), a
forend side-saddle (5), and the round
in the chamber (1), a shooter can leave
the line with 33 rounds on the gun.
Roessel's Remington 1100 feels less
ambitious, but don't be fooled. It was
built to suit a different drummer. It's
smaller, lighter, and quicker, but carries
the same 33 rounds. It sports a shorter
cal and competitive, with whatever
weapon systems they will be using. Scientific
training methods allow one to
maximize his or her training and take
it to an entirely new level.
Next time, we will explore the
shooting cycle and how to use visual
and kinesthetic skills together!
-11
barrel with Limited-legal magazine (8),
a specially shaved-down Tac-Star
sidesaddle (6), a second such sidesaddle
on the butt (6), his gravity-fed feed
tube (12). Add the round in the chamber
(1) and you get a total of 33.
Like the ugly pistols mentioned in
Dave Dawson's column on page 51,
Roessel's gun won't win any gunsmith
guild awards. It's an ugly, Parkerized,
3-inch 1100 that looks like it fell off a
truck. Once you pick it up, you start
noticing the oversize safety, the fiber
optic rifle sights, the shaved sidesaddles
(that allow shells to peel out sideways),
the screw-in chokes, the
hogged-out magazine tube opening. . .
After having a chance to play with it for
a short time, a whole lot of beauty
started shining through.
Will their innovation change the
world of practical shotgunning? Who
knows, it's not finished yet. I'm not expert
enough to evaluate the extra
weight out on the barrel, but I do know
their system will force shooters to rethink
how ammo carriers should work.
6.91
CIOSe-up of
DeSimone's
version. The
space between
the feed tube
and the forend
provides space
for your hand.
It's a little awkward,
but it
works.
July August 2002 • FRONT SIGHT 73