Chapter 9

Jeff commandeered Jennie to go with him to the garage. They took the handtrucks and moved the boxes of gunbelts and holsters to the classroom. The women were not that much different in size, and with a little help, plus some grumbling, they eventually got the holsters and buckles on the belts, and the belts adjusted to their respective sizes.

"Obviously, I could have ordered web belts, or some other type of belts, but I'm partial to leather. After you wear them a few times, a lot of the stiffness will go away, and they'll get easier to buckle. The holsters," he said, holding one up, "are carbon fiber and designed to be adjusted to fit women."

"Why do we have special holsters?" Laura said, examining hers. "And I don't see any way to adjust it."

"Because," Jeff said, an evil little grin on his face, "women have a few things men don't have..."

"Jeffff..."

"... hips, and a smaller waist in proportion to those hips, than men do," he finished, smiling.

"And that means... ?" Ann questioned.

"It means," Jeff said, tightening Arlene's belt for her, "that a regular holster generally doesn't set properly on a woman's hips. Look at the way mine sets. The holster is vertical — approximately parallel with my body." He dropped one of the Glocks in her holster. "But look at Arlene. See how the gun butt sits in very close to her waist, and the bottom of the holster where the end of the barrel is, sticks way out due to the slope of her hips. Should she try to draw her weapon, she would be pulling the gun butt almost into her side. Plus the holster looks funny sticking out like that at the bottom."

"Now, Arlene, take that holster off and put this one on. I deliberately gave you a man's holster just to prove the point."

When the other holster was on the belt and adjusted, "Now look at the difference. Her weapon and holster are parallel with her leg now, the gun sitting straight up, not canted into her waist. This little block here," he said pointing, "can be adjusted with an allen wrench so the top of the holster goes either in or out, as needed. And to give them credit, other manufacturers approach the problem in different ways, at least the ones that approach it at all. Sometimes the metal shank of the holster can be bent to make the holster sit correctly. But I think this is a more logical approach.

"Okay, everybody, check your weapons like we've practiced, then holster and secure them. We'll get all the adjustments done now. If, later on, you think you need to change the adjustment a little, we will. But for now, check each other until every holster rides like mine does."

A little later, everyone was tentatively pleased with their holsters. "Another thing," Jeff said, going back to the front of the classroom, "these are all level one holsters. There are generally three levels of retention for holsters. Level one gives the least retention."

"What do you mean by 'retention?'" Jennie asked, trying to adjust her belt so it felt more comfortable.

"Well, my definition of retention might be a little different from that of some manufacturers', but generally, to me, retention is how much you have to do to get the weapon out of the holster. I.e., how secure the weapon is from an adversary getting it out of the holster. I've sold holsters, and some police departments swear by them, that require you to push down on the weapon, twist, then rock the weapon forward before the holster will release the pistol. During a physical confrontation (fight), it is very difficult for someone to get the weapon out of the police officer's holster. The only problem — it also makes it difficult for the officer to get his/her gun out, as well — particularly when in a hurry. During stressful conditions, such as being fired upon, officers have sometimes been unable to get their weapons out, period. During these high stress conditions, fine motor control frequently 'goes to shit, ' to quote a training officer that I know. Some officers have just plain forgotten the combination needed to get their weapon out.

"The instinctive thing to do is to just pull the gun straight out. But that won't work with that type of holster. Under stress, sometimes you just can't remember to push down, twist, and rock forward, or whatever other complicated procedure you need to get your weapon out of a level three holster. A thumb break is much quicker, but an adversary has almost as much chance at getting the gun as the officer does during a fight. There are pros and cons to every retention system. The holster I chose has a recessed button that you push with your index (trigger) finger that releases the pistol so that it can be drawn." Turning to the side so they could see better as he demonstrated, he continued, "As you reach for your pistol and get a grip on the weapon, your index finger naturally falls straight down on the outside of the holster." When everyone gripped their weapons the same way Jeff did, he continued, "Now your index finger is right on the release button on the holster.

"This system will have to be learned so that it becomes instinctive, but it is much easier than some. Of course, it's easier for an opponent to figure out as well. But we're not police officers who have to protect our weapons while we're in a crowd, or fighting someone. We're just going to use them on a range. Nevertheless, we will practice drawing and firing until everyone can do it without having to think about it."

"I feel like Wyatt Earp," Melissa indignantly said.

Jeff frowned at her. "The safest way to transport a handgun on a range is in a holster. Otherwise, we're going to be walking around with guns in our hands. Muzzles have to point somewhere, and even pointing down, an unholstered weapon can be a liability. A round discharged downward and hitting a sidewalk will probably ricochet, fragmenting and producing more than one missile. When we go live with these weapons, that is to say when we start using live ammunition, which would you rather have — everyone walking around with loaded pistols in their hands, or locked in their holsters?"

"I'm sorry, Jeff. I didn't think. I should have known that you were doing everything to take care of us," she responded quietly.

Jeff walked over and hugged her. "Don't worry Baby, after you wear that gunbelt a few days, draw and fire the weapon for hours on end, you won't even notice you have the equipment on."

"I'm scared of this thing," Melissa said, her voice breaking. "It was different when I knew we were just dry firing, and there wasn't any ammunition in the gun, but now, I know we're going to go out on that range and..."

Jeff hugged her, eyeing Jennie, who was equally upset but trying not to show it. "We won't fire more than fifty rounds in the next two or three hours. We're going to start off just cycling the dummy rounds through to get you used to working the slide. Then we'll shoot ball and dummy; we'll put in four dummy rounds and one live one. We'll load each other's magazines so we won't know where the live round is. It could be the first one, the last one, or any in between. If you know that your weapon is going to fire, you tend to develop a trigger jerk, or flinch. Or both. With ball and dummy, you eventually get tired of flinching, and go a long way toward getting past the bad habits before they become ingrained. Plus you get to practice not flinching. Also, it's very difficult to tell if you flinch when the round fires. Of course, a good firearms instructor can usually see flinch. Trigger jerk and failure to focus on the front sight also have some distinct characteristics that a good instructor can recognize. Most good ones can even 'read' a target and tell what a shooter is doing wrong. Many times, the ball and dummy routine will allow even a beginning shooter to see their own problems, and correct them.

"Another thing ladies, I expect that some, if not all of you, will be mad at me before this day is over. Remember what I said about Frank, the range master back in Georgia. He insisted that you should always have someone else teach your wife to shoot. What he meant was that wives tend to get pissed at their husbands when they use the same teaching techniques with them as they would use with a regular pupil. Criticizing one's wife, and pointing out her mistakes tends to cause trouble on the home front. Also, we have to have discipline on the range to be safe. Despite what some people think about weapons," he said, looking first at Jennie then Melissa, "shooting on the range with a competent firearms instructor is one of the safest sports there is. If all of you do what I tell you to do, when I tell you to do it, it will be impossible for you to be seriously hurt."

"'Seriously' as opposed to not seriously hurt?" Doctor Boswell said, smiling.

"Well there is something called a Glock bite," Jeff said, deadpan.

"All right," Boswell laughed, "I'll bite. Pun intended. What is a 'Glock bite?'"

Jeff laughed, drew his weapon, checked it, then said, "Showing is better than telling. I need a volunteer."

Boswell walked up to the front of the class. "Jeff held up his weapon in a two-handed grip. "Revolvers are generally shot with one thumb over the other like I'm holding my weapon now. Doctor Boswell, please push the slide back, slowly."

As Boswell pushed the slide back, it became obvious the rear of the slide was going to hit Jeff's thumb. "Thanks Helen."

When Boswell was back in her seat, Jeff continued, "So, the same grip that works on a revolver won't, necessarily, work on an auto-loader. My Colt has a large tang at the top of the handle, or grips, if you prefer. It makes it a lot harder for the slide to hit your thumb, but the Glock, and many other auto-loaders, don't have anything to prevent this. So you either use the correct grip, or the slide bites you. Remember, it comes back almost faster than you can see. We'll carry a box of band aids to the range with us. Injuries are usually trivial, but Frank told me that he had once had someone that had to have a stitch from a bite from a Sig.

"There are a number of grips, (methods to hold a handgun) but we are going to use the one I have been teaching you since we started dry firing. Right-handed people, which we all are, should put the right thumb over the left, the left thumb parallel with the barrel. This produces a firm grip, particularly when you add the push pull we have practiced with the Weaver stance. If you all do this, we won't need any band aids.

"Okay. We all know the range rules. Now here's one of the things that's going to get me in trouble with all of you. When you break a rule, or do something stupid, or dangerous, when you flinch three times, when you have an unintentional discharge of your weapon, or when you can't tell me how many rounds you have fired... you have to do five pushups. And that's just for starters. As we progress with training, the pushups will be for every flinch, or trigger jerk. When I check your target — not today, but after we've gotten past the basics, if I should realize you haven't been properly focusing on the front sight — well, pushups will help you remember all of the basics."

Diana started laughing. "You might just as well sleep in the guest suite tonight, Big Boy."

"Yeah. You're probably right," he answered. "There's bound to be some hurt feelings, just because it's me, where with a stranger, you would just try harder not to mess up next time — which is the point of the pushups. Not only do they make you work, but they embarrass you in front of your buddies. Peer pressure, isn't always a bad thing," he finished, grinning, but he was the only one.

Jeff broke the quiet saying, "Okay, everybody get your trays. Put ten dummy rounds, your ear protection and shooting glasses in your tray, also one of the washcloths from the stack on the end of the table. They're good for wiping sweat, and grime off your hands. As we go by the garage, put one box of ammunition in your tray, too."

After they got their ammunition and started to leave the garage, "Don't pay any attention to the work crew. They're going to be looking at you as you walk out to where the target frames are. Number one: you're all fabulously beautiful women. Number two: you're wearing a gunbelt and a pistol. They have rarely, if ever, seen one woman as pretty as you are — until they came out here, never seven at one time. And they probably have never seen a woman wearing shorts and a gunbelt, either. They have probably seen a female police officer from time to time, but she was in uniform. Now if that were eight cops out there, instead of eight construction workers, they would only notice seven beautiful women walking out to the range. They would hardly be conscious of the gunbelts, because they wear one themselves — and they see female cops in civvies on the range wearing gunbelts all the time. It's all a relative thing.

"Hold your heads up, and be proud. In a few weeks time you'll be shooting so well that they'll be admiring more than your looks."

Construction came to a screeching halt when they walked by the crew, despite Evie's haranguing of the men. "Hey, Ralph," she yelled, "close your mouth. You look stupid standing there with your trap open. Simpson, wait until I tell Millie about you pouring concrete into your boot while you gawked at the ladies. That feisty little woman of yours is going to have a thing or two to say to you."

They could hear Evie laughing at the guys halfway to where the target frames were set up.

When they got to the frames, Jeff stepped off seven yards from the target frames, then put seven fist-size stones in a line, each about four feet apart, to mark off the seven yard line and their firing positions. He had brought B27 targets, and a stack of plain copy paper. He proceeded to staple the copy paper, one each to the cardboard on the frames.

"Okay, ladies, until our range is finished, we'll practice out here. Make sure you're lined up on the little row of rocks, so everyone is the same distance from the targets. Just a foot of two makes a lot of difference in the noise impacting your ear, as well as the concussion (muzzle blast) you're definitely going to notice if you are a foot or so forward of your neighbor."

When everybody was lined up, he moved the stones so there was one in front of each person's right foot. "That's the firing line. Make sure you're in the same place every time. When the real range is done, the front of the sidewalk will mark where you stand, but we're going to have to make do until the crew finishes. Now, with everyone still facing the targets, step one step backward. With your feet shoulder-width apart, place both of your hands in the small of your back with one hand grasping the other."

When everyone had done so, "This is called parade rest. Each time when you have finished firing, you will check your weapon, lock it in your holster, then step back to this parade rest position, and remain there until I tell you differently." Before anyone could ask, he added, "This way, I can tell when everyone is finished, and I can also tell when the line is safe. As in the range rules, make certain that you never turn around on the firing line, and that your weapon is always pointed downrange at all times when it is out of your holster. I'll define downrange for you as three feet directly in front of you, straight to your target."

Jeff stepped slightly in front of everyone and demonstrated where downrange was. "If I see you point your weapon even slightly off to either side, I'll tap you three times on the shoulder. That will mean to immediately holster up, securing the weapon, and step back to parade rest." He had Jennie tap him on the shoulder. Without looking around, Jeff dropped the magazine from his weapon, locked the slide open, checked for a round in the chamber, let the slide go forward, holstered, then stepped back to parade rest.

"If this looks militarish to you," he said, grinning, "then you're wrong. Most police ranges do this or a slight variation of it, but what I've taught you came from police, not the military. The point being, you can't shoot your partner, if your weapon is pointed only downrange, or secured in your holster. You never turn around. You always double check your weapon — even after firing it empty — and you always immediately secure it in your holster. A disciplined range is a safe range.

"And before you get exasperated and start worrying that you aren't going to remember everything, I can assure you that we're going to go slowly enough as I teach each new concept, that you won't have any problem remembering anything. If you do," he added, grinning, "the pushups will be a great memory enhancement. In a few weeks, I'll probably have to increase the amount to ten, instead of the five I promised you, since you will be getting stronger."

The women were not amused by his comment, and at least one of them, Diana, knew he was serious, grin or not.

"Alright, we're going to walk through a firing stage, although we're going to only dry fire. Since your trays with your equipment are setting beside you, you won't have to turn around to do this. "Firing positions! That means step to the position I've showed you." When everyone had done so, he continued, "Put your safety glasses and ear protection on. And, " as several of the women said something to the one standing beside them, "no talking to anyone other than me, unless the line is secure, and I'll tell you when that happens."

He got a couple of dirty looks for that one, but everyone got their glasses and ear protection on without further comment.

"We're going to dry fire five rounds. That means that, when I give the command to check your weapons, you will draw your gun, keeping it pointed downrange. Then you will take the magazine out, lock the slide back and double check to see that the weapon is empty, check to see that the magazine is empty, reinsert the magazine, and release the slide. Then return the weapon to a secured holster. When I give the command to fire, you will draw, dry fire five rounds, check the weapon, then holster. Don't panic. We're going to do everything that I just mentioned one step at a time, in the beginning."

Jeff spent the next thirty minutes slowly walking them through the steps he had just outlined. Then they loaded five dummy rounds each in two magazines, and worked with those, spending another fifteen minutes getting them accustomed to reloading as the first magazine was emptied. When everyone could do the whole procedure flawlessly without any intervention from him, he called a break and opened the cooler of soft drinks that he had brought with him.

When everyone had a drink and had gathered around him, Jeff took a sip, put the bottle down, and picked up a sheet of typing paper from the stack. Picking up a stray piece of the cardboard backing Dave had used for the target frames, Jeff knelt down. Laying the paper on the cardboard so the paper would have some support, he said, "I need a guinea pig, uh, I mean a volunteer," he teased.

"Okay," Ann said, laughing. "How bad can it be? He's only got a blank sheet of paper."

"And a pen," Jeff laughed, producing one from his pocket.

Ann knelt down beside him. "What do you want me to do?"

Just put a dot in the exact center of the paper. And before you do that, I'll remind everyone that it's a standard piece of copy paper — eight and a half by eleven inches. A rectangle. So the dot will be equidistant from the top and bottom, in other words, five and a half inches from the top and bottom, but four and a quarter inches from the sides.

"Let me have the ruler," she said, reaching for a foot ruler Jeff had just taken out of his bag.

"No," Jeff objected. "Do it with your eye."

Ann stared at him for a second, then after carefully looking at the paper while moving her pen either way a little, she started to mark it.

"You only get one chance, so make sure you're right, and don't put a mark on it until you're sure."

Ann looked back at Jeff then moved the pen close, but not touching. She checked what she thought was center from the sides, then looked top to bottom. After moving the pen up and down a little, then checking to see if the horizontal still seemed right, she put a dot on the paper.

Jeff quickly measured from the side edge of the paper to the dot. "Four and a quarter. Dead on horizontally. Now let's measure from the top. After a second, he said, showing everyone the measurement, "She missed it a whole quarter inch on the vertical measurement," he teased. "Instead of five and a half down from the top, she put the mark at five and three quarters. Excellent judgement."

"Hey, that neat," Jennie said. Obviously everyone else agreed. "You're sharp Ann," Jennie finished.

Jeff picked up the paper and put it back on the stack on the ground, putting a small rock back in place to keep the paper from blowing away.

As he stood up, he could tell by their faces that they were beginning to figure it out. "Yeah, that what you're going to be doing in a few minutes, only with the Glock and a bullet, instead of a ballpoint pen. It's called shooting center of mass. And it's the way you shoot with a handgun in a hurry up gunfight — meaning that you don't have time to carefully aim at an individual's head, or particular area of the body, just center the sights on center of mass and pull the trigger.

"Obviously, an assailant won't have an x-ring drawn out on his chest, but your eye (your brain) can very easily determine center of mass. Look at the silhouette targets," he said, taking one from the box, then unrolling the target on the ground. "They are marked with faint scoring rings, starting with the seven ring, all the way to the center, where there is a small oval with an 'x' in it. Again, obviously, that 'x' ring is center of mass. At twenty-five yards, most people can't see the faint scoring rings on the B27 target, but your eye can find center of mass, and that's what you shoot at.

"And yeah, Doctor Boswell," he teased, "I know that I left an 'at' hanging on the end of the sentence, but 'where you shoot' just isn't as descriptive as 'what you shoot at.'"

Melissa broke in before Boswell could respond, "Crap, Jeff. Do you mean to tell us that we're going to shoot at something, and be graded on our performance, when we can't even see that something that we're trying to shoot?"

Jeff just looked at her, then said, "Yep."