I’d suggest you shoot the 2019 revised FBI qualifier. There are a variety of good reasons. The FBI qualification represents a national and international standard of performance that you can use to benchmark your skill set.
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| Here's my target. Since I wasn't being videod, I checked the target after every string to determine where I missed. The three off the scoring area are marked with the stage The notation is 3 misses 6 pt. |
It's a rather narrow skill demonstration, but they are all done on the clock. Let me list them:
Strong hand only followed by a transition to weak hand,
Shooting fast and accurate at
varying distances;
Slide lock reload;
Drawing from concealment;
Standing transitioning to
kneeling.
It's not an impossible list.
The FBI's target is the QIT
silhouette, but after consulting with several people and a bit of calculation,
I decided to use an IDPA target and take off the bottom 2 inches of the 1
zone. Everything in the 0 and 1 zone is
scored a hit. Everything outside is a
miss. Each hit was worth 2 points. To pass, you need 80 points. If you want to pass at the instructor level,
you need 90 points.
Here's the Course of Fire (CoF)
String 1 At 3 yards Draw and fire 3 rds strong hand only, switch hands
and fire 3 rds support hand only, all in 6 seconds,
String 2 At 5 yards Draw and fire 3 rds in 3 seconds
String 3 At 5 yards From the Ready, fire 3 rds in 2 seconds
String 4 At 5 yards From the Ready, fire 6 rds in 4 seconds
String 5 At 7 yards Draw and fire 5 rds in 5 seconds
String 6 At 7 yards From the
Ready, fire 4 rounds, conduct an empty gun reload, and fire 4 more rds, all in
8 seconds
String 7 At 7 yards From the Ready, fire 5 rounds in 4 seconds
String 8 At 15 yards draw and fire 3 rds in 6 seconds
String 9 At 15 yards from the Ready, fire 3 rds in 5 seconds
String 10 At 25 yards draw and fire 4 rds from Standing, drop to a
Kneeling Position, and fire 4 more rds from Kneeling, all in 20 seconds.
Any rounds over the time are
scored as misses. You can use your timer
to determine that. The CoF is a total of
50 rounds with a possible 100 points.
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| 25 yard to the target. That is a long shot! Just stay focused and snipe 'em in. |
When you shoot this, pay attention to the stages you found difficult. These are the skill sets that would benefit from work. Collect the time on all the stages. As you practice, you need to find a balance between group size and time. If you need this score to qualify, work on using most of the available time to shoot the smallest group possible.
Shoot this CoF concealed; that's
more reflective of the armed citizen condition.
The CoF specified 'ready position', and I'm discovering that means
different things to different people. I
used the ready position of a drawn gun pointed down range 10 feet in front of
me. It's slightly more challenging than
the high tuck, where the weapon is already indexed on the target.
What's the tactical point of
shooting this qualifier? After all, the
actual CoF doesn't require any tactics, only basic gun handling skills.
Good tactics cover the three
phases of your self-defense shooting.
Shooting a nationally recognized qualifier has ramifications for the
last phase, survival in court.
You may be asked why the jury
should accept the statement that you are a competent shooter and didn’t just throw
rounds down range hoping to hit the right target. In a civil case, you may be painted as a
careless, indifferent-to-human suffering boob.
And as such, you should be held liable for the pain and suffering you
caused. It may be suggested that you
accidentally shot someone; it was your poor gun handling skills and
marksmanship that caused the injury and possible death.
Passing the FBI Qualification
demonstrates you are a competent shooter.
I have some insights into
preserving that documentation.
First, practice that until you
can't fail. That is what professionals
do. They don't practice until they pass;
they practice until they can't fail. You
always want to pass with a score higher than the minimum. Excellence is always defensible.
After you shoot the qualification
and pass, sign and date the target, have a witness sign and date it. To turn it up to 11, videotape yourself
shooting and passing the qualification.
There are a few more caveats.
The video should be one
continuous taping, with no breaks for reloading or changing batteries. You want the videographer to be able to
testify in court that the video is a complete, continuous, and accurate record
of the event.
Work with a videographer who
understands what you are attempting to document. The videographer may need to position the camera
and zoom in or out to capture the action.
Let them do their job.
Make sure they video you signing
and dating the target after you finish.
Taking a few stills is a good idea, too.
Set up your magazines to match
the CoF. You shouldn’t be counting shots
and wondering when to reload. This is
not the time to ask Dirty Harry, “Did I fire three times or four?”
If something goes wrong, the gun
fails, the wind blows the target over, kill and erase the video, and start over
with a fresh target. You want the jury
to see your performance, not a blooper reel.
How did I do? I fired the CoF cold with no practice for the
first time. I saw areas I need to
improve, especially getting my dot on target.
I shot a 94 out of 100.
My times? This isn't for bragging; this is to show the
CoF isn't as daunting as it sounds.
String 1 6 second limit 4.9
seconds
String 2 3 second limit 2.7
seconds
String 3 2 second limit 1.45
seconds
String 4 4 second limit 2.3seconds
String 5 5 second limit 3.7
seconds
String 6 8 second limit 7.0 seconds
String 7 4 second limit 2.4 seconds
String 8 6 second limit 4.0 seconds
String 9 5 second limit 2.9 seconds
String 10 20 second limit 19.4 seconds.
As it was, I dropped three rounds outside the scoring area. I am happy with the outcome.
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