On Marksmanship training

- Or - how to make your gun-fu strong

All quals are BS.

The time, distance and accuracy standards are completely arbitrary and have no direct bearing on real life. Gunfights don’t start with a shot timer and no one is going to care if the hit you landed in the neck would have been in the c-zone. So why do we put so much emphasis on quals?

They offer a metric for assessment and improvement.

When we train marksmanship and gun handling, we need to be able to quantify (Marines – Quantify) what and how we’re doing. Shot timers and realistic scoring areas help us do that. They allow us to measure and put numbers to our performance.

How well can we shoot this qual or that drill? Are we better cold, or after warming up a bit? Does my time/score change when I move my gear around? What about when the weather changes? In low light conditions?

CSAT Tactical Pistol Instructor Course, FEB 2010. Gloves, extra layers, shivering, etc. can all change your performance.

My objective in training has always been to build “boringly reliable” performance. I don’t need to be the fastest guy. I DO need to be able to perform cold, hungry, and tired, on my worst day, in lousy conditions.

In the real world, how fast is fast enough? How accurately do you need to be able to shoot? The short answer is I don’t know, and neither do you. As gun carrying professionals and responsible armed citizens, we need make sure we’re fast enough and accurate enough to handle whatever comes our way.

Marksmanship is a fundamental skill in our profession, and no one is more professional than us. So train hard, be safe, and have fun.