200509 swat transitions

8/14/2019 200509 SWAT Transitions

1/4

72 S.W.A.T. SEPTEMBER 2005 www.swatmag.com

Working around a corner yousee a shadow coming from theopposite direction. No doubtabout it now, the ght is here. You stop,mentally check your stance, and thenthere he is, eyes displaying murderousintent. Drop the weapon! you com-mand. Ignoring you he points a pistol atyou and advances. You bring the muzzleof your carbine up, slip off the safety,focus on the front sight, and press thetrigger andnothing. No bang. No re-coil. Not even a click. It seems strangethat you notice his lips form a smile ashe starts running at you, closing the gap

between you. What do you do? If youhave your pistoland theres no reason

you shouldnta transition is called for,and the quicker the better.

Compared to pistols, ries kick ass.

Battle ries normally have high capac-ity magazines. They allow us to engagetargets with accurate re from touchingdistance out to hundreds of yards, andthe velocity of rie rounds increases theprobability of stopping the threat. Butwhen your rie ceases to function, andyou cant call in artillery, you better havethe skills to transition to your pistol.

The Combative Triad, established by Jeff Cooper, consists of mindset, marks-manship and gun handling. Marksman-

ship is the ability to hit your target. Gunhandling includes reloads and mal-

function clearanceswhich hopefullyyou practice until these tasks becomesubconscious processes. If the weapon

runs empty or a malfunction occurs,the conscious mind acknowledges thisand initiates the reloading or clearingprocess and then the trained subcon-scious takes over to complete the pro-cedure. Our conscious mind also deter-mines when clearing a malfunction orreloading are not options due to lack of time. Im talking about those situationswhere if you dont send rounds down-range immediately you will die. Whenthe long gun ceases to function under

these conditions, regardless of the cause,the ability to transition to your second-

You knew there was going to be a ght so you armed yourself with a rie. Breathing slo yourself you step through the door to begin searching.

THE ART OF THE TRANWhen Plan A Fails BY TIGER McKEE

A weapon stoppage atthis range doesnt leavemuch time for clearing amalfunction or reloading.


2/4

www.swatmag.com S.W.A.T. SEPTEMBER 2005 73

ITION ary weapon is essential to survival.Transitions are best when kept simple.Complicated actions, or a sequence of acts, consume additional time, containmore opportunities for you to make amistake, and are difcult to practice andretain. However, to prepare for the re-alities of combat you will need severaltransition techniques. Transitions with atactical sling are fairly simple, but there

may be times when you wont have achance to strap into the sling. Daylighttransitions will be different from low-light actions. Maybe the only light youhave is the one mounted on your rie.Then there is no guarantee youll even be ghting with your own rie. If Imarmed with a pistol and during the ghthave the chance to pick up a rie, you better believe Ill grab it.

The point is we need to train withoutall the fancy tactical slings, neon sights,

lasers and weapon-mounted lightsjustin case.

So for right now lets forget that highdollar tactical sling and imagine youvegot a four-dollar cotton military sling onyour rie. The easiest way to transitionfrom rie to pistol would be to just dropthe rie and use both hands to employthe pistol, but there are several reasonswe might not want to ditch our rie.Predicting exactly what it will take tostop the ght and how long it will last is

impossible. Your engagement may havean opportunity to get the rie back intoaction. During the ght youre moving,creating distance, going to cover or justtrying to make yourself a more difculttarget for the threat to engage. Dropyour rie and its gone. If the opportu-nity to get the rie back into the ghtdoes come, you probably wont be any-where near where you dropped it. Thereis also the possibility your opponentscould retrieve the rie, get it operating

and employ it against you. Keep the rieand perform the transition.

The simplest technique is to use theprimary hand to lower the ries stock while the secondary hand, grasping thehandguards, pulls the rie tight againstthe center of your chest with the barrelpointing up. As soon as the secondaryhand has control of the rie the primaryhand presents the pistol. Pulling the rietight against the body makes it easier tocontrol since your arm isnt extended

away from your body, and its also aplus in the retention department. Wepoint the muzzle up so the majority of the ries weight is lower than the pointwhere we are holding onto it. Pointingthe muzzle down requires either twist-ing the support hand into an uncomfort-able position (and having the mass of therie above our holding point) or reposi-tioning the support hand on the weap-on, adding a step into the sequence. Re-member, simple is best.

Maintaining the support hands origi-nal grip on the rie also reduces the ac-

The simplest transition is to pull the rie into the body with the support hand. As mentioned inthe text, positioning the muzzle of the rie upseems to work best.

A carry sling, if adjusted properly, can belooped over the neck allowing you to use bothhands on the pistol. The disadvantage is thatit takes slightly more time, which may not beavailable.

Clint Smith teaches a technique wherethe sling is looped over the supportarm elbow. This is a quick and easymethod that allows two hands on thepistol.


3/4

74 S.W.A.T. SEPTEMBER 2005 www.swatmag.com

THE ART OF THE TRANSITION

tions required to transition back to therie, which you should do at rst oppor-tunity. Yes, you could continue the ghtwith the pistol, but our task is to stop thethreat, and the rie does this so much better than the pistol. In fact, documen-tation reveals that over eighty percent of people shot with pistol rounds survivethe injury, meaning they are still capableghting. Of those shot with rie roundsless than twenty percent survive.

You can also use the sling during thetransition process. With a simple carrysling there are a couple of options, butkeep in mind these techniques add stepsto the transition sequence, which meansadditional time. The support hand canloop the sling over your neck as the pri-mary hand lowers the weapon down,letting the rie hang on the sling fromyour neck. This allows you to use bothhands to deploy the pistol, and with thesling adjusted properly you can leave it

looped around the neck using it in thesame manner as a tactical sling. With a

tactical sling you simply lower the riedown with the support hand while theprimary hand presents the pistol.

Clint Smith, originator of the UrbanRie doctrine, teaches a technique wherethe support arm slides through the slingand you lower the rie down so thatit hangs from the crook of the support

arm elbow. His reasoning is that if yousling it over the support shoulder, in themuzzle down or African carry position,as you move around the sling will slipoff the shoulder and fall down to the elbow anyway. This technique is simple,quick and allows you to use both handson the pistol.

Low-light transitions using a hand-held light are basically the same onlywith slight modications. For example,the rst technique described (where

the rie is pulled into the body withthe support hand) works if we trap theries handguard in the elbow of thesupport arm and clamp it against our body. The support hand operates thelight and the primary hand is freed upto present the pistol. As mentioned pre-viously, this technique works best withthe ries muzzle pointing up. The slingtechniques described above can also beemployed, only instead of having bothhands on the pistol the support hand

holds the ashlight.To employ weapon-mounted lights in

right: With a handheld ash-light , the rie can be pinnedagainst the chest with the sup-port arm. The support hand is

free to operate the light.

below: If the only light youhave is mounted on the rieyou must use the support handto hold the rie and manipulatethe light, freeing the primaryhand to present the pistol.
http://www.mesatactical.com/swathttp://www.xssights.com/


4/4

www.swatmag.com S.W.A.T. SEPTEMBER 2005 75

conjunction with the sidearm we needtechniques that will keep the light of therie indexed on the threat. One option isto leave the rie stock in your shoulder,controlling it with the support hand. Theprimary hand presents the pistol whilethe support hand operates the weapon-mounted light, assuming your weapon

is congured where the support handmanipulates the light. This is the sim-plest technique, and therefore quickest, but the downside is that it takes a good bit of pressure from the support hand toensure the rie doesnt slip out of yourshoulder as you move. When you arelooped into a tactical sling this may beyour only option.

If you are using a simple sling youcould shift the rie to the support sideof the body, sliding the stock of the ri-

e between the support arm and yourside, and use the support arm to trapthe rie against your side. The supporthand maintains its original grip on thehandguards, indexing and operating thelight, and the primary hand presents thepistol. Although this technique does takeslightly more time to shift the rie fromyour shoulder to your support side, itprovides a good stable hold on the riethat can be maintained for extended pe-riods of time.

Right about now I can hear some of you saying, But my rie never mal-

functions. Then you need topractice more than anyone, because when it does happenit will be a real surprise. To

practice transitions take everyprecaution possible to ensuresafety. I have my studentsunload their ries and startout slow and by the numbers,walking through the processprior to live re drills.

Normally our training seg-regates rie from pistol. Whatwe should be doing is com- bining both into a seamlesspackage. You should practice

transitioning from the rie topistol, from pistol to rieandeven from pistol to knife. Ide-ally you want to ow smooth-

ly from one weapon system to anotherwithout any gaps.

To achieve this level of prociencyyou must unify mind and body. Notonly do we segregate our weapon train-ing but for far too long we have sepa-rated the mental from the physical. The

mind must be trained to make quick as-sessments and decisions and the bodytrained to perform the actual physicaltechniques without delay or hesitation.

It is essential we have the ability to owfrom one weapon to another, and evenmore important that our mind and bodyfunction as one unit.

When in a ght to the death, Musashistates in his Book Of Five Rings , onewants to employ all ones weapons tothe utmost. He continues by saying thatto die with ones sword still sheathedis most regrettable. Although Musashi,a samurai in feudal Japan, fought withswords, the same is true today of ght-

ing with rearms. Training for success incombat means becoming procient withevery weapon at our disposal.

(Authors note: Although the primaryfocus of this article is on the rie thesame techniques can be applied to anylong gun.)

Tiger McKee is director of Shootrite Fire-arms Academy, located in Huntsville, AL.(256) 721-4602 www.shootrite.org.

THE ART OF THE TRANSITION The rie can also be positioned under the support hand andclamped against the body. This is a good stable positionthat could be maintained for extended periods of time.
http://www.optactical.com/

200509 swat transitions

Documents