No, I don’t mean the name of the business where you shoot. I mean distance. I’m also referring to handguns here; we can talk about long guns another time.
Do you think any defensive use is likely to be close to you so there’s no need to reach out far? Or do you see a good reason to practice out to the limits of the gun and/or yourself?
Table of Contents
Defensive shooting range.
I don’t know about you, but I practice mainly for defensive shooting. How far is the average shooting distance in a defensive shooting? I’ve no idea. Neither, as near as I can tell, does anyone else.
I was looking at this article on Lucky Gunner recently. First, all the statistics are for law enforcement, not us regular people. I would expect cops to be closer than we are since their job involves closing in on trouble while my job is primarily to avoid it.
If anyone tracks citizen defensive shooting distances do me a favor: leave a comment below with a link because I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d like to see that.
I tend to default to the old rule of 3’s: three rounds in three seconds at three yards. I’m not sure that’s worth all that much but at least it’s catchy and easy to remember.
Of course, it’s not that simple.
Averages are made up of higher and lower numbers. There aren’t many lower numbers than three, but there are quite a few higher ones. Averages are also similar to odds; it doesn’t tell you what you’re going to face. What if you’re one of the unlucky few that needs to shot longer ranges? Are you ready for that?
Again, I’m not police. If something is farther out I think I’m more likely to try to hide or go for cover than shoot. But I can’t anticipate everything, can I? There could be some kind of situation that I might need to shoot farther than I anticipate.
So what do I do?
Personally, I do most of my training at shorter ranges. Five yards is where most of my time goes.
I know I said three above, but there’s a catch. I used to have a place in the desert to shoot where I could do pretty much whatever I wanted to as far as distance, moving, and drawing goes.
That particular place is no longer viable and I haven’t found another one yet. So I’m stuck with more formal settings: this has been my most recent go to: Southeast Regional Park Shooting Range.
It’s fine, just a bit more formal and controlled than I prefer. The ranges, for example. My options are: five yards, 10 yards, 15 yards, 25 yards, and 50 yards. Still, I figure if I can hit something at five yards I can hit it at three.
The top group is from the Sig P365. The bottom from a Glock 19. I haven’t written a review of that one because I don’t have enough rounds through it yet. And it’s not like I’d be the first to review it, now, would it?
I do some shooting at 10 yards, with the expected degradation of group sizes. I also shoot at 25 yards. This, currently, is bad for my ego. Still, it’s something I think I should do, because you never know for sure. At 10 yards things open up a bit.
Finally, at 25 yards I truly suck. I clearly need more work. These were all with the Glock.
Other options.
There are things other than live fire, aren’t there? I have a laser snap cap in 9mm. It’s great for dry fire practice; I can do it at home while I’m doing pretty much anything. The laser isn’t perfect but it doesn’t really have to be. It’s good enough to practice short range, draw from the holster drills.
You can even practice point shooing, if you like.
The perfect is the enemy of the good.
In the end, I think it’s less important to practice at the “right” range than it is to just practice. As I said, I prefer shorter distances for most of my work. It just seems more logical to me.
I’ve also heard people say they like longer ranges, since if you can hit at 25 yards you can sure do so at three or five. I can’t really argue with that; it’s just not how I do it. Let me know in the comments if you have any particular method or philosophy.
Ultimately, you just have to decide for yourself. I’d say not to worry too much about all the details; just practice as much as you can.
