June 2024 Monthly Training Blog

Governors Gun Club Monthly Training Blog

 Monthly Training Update

It's getting hot outside. Avoid the heat, humidity and rain by joining us at GGC in our indoor ranges. We’ve added a new Defensive Shotgun class to our calendar so be sure to check it out. Many more classes are in the works and we are even retailing our current classes to be more approachable to newer & first time shooters and those who may not be as lenient on their time. Stay tuned!

2A News

NFA wait times are down

One of the worst things about buying something new is having to WAIT to actually use it. In the world of firearms enthusiasts, waiting for the paperwork to clear on your NFA (National Firearms Act) items like suppressors and short-barreled rifles (SBRs) has always been a test of patience. But not anymore.

According to Silencer Shop, a leading retailer in NFA items, the median wait time for eForm 4 for Individual applications is a jaw-dropping 3 days. Yes, you read that right—just 3 days! 

Governors Gun Club Drill of the Month(GGCDOTM)

The drill of the month for June is The Box Drill. When broken down the Box Drill is more or less a Failure to Stop (Mozambique) done on multiple targets. The goal of this drill is to get rounds onto every target as quickly as possible and then follow up with additional headshots as they are needed. 

The Drill: Box Drill

At 5 yards on 2 silhouette targets placed 2-4 yards apart. Draw and fire 2 rounds to center mass of one target(left or right), then fire 2 rounds center mass on the opposite target. On the 2nd target perform a headshot, transfer back to the original target and perform a headshot. 

Perfecting this drill:

If your range permits, place the targets at different distances to you. Have one target be further than the other. The idea behind this is that some targets, or threats, may have a higher priority. Say that your closer target has only a knife, but the further target has a gun. Ask yourself, Which target is more of a threat? 

The headshot matters. One thing that I stress to my students is that for a headshot to be effective it must land within the T-Box Zone, see our first blog entry for more info on the T-Box Zone. Take your time on the follow up headshot to sure the land and are effective. 

 What skills does this drill reinforce?

1. “Throttling”, or controlling the pacing of our shots. Each of the 2 center mass shots should be performed in quick succession, but the 2 headshots should be more deliberate as our margin for error is smaller. Go fast, then slow back down.

2. Target Transitions. This drill is done with at least 2 targets, but can be done with multiple. Not only are we shooting at more than one target but we are targeting different areas on or within our target. 

Post your drills & tag us!

I would love to see all of the shooters and followers of our blog post pictures or videos of themselves doing these drills on the range! If you post your videos/pictures to any social media be sure to tag us and use #GGCDOTM so we can find your videos!

Tips & Tricks

Dry Practice, Dry Practice, Dry Practice. 

It cannot be understated the importance of dry practice. So what is dry practice? 

Dry practice is the repetition that we do outside of the range, at home or on the range before we begin to live fire. It develops our mind and body’s muscle memory on how we should perform certain skills. As Instructors we can 100% tell when a student has or has not been dry practicing. But not only do we see it in the students, they see it as well. It's encouraging to both the instructor and the student when they can come onto the range after a week or 2 of dry fire practice and actually see the fruits of their hard work as they improve tremendously under live fire. 

How often should you dry practice? For most everyday folks it's hard to squeeze in the time to find dry practice sessions. It doesn’t have to be a lot or even for very long, but it must be consistent. We learn through consistent repetition. Make an effort to dry fire 2-3 times a week for at least 10 minutes. Select one skill that you would like to improve on and focus on that skill specifically. These shorter, more consistent dry fire sessions will go much further in helping you to improve than coming to the range once or twice a month.

I call dry fire “doing your homework”, let your time spent at the range be an evaluation for how you dry practiced, or your homework. If you see that you’re failing to meet your standard on the range then we know that we may need more time spent honing those skills on our own under dry practice. 

Gear & Gadgets Highlight

Mantis X Dry Fire Training System

What is Mantis X? From Mantis, “MantisX is a gun training system that takes a data-driven approach to helping you achieve shooting mastery with no ammo required. Unlike some dry fire trainers, MANTISX works while attached to ANY firearm (pistol, rifle, or shotgun). By analyzing every shot and generating actionable data, MANTISX helps you improve your accuracy quickly.”

In short, it is a small attachment that you place onto the rail mount of your firearm tracks and gives feedback for all of the movement that you place onto the firearm while practicing. With each repetition either dry or live it gives you immediate feedback in the form of a number score. 

To me it makes dry fire fun and engaging because I’m try to “chase” that high score with each rep. But not only does it just score each and every rep it also gives you corrections on common mistakes that shooters make. There are different daily challenges to make your dry fire interesting in different ways. For example, today's challenge is to do 10 pushups and then complete 10 shots. 

As an instructor, a unique feature that I like about the Mantis is that if a student makes a Mantis profile, I can track each of their sessions from my own app. This way an instructor can provide feedback without having to be there each time the student is practicing. 

It’s not a perfect system and isn’t designed to replace the instructor but it can be a valuable tool in assessing what a shooter may be doing wrong. It may not work on any gun that doesn’t have a rail attachment, they have adapters that will go onto the magazine however as a workaround. So you’ll have to do a bit of research to see how easily your firearm will accept a Mantis. 

If you plan to take firearms training seriously, which I hope that you do, give the Mantis X a try to help you improve your quality of training both on and off of the range. 

Quote of the Month

“Do not expect the combat fairy to come bonk you with the combat wand and suddenly make you capable of doing things that you never rehearsed before. It will not happen.” - Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, On Combat: The Psychology and Physiology of Deadly Conflict in War and Peace