Opening the door

[Flexmoney]

O.K.  who has tried the opening the door (strong hand on knob) different ways?

What is the fastest way to get to the shooting?

[Shooter Grrl]

Um, Kyle...

I hate to tell you this, but there's only one way to open the door - turn the knob and pull or push :-)))))

Actually, I watched a super squad navigate a door at West Coast last year and most of them turned their bodies out of the way putting the gun closer to their hand on the knob - however, that was to move through, not shoot right away.....

The one thing to remember (honestly!) is to turn the knob, preferably as part of make ready if the RO will let you!!!!

[ErikW]

You mean starting strong hand on doorknob? I think I've always just twisted and pulled strong hand before drawing. I've usually had to step across the threshold anyway.

I don't see an advantage to moving the strong hand to the gun while grabbing, twisting, and pulling the doorknob with the weak hand. So you get the gun out quicker, big deal--you can't do anything with it because you are still opening the door.

I think it's important in the walk-through to twist the handle both ways. I've found it takes more degrees of rotation in one direction to unlatch, than it does in twisting the other direction.

Oh yeah, with the hand-on start, twist the doorknob fully to unlatch and hold it there. If the RO will let you.

[38supPat]

Open the door and draw the gun

Actually its something worth working out...Do you open it with strong hand (since its already there) or do you go for the gun and switch (open it with weak hand). As a rule I always try to go for the gun first, deal with obstacle second. In this case I would cock my hand on the knob...(OK no comments) so that it will unwind while pulling to the gun (assuming the door has a functional knob (I said no comments)) thus unlatching it in one motion...If its one of those simple doors with just a pull handle and a screen door latch (or chunk of rubber tire) just pull back on door and go straight to the gun. Its the same type of draw motion as you would use if you were holding something in front of you eg. box, shovel, bucket, or any other contraption course designers will have you hold at the start of a stage. Think how you deal with doors every day...once while teaching a course I did the math on how many times a day the average person opens a door...I don't recall the number offhand but think about it.. especially if you work in an office you may open doors up to a thousand times a week certainly in a month. Look at how you approach them. Too many times I see shooters get confused by a door, yet we go through doors all the time with no problems..sometimes carrying a coffee or whatever. Look at how you open and move through them.  Then apply it to your shooting. You don't walk squarely up to a door and try to open it, you angle in to it and pass through. So why approach it different?

The simplest way is usually going to be the right way, do the least possible, if your hand is on the door, open it then draw.

Pat

[Flexmoney]

...anybody got a door and a timer?

[Singlestack]

Kyle,

Are you going to see how long it takes to cock your hand on the knob??

(Edited by Singlestack at 7:52 pm on Sep. 8, 2001)