This is what it looks like when the wheels fall off...

[wunbadweel]

Early 1990's cop shoot in central CA - duty-only guns, ammo and rigs. Guy shows up with nickel-plated Series 70 1911 in .45 and a way-bitchin' Don Johnson-model custom shoulder rig; he's a detective at a department that has about six total sworn officers. He has to borrow a hip holster to actually shoot, along with a stock mag pouch for his TWENTY-ROUND spare mag (also nickel-plated). Starts the stage with a second-round squib that tumbles out about 15 feet past the muzzle to the ground; ammo check shows he brought his 'special' reloads, now needs to borrow some factory ammo. Some really evil person fixes him up with 185 grain Silvertips (no ramp work in his gun, never seen anything but ball ammo). He starts again, has to smack the back of his slide to go into battery after each round, 4 rounds total. With left hand now bleeding, has to holster and run to next SA; extended mag falls out of pouch into dirt. Retreives mag, carries to SA and sticks it back into pouch. Shoots to slidelock, "speed"loads with 20 rounder (gun now feeding Silvertips okay - must've been that lucky mag or especially lubricative dirt), holsters to move to next SA. Upon arrival, draws pistol from holster, 20 rd mag floor plate catches on holster as he presents to target and comes off, ejecting rest of ammo from magazine (along with spring and follower) into dirt while pistol does several front flips in midair, landing in dirt with muzzle (Series 70 gun now in Condition Zero with loaded chamber) pointing directly at shooter. RO has to physically restrain shooter with tackle-into-full-Nelson from retrieving gun.

Dude got his gun back but left all huffy about being DQ'd for unsafe gunhandling. I woulda thumbed him for the shoulder rig, but that's just me....

[JKSNIPER]

Some days it just don't pay to get up out of bed.

For the record...we have 7 officers and the gun did a half gainer in there you didn't even mention!

Also it was more like a suplex move or a kimura the ro put on!

Just only fooling.....

We have some "tacticool" guys show up to a match once and they wore their tac vests through the entire match in the Ft Lauderdale heat.

I give 'em credit 'cos I was melting just standing in the shade.

They wore major cool shades and ran around a lot.

Didn't shoot so good but they looked cool.

JK

[chizzle]

Great story! I think the "Hell, I was there" section is my favorite part of this website. I think I might have met "Don's" son... A guy showed up to our steel match with an FBI shirt (must have bought it at the gift shop). He was shooting the plate rack at about 30' with a 1911. I watched him unload a mag (not the Don Johnson 20 rounder, but still) PER PLATE! I encouraged him to slow down, but he still unloaded a mag per plate. 48 rounds at the plate rack, and the plate rack won.

I wish I knew the theme song to Miami Vice, so I could hum the tune for you right now,

Chizzle

[Graham Smith]

For the past couple of years, I have gone to WV for a defensive pistol course. They only do a few open enrollment courses a year and mostly train LE and some military. Most of the class was average Joes, like me, but there are also some LE's there on their own time to sharpen up their skills.

The first time I was there, there was one suburban commando with tactical everything including a thigh rig for his stainless 1911. He actually shot pretty good for the first hour (the easy stuff), but clearly he was not used to a situation where he would have to shoot 800+ rounds in a day and a half. Pretty soon his pretty gun was pretty dirty and started to jam. His answer was to slather on more grease, which attracted more dirt, which...

By contrast, there were two young FBI agents in casual clothes. He was shooting a 9mm from a belt holster and she had a concealed carry 380. He was fairly good and she was very good. At lunch on day two, I asked them why they were there and they said that they just liked to challenge themselves in an environment where they could push their limits.

[wunbadweel]

When I was still teaching at a certain Pahrump NV school we were doing the free subgun courses and a guy was obviously having issues with his M-11, especially getting the stick mag in and out and a terrific trigger jerk. I worked with him a little before we changed squads, he was getting VERY frustrated and nervous. I went over to talk with him on break and noticed his pupils were the size of quarters, and he stated he felt his problems were due to "doing too much crank" that morning at the motel. He got sent packing but said he'd love to shoot some subgun again in the future if we'd have him back.....mmm hmmm.

[Chris Keen]

I dont think so Tim.

[4sooth]

Mid eighties at Tangi Sheriff's range in Amite,Louisiana--weekend IPSC match.

Two shooters from a prestigious law enforcemet agency which shall remain un-named.As these two were signing up they allowed as how they were not here to show anyone up but after all they were from a "prestigious agency" and recieved state-of-the-art training.Much snickering in the background!

Stage one--Bianchi barricade with two paper and two poppers at 8-10 yards-run to next barricade with similar setup.Along the way shoot the five poppers at around 8-10 yards.Both did this in around 40-45 seconds with all A's.

Next shooter was Donnie Chatelain--near world class then and later became an instructor at John Shaw's academy.He did this in 8-9 sec's down one point.The hot shots proclaimed "That was fast shooting but as you all know no one can hit anything shooting that fast!"Donnie raked down the poppers on a near dead run!These two had never seen this type of shooting before so their whole world fell apart.One of these guys was an instructor at their academy.He had a bad case of I can't therefore you can't.

By the end of the day they finished 34-35 out of 35 shooters--not even beating the women who were novice competitors.

[atbarr]

By the end of the day they finished 34-35 out of 35 shooters--not even beating the women who were novice competitors.

LOL!

Life is Good,

A.T.

[Spray_N_Prey]

We had a local P.D. instructor come out to a shoot I attended and was offering to give the guy that took 1st place overall a free training lesson course for handguns. He was the "P.D. hat, shirt, range bag and just had to make sure that he let you know how many tactical classes he has taken. Someone mentioned that the person that took 1st probably had more experience than he ever would.

He took 6th overall shooting open (he was bumped to open because of filling up his 9mm Glock mags to full capacity in production). I beat him coming in 4th with a revolver.

[Vlad]

Before this turns into a "LEO's can't shoot" thread, I'll point out that some really really really can. I have the pleasure of shooting with a few LEO's who are superb shooters and great guys all around.

And then .. some really really can't shoot. A couple of years back we had a shotgun match and I was RO'ing a couple of corrections guys. One of them finishes the stage, and is unloading his 870 by racking out the last couple of shells quickly while pointing at the dirt. At some point I see his finger creeping towards the trigger but before I get to say anything BOOOM as he unloads the last round into the dirt, less the 1ft from my feet. At least his buddies picked on him for the rest of the day, and even though he obviously DQ'ed he hung around and helped out his squad.

[Nik Habicht]

A few years ago this young LEO shows up at a match. We walk him through the safety check, and he's incredibly polite. We ask him (as we do all new competitors) to walk, not run through the stages. He complies and finished the match without incident. Two weeks later he's back for his second match and proceeds to win his division. I can't remember if he initially classified as A or as a master, I will always remember what a nice guy he is (and was that first day.) I asked him about it once --- and he said he just wanted to be polite and didn't want to make any of us nervous.....

[GentlemanJim]

We shoot with some LEOs that are pretty hot stuff

I have seen new shooters with the attitude that they were going to (show us how its done)

Most with that kind of ego dont come back after placing last in a match

But the ones that bug me are the ones that just cant stand being beaten by a Lady shooter..how petty is that

We all have our goof ups...most of us learn from them

Jim

[Mike H]

Long time ago at the Chapman academy, 4 leo's who work together are paired up with their agency's academy instructor. The instructor is a complete jack*** personally, but then we get to go the range and get to experience more. "This is how we teach, that is how we do it, etc. etc"

Chapman and his 2 instructors are grinning and bearing it, but not by much. Lunch break first day, one comes over to me(I had arranged the class) but I cut him off before he says anything and tell him to let our "academy instructor have it". I'm personally embarrassed, but karma is a bitch.

After lunch, we work on improving our draw. After getting a quick rebuttal from "our instructor, how WE teach the draw" we go live. Big boy is up first, and at the buzzer, his pistol goes flying down range. Chapman looked at him and asked, do you teach that as well? We all busted up laughing, couldn't have happened better.

It was over from then on, "our instructor" had a daily dose of snafus the rest of the week. Karma is a bitch, and he was actually a competitive IPSC shooter (vintage 1990). Goes to show how much of the game is mental. He didn't do much better when he finally left the academy to work in the field.

Edited April 10, 2010 by Mike H

[earlbob]

at the buzzer, his pistol goes flying down range

Now that would be very embarrassing. Skill at arms is always good for LEO's I am sure but there are excellent ones out there who have other skills that make the world a better place to. Now days they do amazing thing with computers and science, with mentoring and just talking to someone knowing how to ask the right question the right way. One friend of mine from the days of yesteryear (my subtle way of saying I have not seen him in about 17 years at least) who is in LE now once shot 4 or 5 clay pigeons in a row with his 45 at Second Chance and almost always finished well in something. He was incredibly well rounded as a shooter and you had better have your game to keep up with him.

I think people are all the same and all different at the same time. Some have physical and mental abilities that enable them to do well in shooting disciplines and some don't. Others have that special something that enables them to perform amazing things at that necessary moment to save the day. I think that special something is more times then not the grace of God working behind the scenes as He works His will through the loves of ordinary folk.

earl

[waktasz]

I read the thread title and was expecting to see this

[briansea2]

I read the thread title and was expecting to see this

youtube deleted

"what do you mean finger tight is not enough?"

[Biloxi23]

Guys I just read this thread, and it is hilarious. I am a law enforcement officer, I teach firearms, but I am not one of those guys who "knows" how great he is. I have been a cop for almost 30 years, and I will promise you most cops are not gun guys. You would be amazed at how many LE's will only go to the range when you make them. I know that a lot of cops won't go to matches because they no they will not do well against experienced shooters, and like all macho guys, do not wnat to look bad. About a year ago I went to my first local match, and then started going to USPSA matches every couple of months. I was ok when shooting against guys that shoot a couple of hundred rounds a year, but at matches is a different story. What I did have was a really good friend that was a competitor that really helped me with fundementals. He also helped me attitude-wise, and my goal for the first couple of matches was to not get DQ'd and to not do anythingreally stupid (not to menation I really had a blast). I did the DQ thing later on, but I really enjoyed the company of the other shooters and teh shooting itself. I am showing steady but not spectacular progress. and please believe me, I respect my brother LE's so much. Whether they shoot great or not, they will still be there for you when things get hairy, and you're kickin' and gougin' in the mud and the blood and beer. Thanks to all the USPSA shooters I have been helped by.

[392heminut]

I have to agree with Biloxi, I was the firearms instructor for my dept. for 14 years and he is dead on saying most cops aren't gun guys and you pretty much have to make them go qualify! There was an officer in my dept. that WAS a gun guy and had 2 gun safes full of firearms. He always shot 100% on the qualification course (he and I were the only ones doing so) and was pretty smug about his abilities. I was a B class shooter in Limited at the time and talked him into trying USPSA. He went to the next match and was beaten by myself and most of the other shooters there and after the match said "Boy, there's some good shooters here!" I never could get him to go back, even though I explained about it being something totally different than what he was used to and that he could go to the next level if he would give it a chance. His ego was just to big to allow him to step on a range and get beat by so many people.

After running my qualification course I would usually set up some type of USPSA type course to shoot for fun for the officers who were interested. I would say that I never had more than 25% of the officers stick around to shoot it. By the time I retired I did manage to get 2 other officers in my 30 man dept. active in USPSA!