No matter what uniform you wear, or if you don't wear one at all but still carry a gun regularly, there is a large variety of training weapons you can choose from. There are pros and cons to all of them and truly nothing beats training with the weapon you carry - but force on force with live rounds doesn’t usually turn out well. So you have to measure your needs, abilities, financial capability, and pick the training system or systems that work best for YOU. Here are a few you can pick from and ways to augment them...
As I said, if you can train with your actual carry weapon that is the preference. Such training should encompass (originally) classroom instruction to get you familiar with the weapon; how it functions; how to disassemble, reassemble and maintain it; malfunction clearance theory (because it's different with real bullets being fired) and more. Hopefully your instructor is competent and you get or have gotten valuable instruction that covers the basics and more. From the classroom you should be moving on to the firing range where you do work to perform and reinforce marksmanship skills, reload skills, malfunction clearance, wounded shooter drills, etc. The end result of all that is most likely a qualification course - or several of them - that predominantly focus on putting holes in paper targets for the purpose of measuring you accuracy within time constraints.
In many places that will be the end of your firearms "training". In others - the better ones - you'll move on to shooting on reactive targets. This is frequently done by shooting steel so that you can get the feedback of the PING when you hit or the silence when you miss. The target falling after the PING gives you the visual feedback of having successfully hit and dropped your target. If you're in a really well equipped training facility you may also have access to and be trained in a shoot house where you can go through various drills to clear rooms, hallways and, eventually, the whole structure.
All of the above are done with live ammo - but what about when it comes time to see how well you do against armed adversaries? Or, before that, when you're learning new skills for various environments?
Predominantly there are two types of "training" weapons:
- inert plastic or metal chunks shaped like your weapon and
- non-lethal projectile firing weapons
In the inert category you'd have blue guns, red guns, and other non-firing weapons that are nothing more than shaped plastic. These are great for "dry practicals" where you are practicing movement in teams, using new skills (such as low light training), etc. They are also good for practicing weapon retention and take-aways, but when it comes to target engagement they are quite useless. They simulate an unloaded weapon real well in those situations.
For engagement practice you need a non-lethal projectile firing weapon; preferably one that will fit in YOUR duty or carry holster and has the same controls as YOUR chosen weapon. Your choices in this category are predominantly:
- common paintball guns (that don't mimick your weapon very well at all)
- specialized paintball guns (like those from RAM shown in the pictures above right) that mimick your weapon but require proprietary paintballs)
- FX cartridge firing weapons or conversion kits from Simunitions
- Airsoft weapons
Airsoft weapons are, by comparison, cheap to shoot for training purposes. The only downside I've found to them are that they don't mark the target they hit. In force-on-force training scenarios this leaves the instructors (referees, judges, etc) in the position of having to decide who got hit or who didn't if all involved aren't honest. "I got you!" "No you didn't. I got you first!" can be heard. Instead of being valuable training, at that point it sounds more like the children I grew up with (and was one of) who played WAR, COPS & ROBBERS, COWBOYS & INDIANS and more. The good news is that none of us was ready to accept defeat or death. The bad news is that such completely compromises the value of the training.
The FX cartridges from Simunitions, fired from dedicated or converted weapons, resolves this argument quite easily because the cartridge "breaks" on impact and delivers a colored smear to the struck target. On more than one occassion I've been on the receiving end of these cartridges and have walked away with blue or red/orange smears. Typically, when we train using these tools, we issue all the "good guys" blue cartridges and the "bad guys" red ones. That way, when you finish a scenario and all performance is being evaluated / debriefed, it is clear to see if any good guys shot any other good guys. It truly sucks to have that bright blue mark on your back... from your buddy who SWEARS his finger wasn't even on the trigger. It is an important training point.
Although I know it's not a training weapon, it can serve to augment the training debrief: what do I speak of? Tactical cameras such as the one shown above right from Pacific Concepts. Mounted on any long gun with M1913 rails, the cam records whatever the weapon is pointed at. Watching such recordings after the fact can show you:
- Whether or not, during the scenario, your gun was "in the fight"
- How many times (if any) you indexed your buddies
- How much the muzzle moved WHILE you were shooting
Training, as you all know, is very important to our eventual success should we ever find ourselves in a real shooting situation. Virtually everything we do from the classroom to the firing line to the scenarios we experience will impact how successful we are. Remember: shoot outs are never 50/50. 75% of the time, something we don't like will happen. TRAIN TRAIN TRAIN. Find quality training facilities and invest your dollars wisely. But whatever you do... DON'T just think, "I can load, unload and shoot 100% on the target," and believe that makes you competent. What was it the man said? Oh, yeah... targets don't shoot back. THAT makes all the difference in the world.
Stay Safe!
