I dropped in at my local gun club today, Quaboag Sportsmans Club in Warren, expecting to have the place to myself.
I was surprised to see a rather large contingent of MA State Police setting up for pistol qualification.
These guys are all apparently part of some sort of tactical response unit and were all in cammo and combat vests with pouches of all sorts and protective panels sticking on everywhere. A nicer bunch of guys I've never met and they were happy to chat about their equipment when they weren't busy shooting.
I was surprised by the bulk of the vests with all of the pouches and armor sticking out in every direction. When I asked one of the officers how they could get through a doorway with all that stuff, he grinned and said "Sideways." The vests are new issue and the guys were wearing them to break them in and get used to working in them. When I inquired about how a person could go prone with all of that gear, I was told that it is difficult to do so quickly.
They were all carrying the new issue Sig pistols with the new short reset trigger, in .40 S&W. Several of the officers expressed and initial dislike of the new trigger system and wished that they could get their old SA/DA Sigs back. Despite this, they were all very proficient with the new guns. The target was a black oval about the size of a dinner plate, fastened to a plain white silhouette target. The practice session was pretty informal and consisted of firing about 50 rounds from 25 yards. One of the officers fired some sort of a sub gun that I did not recognize, semi auto only. He later fired an M4 with a suppressor. I was surprised that the suppressed gun was just about as loud as a pistol shot. He explained that the suppressor was not the same a silencer and only reduced the muzzle blast. Again, the firing was semi-auto only. It appeared that the vast majority of the shots stayed on paper and some of the guys were having a little friendly competition going for head shots, rather than the larger black bull.
I was somewhat surprised that they were apparently not bothered by sharing the range with a half dozen of the club members, as the local PD usually shuts the range down for their qualifications. When it was time for the actual qualification, the training officer came around and asked all of the locals if they would mind a cease fire of a hour or so, as the qualification needed to take place in front of the regular firing line. We gladly consented, in exchange for the opportunity to see these guys in action.
They proceeded to fire a 50 round course from 25, 17, 7, and 2 yards. The strings were mostly five rounds from standing or kneeling positions, using a mixture of strong and weak hand, with and without a supporting hand. The slowfire strings were 20 or 25 seconds, and then shorter times of, IIRC, 17 seconds down to five seconds. At the closest range, they fired double taps and then a series of shots from the hip. Most of the strings were started with the gun holstered and several required a magazine change to complete. All of the shots were fired on a single target and the final score was the total number of hits. I saw several of the targets and heard several scores of 48 and 49 called. Pretty darn nice work to get those kind of results wearing all of that gear!
During the more than two hours that they were on the range and constantly handling and firing guns, I never saw a single instance of unsafe gun handling. These guys are very well trained. I've never felt safer on the range.
At the end of the session, they all went downrange to pick up their brass from the grass. I asked if they were saving it or just being neat. They replied that they were just being neat so I pitched in to help. When it was all picked up, the training officer offered it to me. About 500 rounds of nice clean 40S&W brass suits me just fine.
Altogether and enjoyable afternoon with a great bunch of guys. It is reassuring to see this level of competence from our LEOs.
I was surprised to see a rather large contingent of MA State Police setting up for pistol qualification.
These guys are all apparently part of some sort of tactical response unit and were all in cammo and combat vests with pouches of all sorts and protective panels sticking on everywhere. A nicer bunch of guys I've never met and they were happy to chat about their equipment when they weren't busy shooting.
I was surprised by the bulk of the vests with all of the pouches and armor sticking out in every direction. When I asked one of the officers how they could get through a doorway with all that stuff, he grinned and said "Sideways." The vests are new issue and the guys were wearing them to break them in and get used to working in them. When I inquired about how a person could go prone with all of that gear, I was told that it is difficult to do so quickly.
They were all carrying the new issue Sig pistols with the new short reset trigger, in .40 S&W. Several of the officers expressed and initial dislike of the new trigger system and wished that they could get their old SA/DA Sigs back. Despite this, they were all very proficient with the new guns. The target was a black oval about the size of a dinner plate, fastened to a plain white silhouette target. The practice session was pretty informal and consisted of firing about 50 rounds from 25 yards. One of the officers fired some sort of a sub gun that I did not recognize, semi auto only. He later fired an M4 with a suppressor. I was surprised that the suppressed gun was just about as loud as a pistol shot. He explained that the suppressor was not the same a silencer and only reduced the muzzle blast. Again, the firing was semi-auto only. It appeared that the vast majority of the shots stayed on paper and some of the guys were having a little friendly competition going for head shots, rather than the larger black bull.
I was somewhat surprised that they were apparently not bothered by sharing the range with a half dozen of the club members, as the local PD usually shuts the range down for their qualifications. When it was time for the actual qualification, the training officer came around and asked all of the locals if they would mind a cease fire of a hour or so, as the qualification needed to take place in front of the regular firing line. We gladly consented, in exchange for the opportunity to see these guys in action.
They proceeded to fire a 50 round course from 25, 17, 7, and 2 yards. The strings were mostly five rounds from standing or kneeling positions, using a mixture of strong and weak hand, with and without a supporting hand. The slowfire strings were 20 or 25 seconds, and then shorter times of, IIRC, 17 seconds down to five seconds. At the closest range, they fired double taps and then a series of shots from the hip. Most of the strings were started with the gun holstered and several required a magazine change to complete. All of the shots were fired on a single target and the final score was the total number of hits. I saw several of the targets and heard several scores of 48 and 49 called. Pretty darn nice work to get those kind of results wearing all of that gear!
During the more than two hours that they were on the range and constantly handling and firing guns, I never saw a single instance of unsafe gun handling. These guys are very well trained. I've never felt safer on the range.
At the end of the session, they all went downrange to pick up their brass from the grass. I asked if they were saving it or just being neat. They replied that they were just being neat so I pitched in to help. When it was all picked up, the training officer offered it to me. About 500 rounds of nice clean 40S&W brass suits me just fine.
Altogether and enjoyable afternoon with a great bunch of guys. It is reassuring to see this level of competence from our LEOs.
