Fighting from your vehicle. Do's and Dont's.
10/12/14 14:09 Filed in: tactics | vehicle ops
Someone has threatened you and your passenger with imminent death and you have no choice but to fight from your vehicle — what’s your first choice?
Shoot? Nah - run ‘em over. Repeating that — your first choice when faced with a threat is to escape or run him over.
But there were times when a car might not move fast enough, or it might not work at all—it could be shot up, broken down, boxed in by other vehicles or roadblocks, or just out of gas. In those cases, you need to know how to engage the bad guy from a vehicle quickly, then to get away from it and to another position of cover.
If faced with a threat coming at you from the front of the car, most law enforcement officers were taught to crack the door open and fire through the V-notch created by the open door and the frame of the car.
But that takes extra time—drawing the weapon from a seated position, disengaging the seat belt, opening the door, positioning the weapon in the V-notch, aiming, taking the shot—and time is opportunity for the bad guy. Instead, shoot straight through the windshield, right over the top of the steering wheel. The first round punches a hole in the glass and you can then press the fight until the bad guy’s not there anymore.
Whether with handguns, short barrel rifles, or submachine guns, just plan to throw a load of lead through the windshield at the attackers. The downside is to be the guy in the right seat—SBRs and SMGs spews out hot brass at an amazing rate.
Terminal ballistics comes into play when shooting from inside the vehicle. The glass affected that bullet in ways you can’t anticipate without testing it first. It was just the opposite of how a bullet reacted when firing into the car. The bullet’s nose comes into first contact with the windshield, due to the angle of the window. That drags the bullet upward, which means that to hit a man in the chest with a pistol you place your front sight on his belt and fire. This results in the bullet landing in his chest area, depending on how far away he is.
But there were times when a car might not move fast enough, or it might not work at all—it could be shot up, broken down, boxed in by other vehicles or roadblocks, or just out of gas. In those cases, you need to know how to engage the bad guy from a vehicle quickly, then to get away from it and to another position of cover.
If faced with a threat coming at you from the front of the car, most law enforcement officers were taught to crack the door open and fire through the V-notch created by the open door and the frame of the car.
But that takes extra time—drawing the weapon from a seated position, disengaging the seat belt, opening the door, positioning the weapon in the V-notch, aiming, taking the shot—and time is opportunity for the bad guy. Instead, shoot straight through the windshield, right over the top of the steering wheel. The first round punches a hole in the glass and you can then press the fight until the bad guy’s not there anymore.
Whether with handguns, short barrel rifles, or submachine guns, just plan to throw a load of lead through the windshield at the attackers. The downside is to be the guy in the right seat—SBRs and SMGs spews out hot brass at an amazing rate.
Terminal ballistics comes into play when shooting from inside the vehicle. The glass affected that bullet in ways you can’t anticipate without testing it first. It was just the opposite of how a bullet reacted when firing into the car. The bullet’s nose comes into first contact with the windshield, due to the angle of the window. That drags the bullet upward, which means that to hit a man in the chest with a pistol you place your front sight on his belt and fire. This results in the bullet landing in his chest area, depending on how far away he is.