Self defense practice distances???

A

AndersonG22

New member
What distances should I be practicing SD shooting at? And how big should my groups be before I move back?

I practice at 21' if there's very few people at the range and they agree to let me, when there's a lot of people there the closest distance I can practice at is 25 yards...:(

BTW I have a MKIII 22/45 and a G22, they are my only 2 guns.
 
It looks like the distance you can shoot, at that range, is fixed, seven and 25 yds.
If the .22s are going to be your only guns, are they also going to be your defense weapons?
If so, then target sizes should reflect the effectiveness of the .22 - namely head or center of mass, rapidly fired.
3" to 4" diameter targets, at seven yards, should do.
5" to 6" max, at 25 yds.
Longer than these is good, too.
50 yds with a .22, especially a rifle, is not hard, at all.
One of the advantages of the .22 is excellent accuracy and low recoil, allowing very fast multiple shots.
Try these and see.
 
I practice at 1, 7, 10, 25 and 100 meters with pistol.

I know of very few people who practice at one yard. This I believe is poor planning. You might think that you can't miss at that range but you can. You need to get used to the idea of shooting at something too close or you might hesitate at the wrong moment.
 
You need to get used to the idea of shooting at something too close or you might hesitate at the wrong moment.
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Yes, very true, I will try that next time.

My local public range only has 25 yards and farther, the only time I can practice at closer distances is when there are very few people there.
 
No law says that if you practice at long ranges you have to shoot long ranges in self defence.

Practicing long distance will do wonders to your short distance shooting.

I shoot extended distances with my 642 simple because it forces me to concentrate on fundamentals witch get sloppy shooting short ranges.
 
A quick word on self defense practice at the longer ranges.
Practice at the longer distances just the same as the closer ones.
Not bullseye style.
It's very tempting to want to look good, and hit the center of the target at 25 plus yards, with every shot.
And that alone is good practice, too.
But self defense requires speed as well as accuracy.
And the faster, the better.
Just a thought.
 
The thing is, not all shooting is self defense.

I shoot for fun, thousands of rounds a year, but except for the odd rattle snake or critter going after my chickens, I shoot for fun.

Yes I practice at short ranges, and I also practice at long range, not because I think I'm going to have to defend my self at extended distance, but because I SHOOT FOR FUN.

Trying to engage targets at 100 yards requires me to concentrate on my fundamentals (and its fun).

I'm not saying I can even hit the target 100% of the time with my 642, I can't, no where close. But its still fun trying.

But besides being fun, it does help with my fundamentals. After a session of extended range shooting, my close, normal snub nose revolver shooting distances improves immensely.

It's not fun setting at 7 yards and tearing the center out of a silhouette target, nor do I learn anything.

The exception is improving my speed and presentation, that's fun too.

I recommend every one try their pistols/revolvers at 50 or even 100 yards. You'll enjoy it and probably will learn something.
 
No doubt long distance practice is beneficial, but the subject of the thread is:
"What distances should I be practicing SD shooting at?"
 
No doubt long distance practice is beneficial, but the subject of the thread is:
"What distances should I be practicing SD shooting at?"
Click to expand...
I'm going to throw another twist at you more important than the range and that is how you shoot. I drill at various ranges from 8 yards to 110 yards because that is how my range is set up. The important thing is how you shoot and it should be mixed up with standing, kneeling, sitting and prone. Some exercises should be strong hand, weak hand and two hand. slow fire and rapid fire, shoot from a chair and shoot from behind a barricade. I know that's hard to do on a public range but if the range isn't crowded and you talk to the range master you might get some of those drills in. If nothing else get the strong, weak and two hand drills in, you never know when the flag goes up what hand may be available to you due to injury or some kind of encumbrance or the position you are in.
 
I'm going to throw another twist at you more important than the range and that is how you shoot. I drill at various ranges from 8 yards to 110 yards because that is how my range is set up. The important thing is how you shoot and it should be mixed up with standing, kneeling, sitting and prone. Some exercises should be strong hand, weak hand and two hand. slow fire and rapid fire, shoot from a chair and shoot from behind a barricade. I know that's hard to do on a public range but if the range isn't crowded and you talk to the range master you might get some of those drills in. If nothing else get the strong, weak and two hand drills in, you never know when the flag goes up what hand may be available to you due to injury or some kind of encumbrance or the position you are in.
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I'm really new to shooting, only 150 rounds ago I learned how to control recoil. I went from just pointing and shooting to trying to control that B*#*% and get the sights back on target pretty fast.

At 21' I can shoot about a 5 inch group pretty fast( with my glock 22 .40 cal), how tight do ya think it should be before moving back?

And while I can control the gun during recoil I think I can save a lot of time if I could line the sights up a lot faster. I will practice with the .22 for now but sometime in the future I might get a 40-9 conversion so I can practice with a little more recoil.
 
I practice no farther than 15 yards and mostly at 10 and 7 yards. I cannot imagine a CHL holder having to shoot at 25 yards.
Jerry
 
JerryM said:
...I cannot imagine a CHL holder having to shoot at 25 yards.
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It's not necessarily a question of someone having to shoot at 25 yards in a self defense situation. It's that practice at longer distances is very helpful for developing and maintaining fundamental marksmanship skills, and those skills are useful for defensive gun uses.

That said, it is desirable to be able to practice more self defense specific skills such as presenting from a holster, shooting quickly and accurately, shooting while moving, etc. But it's difficult to find places where those skills can be practiced. Classes and some competition, like IDPA, can be helpful in that regard.
 
There's nothing magic you learn at 10ft that you can't learn at 25yds.

How you practice is more important than the range. Well with in reason.

You can still shoot strong, weak and two handed at 25yds. You can still practice point shooting at that range as well.

Imho only shooting at a torso sized target at 3yds gives one a false sense of security.
 
I practice at 3, 10, and about 13 yards. I measured and it was about 12.5 yards from my bedroom door to my front door which is the furthest one could shoot inside my house. Some may say I might some day have to shoot further than that, but I feel ok with the plan.

Oh and most of my practice is shooting from low ready to quickly firing one or two shots (I can't do more than a double-tap at my range, so this is as close as I get to the home defense situation).
 
What distances should you practice for SELF DEFENSE?

Ideally: Contact distance to 100 yards.
Realistically: Any and every distance you can safely practice.

Don't worry so much about shooting itty-bitty groups as making fast hits on the target using the gun, holster, clothing, and AMMO as you will most likely be using during self defense.
 
hmm what we train for

3 yard nonaimed punch style shot
7 yard strong hand/ and weak hand. Supported shot (both hands)
15 yard
25 yard
30 yard
 
Self-Defence Practice Distance

Less than 10 feet during low light or night time conditions. If you don't have your own shooting range, your're probably out of luck.

I certainly would not want to be a defendant before a jury trying to convince them that killing someone at a distance greater than 25 feet was self defence.
 
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