Traditional Double Action Pistol

One of my goals for the year is to gain a basic proficiency with some weapon platforms that are unfamiliar to me, one of these being the traditional, double action pistol.  These are the pistols that were so popular in the nineties, where the first pull of the trigger cocks the hammer and fires the round, much like a double action revolver.  To fire subsequent rounds, the hammer was cocked by the slide, making the trigger pull closer to the short, light pull of a single action pistol.

Popular examples are the Smith and Wesson 5900 series pistols, which were adopted by many law enforcement agencies before the Glock became dominant in that market, and, of course, the M9, which was the official pistol of our armed services from 1990 until 2017.

A couple of years ago, I found a police trade- in Beretta 92, which is the civilian version of the M9.  I picked it up because it was a good deal, and because anything John McClane carried had to be good, right?  However, since buying it, I haven’t put more than a box of ammo through it.  I decided it was high time to change that.

anything John mcclane carried has to be good, right?

The traditional double actions are famously difficult to master.  Jeff Cooper once compared shooting a double action it to swimming the English Channel without flippers; it is possible, but not easy.  I think the colonel was speaking in hyperbole when he said that, but it underscores the truth: this is not an easy system to learn.

My goal with this project is not to achieve mastery,  which would take more time than I am willing to invest at this time.  My goal is to gain a basic level of skill with a system that is common, if not widely used anymore.

The chief difficulty with the TDA, is that you will have to learn two different trigger pulls.  To work on this, I used a version of the popular dot torture test made for this platform.

Dot-Torture-30-rd-version-small-dots-TDA

I found this to be a good drill for learning the trigger of the TDA.  After running it a couple of times, I felt ready to move on to some timed drills.

I decided to run the Hojutsu Short course. Based on the Alaska State Troopers Pistol Qualification, it is a well- rounded course covering a variety of practical skills, but using time allowances generous enough not to dissuade a beginner.

I ran this twice, and was able to score 90% on the second attempt.  Col. Cooper was right; this is a difficult gun to shoot in many ways, the trigger inconsistency being the greatest hangup.  That being said, the pistol was extremely accurate.  Recoil was as mild as I have ever experienced in a pistol, and I did not experience a single malfunction, even using some hand loads that my glock refused to eat.

One problem I had concerned the safety mechanism, so I did some research, and wrote to Jeff Hall explaining my difficulty.

“I have been running the safety as one would a 1911, wherein the safety comes off between 5 and 6 of the draw stroke, and goes back on when the gun comes to the guard position.

 I don’t see a lot of reference material on the double actions, a bit surprising considering that they were so popular for awhile, but one reference that does deal with them is Farnam’s Defensive Handgunning.  In it, he recommends the pistol be carried de-cocked, but with the safety off, something similar to a double action revolver.  The safety need not be taken off on the draw, and after shooting, the safety is switched on to de-cock the pistol, and then taken back off to holster and have at the ready for the next draw.

 What manual of arms do you recommend for this type of weapon?  Is there a reference that you recommend for this platform?”

He replied: “I carried a S&W double/single action, the 4006, for ten years with the Troopers. S&W does not call it a safety, they call it a de-cocker.

We did it just like John says. The gun is carried with a round in the chamber, de-cocked, with the de-cocker in the up (off safety) position. So, draw, point in, shoot as needed, decock as you come to guard, tac load and holster. It’s the same thing as a double-action revolver.”

When I shoot this gun next, I will try this method.  It would have saved me a couple of overtime penalties, when I forgot to lift the decocker, and  dropped the hammer on the safety bar.

If you are looking to gain some basic familiarity with a TDA pistol, give the course of fire I describe here a try.  You can shoot the Dot Torture and the Short course twice, and still only burn 156 rounds.

For more on the TDA pistol, I highly recommend John Farnam’s book, “Defensive Handgunning”.

Accuracy was good with the Beretta, but my unfamiliarity with the trigger cost a couple of over- times.

BaseBall and Bullets

I started teaching my children baseball this summer, just the basics: How to throw and catch a ball.  It got me thinking about the process of learning the basics.

“This is only basic rifle marksmanship that you are teaching!”  The student said it with something between derision and accusation.

“Yep, that is exactly what we are teaching,” I replied.

“I’m a sergeant, I already know this stuff.”

I shrugged, and let it pass.  He was grouping three inches at twenty five yards, with the aid of a bipod.

I sometimes start classes by stating: “We will be working a lot on basics today.”  I can accurately predict which students will do well, and which ones will perform poorly, based on their response.  The ones that say, “Great, I need basics”, excel.  The ones who look disappointed, or bored, do not.  Ironically, it is those students who embrace the basics, who are ready to move on to more advanced work more quickly.

The basics aren’t cool.  They don’t look good on Instagram, and basics won’t get you followers on YouTube.  Basics are hard, tedious work.  I have heard it said that ten thousand repetitions of a single movement are required to achieve mastery.  How long does it take to amass ten thousand trigger presses?  Or ten thousand draw strokes?

Everything fancy is just basics, faster, or from some inconvenient position.  To paraphrase one instructor I heard, “All you got to do is line up the sights, then don’t screw it up pulling the trigger.”

Yep, basics.

Next time you tune in the ball game, look at the highlights reel.  You will see those amazing triple plays, the slide into home plate, the fielder leaping to catch that would be home run, before it sails over the fence.  Then watch what the players do when they take the field.  Even though they are professionals, the very best players alive, they practice the basics, tossing the ball to each other, warming up for the inning.

They all started out as kids playing catch with their dad in the back yard, and even now, as pros making obscene amounts of money, they are still learning to catch and throw.  That’s why they are the best at what they do.