Learning the Art of the Draw

Choosing to carry a concealed handgun for self-defense is a good start to being prepared for an attack, but simply carrying a gun isn’t enough. You also have to know how to use that gun.

The basics of shooting and marksmanship are quite simple—grip, sights, trigger control and follow through—and can be easily learned. More advanced gun handling skills can be learned through research, or by attending one of the many firearm academies across the country.

While gun handling and accuracy skills are important, if you can’t get the gun out of the holster and into action quickly, you’ll be standing there with a lot of knowledge in your head and nothing in your hand. This makes the draw one of the most important components of proper self-defense. And you must be able to make the draw at any time and from any position.

Understanding Technique

Now before developing your draw, you have to decide how you’re going to carry. Some methods of carry provide easier access, while others impart deeper cover. There is no single correct way to carry a gun and only you can decide the method that works best for your purposes. But regardless of how you carry, you must master the draw for the holster system, or systems, that you choose.

The standard draw consists of four simple motions—the grip, the pull, the rotate and the presentation—that must be conducted in sequence or the entire process disintegrates and problems arise. Everything in the draw begins with the grip.

When you reach for your handgun, you must instantly obtain a shooting grip, with the trigger finger aligned along the frame. If you don’t get a firm grip on your handgun before it exits the holster, the draw can be fumbled and the gun dropped, which won’t do any good and could very well cause a lot of harm. You then pull the gun straight out of the holster before rotating it toward the target—from here, you can fire if the attacker has gotten too close to fully extend the gun. Finally, you present the gun toward the target, allowing the support hand to come up into a two-hand shooting grip as the sights line up.

Developing the Proper Draw

Now the problem with the standard draw is that it is based on carrying a gun in a strong-side holster, and there are as many different ways to carry a gun as there are types of handguns to carry. Fortunately, the draw is basically the same in all cases, with some minor variations.

Developing a proper draw takes time and practice, especially if you carry in multiple ways, as you must always be aware of where your gun is located and the best way to get that gun into action. You must develop the muscle memory for each and every way you carry. This is one of the reasons that many experts recommend carrying the same gun in the same way all the time. It doesn’t matter how good a shot you are if your gun is sitting in your holster.

The choice of carry method can also determine whether you can practice drawing at your local range. While some ranges do not allow draw training at all, others limit it to those methods like strong-side, pocket and ankle where the shooter is not sweeping the muzzle across adjacent areas. Unless you have your own range or shooting area, it’s very difficult to obtain live-fire training with cross draw, shoulder and small-of-back set ups. Availability of training locations should be included when considering how to carry a concealed handgun. Commence Training

Regardless of your carry method, training should always begin with an unloaded handgun. Even if your range allows drawing from a holster, you should still learn the motions through dry practice, which can easily begin at home. It should also begin without a cover garment, even though the final goal is a safe, smooth and fast draw from concealment. Starting with an unloaded gun sans cover garment allows you to learn the proper movements before introducing live fire and more complex motions, such as drawing from under a shirt, jacket or vest.

Always start slow and deliberate, and speed up as the motions blend together naturally. You can even include dropping the hammer on a target (make absolute sure your gun in unloaded) using one of the available laser training cartridges, such as LaserLyte’s LTS Training Cartridges, to get a good idea of your accuracy in a draw type situation.

While dry practice is good— sometimes it is all one can get— live-fire training is the best way to get a true feel for the effectiveness of your draw in a fight. As the gun is now loaded, you should again start slowly, firing one round per draw. As you become more comfortable, add speed and additional shots—two to three rounds—to the mix, before introducing a cover garment.

To reach a gun covered by a jacket or vest, you simply sweep it back with your hand to reveal the gun. You can help this process is by having an object in the pocket that is heavy enough to provide momentum to swing around the gun – a spare magazine or speed loader works well for this. If you’re using a shirt as a cover garment, you can reach under it with one hand to obtain a grip, but many people use their support hand to lift the tail, especially if the shirt is tucked around the gun for better concealment.

Of course, since few people use a single type of garment to conceal a gun, both methods should be practiced. Also, every time you change something in your set up—gun, holster or cover garment— consider unloading the gun and practicing a few draws in a mirror to ingrain the motions in your mind. Using a mirror allows you to view the motions, correct any mistakes and provide a target for lining up the sights.

Be Prepared

Finally, you must remember that an attack can come at any time, not just when you’re standing up and ready. You might be in a car, sitting in a restaurant or kneeling to tie a shoe. You might have to reach across your body with your support hand, kneel behind cover or even draw from the ground. The possible scenarios are almost endless. For this reason, you should implement training that includes difficult draws in a variety of locations. Again, many of these can be practiced at home with an unloaded gun. You can obtain feedback by using a mirror or a partner, who can suggest realistic scenarios that you might not think of yourself.

Now a concealed handgun along with the ability and wherewithal to use it is important. But many attacks end without a shot when a gun appears in the hand of a so-called “victim.” Whether facing a strung-out punk or a seasoned criminal, the first defense remains avoiding the situation, the second is drawing a gun and the last is taking a shot. Your draw is just an important as being able to consistently ping the 10-ring, and in many ways, much more important.