‘When you decide to attack, keep calm and dash in quickly, forestalling the enemy...attack with a feeling of constantly crushing the enemy, from first to last.” - Miyamoto Musashi

The average gunfight statistically is three to five rounds fired at an opponent three to five yards away and within three to five seconds. It’s important to remember that just because this is the most common engagement doesn’t mean it’s the only possibility. Having said that though, a significant portion of our defensive training should address this scenario. 

All fighting is to a large degree psychological. The importance of pressing the opponent and maintaining initiative can’t be overstated. In a close range one on one gunfight I want to get acceptable hits on my opponent as quickly as possible. Then I can drive my hits to the optimal area and finish the fight. 

I categorize all hits as either unacceptable, acceptable, or optimal. To the body, optimal is a fist sized area in the high center chest, acceptable is an area about the width of the nipples and from the collar bones to the hips. Anything else to the body is unacceptable. To the head, optimal and acceptable are the same, the “T-box.” The T-box is a small area around the eyes, properly defined as the ocular vault, and a thin vertical strip down from there. Anything else to the head is unacceptable. 

Optimal shots are fight ending hits, although shots to the body may take some time to take effect depending on the opponents will and other factors. Acceptable hits may end the fight, but will do meaningful damage regardless and have a psychological effect. Unacceptable hits cannot be counted on to do meaningful damage, much less stop the fight, and also present dangers of shoot throughs that may hit a bystander. 

I do not want to give the opponent time to get an optimal or acceptable hit on me, regardless of what hits I get on him. At distances beyond five yards, movement off line and possibly cover play crucial roles in preventing effective hits on you. But within five yards it’s more about speed and accuracy than anything else. This is where draw speed matters. 

Here are some of the engagement sequences I practice and teach, and the reasoning behind them. The first is the “Gear Shift.” In this sequence I draw and fire four rounds, with the first two having to be within the acceptable zone. If they are optimal, of course that’s fine but the priority is to get them off fast with acceptable hits. The last two shots must be optimal. This is the simplest engagement sequence I train and teach, and it sets the tone for the more complex ones. The idea is once again to get physical and psychological effects on my opponent immediately, and then maintain the initiative as I finish the fight.

The second engagement sequence is what I call the “Applied Bill Drill.” For this engagement sequence, I draw and fire six rounds, with at least the last two being optimal, and every round having to be an acceptable hit. This is a longer version of the same concept we used in the Gear Shift engagement sequence. Gain and maintain the initiative and drive your hits into the optimal zone as you go.

The third engagement sequence I call “Downshift”. This is my version of the Mozambique, or “Failure Drill.” For this engagement sequence, a training partner calls out a number. I engage the torso of the opponent with that number of acceptable hits, and follow up with an optimal hit to the head. The standard Mozambique Drill is two to the body followed by one to the head, but I like to introduce an element of randomization into the sequence to better mimic how this would work in real life application. The idea is that you put acceptable hits into the body to gain the initiative and continue to shoot the body until the head is still enough to take the optimal headshot.

The final stationary engagement sequence that I train and teach is the simplest, although it is difficult. I draw and fire one optimal shot to the head. This simulates a low percentage and high risk shot, such as a hostage situation. The priority here is to balance speed and accuracy so that you can guarantee an optimal hit to the head, without taking any more time than is necessary. 

These engagement sequences should be practiced differently than you do isolation drills for skill development. When training to develop skills in isolation, I believe the optimal zone for improvement is about a 75% success rate. These engagement sequences should be considered “no-fail” scenarios. You should not miss when practicing these. You’re learning to display your current level of skill reliably, not working on improving it.

Practice these sequences, and they will give you a set of responses that can be applied in the vast majority of defensive gunfights. Build your skills to a high level in the rest of your training, and use these to learn how to apply your skill.