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Safe draw and return to belt holster

I'm Mike Barham I'm the customer service manager here at Galco gun leather and I'm Dave stair an Account Representative at Galco Dave one of the common questions we get here at Galco is when a customer's first got his belt holster he's trying it out and the gun is maybe sticking or catching or grabbing a little bit as he's he's going to draw from his new belt holster now you have well over 20 years experience as a gun sight instructor and range master can you talk to us a little bit about the common errors the kind of operator errors you would see at gun sight that would influence that kind of issue when it comes to drawing from a belt holster yeah absolutely be glad to most the time it's going to be an improper technique that's causing people to have problems getting the pistol out of the holster we address some of these common mistakes and common errors eliminate those we can develop a nice safe and efficient draw stroke some of the most common errors we see are people failing to get a good grip before they begin trying to pull the pistol it's imperative that your grip is correct before you ever start to bring the pistol out of the holster failing to get that proper grip right from the beginning if your grips not right from the start everything is downhill from there so we've got to get that grip established before we start to come out of holster chicken winging where this elbow starts to kind of come forward very common what that's going to do is it's going to add a little torque and some tension between the pistol and holster and of course that's going to crease the difficulty in getting it to come out of the holster bowling people in a big hurry to try to hurry up get the pistol downrange onto target they do what we call kind of a bowling motion as it comes up again it's very much going to decrease the efficiency of the draw stroke and then the next one the fourth one is the casting motion where they bring the pistol kind out and they sort of cast it downrange towards the target if we eliminate those things we'll start development a nice safe efficient draw stroke that's great can you give us a physical demonstration with a gun and a holster and show us the right way and the wrong way to do that yeah you bet be glad to awesome before we get into the mechanics of the draw stroke is imperative that we cover the four safety rules that all guns are always loaded until you have personally verified that they are not before you begin any type of practice never let the muzzle cover anything you were not willing to destroy this includes during practice sessions always keep your finger off the trigger straight up on the frame until your sights are on target you've made the decision that you are going to shoot and number four always be sure of your target make sure you understand what your target is what's beyond it and what may become between you and your target those four things are imperative and should be in place all the time whether you're shooting or you're just doing practice all right for this first thing we're gonna do real wine and the bear fly gun is unloaded I'm gonna remove the magazine the source of ammunition I'm gonna lock the slide to the rear and then I'm going to use both my eyes and my sense of touch to verify that the gun is unloaded before we begin I have now made sure that the gun is unloaded in addition to that I will make sure that there's no live ammunition on my person or anywhere near me I want it in a separate room before I begin doing any kind of dry practice for this I'm going to use an Avenger holster this is an open-top neutral can't holster it's one of our best sellers and it happens to be one of my personal favorites I'm also using a gun very dear to me a Kimber 1911 Kimber 1911 Scott a manual thumb safety will discuss the operation of that thumb safety as we go through the draw strokes we're gonna break this down into five simple steps for you guys to make it a little bit easier to learn the technique will break you down into count one which is your grip count to clearing the pistol from the holster count three rotating the muzzle so that it's orientated towards our target for that's gonna be smack that's where it has come together close to her body as we begin to build that two hand grip and five look that's the transition as with a pistol comes out and we start looking for that front sight alright breaking it down into those five steps count one a lot of stuff happening on account one account one ninety establish my grip that's high up high up on the back strap of the pistol get my hand as high as it will go I get my fingers curled under there with my middle finger up underneath the trigger guard and wrapped around a grip pulling my trigger finger is placed so that as the pistol comes out of the holster it is not in or near the trigger trigger guard area and if I've got a thumb safety etc my thumb is properly placed to address that my support hand comes centerline this is going to help put it in the right position to build that two hand grip right from the beginning and it keeps it out of the way so I don't inadvertently muzzle myself or have it do anything that causes a distraction to my draw stroke so on this one count all the stuff happens right here you'll notice my elbows back behind my body if I let it chicken wing you'll find that it starts to build or contention between the pistol and the holster and it's gonna make it very difficult for you to clear the pistol out of the holster so on this one count everything happens everything's established here the two-count clear straight up all I'm doing is bringing the pistol straight up out of the holster it's not moving anywhere I'm not worrying taking the muzzle anywhere except right above the top of the holster count three this is rotate this is where we drop the elbow rotate at the shoulder joint and bring the muzzle towards our target it's kind of perpendicular to the ground it's ready to start driving in a straight line from this position to my intended target smack my hand smack together right here close to my body close to the centerline and from here I Drive the pistol straight out right here you might hear a click that's right at the end of the draw stroke as my sights are starting to light up and I disengaged the manual safety on a 1911 now once my sights are where I wanted to be my finger can go to the trigger I can take my shot after my shot I'm done shooting I want to safely return to the holster that's done by first finger comes off the trigger high up on the frame re-engaging any safety I may have like the one on this 1911 and I'm gonna reverse the draw stroke right back to the holster in the same manner I brought it out it's gonna come back my hands would be close together I'm gonna rotate at the shoulder I'm gonna get the pistol above the holster fingers still straight this point if you want to take a glance make sure there's no clothing or other obstructions in the way of your holster simply goes back in eyes go back up it's really important that we know we don't have any hurry to get back to the holster sometimes as we begin practicing we begin doing our drills and we try to come out and get that first shot or those are those shots out as quick as we can we have a tendency to want to rush back to the holster there's never a need to rush back to the holster and do and so is actually inefficient and oftentimes unsafe you know go back to the holster until you were happy with everything and your environment and everything is the way you want it to carefully reverse that draw stroke back into the holster being very aware of your finger all safeties are engaged take a glance down if you need to sometimes clothing or other things can get in the way we want to avoid any kind of tragedies during our practice couple points if you choose a different style holster such as this Fletch you'll notice that this is a forward can't holster it has the pistol sit slightly forward which aids in concealment that way the butts not sticking out as much if you want to wear it under a shirt or a jacket etc it's gonna help you hide the pistol better with this board we can't it's also got a retention strap on it it's got a thumb break snap style strap on it we need to talk about how do I unsnap the holster during my presentation and how do I return the pistol to the holster with the strap in the way cuz it's a little bit different than the open top on the grip we're just gonna get our handed position just like we always do what we want to do now is drive the thumb down in there like a wedge we don't want to just push on the snap we're gonna drive it down in there it's gonna help seat our hand and get our hand a position just like it is anyway you'll note on the forward camp that my wrist has got a little bit more brake to it than on a neutral can't holster when I come out I still want to come out as straight up as I possibly can I still want to bring this straight I'm gonna go through the other similar steps on my draw stroke coming back to the holster we've got that strap now that we need to be aware of so as I come back same way I do before I just wanna make sure that I've got the muzzle behind that strap ease it down into the holster then I can snap the retention device all right let's address some of the common errors that we see that we mentioned the beginning of the video failing to obtain a proper grip right from the start if I don't get my hand up where it's supposed to be and it's down to low or anything's not right as the pistol comes out I'm either going to be unsafe with my finger near the trigger or as I'm trying to fumble it and get it corrected it's either going to cause an unintended discharge or it's going to really slow the whole process down so we got to establish that grip right from the beginning the importance of the support had get into place is paramount if I let it just hang and I try to bring the pistol out now everything comes together here I'm not building it right from the beginning chicken winging this is a big one this is the most common cause of difficulty getting the pistol out of the holster this elbow starts to roll forward it's going to bind and cause it to hang up I need to have that elbow back so I get that nice smooth up out of the holster bowling bowling is when we bring the pistol up and then we try to Bowl it a bowling motion towards the target that's going to be inefficient it's gonna cost us a lot of time which usually results in us rushing a shot I want to bring it up rotate it drive it straight towards my target and the other one that we mentioned was casting or fly-fishing where I bring it out and I kind of do a casting motion that makes it very difficult to pick up the sight it's much much more efficient to rotate it and drive it in a straight line where I'm already looking than it is to cast it out there and then try to find my sights if you avoid those common errors you're going to find that you're developing a much safer much more efficient draw stroke well thanks for doing that great demo Dave I think you really did a nice job of covering the common errors and the correct way to perform that draw stroke thanks my pleasure to be able to do it one thing I want to close out with is the importance of safe practice and perfect practice I employ everybody to go out and practice these techniques but please first do it with an unloaded gun until you feel very comfortable and you've got the steps of the draw stroke down then when you go to the range to do your live fire start out slowly make sure that you're doing everything precisely and perfectly and in no time you will find that you've got a safe efficient draw stroke that's getting you from holster to target much quicker way and that's what we're aiming for right absolutely thanks a lot Dave

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