This past weekend I had the opportunity to shoot at night with some friends and forum members. Once we worked our way through the crawl stages, the guy that was overseeing everything we were doing and how we were handling shooting at night set up a short "assault on a target" course. It was very basic, and we each went individually while he followed close behind to make sure we were navigating the terrain safely, keeping good practices, etc.

The issue I found myself facing was when I fired off the first few rounds from behind the first cover area, and began to move to the second area of cover, I flipped the rifle on Safe. Once I got to the second area, I cannot remember if I subconsciously remembered I had done that and flipped it back to fire or not, but I dont remember having a feeling of " oh thats right its on safe, or Wait, why is it on safe?" After I engaged the target from the second cover, we were to move across the range while firing on the move. No issues Here as I stayed on target after leaving the second cover area. Once I got to the other side of the range, I experienced a malfunction and while on my way to the third area of cover, I was attempting to clear the malfunction while moving. At this time, I also ended up flipping the rifle back to safe.

Once I got to the 3rd location and thought I had cleared the malf., I flipped back to fire, and click, nothing. Flipped back to safe, almost out of habit, Dropped the mag beside me, racked the Charging handle 2-4 times to make sure it was clear, reloaded mag and charged in another round. HERE is where I didnt remember the rifle was on safe. I squeezed off and the trigger obviously didn't budge. switched to fire, and finished the exercise with no more issues, other than being out of shape.

I've never found myself doing this before, and I'm worried it is a bad habit that I'll have to go back and break to reduce the time it takes to get back in the fight. Anyone have any insight on this?

I guess the only real positive that I got out of this was the competence to get the weapon cleared under Nods without having that close in focus. I want to say the rifle was only down for a few seconds and my hand went right back to where I had placed the mag, and the mag went back into the rifle fairly smoothly for only going by "feel." Wanna get back out and go again as soon as possible.

********The level of instruction provided by our facilitator was excellent, and I enjoy shooting under him and following his lead, so I dont want this to turn into a thread that questions his safety measures or method of instruction. There were numerous Safety precautions that were in place and all individuals involved in the shoot were responsible and very level headed. I just have never found myself doing this before.

If you're not pulling the trigger, the weapon should be on safe.

Before you try to pull the trigger, take the weapon off safe.

These should be automatic/subconscious habits.

Then I guess I'm doing something right? Almost at least?

Just didn't know what the schooling was on this "during a fight" and while moving. I can see both sides of... The safety of the situation, and the crucial split second to get another downrange, but I guess, if you injure yourself or a fellow fireteam member, then that time saved is pointless.

Another thing.....why would you be leaving cover with your weapon not up and functioning?  May as well have cover while you do your stoppage clearing drills.  You're out of the fight at the moment so why hang it out there?

Maybe I was confused and you didn't actually leave cover with a stoppage.

Already covered, but to reiterate, weapon always on safe when not pulling the trigger.  Low ready? Safe.  High ready? Safe.  Moving? Safe. Clearing malfunctions?  Safe (some failures will block it from going on, which failing ot go on safe will clue you in to the type of malfunction before you even look). This of course is all done with the finger straight and off the trigger.




What you experienced was "muscle memory" in action.  Repetition made conscious thought of action unneeded.




"I've never found myself doing this before, and I'm worried it is a bad habit that I'll have to go back and break to reduce the time it takes to get back in the fight. Anyone have any insight on this? "


 

No, always use your safety, part of training hard is to make your safety manipulation as fast as coming on target.  Done correctly, you can put the rifle on fire as the sights come into the target and fire in one smooth movment meaning you've lost no time at all, yet had the added layer of safety preventing you from ND'ing into yourself or others during things like moving or transitioning.

I was out of cover when the weapon went down and actually was moving to cover while attempting to clear the malf simultaneously.

This is why im curious about it.... I don't practice that particular action a lot. Maybe it just the co scions flip to safe/fire even when just function testing the weapon, and dry firing etc?

I really didnt think I had drilled it into my head enough for it to become muscle memory.

Well that makes sense.  If is was in your shoes, I'd probably do the same while quickly moving to cover.  

FWIW I love the modern ergonomic safeties.   You couldn't easily do this with the old guns like the m14.  With the FAL and the Ar it's a piece of cake with current design philosophy.  I use the safety all the time.

My feelings, based on my training, real world experience here and abroad, and the way I teach....is just as others have said: Unless that AR15/M4 is about to go "bang" it's on safe.

Especially when I move.

Then again, I couldn't count the number I times I've practice switching from safe to fire. Literally tens of thousands.....maybe even more.  Honestly...that many.


Going from safe...to "bang"...back to safe when you move should be something done on "auto pilot" in my opinion.

I did a lot of research on this a few years ago, and wish I would have saved everything for quick reference. But to summarize it, it doesn't take many repetitions to form a new habit aka muscle memory. Somethings as few as a dozen or so, sometimes a few hundred. I.E. learning how to tie shoes takes a few times when you're a kid but you do it over and over again next thing you know you just do it.  Safety manipulation is the same thing.  

 

What takes a long time is overwriting/ changing habits. That can take thousands of repetitions, some sources  I read said as high as 4-6000 depending on how complex or ingrained they are.

The thing is, while it sounds like a big number, it's really not.  If you did a drill 20 times a night, coming up and off safe on target, then down and on safe for 200 nights that's 4k reps easy.  


Good part is it sounds like you're already doing it the good way, so all you personally need to do it sounds like is keep reinforcing that good habit.  

Yup, same here.  The reps add up FAST.  On my first float we didn't go into action and stayed stuck on the boat so all we did was cqb drills, part of that was endless mag change practice, about an hour a day 4 days a week. I did the math to estimate how many changes it might have been and it was some absurd number like 50K+ speed reload practices.  

I've not done any carbine shooting at night, but done a few handgun classes.  For some reason the dark made my brain turn to mush and I did weird things too.  I had a malfunction on my handgun (malfunction was I put in an empty mag during a reload prior to the stage).  Fired my first round, gun went into slide lock, but I though it was some sort of a Fail to Feed.  I had leaned out from cover, and in clearing the malf I had taken a full step out of cover.  I sat there and tried fruitlessly to get the gun into batter before dropping the mag and slamming a new one home, then putting additional shots on target.

The instructor pointed out my errors and I couldn't believe I had made those fundamental mistakes.

Point being, your training, and learning.  Doing it at night does change the game and sometimes put you back to the basics.  Good on you for working through these now!

Night is where I love to be.

Basic gun handling TTPs should be worked out already by this point before getting into low light, nighttime shoot and move drills.

The confusion a lot of people have at night is what provides a distinct advantage for an attacker.

If you're moving (i.e. not shooting), your weapon should be on safe.

After "a while" (i.e. lots of practice) it becomes second nature.

I only ran this "course" once, and it only lasted a minute or 2 max i'd say? No reloading or transitions to sidearms as I think our instructor just wanted to watch our basic movements and keep everything at the crawl, walk stage to ensure no bad habits were formed, but at the same time, still maintaining the enjoyment factor so as not to bore us with safety issues or movement tactics.

Impossible.

The AR15 will not go on SAFE with a dead FCG. I don't know what you did, but I know (based on what you wrote) you did NOT do it that way, in that order.

Eta- the click is the part where this is the most inaccurate i guess. I might have pulled through and just felt the bottom end of the pull without the bang.

The bolt wasnt in battery. I think I had a casing stuck as the charging handle, once unlatched, did no have any resistance against it, as if the bolt was locked to the rear. However it was not.

As I said, it was dark, under nods, no close up focus, no white light, and there was no stopping to figure out what the malfunction was. I apologize if my description is inaccurate, but I portrayed it to the best of my memory. This would also mean there was no click and the trigger would have been free to move, but the safety is still able to be engaged.

I was in the mindset to get the rifle back up and running. I do think that 2 rounds either fell out or were ejected when I dropped the mag and racked the charging handle, but I can't be certain.

When I thought I had it cleared without dropping the magazine, attempted to fire the weapon, and nothing happened, that is when I ejected the magazine and racked the charging handle 3 or 4 times. I know it was over 2 times and less than 5 as I wanted to make sure it was clear before inserting the magazine again .

Not necessary.

Just pointing out how things get under stress.

I put my students through a 5 or 6 station, multi-lane obstacle course that involves 2-man team tactics, cover fire, communication, reloads, etc., it's fun to run and fun to watch. Especially fun to watch when brains go to mush... and that's in broad daylight.

Take a buttler creek scope cap and get a old piece of brass glowing hot with a torch. Take brass and melt it directory in the center of scope cap creating a hole. Put on the end of you nvd.
Bam, poor man's focus ring. Flip it down when you're going hands on. Flip it up when you're looking to infinity.

I think what happen to you is very common in training, especially at night under Nods.  If a malfunction is going to happen, it will always be in the middle of a training class it seems.  It sounds like you did just fine.  When you stress test your skills you might do something slightly different than what you've ever done before.  No big deal as long as you stick to good safety and still can function.  That sounds what you did so I don't see any big deal here.

I think lots of folks forget where their safety is when under stress.  The fact that you are checking or re-checking to insure it's where it needs to be is the key point here, not that you got temporarily dis-combobulated.  I have forgotten to put safety on or off under stress, but I was also following the other rules, especially by keeping good muzzle control and finger off trigger.  So yes that was bad, but I didn't have a NG because I was following the other safety rules, and I learned from it.  I am not implying that is what you did here; just illustrating a point.

I disagree with the concept of always staying behind cover if you have a malfunction.  If your team is advancing, and you stay behind to fix your weapon, you have two issues,  First is the safety issue of everyone not being roughly on line together.  Especially at night.  For training I would stress the idea of staying with your team more than fixing your weapon.  Keep moving with them and fix it when you can.  Tell your buddy you have a malfunction so he can take up the slack (hopefully) in shooting while you get it fixed.  Second is the idea of working with a team.  If you have let's say at least 4 guys assaulting a position, remember there's 3 other rifles out there.  If you're not shooting it doesn't mean the enemy isn't getting effective fire.  You could still advance with them, with a non-functioning gun, to stay together with them, and fix it (behind the next position of cover) while your buddy ups his rate of fire to compensate.

I know a lot of guys are used to working alone, and the idea of doing something like thus sounds crazy.  But for safety reasons, and with trust in good team mates, it can be done.  It's what I have done.  It's" A" way of doing things, for your consideration.

When doing a live fire night assault, under Nods,  I have seen many similar issues.  The first time you change mags at night, live fire, under Nods, is an experience.  Clearing a malfunction must be doubly so.  What I have found to really help, is to run a Wilcox filter, so I can run the Nod at a slight stand-off, which does two things,  First I can now wear safety glasses.  Secondly, the slight gap gives you a huge amount of situational awareness, because you can now see around the gap of the eyepiece.  For the price of some field of view, you can now see close up on your Nod side.  The filter cancels out the "raccoon eye" you would normally get by doing this.  

Also, I think having a small IR light (or at least ranger eyes) on everybody's head makes a lot of sense, in training as well as in actual assault.  I know some guys will disagree with that, but I think having some kind of IR visual light to mark where everyone is, makes a lot of sense.  Not to mention Lum/ IR patches on your shoulders, which really help to keep everyone on line.          

May I suggest doing READY...UPs (for a few mags at least) to help remember to take the safety off before shooting and put it back on after shooting? It will help first round accuracy too.