When making movement at the ready position, as in you are expecting a threat to pop out any second are you looking thru your optic or over/around it?
I’m not sure what “making movement” is…
…but let me see if I can clear things up a bit:
From the sound of things you are referring to a situation that is highly dependent upon context. Let’s do some hypotheticals.
Let’s say that hypothetically I’m a police officer responding to an active shooter call in a mall. I arrive on scene at about the same time as another officer and we’re heading toward the sound of the gunfire. We’ve spotted a guy with a gun who spots us just a few seconds later and he hops behind a column and leans out to take shots at us. We’ve set up behind some reasonable cover.
Now in that situation if I reasonably expect that he’s dumb enough to keep prarie-dogging that bit of cover, I’ll pick an aiming point and wait there safety off, finger on trigger, ready to squeeze when he pops around that corner to shoot at me again. I know where the bad guy is, I have a reasonably good idea of what he’s going to do, and I’ve already made the decision to use lethal force. I’m looking through the optic ready to shoot because that is most appropriate in that situation.
If we back up in time for a bit and go back to a few minutes earlier when I am going through the mall to find the active shooter, it would be inappropriate to collapse my visual field to whatever I can spot through that 30mm objective. When I don’t know where the threat is it is best to keep the weapon at a ready position so I can bring it into play if necessary but not have my ability to see the world around me obstructed or artificially narrowed. On the square range when facing paper targets that don’t move and don’t shoot back, it’s possible to be in the ready position looking down through the optic because you already know what you are going to do. That may even make some people get on target faster.
In real life, however, you won’t be doing that.
How could you suggest such a thing? Doesn’t one size fit all??
I would say that generally if you are not engaging a threat and have your awareness open to potential new threats, you should be looking over your optic.
An overly-complex way of saying “moving”
When it comes to moving and ready positions; the situation will determine the height of the weapon. You have to be very careful when it comes to clearing through your optic since it greatly limits your field of view and you can easily end up missing threats that are outside of the scope of your vision. When clearign through the sights, we typically see people miss threats that are low (crouched/prone) or high. The average person tends to only search in a space from their waist to their shoulders in height; looking through an optic/sights tends to reinforce this negative habit.
This.
If you don’t have something specific to aim at, just keep your carbine up at ready but look over the sight/optic for awareness.
Your grip and cheek weld should be consistent so that it only takes a split second to aim down your sight from ready. Practice, muscle memory.
I practice looking over my optic and re-aiming for every threat. This is going to sound weird, but I think in real life it plays out the same… video games have taught me that if you have superior tactics, which are afforded by superior battlefield awareness, you can beat a better marksman almost every time.
The nerd will stop talking now…
If your only reference for offering gunfight advice is from video games you need to seriously think about your frame of reference before actually clicking on the “Submit Reply” button.
I applaud your honesty about your experience, but there are plenty of people here with numerous gunfights under their belts, and many more that have trained under those people, that are more qualified to offer actionable advice.
Gunfights: where mulligans are only offered in Valhalla.
Can you describe the “Ready” position your are referring to?
Mind if borrow this? 
Truer words have never been spoke…uh typed!
I’m much like JohnnyVain with respect to my realm of experience, but isn’t it pretty much like JW777 said, ie, situationally dependent?
Even with respect to range training, there’s not just 1 or 2 positions to memorize, there’s a whole spectrum as far as having the gun lay on your chest, all the way to glaring through the tube, safety off. I think its entirely dependent on how soon you’re expecting to shoot.
Situationaly dependent, as said above. That said, I’m having trouble envisioning a situation where you’d want to move while looking through your optic. I suspect that it would badly hinder your ability to move quickly and decisively…
-C
That is great.
Just copy whatever you see “Whiskey Whiskey” do on TV!!
Where the rifle is already in your shoulder pocket but you arent shooting anything yet.
I was just wondering if it might be more advantageous speed wise if you were already looking through your sights instead of bringing your sights up when you see a threat.
Oh, you might be able to shoot them quicker. But you may wind up shooting someone who is not a threat. There’s a reason why we engage our safeties, too.
Looking through your slights might narrow your vision but I dont think it will make you blind. Also assume one is following rule number 4.
Thanks. This pretty much answered my question.
there’s different positions for different situations… they even have names and we can easily come up with perfect examples for their execution:
“hung” - booger picking
“low ready” - did you hear something?
“high ready” - oh shit, i’m probably gonna shoot something!
“eyes-on-sights” - die, motherfucker!
these work whether standing or “making movement” (if you keep your M4 slung while shitting), or even moving.
If you know a way to ensure that the target pops up directly into your reticle, please let us know. The big problem with fighting people with guns is that they don’t resemble static IPSC targets in the least, and tend to move around.
If you aren’t shooting or holding on an identified threat you should make every effort to clear your field of view.
Seeing something and recognizing something are very different. If you’re in an environment where there are bad people who presumably want to kill you, odds are your adrenal glands are going to be pumping like there’s no tomorrow and your bunghole is going to be puckered so tight you won’t go number 2 for a week.
In that state your body does funny stuff. If you are running around with your weapon aimed with the safety off it is entirely possible to have a startle response to something that is not actually a threat and to put a bullet into it. Somebody can pop around the corner unexpectedly on you and the next thing you know you’ve sent a round downrange. Yes, having the weapon in that condition is faster to make a hit on target, but when we take things off of the square range and place you in a 360 degree environment filled with no shoots that bleed and die and have lawyers, suddenly that extra .5 seconds of speed carries with it a much greater potential for disaster.
You want to be ready to engage a threat…but if you’re TOO ready you have a greater chance of engaging someone who isn’t a threat just because of stimulus response. Stimulus: Something scary! Response: Shoot it! It’s real and it happens. It’s easier for that to happen when you’re already sights-on whatever it is that just scared you than if the muzzle of the weapon is down, safety is engaged, and finger is off the trigger. In that situation if something pops around the corner that startles you then you’ll likely bring the gun up, but you’ll have sufficient time to notice that it happens to be a pregnant woman with a toddler, and not the evil dude killing people.
Also assume one is following rule number 4.
I’m not sure exactly which rule of firearms safety you are referring to as people tend to order them differently, but in real life pointing in a safe direction and knowing what is beyond your intended target is a heck of a lot harder than it is on the square range. That is yet another reason to keep the gun pointed fairly low, as that minimizes the chances of pointing the weapon at someone who doesn’t need to die.
Thanks. This pretty much answered my question.
Happy to be of service.
Easy one: you’re putting fire on a target while advancing to cover.