Video Transcript
Gun Should Travel on a Straight Line (00:00):
Drawing from an outside-the-waistband holster is pretty self-explanatory. Gun needs to go from here to there. The fastest way to do this is for the gun to travel on a straight line from your extension of the pistol, whether you're a arms-locked-out-Magpul-dynamics type person, or if you're an arms-bent-bring-the-gun-to-your-eyes person. Ultimately the gun needs to be somewhere about here in order to start shooting with maximum performance.
So what I'm gonna do with my draw, when I'm getting the pistol out of the holster, is I'm not gonna go to here and then drive the gun out because that is excess motion. It's not gonna be very efficient. And the only time I may need to draw quite like that is if I'm in, you know, around a steering wheel or in some sort of confined space. But if I have the openness to be able to draw with maximum efficiency, that's what I'm gonna do. The gun is gonna go from right here to where I need to be to get a sight picture and be able to shoot with good recoil management and with again, that maximum performance.
Scoop Draw vs. High Tang Grip (00:57):
So what that looks like, as far as indexing the gun, there's a couple techniques out there. There's the scoop draw. And then there's the more traditional, just get a good grip on the gun and then jerk it from the holster. The scoop draw looks something like… And it's usually something that more competition-y shooters are doing, but it is very effective. As your hand is running up along the holster and the pistol, you basically grab the pistol on the way out. There is no driving the hand into the beaver tail. There's no, you know, getting that really assertive, good grip, and then jerking the pistol from the holster. You're basically grabbing the gun on the way out as your hand is running up to the holster, to the grip of the pistol and then pushing the gun out there. Now that's a very effective way to draw. It's a very fast way to draw. But what I've found is that method is not always super intuitive. If you're running a holster with more retention, you're running an active retention holster with a button that you're gonna have to, you know, really make sure your hand is in the right place to be able to articulate the button—an ALS, an SLS, a Level 3, the new Alien Gear holster. The scoop draw method is not gonna work as effectively on a holster like that. Now, if you're running a super loosey-goosey loose holster then yeah, you can absolutely get away with a scoop draw.
Draw Demo (02:07):
But what I like to do, and because this works across the board on whatever holster I'm using, whether it's a Ragnarok, a 6354DO, the Alien Gear holster, whatever it is, an SLS traditional, a Titan, you know, if you can find one of those is I'm going to be running my hand up to the pistol, and then I'm actually going to be driving my hand into the beaver tail. So I'm sort of doing a downwards and forwards push into the gun. That's gonna give me my really high tang grip on the gun, my really assertive, good grip on the pistol. And then I'm gonna jerk the gun from there. Now as far as what my left hand does—my left hand basically just comes up to where my chest, you know, where my chest would be. I'm not doing anything, you know, too tactical, too crazy. But I'm gonna end up meeting my grip around here anyway. So I'm gonna get my left hand there to expedite the process. Just like that. So I have that sort of bring the hand up, push it down into the, you know, into the beaver tail of the gun. This is when I would articulate the ALS, the SLS, the rapid fire holster button or whatever. And then out of the holster, straight to the target. I'm not doing anything like this. I'm trying not to bow the gun outwards. I just want the gun to travel on a straight line to the target, to my presentation, to my sight picture. And I'm good to go.
Dry Fire Practice (03:18):
You could do this all with dry fire. You don't have to go to the range to, you know, practice your draws, your one shots, you know, and stuff. I like to see what my one shot time looks like, but you could do all that with dry fire, just getting the rep in there of having that good grip every time from the holster and ripping it from the holster. You can do that with dry fire no problem.
Does Wearing Kit Affect Draw? (03:35):
Now, as far as wearing kit goes, does any of this change? Not really. I'm still doing the exact same stuff, whether I'm wearing a competition belt, my two piece belt, or whether I'm wearing the Orion with the Ragnarok (same holster), or a Safariland holster with a big plate carrier on top. The only thing that may cause some issues—will cause issues—and it kind of sort of changes some stuff up is if I mount a bunch of big stuff here, like if I fill this this Spiritus GP pouch (or whatever this thing is) up with a bunch of stuff, yes, that's gonna get in the way where I draw to here. And then it's kind of in the way. And then I kind of gotta scoop around it and then push the pistol out. So if you're mounting a bunch of huge pouches on your pistol side, which I don't recommend, but maybe you have to—cuz you're just wearing a ton of stuff and you have to—that will affect some stuff. But at the end of the day, you're still taking the pistol from your holster from here, traveling it in as straight of a line as possible to the target for maximum efficiency. And then letting the gun rip.
Importance of High Tang Grip (04:24):
Big one, is you want to have that high tang grip on the draw. I can't stress that enough. If you end up drawing with this and you go to town that's not great. And depending on how loose your grip is, maybe you're wearing gloves, you may even get a stove pipe. So you definitely want to be, you know, as high as you can be on the pistol. And the way that I found to do that, the way that I like to do that and have good consistency across the board with other holsters is the—there's not really, I don't have a name for the method and I'm not even gonna try to make one—but I'm actually driving my hand into the beaver tail. I'm bringing my hand up, into the beaver tail, then ripping the gun out and I'm good to go. That's what it looks like.