Today, I ran through a shoot house for the first time in my life at a firearms training institute.

I was so excited to run through a shoot house in real life for the first time ever that I was really keyed up. The shoot house contained paper targets depicting no-shoots (innocents), people with weapons (hostiles who must be ventilated ASAP), and hostiles with hostages (headshots only, basically).

To my amazement, because of this underlying level of stress, I ended up behaving almost exactly how I do when I play tactical FPS video games, even when this contradicted the physical training I'd been doing over the past couple of days. I cannot believe that the video games I've been playing for years have apparently actually strongly influenced my shooting and tactics in a real tactical simulation. Also, I have to say that when I've reverted to video game mode my reflexes seem to be really really fast. It's like I see a full color humanoid poster target in the shoot house and everything becomes a blur. I'm going to try and describe what happened in the shoothouse and how I reverted to video game actions.

Before we went to the shoothouse, in the morning we had a lecture about pie-ing in around corners and doorways, and how to make entry through doorways. Stuff like this is portrayed requently in tactical FPS games such as SWAT 4, but what they told us to do was slightly different than how these are usually coded into tactical FPSes. In tactical FPSes the bots usually pie in from right at the corner of the intersections. In this class they told us to pie in from a distance away from the corner since distance favors the person with more training and because there's less probability of splashback into your face if someone shoots the wall near your head. Similarly, tactical FPSes usually involve a team where one person stands aside and opesn the door, a second person throws in the tactical aid, and then the rest of the team charges through the doorway and runs the walls. In the class, though, since they assumed a lone individual with a handgun, they said to stand aside at a diagonal, cover the door with the handgun on your torso, push the door open with your support hand, and then step back and assume a normal shooting stance in case someone is in the door.

When we practiced this stuff with redguns before the shoothouse, the first time I did everything SWAT 4 style. I had to do it twice to do it the way they were training. The SWAT 4 stuff was the stuff I kept reverting to, because I have played a LOT of SWAT 4, and a LOT of SWAT 4 mods, and the Canadian Forces: Direct Action military training tool which was created using SWAT 4.

Next, I went to the shoothouse. Before I went in I asked the instructor if I needed more than one magazine. (I'm using Chip McCormic 8 rounders for a 1911.) He said that I'd need serious help if I'd need more than one, so I went in with the mentality of not doing tactical or speed reloads that I would have otherwise done if I were, say, playing in a USPSA match. This is important because I don't remember exactly what happened in the shoothouse (that's the keyed up level of stress I was talking about) but I know for a fact that I only fired 7 rounds, since my mag was empty when I took it out, but I still had one in the chamber, and I didn't do any reloads. (Apparently some other students ran out or had other issues, so I think the instructor was wrong about not needing more mags.)

I was so excited approaching the shoothouse. Finally, one in real life, after years of seeing them portrayed in video games! I made entry into the shoothouse and began pie-ing into the first cooridor.

The first thing that I saw was a full color poster of a guy with a knife in his right hand and pulling a gun out of his pants with his left. I think he was 7 yards away. It was startling and a bit jarring to see this all of a sudden, and my reaction seemed so fast, instantaneous, and smooth: BOOM, headshot. One shot, right in the cranial ocular cavity, and I knew it was good. It seemed faster and much more certain than when I'm shooting on the range. It's exactly what I had trained to do in video games. When the enemy is close to you (especially if he has a melee weapon) you go for headshots to put him down quickly. Afterwards, when this was reviewed by the instructor, he told me that this was wrong, because instead I should have done two in the center of mass, due to criminal and civil liability concerns. What's interesting is that we had spent pretty much all day yesterday practicing two shots to center mass, but somehow my muscle memory did not take over and make me do two in the body. Instead the video game mental memory was stronger and it was BOOM headshot, contrary to most recent physical training.

As I continued to pie-in, way down the cooridor, far away, was a guy with a gun at the end of the hall. I want to say he was over 30 feet away but it's actually hard to remember accurately looking back at it. It was the same story. I saw him and my reaction seemed so fast, instantanous, and smooth. Without having to think about it, and seemingly without needing any time to process what I was seeing, I somehow knew there was an opponent at a long range, so BANG BANG, two shots to the body. Again, it's exactly what you do in a video game when there's an enemy far away. Since it's difficult to get a quick headshot you go for the body. Turns out in this case that's what they wanted me to do.

So I kept pie-ing in, and of course in the left corner there was another poster. It was a poster of a woman reaching into her purse. Now, the day before, they had shown us a poster of the same woman reaching into her purse in the same way and she had a revolver. I thought it was the same poster, but nevertheless thought that I had verified a gun in her hand. BOOM headshot (whoops) because I think she was 7 yards away as well. But it turns out that I was wrong in that she didn't have a gun. When we went back over that one the instructor asked me why I shot her. I said, "She had a gun!" He said, "What gun?" I looked again and saw that she was actually pulling an alligator skin wallet out of her purse. Somehow I had looked right at it, but the alligator skin texture looked to me like the ridges on the slide of an automatic. I could have sworn, I *knew* that it was a gun, but somehow I was seeing something that wasn't there so vividly, and BOOM headshotted a no-shoot.

I proceeded deeper into the shoothouse, and here's where I really can't remember exactly what happened, or the order that things happened in.

As I next began to pie in, I saw a poster depicting a bad guy with a hostage. Again, it was so fast and smooth and it was like I wasn't even needing to think, BOOM headshot, which was appropriate in this case due to the hostage. (I actually don't know for sure how fast or slow I was, but I know that with the other students the instructor started screaming things at them to make them go faster, but with me he didn't say anything, so either I shot everything so fast he didn't have time to start, or else I was just reasonably fast enough that he chose not to start.)

There was one more poster that was part of the shoothouse portraying a guy crouching with a gun while wearing gloves, a hoodie, and a halloween mask. I think he was obnoxiously in a corner or something, but I saw him and tried to shoot him twice the the chest, and I think I actually missed once. Or maybe it was just a peripheral hit, I can't remember.

From the math I know I fired one more round. Actually, I was looking around so carefully with my Call of Duty: World At War visual acuity that I actually noticed outside a window a flippy poster of a guy with a gun. It turns out he wasn't part of the shoothouse, but I saw him, he was within bounds, so I shot him, and it was cool. Since this would be round # 7, it must have been BOOM headshot with him as well. But actually we might not have checked him so maybe I don't strictly speaking know.

Oh, there was one more no-shoot also, and I didn't shoot him.

In the end I fired 7 rounds, and I think only one miss, or peripheral hit. It seems like most of the shots I fired were actually BOOM headshot. Actually I probably would have had to reload if I'd been going for two shots on everyone instead of the head all the time. I didn't have any stoppages due to limp wristing, which sometimes happen when I'm just shooting on the range, but somehow when I was all keyed up and being attacked by posters it didn't happen.

I am completely amazed that when I did the shoothouse, apparently video games like SWAT 4, Canadian Forces: Direct Action, America's Army, and Operation Flashpoint dictated my actions moreso than a couple days of physical training. I don't really know what to make of it, but now I honestly think that the video games gave me a better grasp of tactics than a lot of other non-gamers had, because I had an overall mental framework or idea of tactics from the games that I could use to reference all the skills I had physically been practicing related to firearms usage. I also think that my reaction time was so fast, and I didn't have to think at all, because I was so used to processing visual information related to images of guys with guns in hallways and rooms, and shooting them already has become a subconscious reflex.

I know that with some of the other students, they were apparently hestitating and the instructor screamed at them. I also know that a lot of other people ended up headshotting the hostage in the hostage poster probably because they felt rushed and ended up forcing their gun downwards as they jerked the trigger. But now I wonder if they had been FPS gamers if none of this would have happened, if there would have been no hesitation for the straightforward shots and for the hostage shot already the practice of waiting a second for your reticle to shrink before going for the headshot.

Has playing a lot of video games actually made more more tactically dangerous than the average bear by reducing my reaction speed when I see an armed humanoid form and open fire, and by making careful pie-ing in, toggling on ADS mode (aka using irons), and cover seeking instinctual?

This reminds me of two articles I've read. The first was about a soldier who explained that when in combat he somehow switched to "combat mode" and wouldn't recall things very clearly after.
The other article was about how shooting humans is very hard for most humans. Instinctively, most people will shoot near the target, but not at the target. That's why most shooting training stat with round targets before switching to human-like cutouts. The article said that most FPS players had no difficulty shooting human-like cutouts right from the start.

Yes, it seemed like it was happening faster than conscious thought. What is more, so was the decision to shoot or not to shoot, because nowadays the best tactical FPS games also contain no-shoots, ie. civilians.

So doing the math, you spent two extra rounds (the accidentally-included target and the woman) and gained one by going for the wrong shot on the first guy, indicating that you were expected to have two rounds surplus. I guess getting another chance on 40% of your shots (that is, having an extra round for it in case you need it) is a pretty solid margin under the assumptions that seem to be made about shooting ability.

~J

Well, yeah, when I participate in shooting sports, I always load an extra one in the pipe unless I'm feeling really confident. In the context of this activity, though, they never said to do that, and I got the impression you weren't really "supposed" to. (Maybe if you hypothetically shot someone in self defense IRL and went before the court, the opposing lawyer could use that to try and claim that you had used excessive force? Or maybe they just wanted to speed things along and not have everyone take the time to put an extra round in the pipe.)

Wait, you only shot one innocent bystander??? and you call your self a shadowrunner! Shame on you!

Seriously though, sounds like a good time. I do a lot of bench shooting,but have never gotten a chance to run a shoot house. however, if my performance in COD3 is any indication, it would probably not be a good thing.

Now if you could hook me up with VATS, I can kick ass!

I think that VATS is just called taking a few deep breaths, standing still, and taking as long as you want to squeeze off a shot to the eyes, given the opponents are paper targets.

Why would you carry a weapon that wasn't ready for use when you put hands on it? When I carry a firearm (pretty much anytime I'm not at work), I always keep a full magazine in the handgun & one in the chamber. My state of residence doesn't require me to keep the chamber clear.

Then again, I also keep a spare magazine on me too.

Good shooting btw.

You might want to constrain that question a bit. I carry my knife not ready for use when I put my hands on it because 6" folded is a lot easier on the pocket than 11.5" unfolded.

(There's also the fact that you're already sacrificing readiness by not having your weapon in hand at all times. Why would you carry if you aren't going to do that? You get the idea.)

~J

I meant a full mag + 1 in the chamber, not a full mag and an empty chamber.

(If I did carry, which I do not and do not intend to, I wouldn't chamber a round. I figure that the extra safety is more important than the ability to quick draw and put two shots center mass at a target 7 yards away in about 1 second. If someone were so close to me that I had to do something like that, I'd be better off using hand to hand combat and/or moving evasively anyway than trying to pull out a gun in grab range. It would only take another second to chamber a round anyway, and a person could probably train to somehow draw and rack the slide at the same time while coming on target.)

iirc, it was related to either WW1 or WW2, where one used stationary circular targets and drilled marksmanship rather then rapid reactions. afterwards just about every military in the world changed to head and torso targets that would pop in and out so to drill shooting on reflex rather then thought.

i also recall reading that there was a issue with trying to recruit FPS players that resulted in the creation of americas army, a nasty habit of friendly fire.

the basis for this thread makes me ponder the outcry some have vs FPS games, saying they train youths to be soldiers.

When I was growing up, there was a hostage incident. The local police arrived did their thing, no shots fired. The interesting thing, a 15 year veteran and a member of the SWAT (back when they still called it that) was getting ready to leave when a young boy walked up to him with a handful of shotgun shells. The boy handed the shells to officer and told him that he had dropped them. The officer was perplexed and checked his vest, all rounds accounted for, then just as a side thought he checked his shotgun. Empty. He had repeatedly chambered a fresh round while loading up the tubular magazine.

Now, this guy was as about as professional of police officer as I have ever known. He told that story to probationary officers to get across that adrenaline does some funky things to your mind and the danger of tunnel vision.

The one thing that years and years of playing paintball has taught me...I don't =ever= want to be in a real firefight. You can do everything right and the guy that you didn't know was there will light you up. Plus, paintball has completely ruined my training about what constitutes cover and what is concealment.

Oooooohhhhh, so that's why in America's Army (don't play it right now but it's one of my favs, I love the realism) you can never play as OPFOR. They don't want to be building the twitch reflex to have you shoot at a US soldier by accident if you ever enlist. Interesting.

~J

This sounds like a lot of fun. I'm curious what group you were doing the training with. When we train (Navy Master- at- arms) we're trained to shoot center mass , shooting to "cancel the threat". I know that's different than some groups that are looking more at Force Protection issues than law enforcement, as we are. Air Force Security Forces for example, from what I hear, trains on a center mass double tap, followed by a head shot.

For slicing the pie, stepping back from the wall more gives you a few advantages. First you can get that good lean in better, IMO. We did a lot of this, and I got real good at spotting the other guy first. Even if it was just a foot. There's a lot of talk in tact movements about staying clear of a wall, by at least 6", to avoid ricochets. Also, if you're working with a team as the point, you don't want to be dodging back into your 2 man if there's someone there ready for you. It also gives your team more room to work.

The accidental shooting is kind of funny, because that stuff happens a lot. They harp on us on the weapons safety rules a lot, including "finger off the trigger until ready to shoot". This s for exactly the reason you mentioned, to give more time between thought/target recognition and firing. That can be a bad thing sometimes if you've got an active shooter, but it's better than shooting someone who doesn't need shooting.

A lot of what you're talking about sounds like muscle memory. You're trained to react a certain away, even ifthe source is video games. I know how you feel. I learned to drive from super mario cart. My driver's training insturctor forever ago yelled at me a lot for taking a turn wide and coming in tight. Ten years later in Emergency Vehicle Operations courses, my insturctor yelled at me for going to fast through the cones, even though I still didn't hit anything. He's just no fun. Actual Reaction Force groups train on tac movements a lot to get that good muscle memory down. I know for me, one of the hardest things to remember is the walk, not crossing my feet over, and keeping my chest forward, effectively keeping my armor at the front, instead of turning to the side, presenting a lower profile, but also giving an opening in my armor.

Same problem with carrying a flash light. An older way of doing it was to carry it out to the side, shooting one handed, which I like. If it's dark, your subject is going to shoot at the light. If it's off to the side, he's shooting the wrong way, even if you're hampered a bit by the akward position. The newer idea is the under hand support that you see a lot on TV. The idea with this is that if they shoot at the light, they hit your vest, and your shooting hand is supported more. Me, I'm fine with shooting one handed and not getting shot.

The excitement of doing the shoot and the stress of the situation is also one of the thigns that leads to issues with anxiety and target identification (like your lady with her hand in the purse). when you're psyched up, you tend to see more hostiles. When we do our annual re-qual shoot, they have us run around a lot first to get our blood up, run into the range, where they've got lights and sirens goign in the dark, and then go through the course, so we get used to doing it in stressful conditions. You learn to block out the rest of the nosie and focus, like that "combat mode" or "combat mindset" as we call it.

I'm supposed to do my Annual sustainment Training in a few weeks, complete with kill house and sim rounds at the end. Should be a lot of fun. I 'll let you know how it goes.

I love your threads man.

I can't say I've ever been in a shoot house or even fired a powder weapon but I do fence a lot. So I can draw a lot of parallels about that combat mind set. When I get in to it especially with epiee (every thing's on target not like foil where its torso and crotch(a lunge to you balls is never fun tough)) I'm a really good fencer ect parrying faster than I'm really reconinising the attacks and such. However in fencing that only gets you so far. As if you know some ones running purely on memory you can easily(well more easer) set up faints as they are more likely to take your bait. Again the same happens in FPSs to a much lesser extent for me. I guess the real key is getting in to the state where you know what your doing well enough to act on instinct when needed but are aware enough that you can quickly adapt a fine line indeed.