Three days before Thanksgiving in 2017, I responded to a burst of gunfire a couple of blocks from me. Another officer and I located the residence where the shots originated from and, as we approached, the armed gunman exited the house and opened fire on us. After an exchange of gunfire, he ran inside and took cover in the basement. After a nearly two-hour standoff, the wounded gunman surrendered.
I’ve taken a lot of lessons from that night – good and bad. One of the things I was most grateful for was having an early interest in unconventional shooting positions and prior experience with them. Shortly after the exchange of gunfire, my partner covered the house while I retrieved my patrol rifle. I took cover behind the front wheel of a Ford F-250 in a modified prone position that I’d been in countless times before during training. I remained in that position providing the only available direct cover and negotiation to the shooter for 18 minutes until our first relief arrived on the scene and allowed us to relocate. That is not a position you want to be in for the first time immediately after a gunfight.
Since that night, I’ve learned the value of unconventional shooting positions and one’s ability to effectively use and work around cover in a gunfight. I’ve said it before and will emphasize it again – the first time to be doing an action shouldn’t be during a gunfight. Ideally, training realistically and to your operating environment is the goal. In law enforcement, we don’t conduct business under ideal conditions – nor does everyone else. In the real world, cover also doesn’t come in the form of a perfectly rectangular barrel. Instead, your cover may be a tree, rock, engine block, or a pile of landscape timbers. None of us get to choose the time and place. The bad guy does.
So how does someone get experience working around real-world cover? There are plenty of inexpensive options you can do at ranges that allow it – and even at home. Working cover begins with practicing unconventional shooting positions and knowing your weapons platform.
The VTAC Barricade
The VTAC barricade is the brainchild of Kyle Lamb of Viking Tactics. The barricade features nine shooting ports designed to force the shooter to conduct business from different angles and at different heights. While it would be great to make nine shots on target from each port, there’s a catch to the VTAC barricade – you may not be able to.
The goal of the drill, as iterated by Lamb, is for the shooter to find out what positions work for them and their weapons system. Furthermore, what position are they faster in? What position are they better from? What if they’re strong side? Support side? Daytime? Nighttime? While these factors may seem unimportant to the unacquainted, they are vitally crucial to success once some time is spent on the barricade.
VTAC barricades are inexpensive and easy to build. I built mine using about 16 feet of 2”x4”, a single sheet of 5/8” OSB plywood, some spare exterior decking screws, and leftover exterior paint. Total cost: around $45. A jig or handheld circular saw is necessary to make the cuts. Overall, it was a 30-minute commitment to build. I used some leftover brake rotors to provide balance on the back side of the barricade and had rounds downrange in no time.
I recently ran the barricade with a new scope setup and was joined by a few others with new rifle builds. All of us discovered deficiencies with their setup in at least one position while enjoying the “oh, that was cool” moments of other positions based on our respective rifle setups and experience. So, what are some considerations about cover that the VTAC barricade shows us?
Standoff
Previously, I discussed the importance of understanding how your weapon and ammunition perform under low-light conditions. The muzzle device, barrel length, and ammunition type directly influence the muzzle flash to the shooter and others around them. Working around cover has similar considerations. When approaching the barricade, don’t place the flash hider against the barricade. While this may sound like common sense, I’ve seen a fair share of shooters with full-length rails that terminate near the muzzle and rest the rail against the barricade – which puts the muzzle device in line with the barricade. Consequently, the occasional piece of plywood gets ejected from the board back at the shooter in a “teachable moment”.
Working around a barricade or modified cover teaches the shooter the importance of understanding what standoff you may need to have with your weapons platform. You may want to put the rail system just forward of the barricade and rest against the foregrip versus resting the front edge of the rail against it. The opposite may be true. The only way to answer this question is to try it.
While discussing muzzle positioning on the barricade, it’s worth noting the importance of your weapon light setup. Many of us run weapon lights in a 3 or 9 o’clock position on our rifles. When shooting through the rectangular ports on the barricade, it complicates the ability to illuminate the target while using your sights. I run my weapon light in the 12 o’clock position, something I took from Larry Vickers, as it is directly in line with my sights.
If you’re back from cover, as we’re commonly trained to not hug cover; the activation of your weapon light may have an adverse result for you. Figure 3 shows how standing off from cover can illuminate your cover and “wash out” your view of the threat area downrange. Consequently, the reflection of light back at you negatively affects your ability to see the target while illuminating you. This is undeniably bad if you’re trying to not be an easy target while focusing on the threat before you.
Addressing the issue of light when using cover is something you have to practice with your weapon platform and is individual to your setup. Practice with an unloaded rifle to start and have a friend or family member provide immediate feedback of what they see versus what you see. Through trial and error, you develop a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t for your setup.
Alternative Shooting Positions
Unconventional shooting positions are effectively those beyond just standing, kneeling, sitting, and prone. Positions such as rollover prone, “Spetsnaz” prone, and other awkward shooting positions are worth attempting to develop skills for the shooter when their cover isn’t ideal. The VTAC barricade can force a shooter into those unconventional shooting positions and failures can occur if the shooter has never done them before.
In the photo above, I’m positioned with my rifle ejection port against the ground behind the VTAC barricade. While this position may be acceptable to achieve the desired shot, the photo below shows that this position, while comfortable with a right-handed shooter, can cause two issues: (1) the shooter’s sling can be positioned to obstruct the ejection port and (2) the rifle can be so low to the ground that the ejection port is obstructed by its proximity to the ground. I have experienced and seen failures to eject from a rifle due to the shooter not taking these factors into consideration while in this shooting position.
I’m lucky because I’m left-handed and can address this issue by shooting from a left-handed position, which places the rifle with the ejection port towards the sky. However, what if my cover doesn’t allow me to roll into that left-handed shooting position? I need to seek alternative cover or address where and how I will assume my shooting position.
Managing Cover
If I haven’t said it enough – learning how you and your weapon system utilize cover should be addressed on the range and in training long before application in the real world. No shooter can learn these things until they’ve attempted them and done them regularly.
Not all of us have the time to build a VTAC barricade. Not all of us have a range where we can perform these actions. Nevertheless, your backyard, home, garage, and possibly vehicle are all places where you can practice these positions. Have you tried to shoot from different angles around your bed? Your couch? The back tires of your car? Under your car? What about a pistol instead of a long gun?
Ultimately, working and training around cover is a vital skill that keeps you safe by giving the advantage to the good guys, e.g. the person defending their home, family, or friends from the underbelly of society. When looking at ways to use cover, ask yourself “How can I use this barrier or item to conceal or protect my body while still making a shot on target?” If you’re comfortable in every shooting position, you’re not training hard enough. Gunfights aren’t ideal and neither should your training. Work and train with the cover given to you and it may translate to a win for the good guys.
