November 10th, 2024
7:33 runtime
We spend a large part of our lives in and around vehicles.
This poses a litany of challenges, namely, how to effectively use your vehicle for cover.
Proper use of cover can mean the difference in surviving a potential deadly threat or not.
Using cover in a self-defense shooting can save your life. A vehicle, if used correctly, can make an outstanding source of it.
Wewant to thank TrueShotfor sending us ammo to use in this article.
Protection from Gunfire
Before we dive into this, we must differentiate between cover and concealment.
In laymans terms, concealment merely hides your profile and will not protect you from gunfire.
True Shot Gun Club offers ammo and other shooting gear to shooters throughout the U.S. The company helped the authors with 9mm ammunition for the piece for use in their Hellcat RDP pistol.
Cover has the ability to stop bullets and protect you from gunfire.
So, concealment will hide you and cover will protect you.
Law enforcement shooting statistics show us survivability goes up drastically once the officer is out of the vehicle.
Cover and concealment are not the same thing. Understand the differences and what benefits each offer.
[Learn more in this article oncover vs concealment.]
The engine block area or the first 1/3rdof the vehicle will be the most effective.
This area has more material in it than the others and will provide the greatest volume of cover.
When using a vehicle for cover in a gunfight, you want as much metal or material between you and the threat as possible.
Moving on to the mid-section of the car, you have your doors.
Doors, if you exit the vehicle, are nothing but concealment.
Doors alone in most cases do not stop bullets, especially not a 9mm.
In this position, the author has partial cover provided by the A pillar, engine and front wheels. Sheet metal and glass offer limited protection.
Looking at the side of the car, you have pillars.
There are three pillars in a car body the A, B and C pillars.
The A is the diagonal one that supports the windshield and mirror.
Utilizing the entire length of the vehicle will provide you with a substantial amount of cover. Here, the author engages a target from the rear of the truck.
With all the pillars, you want to stack them.
This means to horizontally place the opposing pillar in front of the one you are behind.
The B pillar is in the middle, which connects the front and rear doors of a four-door vehicle.
When using cover, remember to stand back from it and work the angles to engage a threat appropriately.
The B pillar will contain the most amount of metal and material in nearly any four-door vehicle.
You have the high-strength steel or aluminum body which is supported in the middle by the B pillar.
The B pillar turns into a makeshift roll-bar in a roll-over pop in crash.
Its designed by automakers to be the strongest part of the passenger compartment for this reason.
[For additional reading, dont miss our articleShooting from Cover.]
Oftentimes it will lead to the rear wheel on most vehicles.
In this area, you will seek to use the wheel area for cover.
Wheels, when combined with the opposite side, can provide excellent cover.
This means a greater chance to stop bullets.
Really, there is no bad position from the front or back of the car.
The entire length of the car and all of its components are placed between you and the gunfire.
There are certainly more advantageous spots from the rear or front, being the right or left side.
To effectively use cover, remember you have to stand back from it.
This can usually be 4-6 feet depending on the position of the threat.
As a defender, you have to remain mobile.
If one piece of cover is unusable, you will need another to use.
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