How Important Are Uniforms To Shooting Skill?
So that means as a normal citizen [competitive] shooter my [cold] performance was a bit over six and a half times better than the best SWAT team shooter in a multi-state area.

So let’s get away from thinking you need to be a cop or soldier to have great skill at arms. Let’s also get away from thinking that wearing a particular uniform. or having a particular job. automatically makes a person a shoot shooter.
– Duane Thomas

This article by Duane Thomas nicely sums up something I discuss this at length in Beyond Expert: Tripling Military Shooting Skills using U.S. Army qualification standards as compared to NATO combat competition courses. This is another data point further demonstrating this.

Shooters interested in and pursuing competition shooting will likely triple the skill needed for military qualification “expert” (or even “perfect”) standards as a starting point. For handgun events, this can be increased by a factor of five or more, as Thomas demonstrates. Neither Mr. Thomas nor I are national champion shooters, which means that the actual champs are even more skilled. It also means every gun owner could shoot as well as us if they’d put in the work.

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Humorous and related side note…

Halfway through the stage. Half the targets still left totally unengaged, he is completely out of ammo… We score the targets. He has not hit any of those three targets. Not. Even. Once. Not after blowing off 40 rounds in their general direction. Not even T1 he was practically standing on to start.

I say to him, “Y’know… you only had to fire two rounds per target, right?… And you do know, you have to actually hit at least one target at least one time to get any points on-target, right?”

He puffs up like a banty rooster and says, “I’m training for COMBAT.”

“Oh… okay. You do know that in COMBAT you actually have to hit the targets, too. Right?”

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