AR Pistol Home Defense Drill

Steve Aryan of Grey Fox Industries is on the range with an AR home defense pistol. How do you set it up for home defense? You need to consider what type of optics, weapon-mounted light, and irons you’re going to mount on it. Also take into account: where and how are you going to leave this weapon? On your nightstand? Chamber hot? Magazine in it? Magazine inserted but nothing in the chamber? Completely unloaded?

Whatever you’re doing, you need to train to access the weapon and get it into the fight as fast as possible if you are counting on it as your home defense pistol.

Range Practice

The range is a great place to practice accessing your self-defense weapons and deploying them. If the range has barrels, you can practice picking the AR pistol up as if it were leaning against a nightstand.

Specific Considerations

For example, if you’re running an EOTech, do you leave it on or off? Probably off so you don’t run the battery down. If you have an Aimpoint, you can leave it on because it has a much longer battery life. With an EOTech, Steve suggests keeping your backup iron sights deployed, then turn the EOTech on. In case there’s any sort of failure, you can use the BUIS.

Steve prefers the Aimpoint because he can leave it on and not worry about it, and change the batteries once or twice a year. Steve also has a weapon-mounted light in the “on” position and always ready to go.

Bump in the Night Drill

Steve shows a firearms training drill where his home-defense position is the AR pistol lying on the nightstand with the EOTech off, and the magazine next to the weapon. He must insert the mag, turn on the EOTech, bring the home defense pistol up into the ready position, and fire.