The Evening Routine Is Dark Now
Dry-Fire · At Home
The clocks changed on Sunday, so the walk to your car now happens in the dark. No gun for the first part. Tonight, walk from your workplace or a store to your vehicle with your phone in your pocket, your keys in your hand, and your eyes up, and note what you could not see. Then at home, verified clear, run fifteen presentations in a dim room while a partner standing behind you calls quadrants.
Live-Fire · At the Range
Twenty rounds at 7 yards on the quadrants with a partner calling. Fire two rounds on each valid call and nothing on an invalid one.
Service Pistol
Shift change now happens in the dark for a lot of people. Adjust where you park and how you approach the vehicle.
Concealed Carry
Have the keys in your hand and the phone put away before you leave the building.
Carbine
The carbine has no part in a parking lot. Run the calls from low ready at 25 yards.
AUX (when ready): correct response to ten straight calls, with every hit in the called quadrant.
The same parking lot is a different place at five in the evening than it was in September.
Your Daily Callout — By Archetype
You walk fast and look straight ahead. Slow down enough to look around.
You notice plenty in daylight. Work out what the dark takes away from you.
If you walk your family to the car, you are the one who should be looking around.
Change the routine once for the season: where you park, which door you use, and when you leave.
Layer: run five reps with keys in your support hand.
- Treat every firearm as if it is loaded — always, no matter what you think you know.
- Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you have decided to fire.
- Be sure of your target — and everything beyond it.
Dry-fire: no ammunition in the room. Verify the firearm is clear — twice. Use a safe backstop. When you finish, say it out loud: “Dry fire is over.”
The Four Universal Safety Rules
Non-negotiable. Every drill, every rep, every time. This applies to live fire and dry fire.
- Treat every firearm as if it is loaded — always, no matter what you think you know.
- Never let the muzzle cover anything you are not willing to destroy.
- Keep your finger off the trigger until your sights are on target and you have decided to fire.
- Be sure of your target — and everything beyond it.