Submitted for your perusal and edification just as received in the e-mail to me from Suarez International
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THE MURPHY T-SHIRT DRILL
The Murphy's Tee Shirt Drill
Richard Coplin - S.I. Staff Instructor
While participating in Die Less Often 2, I found myself under extreme pressure, moving off the "X", getting my pistol out of my waistband and having it all tangled up with my tee shirt cover garment. I worked the trigger of my airsoft pistol and made a change of direction to avoid the attacker again. The drill ended with my pistol still under my shirt and me working the trigger.
Both Gabe and Crafty remarked that the shots, while being discharged from underneath the shirt would have been good hits on the bad guy. "O.K", I thought. I fought my way through the problem and in theory had prevailed. Still, there were lingering "what ifs".
What if: my pistol discharges too close to my skin?
my pistol goes through a hole in my shirt and gets even more tangled up? What if: my pistol malfunctions underneath my shirt or part underneath-part outside my shirt? What if: my shirt catches on fire from the muzzle blast? What if: my shirt gets caught in the action? What if: I have to change my direction of fire?
Getting a pistol out from under concealment is easy enough, IF one is not under the pressure of an attacker and simultaneously attempting to get off the line of attack. Then it becomes very easy to "blow the draw" and have your firearm tangled up in your shirt. Being reactive changes things. Pressure changes everything.
After lots of thought and internal debate, I came to the conclusion that the only logical way to resolve my "what ifs" was to go live and work through the problem. Obviously, live meant with a real weapon which precluded having a real attacker.
Equipment:
Glock 19
Wolf FMJ 9mm ammo
Undershirt (because I shot this drill twenty times in a row)
Several Tee Shirts
The assumption would be that I was behind in the reactionary curve, playing catch-up and was able to get my pistol out of its holster but not clear of the cover garment.
This will be the beginning position.
The pistol would be extended slightly away from the body, enough to have tension on the cover garment. Body indexing would be used to "aim" the pistol at the target (see Point Shooting Progressions courses).
The first shot obviously blows a hole right through the tee shirt. This, even with a 9mm! The second shot usually has the pistol sticking half way through the shirt to the outside.
The third shot usually would bring the pistol slightly further outside but the trigger guard and grip remained inside the garment. At this point, or during subsequent shots, the firearm would either not go completely into battery or have cloth bound up in the slide at the ejection port, or both.
To get to the point of having the pistol and shirt bound together in the action usually took between two and six rounds. Anecdotally, the .40 S&W may tend to have fired more shots before it begins to gobble up cloth and fail. External hammers fail earlier.
At this point, we have fired several shots, hopefully with accuracy and effect but we are in the situation of still being in a fight and having a hopelessly buggered up weapon. There is a fired casing in the pipe, a live round trying to feed and cloth jammed tightly into the mechanism. The only thing worse is being completely out of ammunition.
Here is the solution. You "punch" the pistol through the shirt. Shove it with all your might right through the front of the garment to the outside. Keep the muzzle pointed towards your adversary, level to the ground, and rip the firearm through the remaining cloth until it is completely free and outside of the garment. You will end up with your pistol outside of the shirt but with your arm running from underneath the shirt, through the large hole you have made to the outside.
Clear the pistol in the usual way. TAP the magazine; RACK the slide using both arms (push with the grip hand, pull with the slide hand) while you simultaneously FLIP the pistol bringing the ejection port down. The slide may resist more than usual due to the fabric crammed into the action. Be very aggressive with clearing your pistol. This should get you back into the fight.
Shoot with your firing side arm still poking through the shirt. Transfer the pistol to your free hand and continue firing.
You can now remove your initial firing side hand from under your shirt and transfer the pistol back to the original firing hand if you desire.
If your cover garment is very large and loose, you may be able to use body-indexing while maintaining a close quarters firing position (elbow up/elbow down or position #3) and not get the garment jammed into the action because you are not putting tension on the cloth at all. If this is the case, bringing the weapon out from underneath the shirt as soon as practical is recommended.
While shooting from underneath the shirt, you will feel the heat of the muzzle blast on your skin but the heat and flash are moving away from you. You might also get hot casings dumping onto your firing hand but that is a minor distraction as your full attention should be on your attacker. Twenty times through the drill and around 200 rounds later, my shirt still had not caught fire.
If you are experiencing difficulty "punching" the pistol through the shirt, you can grab the bottom of the hem of the shirt with your non-firing hand (keeping it out of line of fire, below and to the side) and pull the shirt tightly downward. This stretches the cloth and makes it easier to "punch" the pistol all the way through.
Using body indexing you will be able to get combat effective hits even while your firearm is trapped underneath or poking through your shirt. Just use your body like a turret and index onto the attacker.
The approximate time to "punch" through the shirt and clear the weapon, once a malfunction was produced was 1.5 to 2 seconds. Which seems like an eternity but is actually relatively quick.
With so much going on with the shirt and the firearm, it is likely that one will look down to solve the "problem". Keep the eyes on the real problem in front of you and let your hands take care of clearing the weapon.
Obviously, this technique will be unsuitable for a heavier garment such as a winter jacket or something similar. However, for an average button down or tee shirt cover garment, it will work very effectively and efficiently.
FIGHT THROUGH THE PROBLEM. NEVER GIVE UP.
See pictures at link