Posted: 10/6/2005 6:01:14 PM EDT
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I'm sure the vast majority of you have had the reoccurring nightmare in which you have to draw your gun and fire in defense of your life. For those of you that don't, in my experience it is a very common dream with people of the fighting mindset. The most common occurrence in these nightmares I’ve heard from other gun guys is the 80lb trigger pull or shooting blanks (in ability to hit). I've even heard variations of the dream from martial artists where they were unable to strike or cause any damage with their strikes. I thought I’d dissect this a bit since in the last few months I’ve noticed something interesting...I'm wasting motherfuckers left and right in my dreams. No more 80lb trigger pull, no more missing my target. Here's what I think it is. In the conscious competence learning model there are four stages:
Feel free to give me your opinions, but i believe that the changes in the reoccurring dream are indicative of an advancement to a level of unconscious competence. Makes sense, i take tons of classes and continuously practice and refine my skills. Has anyone else had a similar experiences after serious dedication to refining their fighting skills? |
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I've had dreams like that since I was real young. It's been everything from fist fights where I am winning the fight, because I am not hurt, I have the guy on the ground, and I'm pounding his face as hard as I can. BUT he is just looking at me, he shows no pain. Also I've been in sword fights (I have no idea why, dont ask) and its like the dude has some invisible armour on. I just cant decapitate the guy no matter how hard I swing. And the most recent ones are me shooting at a bad guy who must be like Terminator or something. I havent had any dreams like this lately, and I shoot quite frequently. Hopefully next time I'll be able to destroy my nightmare monsters since I've been practicing so much. On a side note: A friend of mine has a dream book, it has meanings for all sorts of things like this. Unfortunately guns, swords and being unable to hurt someone in a dream fight all lead to being incompetent   Which I'm not, I think the book was probably written by some man-hater anyway
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I rarely remember my dreams and the violent ones are a small fraction, but I know what you mean about not being able to throw a punch or whatnot. About 10 years ago, that changed for the most part. Now, I have a vague control over my dreams. It's freaky and I have no idea how it happened, but it's lead to fewer nightmares. |
| Used to have dreams like this all the time. The usual outcome was that I was killed, but I took X number of BG's with me. Sometimes I survived, but people I was trying to protect did not (those are always the worst). The dreams stopped, believe it or not, when I began to become so angry over being killed that I would reincarnate and kill the BG's. Almost like god mode in a computer game, except all the sensory perceptions were there. The deafness from the gunfire, the smell of the smoke, dirt/grime on my hands, even the pain and blood from being shot. When I'd reincarnate, my injuries didn't heal, but I came back to life, got up, and continued to fight until I won. So, I guess it's pretty crazy, me shooting X number of bad guys despite having wounds that would be mortal in the real world, but just being too angry to stay dead. I remember the last time, I was defending myself and I was killed (hit about 5 times center of mass). I continued shooting as I fell and I dropped both attackers. Next thing I knew, the police and EMS were putting me and the two BG's in body bags, like, I was in a body bag, and I just...I really didn't want to be in that fucking bag, so I opened the bag and I got up and out, and I walked home. I told the cops "Fuck this, I'm going home" and you should've seen the looks on their faces, lol. Crazy dreams, but I figure we all have them. Can't really speculate on what that stuff means, though. |
Yep, it's rediculously common with gun guys who spend a lot of time thinking about their personal safety. I just found it strange and somewhat comforting that my training is ingraning itself into my subconscious. |
I can't see. Sort of like your ballcap bill is pulled too low or you're looking at the ground when the targets are around you. Terrifying and frustrating element of most of my nightmares. Despite this, I've used the weapon successfully a number of times defending self and others. 
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My intent is not to suggest that lower levels of compotence on the above scale are inadiquate, or that my circumstance puts me above anyone. Just noting the occurance and posing a theory. |
Ah, beg pardon, I was unclear. I meant I've used the weapon successfully IN THE DREAMS despite this strange dream-blindness handicap. Your theory is interesting and I'll keep it in mind as I train...perhaps I'll notice a shift. I do recall several years ago when I shot several times a day, that in my dreams I had to make the noise for the gun with my mouth...pulling the trigger had no effect, as if it were a toy. I was probably in your Stage 2 at the time. |
Funny, now that you mention it i can recall that particular occurrance happening in the past |
| How odd. I didn't realize how common these dreams were. I used to have them all the time. They always pissed me off bacause it didn't matter how well I anticipated the threat nor how well I responded. The bag guys never went down or I was unable to move the trigger. I went for a long time without any violent dreams but would have them on occasion. The fact that I started to "win" was something I attribute to aging. The older I get, the more mellow and more confident I get. This confidence isn't even totally about guns, but about my place in the world. I guess I don't care about the bad guys in my life as much now so its easier to "kill" them in dreams and likely is why I don't have those vivid ones as much any more. |
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My dreams don't seem to fit. When the BG's come, I am looking around for a gun that ends-up being an antique, for which either the ammo doesn't fit, or the parts are falling off. The funny thing is in real life I have no desire to own any kind of antique or C&R type gun. But there I am, with some kind of obscure smokeless conversion ammo, of the wrong size, stuffing them into a pistol or rifle that is as sexy as a two-by-four, which falls apart as I try to use it. I have two other gun dreams. In one I am in a town I grew-up in, going into an old-fashioned store which has all kinds of neat antique guns. Or I am trying to build some machine gun from a kit and getting ripped-off by some garage-type sweat shop that has a two-year backlog. Wierd. |
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In My dreams my weapons are dissasembled for cleaning or repair and I cannot seem to find all the parts and the bad guys are bashing in the door! holy shit! Another is not getting the ammo that I need to complete the fight. Although the truck is full of ammo the guy in charge won't give it out even though he knows it's desperatly needed.  The last is not finding my weapon were it is supposed to be stashed, it's not there when i need it. Once if a while things do go right and the bad guys get blown away     
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Mine usually involve me murdering either people I know or my sister's cat. Don't quite feel like going into the former on this forum, but the latter involved my having to shoot the cat like 40 times because the little bastard just wouldn't die, and I kept feeling worse and worse for murdering the little shit the whole way through. I eventually just tried stomping on it when the gun failed me. Before anyone suggests that I shouldn't own guns, I'm never murdering PEOPLE with firearms, always knives in my nightmares. They're pretty few and far between, luckily. |
When that happens in my dreams, it usually becomes a hand to hand situation, and I usually win with that. Not sure why. I even had a dream once about defending my house with an axe, like, literally hacking up the BG's as they came through the door trying to kill me. |
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Gwaddammit - I clicked on this for a few seconds yesterday and called imediate bullshit - not that I don't have these types of dreams it is just that I prefer not to dwell on the 'why' - and then gwaddammit I lay my weary head down last night and have the follow disaster happen in la la land.... I am forced to grab the AR that is actually next to my bed at night which currently has a 30rnd mag filled my home rolled 77's..... I don't generally shoot with 30's - I *like* 20's In my dream not only does my 30 not feed, my 77's are loaded to long and break in half (revealing bad casting like phuckin MIM parts when they break)..... Whoever started this thread - your evil and I am doing everything I can to go back to my (semi) peaceful nights...... |
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Is it just me, or does everybody dream about a M16A1 with a 20-round mag when their dreams involve an AR ? Even though I've had them where I've used all sorts of weapons, even an axe...swords, knives, hell, even one where I had a unloaded rifle with a bayonet mounted and I had to defend myself with that. Anybody ever have any about Iraq ? I've had a few, like, one where I was one of our guys and I was running, had an A2 in my hands, then it was like the ground picked me up and threw me down and I couldn't get up for some reason, couldn't hear anymore, either. Then another guy ran to me and started dragging me by my vest straps and as he did so, my torso lifted up and I realized my legs had just been blown off by a mine or something. Had one about being captured, too, and I escaped by killing a insurgent with my bare hands (strangled him, then clubbed him to death with his AK) and I took a captured AK (a really beat-up POS of an AK, but it had the magic switch ) and I got the hell out of there, stole a truck, drove to a US checkpoint where I got out of the truck with my hands on my head and got placed in US custody until they figured out I was a good guy, lol.
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First: I notice in a lot of early posts on this thread folks are talking about "competence" when I think the term shoudl be "confidence". Dreams in which your weapons don't work are signs of an inner fear that your gun ( or you ) may not work properly at the necessary time. Do not take this as a bad sign...take it as a sign that you should shoot more often. Though I have been busy lately and haven't had the time to pratice like normal ( 2 to 3 days a week ) I still do mag change drills and such in my spare time. I almost never had dreams about firearms failing. ODDLY....I had a Night of the Living Dead nightmare the other night. In the dream I was in....(yes, you guessed it ) a SHOPPING MALL and I wasn't packing. This is actually normal for me...but will be recitified over the holidays. I'll be renewing my CCP. In the dream I grabbed a weight bar from a sporting goods shop and started smacking zombies over the head....but in the dream some of them retained the ability to talk and they were babbling incoherently as I was smacking them about.....and then there were more...and more......it was REALLY creapy. To make matters worse I was trying to protect a little girl who had become seperated from her parents and I was trying to get us both out of there..... The zombies got thicker and thicker and more and more babbly....just as we were about to be overcome by the sheer numbers.... I woke up.....and I stayed up, too. |
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I used to have the "inability" to strike and shoot dreams. But I remembered something my dad said to me when I was just a little kid when I was having bad nightmares. He said, think of your dreams like a TV, you have the remote so just change the channel. When I have my fighting dreams I seriously whoop ass! Thanks Dad! |
Then when he's wasting everyone in his office with an SKS he can't explain the 80lb trigger pull and why no one he shot is going down.
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Never have the "bad dream" my rounds are always on target and no malfunctions. A detective I work with has the opposite type, I told him it meant he "had sexual problems" because he couldn't get his "gun" to fire...he took a few days off after I told him that. I guess to reaffirm his manhood.
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After debating with myself whether to stick with the G21 for my nighstand gun or just use my G19 for everything I had a funny dream last night: I was attending my first Gunsite class and during the introductory lecture the instructor was bemoaning how they had a reputation for being 1911-centric and how it wasn't true etc etc. I was glad to hear it since I had brought my G19. Suddenly the COF began and everybody in the class ran around the classrooms like they were shoothouses -- shooting anything that looked like a target. But most of the "targets" were hanging wall pictures or signs in the classrooms so I was holding my fire. Then I saw a steel popper so I shot it. But it didn't fall so I shot it again. Still no go so I hosed it down -- no fall. The instructor walked up to me and said "Oh yeah, the way we set these a 147gr 9mm probably isn't going to knock it down. But maybe you could try a 124gr +P -- we sell it in the pro shop." So I went to the pro shop and bought a case but it didn't help. Another instructor came up and said "What are you DOING? Don't you have a .45?" I replied "Yes, but I don't think I brought it with me." He said "Well maybe you can get a credit and postpone..." |
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Ahh......Yes, the 80lb trigger pull. Up until a year ago most of my dreams (nightmare's) involved being attacked in some strange, unfamiliar place. The attackers were always faceless figures that I didn't know. When I would try to pull the trigger in my dreams it was like it was stuck, I would wake up angry and my hands would hurt from clenching my fists while I slept. Then I had an incedent in one evening. NOT A DREAM! I was setting on the patio at my apartment when I heard a god-awful scream come from the parking lot out front. I ran threw the apartment and out the front door and there on the lawn was my girlfriend pinned on the ground by her ex-husband. She had informed me earlier that he was stopping by to drop of some personal items that she requested but I wasn't expecting him to get stupid. My gun was locked up in the apartment so it was to late for that option and probably not the best option anyway. I did have my Sog tactical knife clipped on my pocket so I popped it open and charged into the fray. I yelled at the neighbor who was standing there just watching to call 911. In the mean time I proceded to use the ex-husband for carving practice... When the officers arrived and gained control of the situation everyone made their statements including a few people who witnesed the attack. No charges were filed against me. I will end this story this way.... Confidence: Knowing that you are doing the right thing. Up until this incident I had never been put in a posistion to have to defend myself or a loved one. I always considered the ramifications of doing so. Fear of litigation for self-defense! Being dragged through the courts and so-on. When I saw her being attacked none of that crossed my mind, just defending her was my only goal. I found out that night what I'm capable of. I was actually intimidated by my own ferocity, but now I have respect and confidence in myself because I know that I can do what it takes to survive. I am a certified pistol instructor, I'm well trained in hand to hand combat. But until this happend I had never had to use it for "real". In my dreams........................................ I can now pull that damn trigger and I don't wake up angry. CONFIDENCE!! |
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I too have had periods where I finally was able to smoke the baddies in my dreams, but I've also had the weird ones where I couldnt do shit. One I remember clearly, I was being chased through my house by some nutball, I ran into my bedroom, found a shotgun(not one of mine, in my dreams they never are) and some shells laying on the floor. I started trying to load up before he came around the corner but for the life of me I couldnt get the shells to fit in the tube. I struggled forever and finally got it loaded up but the guy never came to the room. The dream ended and I never got to hose him. I wonder if the same guys ever been in any of your dreams, since he got a way from me...freaky thought huh? |
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Oh man, I had put this one out of my mind. Last weekend I attended a three day pistol course. All I had been doing for three days was shooting related. I went to sleep that night and dreamed that a bad guy was leaning in through a window over my head. I shouted "Stop!", but couldn't move. He jumped back a bit when I yelled, but when he saw I was frozen he started moving toward me. Finally I swung a few times and connected making him retreat. I retrieved my pistol as he and his partner came through the window. I shot his partner about ten times. Each shot the bullets moved slow enough you could see them, like airsoft or something. I had to walk the buletts up to his body to get hits, watching them impact each time. They didn't kill him or disable him. Bad guys retreated and I grabbed my AR and engaged them outside. That's when they started dropping. I was really pissed off when I woke up. I wonder if the ineffective bullet thing is a symptom of practicing with non-reactive paper targets. The bad guys looked just like the guy on the paper targets I shot all weekend. The slow moving bullets were alot like watching other guys do the shooting on the move day of the course because you could often see the bullet in flight from certain angles. I think I'll go shoot some steel plates today. They usually go down when you hit 'em. |