I first heard the term “Cruiser Carry” many moons ago when I was in the Academy. “Cruiser Carry” at that time was used to describe the condition of our Remington 870’s when stored in our police cars.
Then came the Patrol rifle. We in the firearms training community adapted “Cruiser Carry” to the rifle. There are a few different versions of “cruiser carry” but here is what we currently teach around here.
Chamber empty, bolt forward, magazine inserted, dust cover closed.
We teach to leave the chamber empty for safety considerations. Even dragging the gun out of a rack, you can bump off the safety, items can get inside the trigger guard, and bad things can happen. With the magazine inserted, all the rifle operator has to do is to grab the rifle, rack in a round, and go. We still teach to load the magazines with 28 rounds. Yes, some of the newer mags will hold 30 with no ill effects, but they are still a pain to insert with the bolt closed. We teach to insert the magazine to the “click” and then to pull on the magazine to insure it did in fact seat properly.
Lights on, Sights on.
I mentioned in the previous article that I prefer the Aimpoint because I leave them on year round. Other sights will work, but you need to practice that step of turning on other RDS. If you are running iron sights, never fear. We advocate running the large aperture “up” to allow the most amount of light if you deploy in low light.
KISS
In deploying the patrol rifle, keep it simple. The more gizmos you have to turn on, stocks you have to adjust, and the like, is just more decisions you have to make when time is not on your side. The same goes with the home defense rifle. I follow the above criteria with my “things that go bump in the night” rifle. Keep it simple. Pick it up, charge it, go looking for work.