Some people confuse peeking and pieing with limited penetration. They're based, partly, on clearing from outside the door but with emphasis on dynamic or immediate entry. Peeking is taking a 'snapshot' of an area by poking your head out and then bailing to concealment. It isn't made for fighting from the door or holding threat angles. Pieing is a semi-circular motion at the door that aims to enter immediately. The operator has limited opportunity to engage unless they distance themselves from the threshold before breaking the plane of the door with flank exposure to blind corners. Often, due to action-reaction or reactive-proactive, a moving shooter who is putting themselves in the middle of the door as they pie from frame-to-frame, is at a tactical disadvantage against a prepared defender.

1. Traditional Pieing
vs
Limited Penetration
Rye
CQB-TEAM
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2. What Is Traditional Pieing?
• Pieing as traditionally taught is encapsulated within the dynamic
entry framework. This means that it usually aims at entry and is done
at speed with little to no pause or tactical decision-making.
• Pieing is a near-constant semi-circular motion at the door, from one
frame to the other, in a rainbow or arc pattern, that visualises some
of the room in angular slices. It allows centre-threat engagement
before making entry if proper distancing from the threshold occurs.
• It is otherwise known as rainbowing, cutting the cake, bites, chunks,
segments, angular searches, incremental search, slices of pizza, slicing
the pie, segmentation, segmenting, segmented clear, pieing, slicing or
quartering.

3. What Is Limited Penetration?
• Limited penetration is a room clearing tactic that was developed by the
Israelis and adopted early by the South Africans. It was aimed at, unlike
pieing, stopping at set increments synced with the apex of the door in
order to clear large segments of the room before entering.
• This was to ‘secure’ the entry so operators could avoid an initial door
ambush and then target any unknown areas of the room with specific
tactics, techniques and procedures. Decisions could be made at the door,
where stress could be managed and identification could occur.
• It allows operators to limited body exposure during a two-way firefight and
bail from the door, instead of putting their whole body into it, if required.
• It is also known as limited entry, threshold evaluation, limited incursion,
threshold clearing, fighting or clearing from the door.

4. What Are The Differences?
• Traditional Pieing:
• Limited Penetration:
Pictures by Pinterest, Project Gecko, 88 Tactical/High Threat Systems and SpotterUp.

5. Common Misconceptions
• A shallow entry is often confused with limited entry. A shallow entry is where operators do not over-
penetrate the room and open themselves up to potentially dangerous angles or open doors, they limit their
exposure to the rest of the room. A limited entry is where the operator clears most of the room from the
door before targeting the unknown. It gives the operator options: shallow or deep; enter, hold or bail;
alternative tactics and equipment use. It is not all about ‘go, go, go’ getting into the room.
• Near-constant motion or physical movement is often advocated based on the assumption that speed is a
constant positive force in Close Quarter(s) Battle. This is often based off Hostage Rescue principles. However,
speed and door ambushes can be nasty. Certain principles apply conditionally and in context to unfolding,
dynamic events. It’s a thinking and doing game, not just a doing game.
• Stopping at the door and bailing is sometimes a natural response to perceived threats or anticipatory
triggers. Making entry is not always an option when there is an active through-door engagement occurring.
Operators are denied access, the room is contested. As a result, entry should not be automatic. A decision-
process should be made prior to entry. Door ambushes spell catastrophe, sometimes leading to unnecessary
casualties, which can be disastrous for small teams operating in urban terrain.
• Peeking is a different concept from pieing and limited penetration. Peeking is to take a quick peek into the
room which gives the operator a ‘snapshot’ or ‘picture’ as to what is there. This is short-duration, context
specific. Peeking is not slicing. An operator usually peeks and then pulls back into concealment. This is
optional in limited penetration to bail from the angle and pull away from the threat area.
• Material penetration is an environmental issue. You can be shot in a stack, just as you can while slicing.

6. Conclusion
• In conclusion, both limited penetration and slicing the pie are slice-
based that differ in several ways.
• Traditional pieing is usually conceptualised dynamically while limited
penetration is not. Pieing usually seeks to enter immediately.
• There are numerous misconceptions when it comes to room entries
that aim to initially clear from the door. See through the mist!