Lanyard to steady pistol

So...I thought about this...and realized my Glock has a hole about the right place to attach one.

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That would be for the factory Glock Laynard.
Like this one.



Mine is an older one with a snap.

The new one uses a split-ring.

http://www.brownells.com/handgun-pa...strap-screws/lanyard-with-ring-prod69933.aspx

They are very good insurance when working around deep water, or deep snow.

I'd rather depend on a good secure holster when in the brush, for if a Laynard can get hung up on something?

IT WILL!

rc

I haven't handled a pistol with a lanyard since the last time I stood Ship's Duty Officer.

Lanyards date back to the days of horse mounted Calvary. It's astonishingly easy to loose a handgun when shooting from horseback.
The recent attachment of the cord as used by recent military units to the belt is correctly called a "LEASH" not a Lanyard. Looks like an old telephone cord.
The proper use of a lanyard involves looping it over the shoulder and allowing the loose end to drape along side the butt of the gun. This keeps it under the arm and behind, and under the grip of the gun. Thus worn, it doesn't det hung up on passing brush, ect. However, it does require shoulder epalettte flaps, with buttons. Hence, the tradition of uniform shirts having epalettte flaps!!!
A well constructed proper lanyard is adjustable, and similarly used as a rifle sling to support. When tensioned correctly, it will indeed lend a bit of steadying support, and will absorb a bit of the guns recoil. With the vanishing of the mounted patrols, and discouraged practice of shooting from moving vehicles, the need for the security and retention has likewise diminished.
Back in the '80's when my agency still issued Bill Jordan style holsters and S&W M65's, we usually had at least one revolver get "lost" over board every summer due to the holsters inadvertently getting unsnapped and the gun falling out when leaning over the gunnels during vessel inspections.
I was on a ad-hoc committee the investigated the possibility of going to lanyards.We shelved the idea when the "old school" Chief retired, and we went to M686's and thumb break holsters. We quit losing guns, too. This was the exact reason I never carried my own gun except for backup, in a secure rig.

Fast foward 20yrs, I used a screw eye to secure the Hogue grips on my M329PD that I carried in a nylon finger snap holster while pig hunting a river from a boat. I used a brass clip to attach a lanyard I wore hung over my shoulder and chest. Worn under a jacket, I never had it hang up, and gave me great satisfaction I wasn't going to loose a $$$$ gun in the drink!

As attatached to my 625MG

Any technique will require a lot of repetitions to become proficient at. The lanyard thing may help if someone practiced it, BUT the practice alone may be what is helping moreso than using a lanyard.

It all boils down to sight alignment and trigger control.

Will the lanyard help either of those elements?

People do it with slings on rifles.

DaisyCutter said:

It all boils down to sight alignment and trigger control.

Will the lanyard help either of those elements?

People do it with slings on rifles.

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Well, it doesn't all boil down to sight alignment and trigger control. Breath control and hold control also factor in. No human can hold a firearm perfectly steady. It's impossible. That's where proper use of a sling comes in. It's a mechanical aid that helps remove natural motion induced in the firearm by being held by a living thing.

Yes, one can use a properly adjusted lanyard to steady a handgun. Though it's not nearly as practical as a rifle and sling.

I always wonder what effect folks are expecting they'll produce when they make a statement like this.

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Was wondering the same thing.

at least my statement is more useful than you complaining.

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I don't see how, as useless as your statement was.

1) there are pretty much no practical civilian applications where you are going to make a 50-100 yd shot....certainly none in a SD role.....because if you have time to setup and steady your shot.....chances are you dont really need to shoot.

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Hmmm, I wonder what type of situation one might find one's self in where they might need to make a 50-100yd shot with a handgun??? Three guesses and it doesn't involve 50gr 9mm loads.

Sam1911 said:

I always wonder what effect folks are expecting they'll produce when they make a statement like this.

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"Some men just want to watch the world burn."
Michael Caine as Alfred Pennyworth

M-Cameron said:

1) there are pretty much no practical civilian applications where you are going to make a 50-100 yd shot....certainly none in a SD role.....because if you have time to setup and steady your shot.....chances are you dont really need to shoot.

2) if Military/ LEO need to make shots out to 100+ yds, they are going to use their patrol rifles.

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Discounting handgun target shooters and handgun hunters?

I've used shooting sticks for a handgun, now I feel compelled to rig up a lanyard/sling to try out.

A lanyard can be useful on a civilian handgun intended for sniping at game or vermin (although this is closer to a sling than a lanyard).

Gotta be honest, I always thought lanyards were for weapon retention or AR pistols.

I suppose I could see it used for stability, though.

I wonder if somebody could post a video or an experienced based write up?

I have found that handgun shooting, even from an amateur can be achieved out past 200 yards
Example:
[YOUTUBE]OgNxPvg8-yY[/YOUTUBE]

I seem to remember a lanyard being used to around the neck to carry the handgun and then used to steady it when the arms were stretched out....it was in one of he "old school" books....maybe this one:

"Handgunner's Guide : Including the Art of the Quick Draw and Combat Shooting" by Chic Gaylord.

I thought it was in Applegate's book but I didn't see it there...

There are folks that use these types of things for overcoming physical limitations as well. I know a couple of people who suffer from a condition called essential tremor. Basically, your hands shake.

Ironically, people with this condition typically tremor less when holding heavier objects than light. One of the most frustrating things for people with this condition is eating with light utensils. Adding weight to them helps. Bracing against something like a lanyard when using a firearm has the same effect.

We played with just making a loop of webbing or old leather belts and not attaching them to the guns. One thre it over ones head over the left shoulder across the back and under the right arm pit.

We made the loop of a size that with one's thumb looped into it that one could go into a modified weaver stance. With the loop over the thumb one grasped the hand gun and pushed forward.

Seemed marginally more accurate than with out the loop.

I mainly felt it just took to long to get into and roll over prone was much more accurate.

I used a sling in much that way, but it was attached to an MP5k in a class with some German law enforcement. Not as accurate as a stocked MP5, but more concealable than a fixed stock and faster into operation than a folder......still it was for full auto Control at across room distances rather than long range accuracy.

Seriously for hunting and such where you want a single accurate shot a suprising number of folks find going to one handed NRA match style shooting works pretty darn good and without the micro tremours one gets in Weaver or Isosoles. Good reason to participate in that style match.

-kBob

Carl,

I like your set up on your AR7 pistol. Is that a LER pistol scope or a regular 3 to 4.5 inch Eye relief rifle scope.

Had a friend that used to hunt with a M17 S&W with a rifle scope and he brought home a good many grey tree rats. Weird stance and all but hard to argue with meat on the table.

-kBob

That's a long eye relief pistol 'scope.

Regarding revolver shooting , we just looped the lanyard around our neck . I don't think it was ever meant to be used this way but any thing you can do to steady your aim helps.
I would think lanyards were more for mounted troops , if you dropped your gun while reloading on horseback at least you could reel it back in .

Not all shooting is of a tactical nature, we shot at tin cans , rocks and even game where a steady shot was needed and the lanyard looped around your neck helped.

In spite of the fact that many U.S.military handguns had lanyard loops, and so did M1911 magazines for a while, I could never find any record that it was ever U.S. practice to use a lanyard by anyone except military police. It would seem logical for cavalrymen to use a lanyard to prevent loss of the gun in combat as "goose" notes, but I could not find any training manuals that instructed them to do so or any pictures of lanyard use by horsemen.

MP's did use the lanyard on the pistol (but not on the magazines) to prevent the gun being taken by an opponent in a brawl, and some other police did the same thing, but AFAIK, none were trained to use the lanyard as a brace. That seems to be a modern idea, rising partly from a desire to avoid the restrictions on shoulder-stocked handguns.

Jim

vincyr said:

I have stumbled across a couple of vague references to using a lanyard to steady a pistol ...

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I finally remembered what has been scratching at my memory every time I saw this @SUBJ (I have read none of the responses, btw).

In ~'77 the owner of a VaB gunshop tried to sell me (on) a .45acp Ingram SMG (~$250 + the $200 ATF Stamp) . I recall that it sported a strap/lanyard attached at the front to help control the muzzle during burstfire.

GBx

Ah the knuckle blasting strap.......some writer of the time used the strap loosely and when the gun recoiled his knuckles got in front of the muzzle.

Those things needed more out front for sure.

I used a lanyard while in the service on a few occassions......unfortunately we lacked the MP lanyards. We would take an NCO whistle lanyard and clip it to the loop on a 1911A1 then slip the loop over our shooting wrist then pull up the little plastic keeper until the loop around the wrist got small enough to make sure the lanyard Stayed on the shooting wrist while asleep. This was done by our crew served gun folks and officers.

When so used it was called a dummy cord as in "don't loose your pistol, dummy." We also used para cord to tie other bits of equipment to ourselves like pocket knives, compasses, and when asleep rifles, and those cords were called the same thing.

A buddy once used the little wrist cord from an instamatic camera as a wrist lanyard for a 1911A1 and in the wee hours of the morning about brained himself swatting at a mosquito.

When I had payroll guard I sometimes carried only a pistol as the Payroll officer was either comfortable with my doing so or did not want a full sized rifle bouncing around in a Jeep on our way out to field sites. I then used the Whistle lanyard with the loop over my belt behind the holster and it was almost long enough to shoot anywhere with, but not quite. A good jerk would however break the snap, well bend it so it came out of the lanyard loop. The main thing was I would not loose the pistol while trying to dismount the vehicle.

-kBob

M-Cameron said:

if you are making a shot where you need a lanyard to steady your pistol.......you should be using a rifle

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Why would the desire for precision be any less useful for a close range shot vs a long range shot?

So you're saying that there is absolutely no use for a lanyard with a pistol, unless you're shooting something at rifle distance, in which case you should use a rifle?

I may not need to use a sling for precision at 25 yards, but if I want to make the best shot I can, I should use a sling anyways.

I have used a lanyard with my M9 on 2 deployments. Just so I don't lose the pistol though, not for a steadier shot...

Seems like a good idea for a woods gun especially mounted on horseback or ATV to both keep it from getting lost in a fall and for a steadier longer range shot in the field.

I was called as a witness in a USCG court of inquirery [UCMJ Article 32] for a pooryoung sailor who lost his 1911A1 over the side during a hostile boarding of a small boat in the early 1980's. One the Hearing Officer (An Oldtimer Commander) asked if a lanyard was used. The young sailor said he had did not know what a lanyard was or how one a was used.
I said lanyards were available for at my armory but were used very little. Local command believed they were a" safety hazard".The CO of the unit as given a slap down. The sailor was clearer of any wrong.
For a good while everybody used a lanyard but after a few years in was not used much.