Aim at head or chest?

[ns66]

Suppose someone is about to kill/hurt you, you pulled out a handgun and yell "freeze", your finger on trigger ready to fire, should you aim at his head or chest if he is about 10 feet away?

I think if you aim at his head, he can quickly move his head away from your aim and charge you, while move chest maybe not as easy, action beats reaction... what would you think?

 

[Tommygunn]

Center Of Mass, ie, chest.

 

[THe Dove]

I've always been told to aim center mass.

The Dove

 

[Frozen North]

I think if you aim at his head, he can quickly move his head away from your aim and charge you, while move chest maybe not as easy, action beats reaction... what would you think?

Bingo.... Head shots are for tactical ninja operators... Center of mass is always preferable unless you have no other choice.

 

[ns66]

the problem with aiming at chest is no shot could reliably stop him if he charges at you, i read even if you hit his heart, there's enough oxgygen in brain to keep him going for 12sec, enough time for him to seriously hurt/kill at this short distance... you can say fire 2nd shot at head, but if motion started i doubt anyone can hit the 2nd shot in that panic situation in split second, 2nd shot just can't be relied upon...

 

[M2 Carbine]

Two to the body, one to the head.
Repeat as many times as necessary.


Moving head shots are very difficult, even for someone like this young lady who is right good at it.

Personally one of my targets is five life size heads swinging and spinning in the wind. The object being to hit every head as it turns to face you for a split second. Fun and fast.

 

[The Lone Haranguer]

The head is too small a target to hit at all, let alone precisely, in most combat situations. In the picture shown, only two of those shots would have hit an actual vital organ. (This is not to say that the other hits would not have stopped the attack, but the probability is lower.) With a low-powered round, bullets have actually been known to skid around or off the skull bones. Aiming for the chest area increases the probability that you will hit more vital organs.

 

[Walkalong]

Center of mass to give your self the best chance to hit and stop the aggression. Repeat until the attack stops. It won't be like training day, not with the adrenaline at full speed.

 

[tangomike706]

Center of mass of the target provided . meaning you aim for the largest area available, increasing your chance to hit, and hopefully survive.

 

[Hanzo581]

Yep. Chest it is, and you don't stop firing until the threat is neutralized. Leave the head shots for the movies and video games.

 

[KodiakBeer]

Shoot for the chest, then yell "Freeze".

 

[Loosedhorse]

10 ft, and he's running toward you with a knife? Let's assume this guy can sprint at least 10mi/hr. That means you've got at most about 0.7 sec before he cuts you, maybe kills you. It would probably seem longer, but it's a bad scenario.

I think your main concerns here are retreat, barriers, blocking and retention.

I hear a lot of calls for COM shots, and I understand that, especially if I'm already in retention position. However, I suspect I started high chest let the recoil walk the gun upward, and tried to reach slidelock in record time.

Advice is often contadictory. I've heard "shoot him better, not faster," and that makes sense. But I've also heard "Make him advance through a wall of bullets," and I've got an awful lot of wall to build in 0.7 seconds.

 

[sidheshooter]

Prefer "don't move" or better "don't touch that weapon" to "freeze". (explosive consonants, better commands/clarity for both perp and bystander/witness)

Prefer pelvic hold if time is standing still in the micro moments after presentation. (better line of sight to opposition's killing tools-hands, psychologically interesting/compelling for the perp)

Prefer high COM if need be. (better chance of hitting something important enough to cause cessation of hostilities/imminent danger/threat).

Prefer to avoid the situation... ;-)

JMHO.

 

[rondog]

Solar plexus, he'll stop. And that's "center of mass". Shoot there enough times to make him stop, and that's all.

Forget the head shots, that's just stupid. Aiming for the smallest target, that's likely moving, in a super-high stress moment? People that advise headshots are just being macho. "Two to the chest, one to the head" is BS, that's not self defense, that's an assassination. What if you miss, which is very likely? YOU still own that bullet, where's it going to end up?

If you shoot an assailant to stop him and he dies, well, that's an unfortunate side effect of his actions. But if you shoot him with the intentions to MAKE him die, the unfortunate side effects of YOUR actions are likely to be rather unpleasant for you too. You shoot a man twice in the chest, and then one more in the head, I wouldn't want to be in your chair in the courtroom.

 

[Chris Rhines]

Shoot at the largest target you have available. That will probably be the chest, but maybe not. It might be the head; it might be the thumb.

Keep shooting the target you have, until either the attack stops, or a better target presents itself.

Don't forget - if the only target that you have is a head, you'd better be able to hit it.

-C

 

[anomoly40]

Tatical mistake is not taking target of opportunity. If baddie is hiding behind plywood door with only gun around door, shoot the door. I've seen thousands of paintball newbies "blind fire". They'd be in trouble if anything could have went through the 2x4 bunker they were behind.

But full on frontal, just like a pubesent boy, go for the chest.

 

[BENBRU]

No one has said it yet and it's one of the things I've seen work in combat. Failure drills using the old fashioned two to the chest one to the head is great but I'm a bigger fan of two to the chest, one to the pelvis. It's a mobility kill area. If you want to stop the threat shatter the pelvis. He'll be going nowhere.

Now in a defensive situation on the street I'd go two to the chest, one to the pelvis and repeat until the threat has ceased.

 

[bubbiesdad]

Tatical mistake is not taking target of opportunity. If baddie is hiding behind plywood door with only gun around door, shoot the door. I've seen thousands of paintball newbies "blind fire". They'd be in trouble if anything could have went through the 2x4 bunker they were behind.

But full on frontal, just like a pubesent boy, go for the chest.

How do you inow he is the only one behind the door?

 

[anomoly40]

Well Damn. I don't.

 

[kimbershot]

you will be too busy to be setting your "shot". real world--point and shoot at skin. review police reports of service related shootings--most shots are up close and personal and there are a lot of misses.

 

[Radio]

Chest, and don't stop firing until the threat is neutralized.

 

[JoeSlomo]

should you aim at his head or chest if he is about 10 feet away?

I'm pretty much always going to go for the part of the target that offers the greatest hit potential, which would be the chest / torso area in this case, as I would be moving while shooting due to the close distance.

The problem I personally have with head shots is that it is a small enough target as is, and when the movement of both parties is taken into consideration, the hit potential goes down even further.

A failure to hit is a significant concern to me because 1) Missed shots generally don't stop a threat, so the more I miss, the longer I am potentially exposed to danger and 2) Missed shots miss the intended target, however, they may hit an unintended target. Not good. Not what I want to happen, and will attempt to avoid at all costs.

If the ONLY target offered by the threat is a head shot, and deadly force is immediately needed to stop the threat, then I would take the shot. However, I would take a chest/torso shot every time given the opportunity.

 

[Beaux Nehr]

Buhh....


You guys do realize that "center of mass" means that you fire at the center of the mass presented to you, right?
Like.. if a transformer is hiding behind a bus, and his robot ass is sticking out, you shoot the center of his ass.

EDIT:

just saw TangoMike's post. woot

 

[papaairbear]

Center of mass. And be prepared to continue shooting if he doesn't stop. Stop shooting when the threat to you is gone- he stops advancing, falls, whatever. The one to the head after the two in the chest could likely put you in a cell next to one of his po'd relatives.

 

[Bubba613]

The fallacy is that you are going to aim. You won't. You will throw the gun up between you and whatever it is and pull the trigger. Especially at 10ft. The biggest target gets the hits.