One handed handgun techniques

[mesinge2]

I recently broke my left arm and I have a decent recovery time ahead of me.

While, I do often practice one handed shooting and have practiced one handed reloading drills I was wondering if you fine people have some advice to share on the subject.

There is always something new to learn.

So, one handed drills, techniques, etc. Anything of the like.

P.S. If this is posted in the wrong location, MODs please feel free to relocate it. Thanks.

 

[Sheepdog1968]

They are taught in many handgun classes. If you play with YouTube you should find some videos. Go really slow and better to practice at first without any live rounds.

 

[DaisyCutter]

We got a couple hour practical class on one handed operation at my last police qualification, in the event you took an incoming round to an arm.

They had us practice pressing the mag release and wacking your forearm into your knee to dislodge a mag,
Holding the gun in the crook of your knee in order to insert a fresh mag,
Hooking the sights on your heel to chamber...

Damn near broke my "good"arm and fell on my ass a couple times hopping around with the slide pressed against my heel.

My buddies and I decided it was just easier (and faster) to reach for the already loaded gun we each strap to our ankles.


My advice is just to make sure you can bring your sidearm to bear and use it effectively, then invest energy in threat detection and avoidance instead of one-handed reload tactics.


If you have the option, carry a full size doublestack auto until you get the cast off. You got every excuse to wear a big oversize shirt, so concealing it will be easier.

 

[mesinge2]

We got a couple hour practical class on one handed operation at my last police qualification, in the event you took an incoming round to an arm.

They had us practice pressing the mag release and wacking your forearm into your knee to dislodge a mag,
Holding the gun in the crook of your knee in order to insert a fresh mag,
Hooking the sights on your heel to chamber...

Damn near broke my "good"arm and fell on my ass a couple times hopping around with the slide pressed against my heel.

My buddies and I decided it was just easier (and faster) to reach for the already loaded gun we each strap to our ankles.


My advice is just to make sure you can bring your sidearm to bear and use it effectively, then invest energy in threat detection and avoidance instead of one-handed reload tactics.


If you have the option, carry a full size doublestack auto until you get the cast off. You got every excuse to wear a big oversize shirt, so concealing it will be easier.

Thanks.

I may just carry my Beretta 92 with my S&W 6906 as a BUG in my pocket.

 

[ATLDave]

Civilian gunfights are generally very, very short. One-handed reloads generally aren't. Play around with it if you want, but be sure to do so safely... you're extremely unlikely to need the skill, and if you need it, you're extremely unlikely to execute it fast enough to have it matter. JMHO, of course.

 

[golden]

What i was taught

Mes,

My agency requires one handed drills once a year.

They are pretty easy if it is the strong (regular gun hand), but get challenging for the weak side.

This is for a semi auto with a push button or thumb lever magazine release.

If you are wearing a strong side belt holster, you can eject your magazine, holster the gun and reload in the holster, then draw and either thumb the slide release or run the slide so that the rear sight catches on the rim of the holster and releases the slide.

WARNING, you need a stiff, secure holster for this. The bargain priced, fits anything numbers will probably fail on this.

The behind your knee method is for reloading with the weak hand when you cannot reach around and holster the gun so that the above method works. It is very easy to get off balance and fall. If I could, I would put the gun down on the ground and slide the mag in there, but my agency says this is against policy.

Also, if you squat or put the gun on the ground, practice firing from the ground, be careful not to shot yourself in the foot. We get a warning on this every time, for a good reason, it has happened.

If it were me, I would get a GOOD quality weak side holster and draw and reload from that.

I have a duty authorized plainclothes holster and have shot a qualification drill with the weak hand, so I know it can by done.

Just my experience,

Jim

 

[jrdolall]

Don't fire the last round in the mag!

I can't imagine needing to rack the slide on some of my guns using my teeth.

 

[old lady new shooter]

how to learn to shoot with the non-dominant hand?

Thinking about how to learn to shoot with the non-dominant hand I was wondering whether maybe the first step would be shooting with two hands but with the erstwhile support hand as the strong hand, so it could first get used to shooting at all, any thoughts on this? And/or, other methods?

 

[ATLDave]

Thinking about how to learn to shoot with the non-dominant hand I was wondering whether maybe the first step would be shooting with two hands but with the erstwhile support hand as the strong hand, so it could first get used to shooting at all, any thoughts on this? And/or, other methods?

Nah. The only method is to just do it. It's a not-uncommon requirement in practical pistol games. Everyone who shoots IDPA, USPSA, IPSC, PPC, ICORE, etc., has to do this from time to time... for some, every match. It's just like shooting strong-hand-only, except it will be even slower. Try it a couple of times, and it won't be scary.

 

[boatdoc173]

Thinking about how to learn to shoot with the non-dominant hand I was wondering whether maybe the first step would be shooting with two hands but with the erstwhile support hand as the strong hand, so it could first get used to shooting at all, any thoughts on this? And/or, other methods?

go slow -- use a very tight grip-- concentrate--did I say go slow(lol)? and use only the one hand you wish to become proficient with. I practice dominant and non dominant shooting every time I am at the range. IF I ever have to defend my home. I will have to shoot lefty into a stairwell or be exposed to a much greater degree if I want to use the right hand

 

[BCRider]

If you're right handed then it should not be all that hard. If you're a leftie then holstering and drawing from the right will prove to be a bit more of a challenge. It's nothing that you can't learn to do with some practice though.

At first go real slow and try to think and mirror what you did with your left (strong) hand then transpose the movements and do it with your right (weak side) hand. It won't take more than a couple of range sessions to become passably comfortable with the process.

When my right hand was getting some repetitive strain issues and I needed to use the mouse at work on the computer I found it took me the morning to get familiar with using the mouse left handed. At first I really had to think about it. Now I do it regularly just to let me drink something or give my right hand a break now and then and the shift isn't even anything I think about. I know a computer mouse isn't a firearm but it illustrates that with some conscious thought at first that it'll cement the actions into your brain sooner than trying to just muddle it through.

If you ARE a rightie then what I found for drawing and shooting strong hand only was that it pays to shift the left foot back a little so my footing and torso is angled left side back at around 20 to maybe as much as 30 degrees. Bring the left hand up just as you would for a two handed hold but instead of resting on the gun press it, lightly in your case, to the middle of your chest. Or if it won't move that far very easily just yet at least start the motion and come to rest at a reasonably comfortable spot even if it's only as high as your belt buckle. That'll keep your pattern of reaction and motion as close to the two handed form for later as practical.

From this slightly angled body position push the gun out and gain the sight picture at the same time. The commonly taught technique is to angle the gun slightly butt out and sights inward for around a 10 to 15 degree tilt. The reason for this is so that the two bones in the forearm are not twisted around each other as much. It better stabilizes the gun. You'll find that the recoil is up and to the left slightly but just flow with it. It works.

As mentioned reloading will be an issue. Use the slide lock as a release instead of racking it. And until you've got some minimal motion back in your left arm you'll likely want to either load the mags with the gun upside down on a mat on a table (the mat is so it doesn't kick out and skitter away) so the table, or any other handy fixed flat surface or fixed post, is your "other hand".

You're going to be spending a lot of time over the next while doing things where you use floors, walls, posts and heavier hard to move furniture as your "other hand". You'll soon get used to finding such things and using your good hand at odd angles to do all of life's daily things that we take for granted. Extending that same observation and adaptation to your gun shooting will just be part of that.

 

[jrmiddleton425]

I'm going to throw in, with a couple of pieces of recommended reading.

First is "Manual of the Pistol, Caliber .45, M1911 and M1911A1" Department of the Army FM 23-35, 1940. Literally the textbook on old-school one handed shooting.

Second, "Shooting to Live With the One-Hand Gun" by Fairbairn and Sykes.

Both of these are available as free PDFs. Read them, and then go out and practice.

 

[Pete D.]

what skills

What I noticed when reading through these posts is that much of the advice given is not about shooting one handed.....it is about loading and unloading magazines, inserting and removing them from a gun, about holsters.
A few fellows focus on the act of shooting with one hand and they do not say much.
What do you want to learn? A few skills particular to scenarios wherein loss of use of one arm in a gunfight means important and rapid adaptations......skills which you are unlikely ever to need (with any luck at all).
or accurate one handed shooting, precise time and again bullet in the bullseye shooting - one hand unsupported - a skill set that you can use regularly and for the rest of your life.
Shooting with one hand brings small motor movements of the fingers gripping the gun and the finger moving the trigger to the fore. Tiny movements make for a big difference.
Grip, then, is super important. Getting the gun fully into the web of the hand, lining the barrel up with the bones of the forearm.
Much too much to relay in a post. The book by Fairbairn and Sykes and the Army manual are good places to start. A real gem, if you can find one, is Gil Hebard's "Pistol Shooter's Treasury".
Pete

 

[TRX]

You can find the US Army manuals of arms for the 1911 online. The old ones teach one-handed stances and shooting, because if the Army had wanted you to use two hands, they would have put two handles on it.