Fred Fuller
Moderator Emeritus
I lean pretty much toward John Farnam's approach (the 'zipper technique') when carrying a service pistol. I learned it under his tutelage with a Glock 19, I don't think it would work as well with the J frame I usually carry and multiple assailants though.
Part of the penalty for carrying a J frame is having to shoot more sparsely. Maybe a two-shot zipper if circumstances permit? Otherwise with a J frame where multiple assailants are concerned, it has to be "tea party rules" (each one gets one until all are served, then we worry about seconds). I try for the solar plexus in practice in that case, but I'll take whatever target is presented, when it's presented, if it comes to it.
lpl
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http://www.defense-training.com/quips/2000/15Nov00.html
15 Nov 00
Aiming point:
I am now teaching students, when shooting at a standing human, to put the first round into the navel, than move upward into the thoracic triangle with subsequent shots. We're doing this, because placing one's front sight immediately on the upper chest of an attacker makes it very difficult to track the target when he subsequently ducks and/or sidesteps.
When the front sight goes immediately to the zone just below the neck, and the felon suddenly ducks, the shooter is left with a blank sight picture! He must then drop his sights and search for the target. When the front sight goes no further up than the navel before the first shot is fired, no matter how the felon moves, he can't get away from follow-up shots.
I've been teaching it this way for some time now, but the technique was critically substantiated when we had students engage the famous Bob Berry "Ducking Target" during a training program in Pennsylvania several weeks ago. Students who automatically put their front sights too high invariably lost the target.
Several friends who teach the same thing call it the "Zipper Technique." Fair enough!
/John
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"Dr Jim Williams, an emergency-room surgeon, presented a wonderful class on bullet placement. He has done a good deal of work on the subject, and his conclusions were confirmation that we're teaching this subject correctly. For example, we learned that lower-abdominal wounds result in significantly more fatalities than do penetrating chest wounds! The "zipper" technique that we are currently teaching fits in with what Dr Williams has seen. Lower-abdominal wounds are debilitating and disorienting in the short term and fatal in the long term. Bill Hickok was right all along!" - http://www.defense-training.com/quips/2006/23Jan06.html
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"In this regard, John [Farnam] teaches the “zipper” method. The objective is to turn off the attacker and stop the aggression as quickly as possible. This usually means inflicting lethal shots—shooting at the navel and then shooting up the attacker’s midline, like a zipper, until the attacker stops coming at you." - http://www.personaldefensesolutions.net/farnam_article.htm
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John [Farnam] emphasizes precise shooting with 100% accuracy. As he says, if you don't hit what you want to hit, then by definition you hit something you didn't want to hit. On the range that is only a dirt berm, but in a real self-defense situation it is likely to be someone or something that didn't need to be shot. For shooting drills we primarily used static and rotating steel targets, but we did use some IPSC type humanoid targets for practicing what he calls the zipper technique - four shots starting centered just above the beltbuckle and ending in the upper chest, with the objective being to strike the major north-south blood vessels, and if enough penetration, the spine. We also practiced close-in brain-stem shots -- two shots to the nose (assuming your opponent is facing you head on). - http://www.texasshooting.com/TexasCHL_Forum/viewtopic.php?t=7479
Part of the penalty for carrying a J frame is having to shoot more sparsely. Maybe a two-shot zipper if circumstances permit? Otherwise with a J frame where multiple assailants are concerned, it has to be "tea party rules" (each one gets one until all are served, then we worry about seconds). I try for the solar plexus in practice in that case, but I'll take whatever target is presented, when it's presented, if it comes to it.
lpl
====
http://www.defense-training.com/quips/2000/15Nov00.html
15 Nov 00
Aiming point:
I am now teaching students, when shooting at a standing human, to put the first round into the navel, than move upward into the thoracic triangle with subsequent shots. We're doing this, because placing one's front sight immediately on the upper chest of an attacker makes it very difficult to track the target when he subsequently ducks and/or sidesteps.
When the front sight goes immediately to the zone just below the neck, and the felon suddenly ducks, the shooter is left with a blank sight picture! He must then drop his sights and search for the target. When the front sight goes no further up than the navel before the first shot is fired, no matter how the felon moves, he can't get away from follow-up shots.
I've been teaching it this way for some time now, but the technique was critically substantiated when we had students engage the famous Bob Berry "Ducking Target" during a training program in Pennsylvania several weeks ago. Students who automatically put their front sights too high invariably lost the target.
Several friends who teach the same thing call it the "Zipper Technique." Fair enough!
/John
========================
"Dr Jim Williams, an emergency-room surgeon, presented a wonderful class on bullet placement. He has done a good deal of work on the subject, and his conclusions were confirmation that we're teaching this subject correctly. For example, we learned that lower-abdominal wounds result in significantly more fatalities than do penetrating chest wounds! The "zipper" technique that we are currently teaching fits in with what Dr Williams has seen. Lower-abdominal wounds are debilitating and disorienting in the short term and fatal in the long term. Bill Hickok was right all along!" - http://www.defense-training.com/quips/2006/23Jan06.html
=====================
"In this regard, John [Farnam] teaches the “zipper” method. The objective is to turn off the attacker and stop the aggression as quickly as possible. This usually means inflicting lethal shots—shooting at the navel and then shooting up the attacker’s midline, like a zipper, until the attacker stops coming at you." - http://www.personaldefensesolutions.net/farnam_article.htm
=========================
John [Farnam] emphasizes precise shooting with 100% accuracy. As he says, if you don't hit what you want to hit, then by definition you hit something you didn't want to hit. On the range that is only a dirt berm, but in a real self-defense situation it is likely to be someone or something that didn't need to be shot. For shooting drills we primarily used static and rotating steel targets, but we did use some IPSC type humanoid targets for practicing what he calls the zipper technique - four shots starting centered just above the beltbuckle and ending in the upper chest, with the objective being to strike the major north-south blood vessels, and if enough penetration, the spine. We also practiced close-in brain-stem shots -- two shots to the nose (assuming your opponent is facing you head on). - http://www.texasshooting.com/TexasCHL_Forum/viewtopic.php?t=7479
