Should one handed shooting be your primary technique?

[Sean Smith]

Don't rely too heavily on any one technique. Practice all forms that can be of practical use. There is no one right way, just the right way for the situation at hand. Specialization is for insects.

 

[Brian D.]

Like Paul Gomez, I do a few days a year at the range "wronghanded", including carry/draw from that side. Yeah, that do mean yet a few more holsters to buy, though mostly I've stuck to left-handed Fobus/Uncle Mike's kydex, etc. to save a couple of bucks. Guess if I were a REAL "method actor", I'd even load my mags left-handed that day(!)...Nah, ain't going that far...

 

[James Bondrock]

I think one should learn to be proficient with strong hand only and two hands, with some training also being weak hand only. According to a brochure I have from a Nevada Concealed Firearm Permit training course, part of the qualification is to shoot at three yards weak hand only. The target is large (a full-size B27 silhouette), the time limit is generous (6 rounds in 60 seconds at that range), and of course the range is short. Nevertheless, I had better practice that with my two-inch double-action revolver (a Ruger SP101, one of the guns I intend to carry) if I am to hit anything.

 

[Drjones]

This thread needs a bump.

Lots of food for thought...

 

[C.R.Sam]

Don't rely too heavily on any one technique. Practice all forms that can be of practical use. There is no one right way, just the right way for the situation at hand. Specialization is for insects. ...Seam Smith

BINGO.

Since we can neither script nor schedule our next encounter...
I advocate practicing all the tecniques in the previous posts.

Laugh at the cartoonish sights on the side of the Glock for the gangsta trade.
Now think of layng under a vehicle with one or more bad guys intent on doing you serious harm. Your ad hoc center of mass target is likely going to be a shin and you are going to try to hit it one handed with your gun sideways. Easy to do.....if practiced.

And if your gun will function when held limp wristed and sideways. Some will and some won't. Do you know your gun ?

Self defence is completely different from target shooting.

In target shooting the object is to obtain a high score while following the rules of that particular branch of the sport.

Self defence shooting .....the only rule is to win.

Sam.

 

[ACP]

A lot of good input here.

I tend to refer back a lot to one of Darren Laur's posts on The Firing Line in which it was found that in close contact simulation drills, even highly trained police officers reflexively resorted to one-handed shooting, facing the threat squarely, with both eyes open. Laur suggests training with one technique and using gross motor skills.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

And then of course was the North Hollywood Bank Robbery where you can see the camera pan and most every cop not with a rifle is using a 2 handed approach. Yes, it was longer distance. Yes, they were against full auto weapons. Some tried leaning out from under tires, but from what they were doing, it looked like they were spending time shooting walls.

In truth, police examples may be some of the worst possible ones for comparison to non-police since what I am planning to do with my obligations and situations really differ hugely from that of what the police are supposed to be doing. I have seen a fair amount of police shootings on COPS. Yes, I know the sampling sucks, but it is what I have seen most often. One-handed shooting is often on the move, sometimes at full sprint, usually in a foot chase situation. Other times, one-handed shooting is the result of needing to have the second hand free to radio, handcuff, or while otherwise fighting. They must go one-handed because the must be in way too close proximity and end up with a close contact kind of combat.

If I chase a bad guy, it is to the doorway where they have then fled from my house. Unlike the police, I don't have the obligation and I sure as heck don't have the need to follow somebody from the security of my home and out into the street for a fight. Inside the home, one the property, or anywhere else, there are no prisoners. I have no reason to come into physical contact with the bad guy so as to do something like cuff him. He either flees or is incapacitated. Either way, no touch is the rule.

 

[James Bondrock]

"Actually in a true weaver stance where you step back 10 inches with your strong side foot, you expose the unarmored area on your side to incoming fire."


In a long letter to Handguns magazine which they published as a feature article, Jack Weaver said he never paid much attention to foot positioning, isometric tension, body angle, etc.; he just put his other hand on the gun. One photo of him in the article showed him with one foot behind the other (Weaver stance) but with his upper body squared off and both arms locked out (Isosceles stance). I think it far more important to get a good grip and index on the gun and hits on the target than to worry about the angle at which your toes point and other minutiae.

 

[ACP]

Double Naught, if your post is in regards to my reply, note I mentioned "close contact," i.e. an armed officer against a man in a red suit armed with a training knife. I think this is pretty realistic -- close quarters, quick action -- to what a civilian could reasonably expect to deal with in a CCW encounter.

 

[Paul Gomez]

The general observation tends to be that inside of 10-feet most people revert to some sort of one-handed shooting. There was a great pic of John Farnam at the NTI several years ago. In a sims-scenario, John (a dyed-in-the-wool Weaver shooter) is dealing with three bad guys in between about 6 and 12 feet. He's got this big grin on his face and is shooting one-handed from shoulder level. Once the ranges increase, our brains seem to calm down a bit and you see people start using two hands and other learned techniques, but there seems to be some pretty serious monkeybrain stuff going on when the threats are inside of that 10-foot bubble.

 

[P95Carry]

Hey Paul!!!

Wondered where you'd been! Thought they might have locked you up!

 

[Paul Gomez]

They got to catch me, first! And the way I've been running around, I can't keep track of me. Busy,busy,busy. Hopefully, I'll be around for a bit longer.