Single-handed shooting

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Blackstone

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I don't know if this belongs in here or S,T&T but here goes:

What's the best way to manage muzzle rise in a semi-auto when shooting single-handed? I know the best grip would be as high as possible, but is there anything I can do with my stance? I ask this as I can shoot fast with both hands, but the muzzle seems to climb so much more when I'm only holding it with one hand.
 
Your single hand stance should look just like your two-hand stance, minus one hand. Sort of. ;)

Draw, bring your gun up to your hands-together point, then extend your arms out into your standard stance. Then simply retract your weak hand in tight against your chest. I make a fist. Keeping the upper body muscles tight also helps.

I also find that allowing the gun to cant slightly inward (left for right-hand, right for left-hand) gives me a little more control.

I'll see if I can find some pics or a tutorial.
 
I've been having good results with the Ayoob stressfire single hand technique. You shift your weight forward like you're boxing, keeping the off hand in a fist against your chest, with your shooting arm bent to take recoil.
 
I've heard some people say to have your shooting arm bent and exactly perpendicular to your body so the recoil goes straight through your arm, and not at an angle
 
Ideally I think your arm and body should absorb the recoil together. With the stressfire method, the ball of the front foot allows your body to flex back, then forward again, with recoil and recovery. If you're too stiff in the arm and body the recoil will just take your arm up and up and up.
 
Thanks Sam and Dnaltrop, this is a great forum - I'm fortunate to be from a part of the UK that allows handguns
Click to expand...

What kind of handguns are you allowed to own over there?
 
I'm assuming actual hands-on tactical handgun training is going to be tough to get over there, so I'd suggest studying this tome:

http://www.amazon.com/Stressfire-Vo...9036/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1320255941&sr=8-1

Of course the techniques depend on the goal. You'll notice a difference in the dynamic methods and the more sedate target shooting methods. Ayoob's stances are based on interviews with many officers who had been in shootouts and on studying these events closely. Mas found that the traditional range shooting methods back then weren't sufficiently preparing LEO's for real life confrontations.
 
Most handguns I believe, I think the upper power limit is 45acp. Although the limit isn't explicitly set in law, I haven't seen any 44mags or 50ae's because you have to justify why you need such a gun. Buying one (especially a specific model you want) is rather difficult, there are only a few gun shops in Northern Ireland, and importing one has its own challenges.
 
I shoot bullseye, so all I shoot is one-handed. Let the gun recoil into your arm and body more than letting your elbow or wrist break up. The gun will still rise, but you can immediately drop your whole arm back to your natural point of aim and begin acquiring the sights.

Also, you should reset the trigger during the muzzle rise and begin staging the trigger as the gun comes back down onto the target. This will help you increase the speed of your followup shots.

Your stance should be something like 45 degrees torso-to-target or more. This helps put your body mass inline with the recoil. I distribute my weight 50/50; weight forward doesn't seem to help me.

Remember, bullseye is a one-handed game. The techniques to shoot rapid fire one-handed with extreme accuracy have been perfected here.
 
tuj brings up a good point: What kind of shooting are you doing?

The two videos I posted and most of the commentary so far relate to "Practical," "Action," or "Combat" type shooting, especially as practiced in IDPA and IPSC competition. Extreme accuracy isn't required (a perfect shot is one that lands in either of two very generous (~50 square inch) zones on the target) but high speed and the ability to transition between targets and shooting points is.

If you're focused more on Bullseye type competition, there's a whole art and science to that as well, and the accuracy level it is possible for some folks to obtain is nearly miraculous.

The fundamentals of marksmanship are necessary for success in either, but the larger skill sets are rather different.
 
A lot of shooters use the iscosceles, nowadays, with head centered and gun pointing straight out of the top of the triangle. I would not simply remove the left hand and continue using this stance.

For one handed shooting:
Try holding the gun straight in line with your forearm, for one. This necessitates that you move your head to the right to index the sights.

Also, try getting the bore axis as low as possible. This means not only a high grip, but a low head. Experiment with that statement, and you'll figure it out.
 
A lot of shooters use the iscosceles, nowadays, with head centered and gun pointing straight out of the top of the triangle. I would not simply remove the left hand and continue using this stance.
Click to expand...

Actually, that's almost exactly how I and many other competitive shooters do it. Stay squared up, keep the "turret" of the upper body pretty much the same as your normal iso. stance, but clench the support hand in against the chest. Like a boxer's jab, rather.

This necessitates that you move your head to the right to index the sights.
Click to expand...
See, I don't want to do that. Don't want to change anything about the relation between my head, the gun, and the target. All removing the support hand does, if you're doing it right, is require a slightly longer recovery time, which is largely unavoidable in single-hand shooting anyway.
 
A lot of shooters use the iscosceles, nowadays, with head centered and gun pointing straight out of the top of the triangle. I would not simply remove the left hand and continue using this stance.
Click to expand...
Actually, that's almost exactly how I and many other competitive shooters do it. Stay squared up, keep the "turret" of the upper body pretty much the same as your normal iso. stance, but clench the support hand in against the chest. Like a boxer's jab, rather.
Click to expand...

Interesting. That's why I use a modified Weaver (basically an isosceles but with the gun more parallel with the dominant arm than the support arm). I also don't want anything to change. When I shoot two-handed, I just add the left hand.

With a straight isosceles, your arm is angled off the gun. Without the support hand to give symmetry, the gun will recoil with some sideways motion. I have noticed this affects recoil control (as well as bullet POI with a revolver).

OP mentioned recoil control, specifically. He might wanna at least give the straight, inline grip a try. Here's Todd Jarrett explaining the concept, at 0:44
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa50-plo48
 
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one hand

I shoot bullseye, so all I shoot is one-handed. Let the gun recoil into your arm and body more than letting your elbow or wrist break up. The gun will still rise, but you can immediately drop your whole arm back to your natural point of aim and begin acquiring the sights.

Also, you should reset the trigger during the muzzle rise and begin staging the trigger as the gun comes back down onto the target. This will help you increase the speed of your followup shots.

Your stance should be something like 45 degrees torso-to-target or more. This helps put your body mass inline with the recoil. I distribute my weight 50/50; weight forward doesn't seem to help me.

Remember, bullseye is a one-handed game. The techniques to shoot rapid fire one-handed with extreme accuracy have been perfected here.
Click to expand...

Absolutely.
Accuracy? The top shooters will put 10 shots into the 10 ring at 25 yards on a regular basis with the .45. The ring is 3.3 inches in diameter.

The gun should be pushed firmly into the web of the hand so that when gripped, the barrel lines up with the bones of the forearm. The stance should produce a natural POA. (Stand, gun in hand, facing the target, gun down in the ready position. Close your eyes. Raise the gun and fully extend your arm until you are comfortable that it is pointing at the target and you are comfortable/relaxed holding the position.
Open your eyes. Ideally the target will be directly where the sights are pointed. If not, shift your rear foot so that the gun/extended arm/sights move to the target. Bring the gun down. Try again.)
You do not want to have any unnecessary muscular effort needed to keep the sights on target. If a natural POA is established then the gun will drop out of recoil after each shot precisely on target.
Pete
 
Hello, AngryHan!

Let me add a nickel's worth of clarity, please. There are two general approaches to single-handed shooting:

  1. Combat style: this is a variant form of two-handed shooting; another variant is shooting with your weak hand. My best suggestion is to try this, that, and everything else you can think of, and develop the style that works best for you.
  2. Bullseye style: this is the style tuj describes above. It's not for combat shooting unless you've practiced it long and hard; that said™, if you're looking for maximum accuracy at target shooting, this is it.
 
At least half - or more - of your practice shooting should be done with one hand. There is a reason they aren't called handsguns. ;) It may be the only one you have available.
 
I was looking for a way to shoot fast and as accurately as possible with one hand, I guess that would be the combat style. It's for disciplines like police pistol. I guess bullseye is for slow precision fire. I already have a good background in that with ISSF-style disciplines.

The main issue is recoil management. I'm pretty sure for bullseye, you have a long time to take each shot, so you're in no hurry to reacquire a good sight picture?
 
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