WWII Training Technique

[Ryder]

A couple times now I've seen this guy training WWII soldiers how to shoot the 1911 while blindfolded on the history channel.

He is standing square to the target and shooting from the hip but he is holding his weak hand up in the air like a person taking an oath for the witness stand. That looks extremely odd to me. I've been trying to figure out if there was a purpose for that or not. It's certainly not a position I've ever used to shoot a pistol.

For a while I thought he was trying to catch his balance like a tightrope walker but recently I've come to think that he is giving the enemy something to shoot at. In the dark a palm could be mistaken for a face upon which the enemy would center it's shot. This strikes me as a darn good strategy if that's the case.

Anyone know for sure or have an alternate theory? They show the soldiers practicing the technique a bit later on but they aren't holding their hand up like that.

 

[willyjixx]

maybe its a way to center the pistol.

just randomly raise your hand an then use your other hand as if you were going to shoot. almost feels as if it creates a centering of the pistol to shoot straight from your body.

 

[Denny Hansen]

It's likely you watched a young Col. Rex Applegate training OIS recruits. Proponent of incorporating point shoot techniques with aimed fire until the day he died. He is missed.

Denny

 

[enfield]

Since he's both blindfolded and firing from the hip, he may just be making sure that his weak hand isn't in front of the muzzle.

 

[benEzra]

IIRC, Applegate's book emphasized point shooting with the firing arm mostly straight, the gun just below the line of sight, and the weak hand held low rather than high. What you watched probably wasn't Applegate's methods.

I imagine the high hand was just another way to make sure you don't shoot yourself in the weak hand.

 

[Ryder]

Thanks guys.

Very interesting insight willyjixx. Facing your palm toward something does seem to have a rather good feel for aiming to it. Rather than just holding it up at random though I think it should be possible to index your gun's aim in relation to the off arm by locking your elbows into your sides and turning the body as a whole while shooting from the hip. No doubt this will take some practice but it shouldn't take too long to figure out if the technique is has potential for improving aim over time. My first groups are bound to be eye opening one way or the other.

It gets real freaky without night sites when you can't even see the gun in the dark. I'll be experimenting with this.