I was reading an article on shooting practice. The author of the article stressed shooting with your off-hand and one- handed. http://www.suburbansteader.com/guest-post-tactical-training-home/ We discuss practicing but rarely is it mentioned one-handed or off-handed. How often do you practice this? Being a lefty in a right handed world, I think I should be able to shoot or get acquainted with shooting off-handed quickly because I have had use my right hand with many tasks. If you have practiced this way, which is easier to learn, off-hand or one-hand?
We constantly practice weak handed shooting, and I am a big proponent of the old Army drill one handed point shooting. The obvious reasons for this aside, it's always good to practice odd physical positions with weird angles. Even more important is to do this with Rifle! I can tell you from vast experience that off hand, or week hand shooting is a absolutely vital part of any training you do. I can't tell you how many times i had to transition My Rifle to weak side in order to shoot, or cover others while moving. More often then not, in real world, you will need to be able to shoot off hand quite a bit, and even more often, you need to do it while on the move!
Also had to stress shooting standing at a range and shooting under pressure is way way different Low light, prone, on back, kneeling one hand reload and also so always on the move
It’s a good idea to get all appendages involved, my folks used to invent games that included off hand, we shot off the back porch so the games kept my interest up. Walking the roads popping jack rabbits was real good training too! The State guberment wanted people to kill jacks because of a Tularemia outbreak! This was in the early ‘50s so one handed pistol shooting was the norm, I was an adult before I ever saw the Weaver stance. These days I’m old and fighting cancer so I’m lucky if I can sit down at a bench and get a little shooting in. Hummm......I wonder if I could talk a bad guy into waiting while I set up my bench and sandbags? Naaa........I’ll just have to resort to spray and pray!!!
If you are in a building and so is the armed intruder , you can't always pick the wall to hide behind , but being ambidextrous you would have an advantage . If in your home and or if you have planned ahead of time, reenforce what was to be as your shield , but keep in mind any fixed shield like that is a shield for the bad guy, if he get's that close. The other advantage to single handed shooting is the speed of acquisition ,compared to the shooting range full face stance. If there re intruders at different parts of the scene you ca't be changing you stance to meet the need, you have to act instinctively ,acquiring the target and making the shot ,and still keeping your head on a swivel . Lastly I like practice with air guns , same trigger time ,at a fraction of the price and noise .
Being able to transition a rifle from right to left will minimize your exposure both sides of the hallway clearing rooms, not to mention a hit on your strong side or even a sprain can put you right out of the fight and make you easy prey. Don't assume you can shoot with the weak hand, practice. A 1911 won't even cycle with a limp wrist.
I practice weak hand shooting and transitioning from rifle to pistol every time I practice and have since I became a fan of Massage Yeboob.. Massad Ayoob - Wikipedia
Lots of good stuff from Massad! There have been many great folks over the years who are able to articulate great ideas around shooting, especially as more and more are stepping up to the self defence plate and getting some learnin! I am hoping to start up my Defensive Rifles class again, as soon as I get back home, it' one of those shooting things I really enjoy, even more then comps!
My Dad and Uncle taught me to shoot pistols and they probably have never heard of the Weaver stance. I learned it at the range and really do not care for it. It feels unnatural.
There is no right or wrong way to shoot pistol, weaver came about with the advent of BIG revolvers for carry needs mainly, and many adopted it as the preferred method. It works well because it gives your shooting hand more support so that recoil didn't affect point of aim as much and helps you increase speed/rounds on target. Where folks get it wrong is hyper focus, i.e. target fixation which can get you into trouble. You must train a lot to make any of this work. The one I cannot wrap my head around is Isosceles, it puts me in a very strange position and is hard to maneuver or keep my head moving. I know many who use this style and it works for them, but I just can't do it! At some point, most will adopt their own style and stance and that's when things get interesting, some times it works, others it needs to be trained to make it work better. Ultimately, for carry use, your drawing from concealed, so the first round or two fired will be unsupported free hand, those first rounds fired are the most important and should be trained as much as possible, after that, what ever system you choose to use should be trained long and hard to generate muscle memory!
That alone, along with some other non shooting related reasons is why I use a cross draw. It may (arguably) be a bit slower, but both hands are (or can be) immediately in use. Other non shooting reasons: Bad shoulders on both sides limiting vertical lift. Passenger cannot draw your piece (if you habitually pick up hitchhikers or friends that are NOT well known, or carry unreliable relatives.) (Yeah, I know, Brit derivative drivers and southpaws have other considerations.) Less easily seen (if OWB,) from either side. MUCH easier draw if seated, regardless of o'clock of strong side carry. Me also thinks that "the first round or two" should be delayed long enough to get properly on target, seems two hands would help with that. But that's olde pharte thinking, YMMV.
Not old phart at all, and raises good points. Carry method, type of pistol, physical limitations, all play into what and how you present your weapon and get into the fight! There is no correct answer here other then find what works best, and train train train. My Grand Dad taugnt me on handed arms length shooting with the 1911 as thats what was used in his day, that combined with my officil gov. training in using the weaver makes for a pretty good combo! Best is it supports what ever carry method i use.
No matter which way I carry, shoulder rig or strong side I *plan* on shooting supported from a Chapman stance if at all possible. I practice my draws both slow and at speed. As my gun hand is drawing the weapon my weak hand is coming up to make contact with it at about waist level, I have the fist around the fist already formed as I am bringing the pistol up on line into my line of sight. The most important part of that practice is the very slow precise execution of each movement, like in kata. The kata like drills are what make me fast, not trying to be fast-aim small miss small. You know better than I that when bullets start flying the *plan* can go out the window real fast. That's when I am relying on my training and practice to see me through. My methods and training are old hat compared to today's high speed low drag schools but I do believe that the basics never change. I too have never found the Isosceles stance comfortable or practical-and I tried like hell back in the 80's when it was all the rage with Rob and Brian using it.
For me, Cross draw is the fastest of any carry method i have used, and I am also faster on the sights wether one handed, or weaver, really depends on body movement. The faster I can draw and get the sights, the better! The one time I ever had to do it for real, I had to draw from a drop leg and I was firing double action from the hip all the way up to the sights, I probably got off 5 rounds before my off hand was up and engaged with the gun hand, and I fired the pistol empty. My hit ratio was unbeleavably 100%,16 rounds center mass!!!
I agree 100% I have tried the isosceles stance and it was very unnatural for me. It was really uncomfortable.
I'm ambidextrous so I don't have an off hand. I work on speed when I'm training (actual in class training) but I make a point of practicing slow. I try to develop muscle memory in the areas of a solid draw and putting the first 2 shots on target. (Anything worth shooting is worth shooting multiple times). I try to practice the basics over and over until it's instinctive. Solid draw accurately putting the first 2 rounds on target. Shooting from retention Smooth reloads Reducing a malfunction (I deliberately use faulty magazines at the range so it have random malfunctions to deal with) One handed reloads And SAFELY reholstering. I do these over and over at the range until it's muscle memory
If anyone gets a chance to shoot the RogersRange Courses, try it. You shoot timed popup steel 8" targets, with strong/weak 2 handed and one handed. When shooting one handed(strong and weak) you load mag with limited rounds, fire till empty, then drop the mag, load a new one AND rack the slide(one handed) and fire ALL while targets are only available for a few seconds. You learn how to hold the pistol between your legs and rack the slide between your legs or on your pant leg or door frame. Talk about trigger control. Pistol with live round in the chamber and you are moving it violently enough to rack the slide. Try that with your current pistol w/o ammo. Then try it weak handed. Anytime you reload, you do it from behind cover, all the time your targets are only available for a very limited time. This whole thing is timed. You need a 70 (hits in 9 different drills) to "pass" and the first time I shot(8 hrs and ~1200 rounds) I got a 65. This is my first run at the range to get the feel of it. I was not required to reload behind cover on this intro. My next
This is another area to practice often, Failure Drill!!!! Most pistols of modern manufacture are solid and reliable, but they are imperfect machine's and we as defensive shooters must learn to deal with failures that can pop up when we need them to be flawless. The use of Hollow Point ammo is the leading cause of cat 1 failures, but there other types that can fail as well. Practice clearing your weapon of a failure, and practice reloads often, many shooters prefer to drop a mag at a failure and go to a fresh mag during a clearing as it can some times be faster then a tap, rack, and go situation.
