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One Handed Shooting

3K views 11 replies 9 participants last post by  aimtrue 
#1 ·
Hello,

This has been covered before, but it's come down to being a reality for a bit, so I figured I'd bring it back up.

I got a tetanus shot the other day, and since, my weak arm has gotten progressively weaker. This is normal, and could last up to over a week.

However, it's hard to support my strong hand while shooting.

Here are the techniques I use:

1. Target stance. You know, the "weak hand in the pocket" stance. The difference is that I modified this a bit by tipping the sights inboard a couple degrees, ala Twoguns. It works better.

2. I bring the gun up as in a two handed hold, only use one hand. The sights are right there.

3. The old FBI crouch. I put my weak arm (if possible) over my chest and crouch while drawing and pointing.

4. For very up close practice, I draw, tip my hand outward (palm up) to lock my wrist, and fire from the hip. It seems to work out to three yards, but is best within a yard.

Is there anything I'm missing? I can't make hits as quickly and recoil control is not what it usually is, but I can still reload, thank God for small favors, albeit a bit more slowly.

Thanks,

Josh <><
 
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#2 ·
For some strange reason, even though I'm primarily left handed, I shoot better when using one hand using my right. I suppose this goes back to my IPSC days, we were required at times to shoot an entire match weak hand only so I have many hours invested in this. to be honest, I'd have to go shoot some to even be able to say where my left hand is positioned when shooting right hand only, this being that I've done it so long it has become second nature. Two things I have learned when shooting face to face, lean back just a bit to ensure hits not being too low and to never allow the muzzle to protrude over a foot in front of me, this to help prevent my target being able to sweep my handgun.
 
#4 ·
WHO (weak hand only) shooting is very difficult to do well but should be part of the repertoire for the serious handgunner. When I was at Thunder Ranch, the technique taught was to put the weak foot forward, lean into the gun at the waist, lock the arm and cant the sight in to the dominant eye at about 30 degrees. It was slow but at close range delivered adequate results.

Shooting from retention was also done WHO but involved planting the gun on the pectoral muscle with a full 45 degree outboard tilt. Done at arms length only, it would put a pattern a bit low on the target but this was a function of the height of the shooter.
 
#5 ·
[color=#000080 said:
oberstlt[/color]]
Shooting from retention was also done WHO but involved planting the gun on the pectoral muscle with a full 45 degree outboard tilt. Done at arms length only, it would put a pattern a bit low on the target but this was a function of the height of the shooter.
Actually, Pectoral Index Retention Shooting should place your rounds COM at anything from 'kissing' to punching distance.
Properly done (in training at least), the non-firing hand should be in a head high blocking position or face strike. That sholuld/will keep your hand and arm out of the LOF.

That at least is what I've been teaching/using for about 2 decades or so.
 
#6 ·
Howdy folks,

I just wanted to clarify something Josh said ala twoguns. I was not taught to cant the gun inward a few degrees. I was taught when shooting one handed (either strong or weak hand) to lock the elbow fully and cant the pistol inward approximately 45 degrees. That is a bit more than "a few" and I just wanted to clarify that.

That amount of cant is alleged to give a more complete use of the muscles in the arms, and does for me and others who use it, much faster and more accurate round placements.

twoguns
 
#7 ·
Assuming we are talking weak hand/dominant eye, or one left/one right, shooting, the 'a little' cant is a by-product of body mechanics. Your hand will naturally tilt a little bit as you bring the gun to and across the body axis into visual alignment and the elbow and shoulder lock out.
 
#8 ·
Howdy folks,

Well I can't really address the weak hand/dominant eye issue at all. I am one of those weird, but I feel fortunate folks, who were taught to do their serious shooting with both eyes open. Ever since my first police qualification, that is simply how I have fired handguns. So for me, when I have that 45 degree inward cant the pistol sights are still aligned properly (not upright obviously), but the sights are basically off the end of my nose, since I am using both eyes to get my sight picture.

This was simply the technique I was taught in a gun school, that I have found to be very effective in allowing me to shoot tighter and faster groups one handed, using both my strong and weak hands. But as has been suggested, one hand shooting to me is simply a survival skill that all of us should include in our normal tactical training. It is simply a very viable tool we should all keep in our personal tool box we can draw upon.

My shooting stance for one handed shooting is basically a straight iso stance, as we were also taught a technique for quickly moving the weapon from one hand into the other for continuing one hand shooting. Part of the smooth exchange was based on facing the target squarely, so we would push the handgun out directly in front of our nose, canted inward, and as our elbow locked into place, we were firing our first round.

But regardless of the method/system folks use when practicing their one hand shooting, what is more important to me is that they do consistently practice it until it is a very natural skill they have to fall back on. Of course, along with that is practicing one hand reloads, as doing so is simply real world in my view, and goes hand in hand (no pun intended) with one hand shooting.

Just my thoughts. But whatevery method seems to work well for you, I do encourage folks to practice one hand shooting on a regular basis, to first develop and then maintain their proficiency with it.

twoguns
 
#10 ·
Odds are, in a defensive encounter your support hand is going to be busy holding a light, pushing a family member to safety or defelcting a contact weapon held by a bad guy or gal.

Thus I think the wise and prudent person would stress one handed shooting in their practice. Another reason to learn one handed shooting, support/weak hand too, is that people get shot in the gun hand/arm quite a bit in gunfights.

Biker
 
#11 ·
Hello. I do quite a bit of one-hand shooting for a simple reason: it seems to be what I always do when startled greatly. In 25-years of police work, I have been startled suddenly more than a few times and where I thought my life was in danger. I found myself pointing my handgun at the direction of the perceived threat and in a slight crouch. Within a very short time, I would go two-handed but intially, it was with one hand.

Best.
 
#12 ·
Techniques do change over time; and, I might add, many of the new ways are much better then the older practices.

Shortly before the Korean War, I was undergoing training in a navy air crewman school. A Marine Gunny instructed us in the handling and shooting of the .38 Police Special that we were to carry when airborne. The technique taught was to lock our right elbow holding the revolver shoulder high in our right hand. We were told to use only the right eye for sighting. The lefties were told that there were no left-handed shooters in the Navy.

Once I became a member of an air crew, I was issued both a .38 to wear in a shoulder holster and a 1911 to wear on my hip. The ordnance man in our crew wisely told us that we had better learn to shoot each sidearm with both our strong and weak hands so that if one was disabled, we would still be able to defend ourselves.

Regardless of which hand I used, I never became more then a mediocre marksman. I attribute this to both the technique and to the fact that we were able to practice shooting only sporadically. It was many years later that the Isosceles and Weaver techniques became widely used. When I changed my method of shooting to either of these new techniques, my shooting skill greatly improved. I must add, that by this time as a civilian, I had also begun to attend regular shooting sessions.

Today, during my weekly practices, in addition to honing my two handed skills, I also shoot a few magazines holding the pistol one-handed first in strong hand alone and then in my weak hand alone. Because of so many years of practice, I have improved my marksmanship with each single hand. However, the wider patterns I make on target with single hand shooting still pales in comparison with the tighter patterns I make using two hands.
 
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