One Handed Shooting

[BrokenolMarine]

Saw a recent article on One Handed Shooting.

I think the article was in the latest NRA Monthly. The author raised some good points, a few being that few practice it, and many never think about it. Of course he was talking about in defensive shooting situations and not NRA Bullseye matches. Different ballgame entirely.

Some reasons he brought up that might require that type of one handed shooting, of course, were an injury to the dominate hand which everyone mentions, but he also mentioned you might be on the phone (With PD?) or holding or protecting your child. (Good Point.)

One he didn't mention, but WE trained our officers for, was positional shooting... if you want to keep the lowest profile, meaning lowest exposer from behind cover, you'd want to change hands when shooting from cover, depending on which side of the cover you shoot from. You greatly reduce your exposure if you can shoot with the off hand when needed. Try it and you'll see. This applies to both handguns and long guns.

He did suggest that you need to practice one handed, with both the strong and weak hand, and RELOADING with one hand. Various techniques are available on You Tube... I won't try and cover them here. Another thing to consider is something else I taught my students, both LE and Civilian.

When you shoot weakhanded, with either one or both hands engaged... but more so with one handed shooting:
I found that it helps a large percentage of shooters to slightly cant the top of the gun toward the centerline to bring the sights in line with the dominant eye. This helps to avoid cocking the head at an odd angle to bring the dominate eye in line with the sights in the weak hand. Most shooters AREN'T cross eye dominate. (That's a different article entirely.)

I hope this helps at least one of our members. I'm getting old and forgetful, but I try really hard to remember to fire a few strings weak hand when I do get to the range. Never hurts... we never know what might come up.

[undy]

I have 5XL hands and one handed firing feels fine for me. It's actually hard to get both hands around a small framed gun. FWIW, I fired my son's S&W 500 magnum one handed, semi-rapid fire, without any difficulties.

[Sir Henry]

I have 5XL hands and one handed firing feels fine for me. It's actually hard to get both hands around a small framed gun. FWIW, I fired my son's S&W 500 magnum one handed, semi-rapid fire, without any difficulties.

Holy moly!

[North Country Gal]

Thanks, Marine. I will take that info to heart. I am cross eyed dominant, but funny thing is, I've always been able to use it to my advantage when shooting handguns. If one eye hets fatigued, I just switch over to the other eye for sighting.

[Cowboy Gun Fan]

I always shoot one handed with my guns. It always felt like "cheating" if I didn't, lol.

[BrokenolMarine]

PPC was a boon to me in LE, as we had to shoot both right and left sides of the barricades. In fact, all the way back to 50 yards. At local level we only shot what was called Match 5, a 25 yard course of fire. At state level, we shot 150 rounds all the way back to 50 yards. That 50 yard line was a killer for new shooters. Weak handed at 50 yards standing... yup, that would get your attention. I was lucky enough to put in a range at my home and insured I had the 50 yard course there for practice.

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Put into practice at a match, you work the barricade to your advantage for stability. Note how this officer tries to limit his exposure by remaining behind the barricade as much as possible, even though it's only a match. Standing, left handed at 50 yards.

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[BrokenolMarine]

During practice prior to qualification, I would have my officers draw, fire five shots into the center of mass rapid fire.
We would reholster, then repeat the drill, however on the second string, we would transfer the firearm to the weak hand, and place the strong hand on the center of the chest, and fire five shots into the center of mass at three yards rapid fire. Amazing the difference in most of the groups. However, those who practiced on a regular basis were able to maintain (slightly larger) groups in the center of mass rapid fire. Funny how that worked.

You can harp on something all day in briefing or in the classroom. A live demonstration on the range with your peers is a valuable lesson.

[ditchparrot]

I shoot one-handed the vast majority of the time. I just enjoy operating single-actions with a single hand and I can shoot better double-action with a 45-degree body turn and no tension in my off arm/shoulder.

[BrokenolMarine]

I shoot one-handed the vast majority of the time. I just enjoy operating single-actions with a single hand and I can shoot better double-action with a 45-degree body turn and no tension in my off arm/shoulder.

Outstanding! We shot bullseye that way in the Corps... I liked it. However, I shot modified weaver when I shot for Aircrew Qualifications with the 45, and the 38.

How do you do weak handed? Do you shoot weak hand often? Some do well, most don't so they shy away from it. It's natural to shoot more at what we do well at. Shooting is supposed to be fun, not work.

Can you operate the safety, mag release, reload, and release the slide one handed? When I ask friends and fellow shooters this, they laugh, and say, "of course.". We load their EDC and a mag / speedloader with dummy rounds, and have them hold their belt at the center of their back with their strong hand and try to perform the reload. At least half, as much as two thirds are shocked to learn it's not as easy as they expected. Most have never tried.

I've never done this to embarrass anyone, but in order to show someone a hole in their skillset that they might want to address. Might save a life one day.

[North Country Gal]

The main influence on my handgun shooting was hunting with a handgun when I started shooting handguns back in the 60s (yup, I'm that old). That was essentially what some folks would call precision handgun shooting or distance shooting these days and it was always using a two handed hold for the sake of accuracy. Believe me, that kind of hunting and shooting was challenging enough with a two handed hold to have any chance of bringing home something to eat. Hunting with a handgun, though, really changes your perspective about what handgun shooting distances can be.

In those early handgun hunting days, it was either revolvers or TC Contenders in order to get magnum handgun cartridges or rifle cartridge capability for deer or larger. Centerfire autoloader pistols didn't cut it for that work, because 45 auto was about as big as you could commonly get in an autoloader back then. No 10mm autos in those days.

Rimfire autos were great for small game hunting, though. I used a Ruger Standard for a lot of my squirrel hunting, but my favorite was still my old Ruger Single Six Standard 22 single action revolver I bought in 1968, fixed sights and all. Took all kinds of small game and varmints with that gun, but I probably shot a truck load of 22 ammo getting good enough to use it for hunting. Loved every minute doing it, though.

[ditchparrot]

How do you do weak handed? Do you shoot weak hand often? Some do well, most don't so they shy away from it. It's natural to shoot more at what we do well at. Shooting is supposed to be fun, not work.

I'd say I devote at least a quarter of my efforts to the weak hand and more than that if I'm using the SAA clones (a Pietta and an Uberti, both in .357). I have a two-holster rig for them that I employ for Cowboy Action.

The Uberti is the more accurate gun, but that matters little for CA since the targets are so big and close. I usually keep the Pietta in the left holster because the action is considerably smoother, and that actually can make a difference when trying to get off a string of quick shots with the off hand.

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[BrokenolMarine]

Outstanding. I always wanted to try cowboy action shooting, It looked like a lot of fun, but didn't have the time with PPC, the job I was in at the time, and no league in my area. Not to mention soccer, cheerleading, and the other activities the four kids were into. By the time all the kids were grown and moved we had gotten involved with the two veterans charities, the Rescue Squads, and teaching at the State Park in what little time we had left over... isn't that the way?