imported post
grumpycoconut wrote:
I was just in the California part of the forum and readthat one of the guys there was describing how a hand injury had deadlined his gun handling and it got me thinking about how we all might handle our pistolas with only one paw.
Things that have worked for me:
-Racking the slide or returning a locked backslide to battery
a. Hook the rear sight on your belt, boot heel or anything handy that the slide will grab and push the pistol forward therebymanipulating theslide.
b. Shove the flat top of the slide straight into the meaty part of your thigh then push in and forward until the slide releases. Only really useful in returning the slide to battery but might work ok for clearing a stove pipe.
-Magazine change
a. Drop the magazine (sticky magazines might require a shake), drop to one knee,hold the pistol between your thigh and calf, shove in a new mag, return the slide to battery, keep fighting
b. Drop the magazine, drop to both knees, hold the gun between your knees (mag well facing away from you), insert new mag, return slide to battery, keep fighting
- With both of these mag change techniques, I've seen most people stand back up before they re-engage the target. I've never understood this. I've always thought it smarter to get the gun to speaking while still down on the ground and only then get back up and moving.
-Shooting
No big tricks here, but I find that canting my hand inboard a bit helps me cope with recoil better and if I'm working left handed, it lines the sights up in front of my right eye better.
Now I know some folks might see some 4 rule violations here, like pointing a gun at one's self, but these are emergency measures where I seeadded risk as being acceptable. Additionally, I consider these safe techniques to practice live fire provided that one practices them dry first and always remembers to keep one's booger hook off the bang switch.
Who else has one handed techniques to share? How about revolvers? I've never given serious thought to one hand reloading my J frame.
MY REPLY: Let me preface my reply, I am not an LEO or highly trained Military type operator.
I "am" a guy who has been in two 1 on 1 gun on gun shoot out's or gun fights , what ever you call them and I have also been shot at more than just those two times and shot (wounded ) multiple times, including loosing my right eye, so that does not make me a proto typical gun enthusiast nor a true indepth expert like Clint Smith or Massad Ayoob ( I dig those guys ).
I am just someone who is "horrifically experienced" and I am the survivor ( not winner) no one wins just survives, so hows that, and with that.
Oh and please forgive my rambling dissertation here, I am only trying to ad something over being a just a blowhard or wandering off topic.
Most shooters don't even spend any time shooting a handgun with the "weak" hand, such as left hand if you are right handed & vise verse.
I am as good with my left as I am with my right. even with a bolt action rifle, exept fr the lack of right eye vision when leaning over a bolt rifle, but racking and jacking rounds is good on both sides.
One of you guys mentioned Murphy's Law, it goes beyond that into to physics, the fact is that your shooting hands are the lead element in line of sight and return fire trajectory, specially if you happen to be shooting with only one hand on the pistol it is directly in the return line of fire of your enemy.
The enemy shoots at your body and at your flash and thus your hands are targets.
Jumping Around A Bit: Football players on defense will tell you to watch the waist of the running back when they are wanting to make sure witch way they are gonna "move", its the last thing that will move when the body jerks into motion.
I have noticed something, the hands when below the waist are also good to watch "before" a joker tries to pull out his 9mm ace card and shoot you.
The hands most time are quicker than the eye, any magician can tell and show you that over & over, but most street killers don't have their hand on their gun like Jessie James of the old west.
Street thugs most of the time dont carry their gun in a quick snatch holstered position they are usually in deep cover in there jacket / pants so I watch the waist even when they are talking to me or in the past cussing and trying to intimidate me, I learned as a kid that words dont punch you and eyes are not laswer beams but hands can kill you when they dig into a waist band.
Back to trajectory and one hand
The Miami FBI shootout case of 20 or so years ago will attest to this point of loosing your dominant hand in an in coming rounds fire fight with a back up shotgun that had to be pumped one handed.
Also Your gun itself could take a mortal in coming round mechanical hit and you may be paddling in poo poo creek by hand ( something to think about )
What do you do if you got a broken hand "and" gun ? run, yell fire, grab your knife, wrestle or fake a heart attack ?
In that FBI shootout case there was a hapenstance opportunity & time to find cover, but that was Mini14 againts wheel gun.
Handgun fights are mostly zero cover and "in your face" close, so time is out, there is no time to re-do, its fall back to plan B , plan C, and that does not include a tactical reload in place, its improvise on the fly and hope God loves you enough to help out.
If you are lucky enough to be shooting against a guy or two who value there lives enough for them to grab cover themselves the one hand rack in a static place will be a go, otherwise there is obviously no time at 3 feet distance
I practice shooting with both hands, singularly and both in tandem reversed.
Another lessor reason to practice with both hands singularly and in tandem is that my dominant hand is also my punching aka overhand knockout hand and it is my "main" grab hand disarm and submission hold and choke hand, I practice submission, disarm with both hands of course.
I want to grab the other guys right dominant hand that is punching me or grab his almost always right hand weapon. ( yes I punch practice with both )
The "scenario" stuff gets more and more wild as a fight goes on beyond a few seconds into a minuet.
1 minuet is eternity, a lonely eternity
Even wrestling to keep my loaded gun ( I wont wrestle to keep my empty ) or wrestle to get his gun can be an extreme that could render your dominant hand useless by falling on your wrist or sustaining finger breaks in a struggle.
If You SA is compromised for what ever reason and you find yourself in a bang vs bang you could get "locked up" with a bad guy so one should actually practice moving & counter wrestling & strikes to retain your gun with a partner and a toy gun.
I know realism training is not reality as eye balls are great submission targets that you cannot practice.
Never the less you must stay with the mission at hand which is to "keep your gun" while poking eyes, head butting nose, biting hand, elbowing jaw and kneeing gut & balls . or a good option of you can is to be running like the wind if possible.
Trust me , you guys are talking about getting a round into battery with one hand, well ask yourself why do you only have one hand , how did it get that way with a handgun, well it is because your assailant f***ed up your other and now he is beating meth & whiskey fumes in your face as he jams his gun or your gun into your chest, you may very well be to close for a reload of any kind You better have a better back up plan than pitching & batting with one mit.
RUN, its a handgun fight its close, real close run , doge and reload on the run.
Did you double tap and then freeze to see what is happening ?, what is happening is the guy is still coming at you or still shooting ----> keep shoointing, dont double and then just stop to admire your center punches.
Do you guys practice running zig zag to cover and re-loading with one hand lol, hard aint it,lol.
A 20 year old street hood knows how to instantly RUN, when shots are fired they are like rabbits that know they are are being hunted they are hard as hell to hit and its hard to even know if you even hit them, so take a lesson from them and dont stand still like you do at the range.
Even the act of ducking is not staying still, watch any liquor store shootout and there is ducking like crazy, the statc O.K Coral it aint.
Range target shooting is anti gun fight training, it will teach you to "freeze" to be a target yourself.
In some way or another you should be only temporaraly slowed, myself I have never stopped when the starting gun ( mine or his ) is sounded I am moving baby, shoot shoot move shoot shoot cover shoot shoot shoot move.
The 20 year old weight lifting ex con Meth biker freak with Jack Daniels bravery and Jack the Ripper attitude aint gona give up easily or he would not be wrestling with you now "after" you double shot him right between the y and D in Harley Davidson on his Tee shirt in the 1st place now that he closed the distance ( ala wounded Cape Buffalo or Grizzly ) He has line backer tackled you in the 2st place.
( reliving the nightmare )
I Digress: Most civilian gun owners are not physically intimidating ( like me ) nor in great so called "fighting" shape ( I try to be ) and an assailant on Meth , Crack or with absolutely nothing to lose can survive your " double tap" and its an ultra short distance of a couple seconds of closing the gap and be on you in a split second trying to get you to actually swallow your own gun "as" he is dying.
Granted "switching" on purpose this is really not recommended for most or even warranted in a shooting situation, it is a back up ideal of my own volition , none the less being as "ambi" as possible , carrying a knife and being a well rounded fighter is the best way to be fully prepped for Mean Mr Murphy .
I hope this added value to this one handed thread
