Uscca Accuracy Secrets Unknown

This report is dedicated to the Armed Citizen.
Just as any given currency is only as valu-

able as the precious metal or similar commodity backing it, any given freedom or right is
only as good as the armed men and women who back those freedoms or rights.
107+
HANDGUN
ACCURACY
SECRETS
Youll Shoot to the Absolute LIMIT of Your Handguns Ability When You
Easily Master These Principles of Extreme Handgun Accuracy.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction
SIGHT ALIGNMENT By Kathy Jackson
TRIGGER CONTROL By Massad Ayoob
PROPER GRIP TECHNIQUES By Larry Correia
POINT SHOOTING By Gabe Suarez
LONGRANGE HANDGUN ACCURACY: Elmer Keith Was
Dead Right By Robert H. Boatman
SHOOTING WELL UNDER PRESSURE By Jack Rumbaugh
ACCURATE WEAK HAND SHOOTING By George Hill
ACCURATE SHOOTING WHILE ON THE MOVE By Jack Rumbaugh
HOW TO CURE A FLINCH By Kathy Jackson
Conclusion
4
5
12
17
23
27
35
37
41
45
51
All Random Thoughts and Case Studies written by Delta Media. All
end-of-chapter checklists are complied by Delta Media by content
found within each article.
107+ Handgun Accuracy Secrets
Copyright 2003-2008 Delta Media, LLC - www.DeltaMediaLLC.com
4
INTRODUCTION
A
s Armed Citizens, we are all products of extremely diverse backgrounds. We
may differ in ethnicities and religions. I may swear by a 1911, while you may
swear by a j-frame revolver. We may not see eye-to-eye on the 9mm Vs. .40 caliber
debate
Yet as Armed Citizens, we all share one common belief, and that is an unyielding per-
ception of the value of human life. We carry deadly weapons to protect our own lives,
and the lives of loved ones. We all understand evil, and we recognize the reality that
there will always be violence. We know that bad things do indeed happen to good
people. In that sense, any difference in opinion or background is irrelevant we are
all united as brothers and sisters in arms and such a bond can never be broken.
From the Armed Citizen Bond hierarchy, where the preservation of innocent life is
at the top, many more similarities can be assumed. One such similarity is that we all
agree that if you are going to carry a weapon with the intent of using it to preserve
life, it is always better to have a higher level of prociency with that weapon than a
lower level of prociency.
Of all the ways to be procient with your pistol, none are as important as being able
to accurately hit what youre aiming at.
It is this objective which this report will attempt to achieve in you, the reader.
Youre about to dive into hundreds of years of combined knowledge put to paper by
some of the nest pistol handlers in the world.
Ready Set LEARN!
The Delta Media Team
5
SIGHT ALIGNMENT
By Kathy Jackson
Thats it. Thats the entire secret of accurate shooting.
Everything else grip, stance, smooth trigger press,
follow-through all of those are just detailed ways to
help ensure that your sights are in the right place when
the shot res. If your sights are lined up with the target
when the shot goes off, you will hit the target. If they
arent, you wont. Its that simple.
So how can a shooter be certain that the sights will be
lined up on target when the hammer falls?
Fig 2.1 The relationship between the shooters eye, the sights,
and the target is critical when shooting for accuracy.
Different Types of Sights
Handgun sights come in a variety of congurations. There
are three-dot sights, bladed sights, U-shaped sights, V-
shaped sights, dot-the-i sights, peep sights, and on and
on in nearly innite variety.
M
arty Hayes, owner of the Firearms Academy of Se-
attle, is fond of telling new students the one and only
real secret of accurate marksmanship. Are you ready?
Here it is, the secret of accurate shooting:
THE SECRET OF
ACCURATE SHOOTING...
Your sights must be aligned on target at the
moment the hammer falls.
Fig 2.2 - 2.7
Several Types of Common Sight Systems
6
All of these different sighting mechanisms are designed
to assure that the barrel of the gun is held in the correct
orientation to the target on both the vertical and the hori-
zontal axis. This ensures that the shot will land neither to
the left or right, nor high or low, from the intended point of
impact. When the entire length of the gun barrel (repre-
sented by the sights) is properly lined up with the center
of the target at the moment the shot breaks, the bullet will
hit the center of the target.
Understanding the Relationship Between
Front and Rear Sights
Since the purpose of the sights is to align the gun prop-
erly, its important to understand how the sights are de-
signed to do that.
Looking at the front sight, it may be a blade or a dot. If it
is a dot, it may be large or small. The rear sight may be a
U shape, a V shape, two dots, a straight line, or a simple
notch in the back edge of the slide.
No matter how the sights are congured, the front sight is
designed to be placed on the same vertical axis as the
rear sight. If the rear sight is a basic straight line, simply
place the dot of the front sight right on top of that line, as
if you were dotting an i.
Otherwise, place the front sight so that it is centered with-
in the notch of the rear sight. There should be an equal
amount of light on either side. This will keep your shots
from going to the left or right of where you aim.
Random Thoughts #1:
Many handguns have replaceable
sights. If the sights on your handgun
arent working for you, you should ex-
periment around with different types of
sight systems.
Fig 2.8 This shot will go to the left of the intended
point of aim.
Fig 2.9 This shot will go to the right of the intend-
ed point of aim.
7
Except in the case of dot the i sights, the top edges of
the rear sight should be held exactly even with the top
edge of the front sight. Holding the top edges of both front
and rear sights on the same plane will prevent your shots
from hitting high or low.
Fig 2.10 This shot will go low of the intended
point of aim.
Fig 2.11 This shot will go high of the intended
point of aim.
When the sights are held in the correct relationship to each
other, the shot will go neither high nor low, neither left nor
right. The gun will be aligned with your eye and with the
target on both the horizontal and the vertical axis.
Fig 2.12 This shot will hit the intended point of
aim.
Some sight designs which have a large front sight in com-
parison to a relatively small rear sight will tempt you to
bury the front sight while shooting. This will cause your
shots to go a bit low. Pay special attention to the horizon-
tal axis (keeping the top edge of the front sight in line with
the top edge of the rear sight) until you have become very
familiar with using these types of sights.
Random Thoughts #2:
If your handgun doesnt have
removable sights, you might want to
look for something called sight paint.
The special paint can really help you
focus on your sights.
8
Fig 2.13 Especially when using big dot sights, be
careful not to bury the front sight.
Fig 2.14 Instead, keep the top edge of the front
sight aligned with the top edge of the rear sight.
Where to Put the Front Sight
Now that you have the front and rear sight in the correct
relationship to each other, where do you place the front
sight in relation to the target?
Most handguns will have their sights aligned on the hori-
zontal axis to provide either a combat hold or a target
hold. Those phrases are shooting jargon which answers
the commonly-heard question, Do I put my front sight in
the middle of the bullseye, or at the bottom of the bulls-
eye? Guns which are sighted in for a combat hold require
the shooter to place the front sight where it covers the ex-
act center of the target, while guns sighted in for a target
hold achieve greatest accuracy when the front sight is
aligned at the center of the bottom of the bullseye.
Generally speaking, handguns which are appropriate for
self-defense will use the quicker but less precise combat hold.
Fig 2.15 The Target Hold
9
Fig 2.16 The Combat Hold
Remember Mel Gibsons advice to his son in the movie
The Patriot? Aim small, miss small. This is an excellent
piece of shooting advice. When you are faced with a large
target, pick a small area within that target upon which to
center your shots. For instance, when looking at a card-
board IPSC target, rather than aiming for somewhere in
the center, try to hit the triangle which makes up the top
part of the capital A in the A-zone.
As discussed above, remember that the correct place-
ment of the front sight on the target must happen at the
same time as the front and rear sights are held in the cor-
rect relationship to each other.
Fig 2.17 - 2.18 Even though the front sight is in the correct
place on the target in both images above, the shot from the im-
age on the left will not land on the center of the target because
the front sight is not held in the correct relationship to the rear
sight. The front sight must be centered in relation to the rear
sight.
Where To Focus
No matter which sighting system is on your handgun,
when you are using sighted re, it is important that you
learn to keep your eyes focused on the front sight the
entire time you pull the trigger, and during follow-through
after the shot breaks.
Physiologically, it is simply not possible for the human eye
to focus on a near object and a far object at the same
time. This means that when your eye is focused upon the
front sight, the target will be blurry. And when your eye is
focused on the target, the front sight will be blurry. Some
people (mostly young folks) can switch their focus back
and forth rapidly enough to fool themselves into thinking
that both are in focus at the same time, but its not true.
One or the other is in focus at any given time.
What all this means is that you will need to decide which
is more important to have in sharp focus: the large target,
or the tiny front sight. If you want to shoot accurately, you
absolutely need to really see that tiny front sight and what
it is doing. And that is why shooting instructors always tell
their students to look at the front sight.
Especially if you are prone to missing high, it is possible
that you are shifting your focus from the front sight to the
target at the last possible moment before the shot goes
off. When you shift your sight to the target, its very com-
mon for the muzzle to rise slightly in response just
enough to cause the shot to land high rather than in the
center of the bullseye.
What About That Wobble?
It is normal for the sights to wobble a bit when you are hold-
ing your rearm on target. Accept that fact. The wobble is
a normal event, and it happens to every shooter. Human
beings are not machines! There is no human being on the
planet who can hold a rearm with machine-like stillness
and immobility. The wobble will always be there.
10
Sometimes the wobble will be worse than other times. As
humans age, our hands naturally become a little more
shaky. After a few swallows of tea, coffee, or caffeinat-
ed soda, most people experience slightly shaky hands
(though most of us never notice this apart from the range).
And when there is a lot of adrenalin in your system for
instance, when shooting in front of someone you want to
impress, or for points in a match, or under the signicant
stress of a deadly force encounter hands will always
shake. Its just a fact of life.
So what to do about it? First and foremost, you need to
admit that you do shake. Dont try to deny it or force your-
self not to do it. You must accept the wobble and pull
the trigger smoothly while the wobble is happening. If in-
stead you ght it or try to snatch the trigger back during
that brief, absolutely perfect moment as your front sight
trembles across the center of the target, your shots will go
low. Dont say I didnt warn you!
You must accept the wobble for what it is: a minor, natural
event that cannot really keep you from hitting the target
unless you overreact to it.
Keep your sights aligned as evenly as you can, but do
not try to snatch the trigger back at the magic moment
when the sights are absolutely, totally, perfectly aligned.
Instead, smoothly increase pressure upon the trigger
while keeping the sights aligned on the target as steadily
as you are able.
By steadily increasing the pressure on the trigger while
keeping the sights lined up as steadily as you are able,
you assure that your sights will be aligned with the target
at the moment the shot is red.
And whats the entire secret of accurate shooting?
Your sights must aligned with the target
at the moment the hammer falls.
Kathy Jackson is the Managing Editor of Concealed
Carry Magazine. An assistant instructor at the Firearms
Academy of Seattle in Washington state, she takes spe-
cial pleasure in teaching other women how to shoot. Read
more of her work on her personal website, the Cornered
Cat (www.corneredcat.com).
11
POST CHAPTER CHECK-LIST
Theres a lot of information, tips, and tricks packed into each one of these
chapters... Heres a little checklist to help you keep it all straight!
Your sights must be aligned on target at the moment the hammer falls: if your sights are lined up
with the target when the shot goes off, you will hit the target. If they arent, you wont.
No matter how the sights are congured, the front sight is designed to be placed on the same verti-
cal axis as the rear sight.
Many handguns have replaceable sights. If the sights on your handgun arent working for you,
you should experiment around with different types of sight systems.
When the sights are held in the correct relationship to each other, the shot will go neither high nor low,
neither left nor right.
Guns which are sighted in for a combat hold require the shooter to place the front sight where
it covers the exact center of the target, while guns sighted in for a target hold achieve greatest
accuracy when the front sight is aligned at the center of the bottom of the bullseye.
Generally speaking, handguns which are appropriate for selfdefense will use the quicker but less
precise combat hold.
Aim small, miss small. When you are faced with a large target, pick a small area within that
target upon which to center your shots.
It is important that you learn to keep your eyes focused on the front sight the entire time you pull
the trigger, and during follow-through after the shot breaks.
Especially if you are prone to missing high, it is possible that you are shifting your focus from the
front sight to the target at the last possible moment before the shot goes off.
It is normal for the sights to wobble a bit when you are holding your rearm on target. Accept
that fact. The wobble is a normal event.
If instead you ght the wobble or try to snatch the trigger back during that brief, absolutely per-
fect moment as your front sight trembles across the center of the target, your shots will go low.
By steadily increasing the pressure on the trigger while keeping the sights lined up as steadily
as you are able, you assure that your sights will be aligned with the target at the moment the
shot is red.
12
TRIGGER CONTROL
By Massad Ayoob
T
o hit what youre shooting at with a handgun, trigger
control is the heart of the beast. It seems to be far
more important than, say, sight picture. At close combat
distances, a poor sight picture may pull the shot out of the
heart and dump it elsewhere in the chest, but a convul-
sive jerking of the trigger can cause the shot to miss the
whole human-size target.
The late, great Ray Chapman was the rst world cham-
pion of the combat pistol. He used to say that shooting a
handgun well was simple, it just wasnt easy. Thats true
in spades for the trigger control element.
Once the decision to re has been made, and the gun is
on target, the shooter must bring the trigger straight back
in a manner that doesnt pull the gun off the mark. The
rearward pressure should be smooth, it should be unin-
terrupted, and it should be evenly distributed.
With any physical skill, we must crawl before we walk and
walk before we run. Trigger control development should
start with dry re, progressing to live ammunition only after
the shooter has been conditioned to hold the gun steadily
on target as the hammer drops. (Dry re should always
be practiced with a safe backstop, as if it were live, as a
hedge against the day human error nds us with a round
in the thought-to-be-unloaded rearm.)
When its time for live ammo, the pace should begin with
careful slow re, progressing into faster and faster ca-
denced shot sequences, until true rapid re is achieved.
With any complex psychomotor skill a chain of physical
events, which ring a gun most certainly is the quickest
route to learning to do it fast is to start by doing it slowly.
Finger Placement and Handgun Grasp
Historically, we have been taught to manipulate the trig-
ger with the tip of our index nger, or with its pad, which
means that the whorl of the ngerprint is centered on the
trigger. However, this history comes largely from bulls-
eye shooting with cocked revolvers and light-trigger, sin-
gle action semiautomatics. Target guns tend to be heavy,
usually somewhere between 34 and 60 plus ounces. A
light touch from the sensitive ngertip will serve us well
if our pistol is a gently-held 48-ounce High Standard .22
with the recoil of a mouse burp, and were shooting at
NRAs specied Rapid Fire rate of ve shots in ten seconds.
Random Thoughts #3:
Some handguns allow for the weight
of the trigger pull to be lightened or
stiffened, depending on the weapons
make and model. If you cannot get used
to the trigger pull of your handgun, this
may be an option for you. Note that do-
ing so MAY open you up to legal scru-
tiny should you ever need to use your
weapon in self defense.
Fig 3-19 Suggested trigger nger placement on a gun with a
heavy trigger pull, a double action S&W .357 Magnum N-
frame in this case. Distal joint of index nger centered on trigger
maximizes shooters leverage. Photos by Gail Pepin.
13
However, in defensive shooting with a concealment
handgun, the dynamics change. Now we have a 20-
ounce baby Glock that must be stabilized against a ve-
to eight-pound trigger pull, or a twelve- ounce Smith &
Wesson AirLite snubby with up to a twelve-pound trigger
pull. Now we have recoil that can truly live up to its col-
loquial name, kick. Now, rapid re means ve shots in
one second before our homicidal attacker can reach us
with his clubbed tire iron.
Different jobs require different skills and different tools.
For a heavier than target trigger pull, youll nd that get-
ting your nger deeper onto the trigger will give you more
leverage. The sweet spot is what the old double action
revolver masters called the power crease, and what
medical folks would call the distal joint of the nger on the
palmar side. With longer, heavier pulls, this index nger
placement simply gives the shooter more biomechanical
advantage for a smooth, straight-back pull that wont de-
viate the gun muzzle off target.
CASE STUDY by Delta Media
When Mark Cunningham purchased a little Taurus
.22LR pistol from a friend for $120, he thought hed
found a neat little back-up gun at a great price. It ap-
peared to be fairly fool-proof in design, proved reliable
in test ring, and it was small enough to conceal al-
most anywhere.
He thought he had found the perfect complement to
his GLOCK 19... Until he shot it, that is. He knew the
basics of innacuracy diagnostics things like if youre
hitting low, youre anticipating the recoil, but there was
ZERO consistency to where he was hitting.
He would have shots barely to the right of the bullseye,
some shots a foot below the bullseye, some above,
and some twenty inches to the left.
Mark didnt understand it. With his GLOCK, he could
maintain 5-inch groups as far back as 25 yards. All he
could gure is that the pistols extremely short barrel
length was to blame for the weapons innacuracy.
A couple months down the road, he thought to ask his
friend Jake about the guns problem. After seeing the
pistol, Jake asked Mark how far he was shooting from.
About seven yards, he told him. Jake later said that
he had to try pretty hard to hide his grin. He immedi-
ately knew what Marks problem was, but also knew
that Mark had to see to believe...
Moments later, the pair had taken the pistol and about
twenty rounds of .22LR behind Marks garage, and set
up a target. Marks jaw dropped when Jake red an
entire magazine into the target at seven yards, group-
ing all of the shots inside the four-inch black circle.
Jake explained: Mark had gotten so used to the trig-
ger pull on his GLOCK, that the triggers large travel
length of the double-action Taurus would take a LOT
of practice to get used to.
He also explained that lesser quality guns, as the little
Taurus was, sometimes had inconsistencies in their
Fig 3-20 On a pistol with a short, light trigger pull - such as
this Guncrafters Custom 1911 - placing index nger at tip
or pad may work well...but with a longer and/or heavier pull,
the shooter may need more nger for maximum control.
Photos by Gail Pepin.
14
Similarly, the light grasp so long favored by target shoot-
ers is poorly suited to stabilizing the handgun against a
heavy trigger pull, or to keep it from shifting in the shoot-
ers hand when jackhammer recoil must be dealt with.
Half a century of handgunning has taught this writer that
a very rm grasp a crush grip, if you will better serves
both needs.
The harder you hold the handgun, the less it will shift in
your hand during recoil. It will feel as if its kicking less.
Thats not happening; grip force doesnt alter the laws of
physics. Whats happening is that your body is more ef-
ciently managing the recoil. The gun is not moving as
much and is coming back on target sooner. A strong
stance that puts body weight into the gun helps consider-
ably here, too. The less the recoil moves your body, the
less likely you are to develop anticipation that makes you
jerk the trigger and bring the shot low.
The rm grasp also helps trigger control. Our ngers
are subject to a sympathetic reaction called interlimb re-
sponse. When one nger moves rapidly, the others want
to open and close with it. This creates a phenomenon the
old masters called milking. When the ngers close as
if upon a cows udder in sympathy to the index ngers
Fit Factors
No shooter will shoot their best without a gun that ts their
hand. A key dimension of that t is trigger reach. The
gun should sit in the ring grasp with the barrel in line with
the long bones of the forearm, the web of the hand high
on the backstrap of the frame, and the nger naturally in
its sweet spot on the trigger. If the gun affords too short
a trigger reach, a longer trigger on a 1911 pistol or larger
grips that cushion the backstrap and push the web of the
hand further back can solve the problem. The new gen-
eration of polymer frame auto pistols with replaceable back-
straps in various sizes, pioneered by Walther, help here, too.
Fig 3-21 Laser sights such as this Crimson Trace LaserGrip on
S&W Model 442 are useful for dry-re trigger control practice.
The laser beam, emitting from the grip... [Continued on Fig
3-22] Photos by Gail Pepin
movement on the trigger, they pull the gun down and to-
ward the weak hand side. If youre a righthanded shooter
and have been hitting low left, that may well be the diagnosis.
If milking is the disease, a hard grasp is one proven
cure. If the rest of the ngers are already closed as tightly
on the gripframe as they can be, they cant close any
more in sympathy with the index ngers rapid activation
of the trigger.
trigger pull, and because the gun was so light, he was
really going to have to develop a rock solid grip in or-
der to prevent the gun from moving while he pressed
the trigger.
Above all, he said that what Mark really needed was
just practice. .22 ammo is cheap enough, just go get
a brick or two, and spend a day just shooting maga-
zine after magazine until you know the gun by heart.
Moral of the story? All guns have a slightly different
trigger pull, and they each will take time to get used to.
If youre having dramatic accuracy problems, the rst
place that we recommend looking is your trigger pull.
15
Random Thoughts #4:
It is possible to get whats known as a .22
Conversion Kit for many common handguns,
such as GLOCKs and 1911s.
These kits are easy to install and remove,
and allow you to master the trigger pull and
grip of your own weapon while saving BIG
TIME on ammo costs.
Plus even at $250, they pay for themselves
with just a couple bricks of .22LR!
Shortcuts
There are shortcuts to achieving good trigger control. Not
many, but a few. One is what I call an Exemplar Drill. The
new shooter takes his or her ring stance and grasp, and
is responsible for sight alignment. The veteran shooter
places his or her gun hand over the shooters, with the
experienced trigger nger in front of the novice digit. The
oldtimer presses the newcomers nger slowly back
against the trigger the rst few times to show them what a
good trigger press should feel like. Then, the new shoot-
er and the veteran pull the trigger together at the same
pace. Finally, the trainee is pulling the trigger with the
trainers index nger just lightly touching theirs, to moni-
tor the movement and make sure theyre not backsliding
into poor technique. I learned it from Ray Chapman
Chapman learned it in the Marine Corpsand the USMC
Marksmanship Manual circa 1930 had it in print. Some-
times, old secrets get lost and have to be rediscovered.
For the shooter working alone, a laser sight is a great tool
for developing trigger control. Put the red dot on the tar-
get, and hold it there through the trigger stroke. Do it dry
re to start. It conditions the shooter to the feel of smoothly
stroking the trigger back without deviating from point of
aim. Progression to live re is smooth and natural. Then
switch to the conventional sights: the smooth trigger pull
should remain constant.
Fig 3-22 ...is held on target as shown here as shooter practices
rolling trigger to hammer-fall. Photos by Gail Pepin
As Chapman said, its simple, but its not easy. It takes
time and dedication. Sometimes, youll need to open
your mind to new techniques, or work with a gun that
youre not familiar with but which might be a more suit-
able t to your hand. Once youve got it, youll feel the
light bulb come on, and now it will be up to you to main-
tain a training regimen to keep the feel of it and make a
smooth trigger pull happen faster and faster. Stay with it,
and youll be a better shot before you know it.
About the Author...
LE rearms instructor since early 70s. Director, Lethal
Force Institute, 1981 to present. Chair of rearms com-
mittee, American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers,
19872006. Won Outstanding American Handgunner of
the Year Award, 1998. Became rst IDPA FiveGun Mas-
ter, 2005. Has won numerous state and regional champi-
onships, with both auto pistol and revolver.
16
To hit what youre shooting at with a handgun, trigger control is the heart of the beast.
A convulsive jerking of the trigger can cause the shot to miss the whole humansize target.
The shooter must bring the trigger straight back in a manner that doesnt pull the gun off the mark.
Trigger control development should start with dry re, progressing to live ammunition only after the
shooter has been conditioned to hold the gun steadily on target as the hammer drops.
The pace should begin with careful slow re, progressing into faster and faster cadenced shot
sequences, until true rapid re is achieved the quickest route to learning to do it fast is to start by
doing it slowly.
Rapid re means ve shots in one second before our homicidal attacker can reach us with his
clubbed tire iron.
For a heavier than target trigger pull, youll nd that getting your nger deeper onto the trigger
will give you more leverage The sweet spot is what medical folks would call the distal joint of the
nger on the palmar side.
The harder you hold the handgun, the less it will shift in your hand during recoil. A strong stance that
puts body weight into the gun also helps considerably.
If the rest of the ngers are already closed as tightly on the grip-frame as they can be, they cant
close any more in sympathy with the index ngers rapid activation of the trigger.
No shooter will shoot their best without a gun that ts their hand. A key dimension of that t is trig-
ger reach.
A laser sight is a great tool for developing trigger control It conditions the shooter to the feel of
smoothly stroking the trigger back without deviating from point of aim.
Maintain a training regimen to keep the feel of the trigger pull and make a smooth trigger pull happen
faster and faster.
17
PROPER GRIP TECHNIQUES
By Larry Correia
O
ne of the basic fundamentals of shooting a handgun
is grip. Having a good grip is key to being a pro-
cient shooter, and without knowing how to hold the hand-
gun correctly you will lack in both accuracy and control.
In the days of yesteryear everyone shot pistols one hand-
ed. This still works great for things like Olympic pistol
games where pure accuracy is king. A one handed grip
with a bladed off stance works
great for slow re bullseye be-
cause there is very little outside
inuence to disturb the gun. But
were talking about defensive
pistol shooting, where calm lei-
surely accuracy goes right out
the window and it is all about
being fast and acceptably ac-
curate while under a great deal
of stress.
The key to that is control. A
twohanded grip will provide a
greater deal of control. If youve
got another hand available, use
it. A very experienced instruc-
tor once told me that the thing to
remember is Meat on Steel. The
more Meat (hand) you can get
on Steel (the gun) the more con-
trol you will exercise.
First off, lets talk about your pri-
mary hand, the hand that is ac-
tually the rst one on the weap-
on and the one controlling your trigger. You want to get
as high up on the gun as possible without getting struck
by any moving parts. A common mistake made by new

Random Thoughts #5:
Having Trouble Fitting Your Hand-
gun to your Hand?
Similar to swapping out your sights
for a new set, some pistols allow for
custom grip enhancing materials or
plates to be added to the handle of
a pistol. You might nd this useful if
you have very large hands.
Conversely, if you have extra
small hands, some pistols, such as
GLOCKs, allow for reductions to be
performed, where the handle is ac-
tually made slightly smaller for the
sake of shooter comfort.
Consult your gunsmith or friends on
where to have this done.
Hey- if your gun doesnt quite t, its
worth a try!
shooters is that they will grasp the gun low on the grip,
leaving a large gap between the web of their hand and
the tang of the gun. The problem there is that anytime
you give the gun room to move, it will move. If there is an
air bubble there, the gun will freely shift into it.
Plus the lower you grip the gun, the greater amount of
torque youll feel as the gun recoils. The higher you place
your hand, the more inline the
bones of your wrist will be with the
barrel, the less the muzzle will rise.
On the ip side of the coin, dont
grip a semiautomatic so high
that youre in danger of being hit
by the reciprocating slide. I have
very big hands. I have a small
Bulgarian Makarov that I shoot
occasionally. These two things
dont exactly go well together.
I have to make a concentrated
effort every time I shoot that little
monster to keep my primary
hand lower than Im comfort-
able with, because otherwise
the slide bites the web of my
hand. This is the same reason
that, though I worship at the al-
tar of St. John Moses Browning,
I cant shoot a stock Hi-Power or
GI 1911 without leaving skin on
the gun.
When it comes to a solid grip, a
gun that ts you more naturally will be easier for you to
shoot than one that you struggle with. A gun that is too
small for a big handed shooter is obnoxious just as much
18
as a gun that is too large is for a small handed shooter.
This is a major reason why spouses should never just
pick out a gun for their signicant other without their input.
As an instructor, there is nothing more painful to watch
than the 46 petite girl trying to shoot the HK USP .45 her
husband picked out for her because he thought it was the
best gun ever.
That said, with good technique and practice you can
learn to shoot a gun well even if it isnt a perfect t. Anyone
whos ever been issued a particular gun by an agency is
aware of this. But we live in America, and this article is
directed at permit holders, so thankfully we can buy what-
ever the heck we want. Why wrestle with a gun youre not
comfortable with if you dont have to?
Next, how hard should you hold the gun with your primary
hand? Ive heard a few things over the years that are
pretty intuitive ways to explain this. Hold the gun about as
hard as you would hold a hammer to drive a nail, or hold
Fig 4-23 When it comes to a solid grip, a gun that ts you more naturally will
be easier for you to shoot than one that you struggle with.
the gun like a rm handshake. Basically you dont want
to squeeze the gun to death, because that is just going
to cause shakes and fatigue, and dont hold the gun too
weakly, because then it will shift more under recoil, and
on some semiautomatics may even cause malfunctions.
Now that youve got your strong hand on the gun, what do
you do with the support hand? As an instructor Ive seen
pretty much every kind of grip you can imagine, and most
of them are absolutely terrible.
My personal favorite bad grips are the 1980s Cop Drama
grip, where the support hand holds the strong arms wrist.
This does absolutely nothing to control the gun. It may
have worked for Hunter, but it will not work for you. The
next bad grip is the old Cup and Saucer. With this grip
the shooter just lays the strong hand on top of their sup-
port hand. Unfortunately, under recoil, the strong hand
just moves up and away from the support hand. The
worst grip of all, however, is The Self Correcting Grip. I
19
call it that because you will only do it once. Basically this
is the one where the support hand is up high, encircl-
ing the strong hand, but they take the support thumb and
place it over the web of the strong hand, right in the path
of the slide. Ouch! Once in awhile somebody manages
to do this grip during a class. There is usually no small
amount of cursing involved.
Most shooters just take their support hand and mash it
on top of their strong hand. The
problem with doing this however
is the old adage about Meat on
Steel. For many shooters, de-
pending on hand size and the
size of their rearm, often times
what happens is that the support
hand isnt touching Steel at all.
The strong hand thumb is block-
ing the grip, so the shooter is left
squeezing Meat on Meat, which
is better than nothing, but isnt al-
lowing the shooter to reach their
full potential.
Now this is where everyone is dif-
ferent, and some experimentation
is in order. While holding the gun
in your primary hand, try mov-
ing your strong thumb up higher,
out of the way, then mash your
support hand down on the grip.
Then place your strong thumb on
top of your support hand, both
thumbs pointing alongside the gun, downrange. If your
gun has a frame mounted safety, often times your strong
thumb will t right on top of it, giving it a comfy place to
ride, and ensuring your safety is off. This is usually re-
ferred to as a high-thumbs grip.
Your support ngers should be on top of your strong n-
gers. I hesitate to use the word interlaced, because that
always causes confusion amongst students who then try
to basket weave their digits together, but your support n-
gers should naturally fall onto the low spots between your
strong ngers. Now your support hand can exert some
pressure on the rearm.
This doesnt work for everyone, once again depending
on hand/gun size, but play around with your gun until you
nd whatever gives you the most Meat on Steel. What
youre going for here is to make your support hand do
some work also. If you can get a relatively neutral grip,
where your support palm is putting
equal pressure inward on the gun,
you can make your support hand
actually help out, rather than just
being a eshy appendage that gets
in the way.
Try this experiment...
Take your strong hand. Make a st,
about as hard as you would squeeze
your gun. Now move your trigger
nger back and forth like youre
pulling the trigger. Now imagine
that your support hand is squeez-
ing the gun and helping control it.
Loosen up your strong hand a little
bit, and now pull your trigger nger
as fast as you can. You should no-
tice a signicant difference in how
freely your trigger nger can run. If
you make your support hand help
control the gun, you will discover a
far greater degree of trigger con-
trol.
On triggers, there is a lot of argument about just what
point of your trigger nger should be pulling that trigger.
Personally, Im not sure there is no one right answer, as
it depends on the shooters hand, gun size, and trigger
weight/distance/reach. When I shoot a single action gun
with a short, light trigger, I nd that I shoot with the pad of
my nger, and when I shoot double action, with a longer,
heavier pull, I nd that I use the crease of the distal joint.
IF YOU CAN GET
A RELATIVELY
NEUTRAL GRIP...
...YOU CAN MAKE
YOUR SUPPORT
HAND ACTUALLY
HELP OUT, RATHER
THAN JUST BEING
A FLESHY APPEND-
AGE THAT GETS IN
THE WAY.
20
One gives me more control, one gives me more leverage.
Im a huge proponent of dry re practice. I honestly be-
lieve that if you go to the range to practice the fundamen-
tals of shooting, like stance, grip, and trigger pull, and
youre spending twenty cents every shot, the average
shooter will run out of money way before they become
procient. But if grip is all
about controlling the gun,
how can you simulate re-
coil during dry re?
Now this is not a perfect
solution, but I do nd that
it helps. This drill works
with semiautomatic re-
arms only. You will need
someone to help you. For
safety concerns, any time
you dry re make sure
that the gun is unloaded,
make sure there is no live
ammo in the room, check
the gun is unloaded, make
sure youre still aiming at
a backstop that will stop a
bullet, and then check to
make sure the gun is un-
loaded. Did I mention to
check and make sure the
gun is unloaded? Good.
Remove your rearms
magazine so that the slide
will not lock to the rear. Get
into your shooting stance
and take up your grip. Put the front sight on your dry re
target. Have your partner stand off to your side. All rules
of gun safety still apply while doing this drill. At no time
is the muzzle ever to point anywhere other than the dry
re target. Once you are in your stance, your partner will
reach up and forcefully rack your slide all the way to the
rear then let go.
It isnt the same as real recoil, but you will notice a few
things. If you found that your stance rocked back quite
a bit, that will show you the weak points in your stance.
Often this is where you will need to lean into the gun more.
Remember, youre driving the gun, it isnt driving you. But
more in line with the topic of this article, did you have to
shift your grip? If you nd
yourself having to ex
your hands and adjust
your ngers after your
partner ran the slide that
is showing you all of the
spots in your grip where
Meat wasnt properly con-
tacting Steel. Have your
partner give you a mo-
ment to adjust your grip,
then try it again.
After youve done this drill
a few times you should
have isolated all of the
spots where your grip
was lacking. Ideally af-
ter your partner runs the
slide, then the gun will
come right back down,
and you wont have to
shift your hands at all. Ev-
erything will be nice and
solid. Now practice that
grip. Remember how it
feels, that way when you
go to the range and youre
shooting live ammo you
already know what you need to do. Once again, this is a
valuable drill, but anytime youre manipulating a rearm
with a partner, it is extremely important that the muzzle is
kept in a safe direction. Remember, they stand off to the
side, and NEVER get in front of the gun.
Fig 424 Your support fingers should be on top of your strong fingers.
21
Once you have some condence in your grip, you must
practice at the range. An ideal grip will allow you to rap-
idly engage the target and repeat as necessary. Keep an
open mind, and be willing to experiment with different n-
ger placement until you nd what allows you to exercise
maximum control. Practice until youre ready to ght the
bad guy, and not your technique.
Larry Correia is a Utah Concealed Firearms instructor, and
one of the owners of Fuzzy Bunny Movie Guns in Draper,
Utah. www.fbmginc.com FBMG teaches a variety of de-
fensive rearms classes and is a full line gun shop and
NFA dealer. Larrys novel, Monster Hunter International,
will be available in 2009 from Baen Books.
The Dangers of a Weak Grip
After Pat bought his GLOCK 26, he was very pleased
that after the rst one thousand rounds red through
the pistol, he hadnt experienced a single jam or misfeed.
When he took the pistol to show his father in law,
much to Pats delight, his father in law requested that
they head out back so he could shoot it.
They walked back to their pond, and on the very rst
shot, the gun extracted the empty casing, but failed
to completely load the next round, leaiving the slide
stuck about halfway back.
Aww, you didnt get your thumb in the way of the
slide, did you? Sorry, I should have warned you!
But that wasnt the problem. Pat never gured it out.
Fast forward a year, and Pat still had never experi-
enced an error with his little GLOCK. At the range
one day, he got talking to another shooter who had a
Walther PPK.
After some talking, they decided to swap guns for a
few rounds. Pat had never red a PPK, and Steve had
never red a GLOCK.
Once again, on the very rst round red by Steve, the
GLOCK had the exact same malfunction. Completely
embarassed that his carry gun malfunctioned in front
of another gun person, Pat cleared the action and
Steve continued to shoot without any more problems.
The damage was done though. Steve, who Pat had
come to know as quite snobbish, rubbed in the fact
that the Walther was a much better weapon than the
GLOCK.
The jam with his father-in-law, Pat had written off as
pure coincidence. But two in a row... this was just too
strange.
As you can imagine, Pat was more than delighted
when, in talking to a shooter far more experienced
than himself, he learned that that type of malfunction
is often caused by limp-wristing, a form of weak
grip. It was explained to him that the cycling of the
action depended on the frame of the pistol remaining
(relatively) stationary and rm.
If a shooter allows the pistol to recoil too much, this
type of malfunction can occur.
22
Having a good grip is key to being a procient shooter.
A two-handed grip will provide a greater deal of control The more Meat (hand) you can
get on Steel (the gun) the more control you will exercise.
You want to get your primary (trigger) hand as high up on the gun as possible without getting
struck by any moving parts.
The higher you place your hand, the less the muzzle will rise.
When it comes to a solid grip, a gun that ts you more naturally will be easier for you to shoot than
one that you struggle with.
With good technique and practice you can learn to shoot a gun well even if it isnt a perfect
t BUT, why wrestle with a gun youre not comfortable with if you dont have to?
Hold the gun about as hard as you would hold a hammer to drive a nail, or hold the gun
like a rm handshake.
You need to experiment with your off-hand to nd the best positioning, but your support
ngers should be on top of your strong ngers. Avoid the cup and saucer grip!
You should be able to use your weak hand to exert some pressure on the gun, to take
some of the tension off your strong hand.
If you make your support hand help control the gun, you will discover a far greater degree
of trigger control.
Dry re practice is VERY important to nd the best grip for you.
Weak grips can cause rearm malfunctions in semi-automatic pistols.
An ideal grip will allow you to rapidly engage the target and repeat as necessary.
Practice until youre ready to ght the bad guy, and not your technique.
23
POINT SHOOTING
By Gabe Suarez
N
ow that one should stir some controversy right? What
would you say if I told you that they are not mutually
exclusive, and that anyone who tells you that they are is
simply wrong and doesnt know as much about combat
as they pretend to?
I was once in the sights all the time at any distance
camp. Then the reality of reactive gunghting on the
street showed me that there are plenty of times when you
will not be prepared for the ght, and have to catch up
against uneven odds or die. At those times, any short cut
that will keep you alive is worth all the money in the world.
Gunghts are either reactive or pro-active. In a pro-active
gunght, you have the information and justication that
you need to draw your pistol and shoot. You can call it
being pro-active, or even being preemptive to the bad
guys actions. Recently one of my New Mexico students
told me of a case where an estranged husband visited his
wife at the deli counter of a local market and proceeded
to stab her multiple times with a butcher knife. The re-
straining order she got against him did nothing to protect
her, but a local CCW operator who saw this moved into
position, drew his pistol, and reportedly using his sights,
shot the attacker to death. That is a pro-active, preemp-
tive gunght: No startle, no catch up, no problem. The
only thing needed is a pistol, marksmanship skills, and
Random Thoughts #6:
If youve ever had your front sight fall off
your pistol during the middle of a com-
petition (let alone a gunght), youll be
very glad that you took the time (and
ammo) to improve your point shooting
skill! Trust me... It happens.
the will to use them. We used to call those free shoot-
ings as the event really is an easy event.
Such gunghts, or I should say, shootings, make up the
lore of sighted, marksmanship-based shooting methods.
All you need, the advocates say, is an alert mind, a clear
sight picture, and a manageable trigger. But such ghts,
while very supportive of certain skills sets, are not the
norm. The norm is a gunght where the other man, or
men, has begun the attack upon a relatively unprepared
victim. If you were paying attention, you would likely be
able to avoid the entire thing completely. That would-be
victim must rst realize what is happening; when the in-
formation coming in reaches a tipping point that indicates
Fig 5-25 Gunghts are either Proactive or Reactive
24
he must act quickly or perish, he must react faster than
the bad guy. Does it sound difcult? Does it sound dan-
gerous? Right on both counts.
What is lacking is preparation. I know all about the Color
Codes, and about mental preparedness. I also know that
human beings are fallible. We are
overworked, preoccupied and
sometimes even physically sick.
We are rushed, and we carry the
weight of the world on our shoul-
ders. Hardly conducive to living
in a state of condition yellow, or
relaxed alertness. Rather than
living in Condition Yellowas my
late friend Jeff Cooper described
itwe often lapse into Condition
Brown: Often sadly inevitable, it is
the situation we may nd ourselves
to be in when the ght unexpect-
edly comes to us.
Lets analyze what happens in a
gunght. You may see the bad
guy. He appears to be a bad guy
because of his attire, his demean-
or and maybe even his ethnicity.
(Yes, we are proling). Something
about him isnt right. You catch
yourself proling. Unless you
have cleansed your mind from
politically correct liberal program-
ming, you might chastise yourself
for being judgmental. Yet you are
receiving bits of information con-
stantly. You notice his eyes and where he is looking. You
begin to notice that all the customers in the store are also
looking at him. You notice that they appear scared. He is
about ve feet away now and you notice his gangstyle
clothing seems big for his small frame and you begin to
wonder if there is a weapon hidden. Then you begin to
notice the outline of a pistol butt and his hand resting on it.
It is beginning to move from the belt line and toward you.
His rst words dont even register as the adrenaline dump
in your gut begins to shoot through your veins. That is
how it happens.
Now lets look at the rest of the story: You draw your pistol.
Actually, its more of a desperate grab and shove toward
the bad guy than a perfect and
correct shooting school range
draw. You are looking right at him.
Your hunter/predator eye is drawn
to the movement of his hand and
xes on his gun. It is small and
black. Your pistol is out by now,
pointing at him one handed as
your body screams, MOVE! Still
transxed by the image of him,
and visually drawn to the gun
moving toward you, you pull hard
on the trigger once, twice, three
times. Not the controlled trigger
pressing you did in school, but
hard trigger smashing. Your eyes
have not left him as he begins to
fall dead at your feet with a gratify-
ing thud. His gun clatters against
the counter.
That is a reactive gunght and the
most likely scenario for the CCW
folks. To tell you that its all about
Front Sight Press here is to in-
sult your intelligence.
So what is the answer, point shoot-
ing or aimed re? Are sights use-
less? Should we rip them off our slides and train only
inside elevators? Not at all. Point Shooting and Sighted
Fire are two different ends of a continuum of shooting.
You use what you need, and what is called for, depend-
ing on the ght at hand. This description was rst coined
by a man in Federal service who posts under the nom de
guerre 7677 at Warrior Talk, and it explains the situation
quite well:
...STILL TRANSFIXED
BY THE IMAGE OF
HIM, AND VISUALLY
DRAWN TO THE GUN
MOVING TOWARD
YOU, YOU PULL
HARD ON THE TRIG-
GER ONCE, TWICE,
THREE TIMES...
... THAT IS A REAC-
TIVE GUNFIGHT
AND THE MOST
LIKELY SCENAR-
IO FOR THE CCW
FOLKS.
25
Shooting is a physical act that does not change. There
are degrees to your visual focus (fully on threat, fully on
sights or somewhere in between).
So, analyze your shooting system. If all you are doing is
pro-active sighted re, from open carry and from a sta-
tionary shooting position, at medium distance, you may
not be totally prepared for what Lifes bad guys have in
store for you.
About the Author
Gabe Suarez was born in Cuba, but grew up in
the USA when his parents ed the communist
regime. He has been a life-long student of ght-
ing, whether hands, contact weapons or re-
arms. He served with distinction as a police of-
cer in Southern California working various high
risk assignments from Special Weapons to Gang
Investigations, to Narcotics. During his service
he was involved in numerous gunghts one for
which he was awarded the Medal of Valor.
Today Gabe teaches his methods today all over
the world to, mostly, private citizens, and occa-
sionally to military and other forces. His training
comprises all aspects of combat from hand to
hand ghting to pistol shooting and up to ad-
vanced team tactics and rie gunghting. He
is noted for introducing force on force training to
the CCW community as well as for the promo-
tion of the appendix carry method and the use
of the Kalashnikov rie for private citizens.
Gabe has also written numerous books and
produced several DVDs on his training and ght-
ing concepts which can be located at his online
store www.onesourcetactical.com. His training
courses may be seen at:
www.suarezinternationalstore.com
Fig 526 analyze your shooting system. If all you are do-
ing is proactive sighted re... you may not be totally pre-
pared for what lifes bad guys have in store for you...
26
The reality of reactive gunghting on the street proves that there are plenty of times when
you will not be prepared for the ght, and have to catch up against uneven odds or die.
Gunghts are either reactive or pro-active.
The norm is a gunght where the other man, or men, has begun the attack upon a relatively
unprepared victim.
Rather than living in Condition Yellow, we often lapse into Condition Brown: Often sadly
inevitable, it is the situation we may nd ourselves to be in when the ght unexpectedly
comes to us.
Gunghts happen VERY, VERY fast: A draw turns into a desperate shove.
Point Shooting and Sighted Fire are two different ends of a continuum of shooting. You use
what you need, and what is called for, depending on the ght at hand.
If all you are doing is proactive sighted re, from open carry and from a stationary shoot-
ing position, at medium distance, you may not be totally prepared for what Lifes bad guys
have in store for you.
27
LONGRANGE HANDGUN ACCURACY
Elmer Keith Was Dead Right
By Robert H. Boatman
I
dont personally know anyone who ever doubted El-
mer Keith, not the man nor his exploits nor the grand
pronouncements he made based on same. I understand
there were some skeptics who thought Elmer exaggerat-
ed because he was a small man who always wore a large
hat, but I think the skeptics just couldnt shoot straight and
were not happy that Elmer could. The fact is, given all the
new shooters we have these days, some of you may not
even know who Elmer Keith was, so Id better start some-
where near the beginning.
Elmer Keith was 29 years old in 1928, when he and his
collaborators Harold Croft, J.D. OMeara, and R.F. Sed-
gley reworked and strengthened a singleaction Colt
revolver to embody many of Keiths ideas of handgun
perfection. The gun was called the Keith No. 5 and was
chambered in .44 Special, because that was the cartridge
Keith considered best suited to his incessant experimen-
tation with heavy handloads. The cylinder walls of the .44
Special were thicker than those of the .45 Colt so bet-
ter able to withstand the high pressures he was creating.
The Keith No. 5 was the primary platform on which Keith
developed the loads, bullets and longrange, high
impact capabilities that, in the mid1950s, would raise
the level of longrange shooting and biggame hunt-
ing with a handgun to a height never before imagined. At
rst, many in the rearms establishment doubted Keiths
exploits with his hand-loaded .44 Specials, his 700-yard
accuracy, his long-range big-game kills, but as undeni-
able evidence accumulated, many took Elmers accom-
plishments to heart.
Fig 6-27 The .44 Magnum was made 1/8-inch longer than the
.44 Special to prevent loading the magnum cartridge in non-
magnum cylinders, though Keiths maximum .44 Special load
of a 250-grain bullet with a muzzle velocity of 1200 fps was the
equal of many .44 Magnum loads today.
Random Thoughts #7:
At rst, the ability to shoot long ranges
with a pistol might not seem like a feat
worth mastering... but think about this:
Imagine getting good with your pistol
at extreme distances. Now picture how
much easier a shot at close ranges
would seem!
Gunmaker Smith & Wesson and ammo manufacturer
Remington stood on the sidelines watching for 30 years
before they got on board Keiths .44 program, but the day
the rst S&W .44 Magnum revolver (soon to be designat-
28
ed the Model 29) shipped out, the Big Pistol Revolution
began in earnest. Keith didnt do it alone, but he provided
the vision, the direction, the concept, the relentless prod-
ding that made it possible, just as he had done earlier
with the development of the .357 Magnum cartridge, the
Winchester Model 70 rie and, later, the .41 Magnum.
Thanks to what has been described with a variety of
ourishes as a highly successful case of industrial espio-
nage, when Smiths double-action .44 Magnum made it
to dealers shelves, Bill Rugers single-action .44 Mag-
num Blackhawk was already sitting there. Shooters had
an instant choice, and Remington couldnt turn out ammo
fast enough.
Keiths ultimate development of the .44 Special cartridge,
the .44 Magnum, has held up well. Its sheer power, con-
sidered awesome beyond belief at the time of its introduc-
tion, has since been surpassed by a handful of wildcats
like the Casulls and the Linebaughs, and new superma-
gnums from S&W and Ruger, but its still the .44 Magnum
thats the standard. The Elmer Keith cartridge that was 30
years in the birthing process is enough gun to take down
Alaskan brown and grizzly bear and African elephant,
lion and Cape buffalo, having done so many times, and
is still perfectly controllable in experienced hands and
a pleasure rather than a pain to shoot. It is also one of
those cartridges that seem, without any logical explana-
tion whatsoever, to be inherently accurate. With the .44
Magnum, that accuracy can extend to ranges normally
considered the exclusive territory of ries.
Gunwriter Roger Clouser has an incurable addiction to
1,000-yard revolver shooting. He claims that shooting
distant 24-inch steel gongs offhand while standing on
the front porch of his mountain cabin has altered the mol-
ecules in his brain to such an extent that he now consid-
ers such pursuits normal.* Roger shoots .44 Magnums
almost exclusively, and his favorite 1,000-yard loads are
300 grain jacketed bullets at 1,325 fps out of heavy sin-
gleaction Freedom Arms revolvers and 1,050 fps out of
lighter Smith and Wesson Model 29s.
Clouser gives some of the best advice on long-range
handgun accuracy Ive ever heard: With an experienced
hand and match grade revolver and ammo, gun handling
in recoil is by far the most important accuracy variable,
in my opinion. Second is trigger work, and third is prob-
ably the wobble radius in holding the piece. That radius is
easily decreased with dry re practice, and good trigger
work can be learned with practice and experience. But
riding the bronc thats the tough one. Its huge effect on
accuracy is because the bullet is still in the barrel during
the recoil. My slightest muscle inconsistency in the bal-
let is a disaster, and brings with it a cacophony of cere-
bral cortex nasty comments through plugs and muffs. A
proper recoil ballet will bring me the relief of head silence
and allow contemplation of life, happiness and impend-
ing chocolate chip cookies while waiting out the four
second ash-to-bang time, which feels long enough to sit
down and eat my lunch. Long-range revolver work can
be embarrassing if one is unprepared, as gongs have no
mercy in their snickering and cat calls. But a determined,
experienced shooter with an accurate piece can make a
Fig 6-28 Though long-range accuracy is most often associ-
ated with the big revolver cartridges, high-velocity semiauto
cartridges such as the 10mm chambered in this Robar-cus-
tomized Glock are competitive, and much smaller calibers right
down to the .22 LR may surprise you with their long-range
accuracy potential.
29
1,000-yard gong as nervous as a hen pheasant in a ditch
with its neck stuck up.
Clousers explanation of his introduction to long-range
handgun shooting warms my heart because it sounds
exactly like my own introduction to long-range handgun
shooting, including the little Chiefs Special as the agent
of enlightenment. Roger says, Twenty years ago I went
after 140-yard tin cans on a dirt bank with a 19 oz., 2
barreled S&W Model 36 Chiefs Special. Shooting off the
roof of my car, I found the snubby .38 Special was shock-
ingly effective. Any decent shooter would have no trouble
getting rst shot hits on a 12-inch gong at that range. The
largest detriment to the capabilities of a handgun at lon-
ger ranges is between most shooters ears.
Long-range handgun shooting is done from all the con-
ventional positions, such as prone and offhand, and in-
cludes an Elmer Keith innovation called the sitting back
rest, where you sit on the ground with your back braced
against a tree or other vertical backing and your knees
are raised to provide support for your arms while shoot-
ing. Keith also gives some unconventional advice on
long-range sighting with factory iron sights. The problem
is, if you just raise a conventional sight picture higher than
you want to hit, you obscure the target, and aiming some-
where in the sky above your target can hardly be consid-
ered precise gunhandling. The Keith method is to hold
the front sight blade up above the rear notch a certain
measure. It takes a while to determine how far to raise the
front sight for different ranges, but the technique can be
surprisingly accurate out to about 500 yards.
Because we think of our pistols as short-range weap-
ons, inexperienced shooters trying for a long shot tend
to shoot high in general and to ignore the wind, which is
long-range shootings greatest enemy. Even if you never
plan to shoot past ve feet, serious handgunners should
practice on 12-inch gongs or cardboard pie plates at 100
and 200 yards and should be on familiar terms with the
sight picture of their primary defensive piece to at least
200 yards. You never know ...
If you get hooked on shooting handguns accurately at
long-range, you might even want to compete with others
of like mind or altered molecules.
Don Bower and Marc Sheehan (sheehan93@hotmail.
com) put on an annual longrange handgun shooting
seminar with games that include shooting golf balls and
Random Thoughts #8:
If you think your handgun is simply in-
capable of shooting at long distances,
try mounting the pistol to a handgun
vice sometime and ring it similarly.
In doing so, you will nd that our hand-
guns are MUCH more capable of shoot-
ing accurately than we tend to believe!
Fig 6-29 Maximum long-range accuracy may be enhanced by
heavy handloads, which may require customized and strength-
ened guns such as this Ruger by Gary Reeder of Flagstaff, AZ.
30
splitting bullets with angle iron at 600 meters.
The International Handgun Metallic Shooting Association
(IHMSA, http://ihmsa.org/) is an organization started in
1976 with the purpose of promoting handgun silhouette
competition. The object of the competition is to knock
down life-size steel silhouettes of chickens, pigs, turkeys
and rams at various ranges out to 200 meters. The sport
has spread to many countries and matches are shot all
over the USA. There are many different types of matches
with different handguns from .22 to big-bore and different
shooting positions from standing to free-style and its all
fun.
The burgeoning sport of handgun hunting is a great prov-
ing ground for the guns and ammo that produce long-
range accuracy. Probably the most famous single perfect
shot, written up by myself as well as other gunwriters, was
the one red by Ted Nugent from his 10mm Glock 20 into
a South African warthog at 106 paces.
Shooting handguns accurately at 100 to 500 yards was
once thought to verge on the impossible. Elmer Keith tells
the story of a day in the life of a prototype Model 29, with a
6.5 barrel. One day Judge Don Martin and I were shoot-
ing the big gun over at the city dump. When we started
back, I spotted a rock down the canyon below the dump
at what looked like 500 yards from the road. The rock
was about three feet long by about 18 inches high in the
middle tapered a little bit at each end. Resting my arms
out the car window, I tried it. The rst shot was low. Hold-
ing up more front sight and perching the rock on top of
it, I managed to put the next ve on the rock. Don said,
Damn it, I seen it, but I still dont believe it.
A little later, Elmer took the rst game ever shot with the
new .44 Magnum. It was a goshawk perched in a tree at
100 yards. After that he was called upon to kill a rie
wounded deer at 600 yards, which he did, and long
range handgun hunting was suddenly a reality. It has
Fig 6-30 The Keith method for long-range sighting with iron
sights, whether xed or adjustable already at maximum eleva-
tion, is to hold the front sight blade up above the rear notch a
certain measure. It takes a while to determine how far to raise
the front sight for different ranges, but the technique can be
surprisingly accurate out to about 500 yards. The main prob-
lem with just raising a conventional sight picture higher than
you want to hit is that the sight or the barrel will obscure the target.
Fig 6-31 The Smith & Wesson Model 29 may be the quint-
essential handgun for long-range accuracy, and the Smith
J-frame quite the opposite, Yet, many shooters began their
long-range careers by taking a shot with the little .38 Special at
50 or 100 yards and seeing the unexpected results.
31
been said that Elmer Keith almost singlehandedly
pioneered modern sport handgunning. His inuence on
handgun design was substantial, his inuence on hand-
gun cartridge design truly revolutionary. One strong man
supplied the guts and the vision, and the world followed,
which is the way things usually work in real life.
Long-range mechanical accuracy is easy enough to g-
ure. If you and your gun can shoot 2-inch groups at 50
yards, you can shoot 4-inch groups at 100 yards and so
on out to 40-inch groups at 1000 yards. But anything that
seems that simple is never that simple. There is some-
thing I call the Zen effect which will sometimes let you hit
things you cant even really see at distances you dont be-
lieve yourself. These are the shots you keep quiet about,
for fear that the Short-Range Police may throw you in the
slammer along with characters like Elmer Keith, Roger
Clouser and Ted Nugent.
*All Roger Clouser quotes used here rst appeared in
the magazine The Accurate Rie, which is no longer pub-
lished.
*Elmer Keith quotes are from Hell, I Was There! by Elmer
Keith (Petersen Publishing Company, 1979)
About the Author
Robert H. Boatman is the author of ve recent bestsell-
ing rearms books published by Paladin Press, Living With
Glocks, Living With The Big .50, Living With The 1911, Liv-
ing With The AR-15 and, with son Morgan W. Boatman,
How To Customize Your Glock. He has published feature
magazine articles in NRAs Americas 1st Freedom, Sports
Aeld, Petersens Rie Shooter, The Accurate Rie, Preci-
sion Shooting, American Handgunner and AHs Tactical
Annual, S.W.A.T., Pistols & Revolvers, Concealed Carry,
NRAs Womans Outlook , Very High Power, Law and Or-
der, South Africas Big Bore Journal and many more pub-
lications. He and his son are currently at work on a new
book, Living With Your Concealed Weapon.
Boatmans essay, The Constitutional Right And Social Ob-
ligation To Carry A Gun, which rst appeared in Living With
Glocks and is available online at www.IronwordRanch.
com, has become a seminal document in the ongoing
concealed carry movement.
Boatman can be reached, much of his writing reviewed,
and books purchased at
WWW.BOATMANBOOKS.COM
32
Handling the guns recoil is by far the most important accuracy variable- Its huge effect on accuracy
is because the bullet is still in the barrel during the recoil.
Trigger work is the second most difcult aspect of long range pistol shooting- and good trigger work
can be learned with practice and experience.
Third is probably the wobble radius in holding the piece, and the wobble is easily decreased with
dry re practice.
Any decent shooter would have no trouble getting rst shot hits on a 12-inch gong at 140 yards.
The largest detriment to the capabilities of a handgun at longer ranges is between most shooters
ears.
It takes a while to determine how far to raise the front sight above the rear sight for different ranges,
but the technique can be surprisingly accurate out to about 500 yards.
Inexperienced shooters trying for a long shot tend to shoot high in general and to ignore the wind.
Even if you never plan to shoot past ve feet, serious handgunners should practice on 12-inch
gongs or cardboard pie plates at 100 and 200 yards and should be on familiar terms with the sight
picture of their primary defensive piece to at least 200 yards.
Anything that seems that simple is never that simple.
There is something I call the Zen effect which will sometimes let you hit things you cant even really
see at distances you dont believe yourself.
33
SHOOTING WELL UNDER PRESSURE
By Jack Rumbaugh
Suarez International Staff Instructor
I
n the rst six sections, the fundamentals of shooting
have been presented to you. Its easy to perform any of
these skills on demand when you are on the range under
no pressure at all. But what happens when a sense of ur-
gency is introduced to the equation? If you are not prop-
erly prepared to deal with the pressure, it is likely that your
performance will be less than stellar. How do we gain the
condence to perform well under pressure? There are
several training methods that are useful for simulating dif-
ferent types of pressure. Lets nd out what they are and
how to use them effectively.
Drill the Fundamentals
The rst step someone should take is to practice the fun-
damentals outlined in the previous chapters until they be-
come reexive and smooth. As you become more familiar
and well practiced with the techniques needed, the more
condent you will become. It will take time and hundreds
if not thousands of repetitions to really make a technique
yours where you can perform it on demand without much
conscious thought. Making sure you understand sight
alignment, trigger press, your grip and stance, and how
each of these areas interact is extremely important. Once
you have these fundamentals rmly established in your
toolbox, you are ready to introduce that sense of urgency
into your training.
Meet the Timer
Introducing a time factor into your training can generate
some of that pressure we are concerned with. Modern
shot timers are a valuable tool to have in your training
gear. Be careful when using a timer, however. Never make
the holstering process part of your timed drill. Going back
into the holster too quickly can lead to accidents and also
trains in a bad habit. You should always reluctantly and
carefully holster your pistol. You can introduce time pres-
sure into your dry practice or your range session very
easily. A simple drill is to prepare for dry practice (triple
checked empty pistol, no ammo in the training environ-
ment, etc), set the timer for random start and a 2 second
par time. When the timer sounds, you acquire your pistol,
present it to the target, get your sight picture and align-
ment , and press the trigger, all before the second beep.
Once that is easy for you, set the timer for 1.75 seconds.
As that becomes easier, reduce the time. Whatever you
do, do not sacrice technique for speed. You can also
take the timer into your range sessions as well. There are
numerous standard drills you can incorporate into your
range time such as the famous El Presidente drill. Using a
timer, you can quantify how long it takes you to perform a
certain technique properly. As you gain skill, you can see
how you have improved. The timer is extremely useful in
generating some anxiety in your training. The more you
train with a timer, the less the anxiety affects you.
Fig 7-32 Adding a timer to your training regimen can help
greatly in making your training session more realistic.
34
Phobias and Naturals
Though ANYBODY can train themselves to
do well under pressure, one cannot deny that it
comes natural to some, and difcult to others.
A great example is that of a husband and wife
pair, Lyle and Katie, both of whom are regular
IDPA participants.
Where both are exceptionally competent with
their Springeld XDs at the range, Lyle seems to
fall apart at matches. He says that he just gets ner-
vous, and cant help but feel the eyes of everyone
behind him boring into the back of his head.
Its like all the shooting prinicples that I drill into
my head at home and at the range are forgotten. I
start focusing on the target instead of the front sight, jerk-
ing the trigger, and my reloads are VERY sloppy.
His wife Katie, on the other hand, seems to ac-
tually improve at the matches. She actually is
smoother, faster, and more accurate when its all
on the line than when at home or on the range.
I was the same way when I was involved in soft-
ball and volleyball. If I ever felt nervous before a
game or match, Id just take some deep breaths
and give myself a little pep talk.
Our advice to Lyle? Just keep practicing, and
keep going to more and more matches. Anyone
can overcome this type of stage fright-you just
have to work through it.
The ability to perform well under pressure is ul-
tra-critical when it comes to the CCW holder, as it
could quickly become an issue of life and death.
As is always said, Dont expect to rise to the oc-
casion-plan on reverting back to your most en-
grained level of training.
Play Games with Your Guns
Compete! If you want pressure, competition gives you a
healthy dose. The rst time you head up to the line, heart
in your throat, waiting for the beep, youll see what I mean.
I have had the pleasure in competing in IDPA, IPSC, and
indoor and outdoor GSSF matches and I can tell you
that the rst time is stressful. The more you compete, the
easier it gets. The pressure will always be there but the
manner in which you perceive and handle it changes. Try
out different shooting sports. Each one has slightly differ-
ent stressors involved. Not only do you have the stress of
a time constraint, but you also have points involved. On
top of that there are usually a set of rules to follow. Failure
to follow the rules may result in a disqualication. More
stress. And if you go with a friend, you have the stress
of not letting them beat you. Once you have run a few
courses of re, you wont even break a sweat.
Train in Force on Force
This is my favorite training method to learn about pres-
sure. Nothing ramps up the anxiety level like facing an-
other human being that wants to stab or shoot you. Work-
ing with a live opponent introduces an element of chaos
to your training that can not be duplicated with any other
method. The most cost effective method of training is with
Airsoft pistols. There are other options out there, to be
sure, but they are not readily available to civilians and
they tend to be quite costly. Airsoft is easily obtained, is
very reasonably priced, requires no special safety gear
other than an Airsoft mask and a sweatshirt, and does not
require much to clean up after a session. All you need is
a broom or a vacuum cleaner.
There are quality training classes available such as Suar-
ez Internationals Interactive Gunghting to get you start-
ed. Once you have the equipment and a training partner,
you are ready to go. The simplest drill to run is the Teuller
Drill. You and your opponent stand 21 feet apart and on
the go signal, you both draw and re. You can mix things
up
35
with unequal initiative, shortening the distance, or trading
a contact weapon for the pistol. The only limiting factors
are the space available, and your imagination. As you run
more drills you will nd the anxiety level becomes less of
a distraction. You are learning to deal with the stress in
realistic training and hopefully you will be able to deal with
the stress in a real situation more effectively.
I want to reiterate that you need to make sure the funda-
mentals are not sacriced in the name of speed in any
of these drills. All four areas we discussed are useful for
simulating stress. The main idea with the drills we have
outlined is to desensitize yourself to the stresses that you
would nd yourself exposed to in a defensive situation.
The more you perform under pressure in training, the bet-
ter you will perform when it counts. You will ght like you
train and default to the level of your training. Keep the level high.
Fig 7-33 Airsoft replicas are GREAT tools for real-world-based
tactical training.
36
If you are not properly prepared to deal with the pressure, it is likely that your performance will
be less than stellar.
The rst step someone should take is to practice the fundamentals outlined in the previous
chapters until they become reexive and smooth.
Making sure you understand sight alignment, trigger press, your grip and stance, and how
each of these areas interact is extremely important.
Introducing a time factor into your training can generate some of that pressure we are con-
cerned with, and can help greatly in making your training session more realistic.
Never make the holstering process part of your timed drill. Going back into the holster too
quickly can lead to accidents and also trains in a bad habit.
If you want pressure, competition gives you a healthy dose.
Use airsoft pistols or something similar to train force on force. Nothing ramps up the anxiety
level like facing another human being that wants to stab or shoot you.
Make sure you understand sight alignment, trigger press, your grip and stance, and how each
of these areas interact.
The more you perform under pressure in training, the better you will perform when it counts.
37
ACCURATE WEAK HAND SHOOTING
By George Hill
T
he one crucible for rearms tactics that we have that
doesnt involve people shooting back at us, is com-
petition. IPSC, IDPA, Cowboy Action... whatever your a-
vor of choice is, they are going to ultimately throw you a
curve ball by asking you to shoot with your weak hand.
Everyones scores will take a dip on a stage that requires
weak hand shooting. This tells us something in very clear,
numeric and measured way. We all have to work on our
weak hand shooting.
There is no magic trick that can help us here and no mat-
ter how good we are with our strong hands, we are not as
good weak handed.
Is this going to have any real world value to us? Absolutely.
Look at the way we present ourselves in a defensive situ-
ation: knees bent, head up, eyes forward, and arms up
and out. Our arms are going to be the rst things injured
should damage come out way. In a defensive situation
we might have to ward off a knife attack, or a swing from
a club, or we might catch a bullet in the strong arm or
hand. Something else might occupy our strong hand, like
a friend or loved one and we are controlling them to move
them to a safer position. Anything can happen and if you
lose your strong hand, then youve probably lost 75% or
more of your ability to engage your target effectively. Or
what if you are coming around a corner that would ex-
pose most of your body before your strong hand is able
to cover the target? You would be much safer if you could
switch hands and navigate the corner with condence.
What we need to do is to raise our skill level so we can
lower our liability with weak hand shooting.
Since there is no trick to weak hand shooting, it is a simple
matter of coming back to the basics and taking your time,
without taking too much time.
Fig 8-34 Weak Handed Shooting can be a HUGE challenge
even for the most experienced of shooters.
Lets start from the draw. Since we most often carry our
weapons concealed, our weapons are usually not in a
convenient location for weak hand draws. This is going to
require some stretching, bending, maybe some grunting,
and possibly colorful language. But we need to be able
to access our weapons. To practice this, raise your strong
arm and put it on your head to keep it out of the way.
There is no specied draw technique here, because all of
38
us pack concealed differently. If you pack cross draw or
in a shoulder rig, this challenge will pose no problem. If
you pack in a typical manner with the gun just behind your
strong side hip, you might go across your front, or around
your back depending on your position or exibility. What-
ever works for you, do it. The point here isnt how you do
it, just getting the gun into your hand. This needs to be re-
alistic for incidences on the street. Practice this standing
till you work it out, then practice this sitting. In competition,
you will not be required to draw with your weak hand...
this is a safety thing. In competition you want draw the
weapon normally and transition it to your left hand. This
transfer is easy, but needs practices as well.
To transfer the weapon safely to the weak hand, loosen
your grip and let the pistol tilt forward. Then place your
weak hand behind your shooting hand and slide it up
under the beavertail and slide your shooting hand back
down and away. Practice this move back and forth. Be-
cause weak hand shooting means weak hand reloading
and holstering. If you can shave a half second off this
transition, every time, you can shave full seconds off the
clock at each string. Little bits of time add up quickly. On
the street, these little moments add up to life saving time.
Back to shooting. With the gun in your hand, you should
now be able to engage your target, shoot your gun dry,
and reload it, all one handed. Some guys will hold he gun
between their knees, or use their holster to help reload the
weapon. Whatever you do, this is something that has to
be practiced a lot. Because in a situation on the street, no
one is going to wait for you to gure it out.
The same methods of shooting a weapon weak handed
are just like strong hand shooting... the only difference is
that it can be like learning how to shoot all over again. Your
hand isnt as stable. Your trigger is alien to your nger and
pulling it isnt so smooth and steady... its more of a spas-
modic twitch that you are not ready for. The problem with
shooting weak handed is two fold... there are psycho-
logical hurdles and physiological challenges that must
be overcome. Psychological, because you think you are
handicapped, weak handed. Physiologic because you
have not developed the muscle memory to accomplish
the tasks of control manipulation and recoil recovery, let
alone just holding the weapon steady.
They call your weak hand the weak hand for several
good reasons. Typically its not as strong as the hand you
write with. The muscles are not as trained and sensitive
as your strong hand either. What you are going to nd on
the range is a lessened ability to hold your weapon stable
and manipulating the trigger is no longer something of finesse...
you will find that youve suddenly become ham-fisted.
Before you even start practicing shooting weak handed,
you need to get that hand up to speed. Try typing with
just your weak hand, or dialing your cell phone with your
weak hand. Not that these skills transfer to shooting but
you need to rewire your brain to your left hand and let it
know that it can do some ne motor skill activities. I know
a doctor locally that ties his shoes, right foot, right hand,
left foot left handed, just to keep that dexterity up. He can
also tie his knots on a sh hook with just his left hand too.
Get a squeeze ball to help improve your grip as well. Ive
found that these are handy items to have anyway if your
job requires you to talk to strangers.
8-35 Holding the weapon at a slightly inverted angle, which is a
more natural angle for the human hand, can boost stability.
39
While in a ght, we want to move... but if you are down
to a weak hand only shot, I would hope you are already
behind some sort of cover. Use that cover to your advan-
tage. Try to brace your weak arm or hand on the cover.
If you cant brace your shots to get that added stability
there are a couple tricks you try.
Try holding the weapon at a slight angle and not straight
up and down. The angle is roughly to the One OClock,
and not much further. I dont do this to look Gangster.
The reason for this has to do with the alignment of the
bones in your arms. You can hold your gun steadier with
a slight angle, and you can manage recoil better this way.
The angle is going be different for everyone. Try this on
for size next time you are at the range, and see if it can
help you.
Another technique that can help, having to do with mus-
cular tension, is to make a tight st with your nonring
hand, and hold it to your chest. This is probably some-
thing you might do naturally already if it is injured, but
practice this anyway and see if it helps.
The most important thing about shooting weak handed it
so take your time, concentrate on your sight picture and
breaking the shot consistently. You should devote 10 to
20 percent of your shooting to ring weak handed.
Practice, Practice Practice!
George Hill, the Ogre at MadOgre.com
Random Thoughts #9:
Few skills are as useful and practical
when it comes to handgun prociency
as that of being able to dual wield your
pistol.
Handgun wounds are not extrememly
difcult to survive, but you have to sur-
vive the gunght rst.
Some trainers go as far as to refuse to
even call it your weak hand- they swear
that anyone can become just as good
with their off hand as they can with their
primary hand.
You owe it to yourself to work to be-
come at least reasonably as effective
with your weak / off hand as you are with
your strong hand!
40
We all have to work on our weak hand shooting.
Our arms are going to be the rst things injured should damage come our way.
What we need to do is to raise our skill level so we can lower our liability with weak hand shooting.
There is no trick to weak hand shooting; it is a simple matter of coming back to the basics and taking
your time, without taking too much time.
First, you must master drawing with your offhand. You may have to adjust your carry position to
make this possible!
To transfer the weapon safely to the weak hand, loosen your grip and let the pistol tilt forward. Then
place your weak hand behind your shooting hand and slide it up under the beavertail and slide your
shooting hand back down and away.
Learn to reload your weapon one handed, and practice it often.
There are psychological hurdles and physiological challenges that must be overcome to shoot
weakhanded.
You should practice doing everyday things such as typing and dialing the phone with your weak
hand to build up its muscles. Get a squeeze ball to help improve your grip.
Try holding the weapon at a slight inward (1 or 11 oclock) angle this aligns the bones more natu-
rally.
Another technique that can help, having to do with muscular tension, is to make a tight st with your
nonring hand, and hold it to your chest.
You should devote 10 to 20 percent of your shooting to ring weak handed.
41
ACCURATE SHOOTING WHILE ON THE MOVE
By Jack Rumbaugh
S
hooting on the move is by nature, a complex skillset.
You have to move while presenting your pistol and
also placing shots on your adversary with acceptable
combat accuracy without getting shot. Some of the skills
we will employ deserve their own in depth study but those
are for another time. Lets break this down to the compo-
nents and outline each one.
Gunghting is fty percent shoot-
ing and fty percent not getting
shot. Im of the opinion that most
important is the not getting shot
part. If this were not so, movement
would have no place in our tool-
box. There really is no big secret
on movement in a gunght. Its
something Man has been doing for
eons and we have been doing a
great deal of our lives. You put one
foot in front of the other and start
walking. It gets more complicated
as you dive deeper into dynamic
movement, but we must walk be-
fore we run, so to speak. As you
realize you are facing a bad guy,
you simply move off the X (where
you are originally standing when the action begins) to one
of several angles well discuss in just a moment.
You must combine your movement with a smooth pre-
sentation. Not present, then move or move then present.
They should be one motion. As you move, there will be
angles of movement that will be more advantageous to
you to use. The situation will dictate which one will be the
most appropriate. Using the clock analogy, you may nd
that movement to the 11 oclock will work well and move-
ment to another angle will be less than optimal. You never
want to backpedal. You will always lose. Your adversary
will be able to move forward much faster than you can
move backwards.
This is where Force on Force training really shines. You
can get all the repetitions you will need to practice the
skill of moving, presenting, and engaging your target at
all the various angles. One thing
that needs to be mentioned is the
tter you are, within what is pos-
sible considering your age, any in-
juries, or general health, the better
off you will be when moving. Being
able to move briskly and still have
something left in reserve should
you need it is extremely desir-
able. Gone are the days when you
can just speed rock someone into
submission. Movement means
greater survivability.
Another piece to the puzzle is your
presentation and where you carry.
We have found through hundreds
of scenarios in our Interactive
Gunghting classes, all over the
globe, that a botched presentation
puts you so far behind the reactionary curve that you are
unlikely to be able to catch up. A smooth and polished
presentation from concealment is key.
Its not important to the discussion at hand what you can
do from your ubercool IPSC speed rig, but what can
you can do with your every day carry gear. Also, where
you carry will affect your presentation. We have found time
and time again that appendix carry is a superior choice
for your preferred method of carry. It keeps your pistol
near your center line, provides you with greater economy
of motion than other methods of carry, and is faster be-
...YOU NEVER
WANT TO BACK-
PEDAL. YOU WILL
ALWAYS LOSE...
...YOUR ADVERSARY
WILL BE ABLE TO
MOVE FORWARD
MUCH FASTER THAN
YOU CAN MOVE
BACKWARDS.
42
cause you are more efcient. If you can carry this way I
highly recommend giving it a try.
Weve talked about movement and presentation. The only
part left is shooting. You should, at this point, have a rm
grasp on the fundamentals needed to shoot accurately.
Those particular skills may not serve you in a dynamic en-
vironment, so we need a new set of skills to plug into the
equation. The phrase I used in the rst paragraph was
acceptable combat accuracy. What do I mean? I mean
that you are able to get hits on a man size torso target at
typical close quarters combat distances. We arent talk-
ing the precision 50 yard shot for score. We are talking
survival at 12 feet. Getting the acceptable hits at typical
CQB distances need to take into account a couple key
issues: distance and time.
As the distances compress, the less time you have to re-
act, much less get that perfect sight picture we all train so
hard to get. Youll need other techniques to use in those
situations. The term we use is Sighting Continuum to
describe what we need to do at typical CQB distances.
Its simply a sliding scale from point shooting to perfect
sight picture and alignment. You simply see what you
need to see of your sights to get those good hits we are
talking about. For instance, you may employ some form
of body indexed shooting technique to get your hits at
two yards, but as the distances increase you might need
to transition to a ash sight picture to get your good hits.
You may use what is affectionately called Metal on Meat
shooting where the metal of your pistol is simply super-
Fig 9-36 Moving while drawing is easier when the gun is car-
ried in some positions than in other positions. Generally speak-
ing, carrying in the appendix position, with the gun positioned
on the strong side midway between belly button and hip, offers
the most economy of motion. The position shown here, where
the shooter is carrying in the middle of back, provides poor
economy of motion.
Random Thoughts #10:
Shooting while moving is yet another
great area where the value of airsoft
training becomes quickly apparent.
By simply wearing a protective mask,
you eliminate nearly all possibilities of
an injury. Of course, airsoft pellets CAN
hurt bare skin, sometimes as much as
a bee sting, so it is advised to wear a
sweathsirt and thick clothing as well.
With airsoft, you are limited only by your
imagination during training sessions.
Practicing moving off the x, drawing,
and shooting while moving all ad TONS
of value to your training.
Highly recommended to the armed citizen!
43
imposed on the meat of your adversary. As I said earlier,
you simply see what you need to see to get the hits you
need to get.
There is an area where movement and sighting intersect.
There will be places in your movement where a two hand-
ed grip will be out of the question. There are angles of
movement that favor shooting with the left hand over the
right.

Fig 9-37 Being physically t is a huge advantage when it comes
to moving during a gunght.
We have found that the body hates tension and will al-
ways try and go with the path of least resistance. If you
try to keep a two hand grip on your pistol, there will be a
point that you have created tension in the body and your
tendency will be to unwind and backpedal. I mentioned
that that was bad and to be avoided. For a right handed
shooter, this is obvious moving to the one oclock. If you
try and maintain that 2 handed grip, you will quickly nd
yourself backpedaling. If you drop one hand and go right
hand only, you gain a few more steps, but again, youll be-
gin to backpedal. The only sure way to keep your muzzle
on target is with an eventual transition to your left hand.
Ambidextrous shooting is a valuable skill to master. Make
sure you take the time to master it.
Its very important to note that these techniques need to
be practiced to be perfected. Work movement into your
dry practice. Work on alternative sighting methods at the
range. Work on your transitions. Combine all your tech-
niques during your force on force training. Youll be glad
you did.
44
Gunghting is fty percent shooting and fty percent not getting shot.
There really is no big secret on movement in a gunght.
You must combine your movement with a smooth presentation all wrapped into one motion.
The situation will dictate which movement or direction will be the most appropriate.
You never want to backpedal.
The tter you are, the better off you will be when moving.
Movement means greater survivability.
A smooth and polished presentation from concealment is key.
We have found time and time again that appendix carry is a superior choice for your preferred
method of carry.
Distance and time are key issues in getting the acceptable hits at typical CQB distances.
The term Sighting Continuum describes what we need to do at typical CQB distances. Its
simply a sliding scale from point shooting to perfect sight picture and alignment.
There is an area where movement and sighting intersect. There will be places in your move-
ment where a two handed grip will be out of the question.
There are angles of movement that favor shooting with the left hand over the right.
These techniques need to be practiced to be perfected. Youll be glad you did.
45
HOW TO CURE A FLINCH
By Kathy Jackson
W
eve all done it. Mysteriously misplaced holes ap-
pear in the target. The holes are low, below the
bullseye, and usually fall left of the centerline. What in the
world could cause that?
A inch.
A inch happens when your muscles clench suddenly in
anticipation of the shot ring, yanking the muzzle of the
gun downwards and off-target at the last possible mo-
ment. It can be made worse by ring without adequate
hearing protection, or by ring
large-caliber guns with unexpect-
edly solid recoil, or by ring guns
that just dont feel good in your
hand. Every shooter on the entire
planet has dealt with a inch at
one time or another. There are no
exceptions. Its the one universal
experience all shooters share.
Sometimes a habitual inch can be
created with just a single negative
experience. Ive met more than
one woman whose rst exposure
to shooting was when a jokester
relative handed her a full-power .357 Magnum, or a 12-
gauge shotgun loaded with 3 1/2-inch full powered slugs,
and told her to pull the trigger without warning her what to
expect. Such a rough introduction to the shooting sports
can create seriously negative opinions about shooting,
and often leaves an enduring inch.
Since every shooter has dealt with a inch, most shoot-
ers have some method of coping with a inch when one
develops. Its worth listening to experienced shooters at
the range, and nding out what works for them. The only
solution I would warn you away from is the non-solution
of mechanically adjusting your sights so that the gun hits
high and right when it is red by someone without a inch.
Thats a range trick, not a solution.
Diagnosis
Diagnosing a inch is not difcult. Sometimes you can
feel yourself getting ready to inch that clenched,
quivery feeling in your muscles right before the shot res
is often a telltale sign. Another telltale sign of a inch is
when you nd yourself trying to yank the trigger during
the brief, magic moment that your sights are perfectly
aligned exactly in the center of
the bullseye, rather than steadily
increasing the pressure on the
trigger while holding the front
sight as centered on target as
possible, without worrying too
much about minor wobble.
The most certain way to di-
agnose a inch is to fool your
muscles into believing that you
are about to re live ammuni-
tion, when in fact you are going
to dry re the gun. Heres how to
do that.
In order to diagnose and then cure your inch, if you have
a semiautomatic handgun, you will need to purchase
snap caps. Snap caps are inert ammunition-shaped ob-
jects you can put into your gun. They are the same size
and shape as your regular ammunition, but usually come
in bright colors. When a snap cap is loaded into your
semi-automatic handgun and the trigger is pulled, all you
will hear is a click. Snap caps are not live ammunition.
They cannot re, nor will they cycle the guns action.
This works best if you have two or three magazines. Fill
the magazine with a couple of live rounds, a snap cap,
...THE MOST CERTAIN
WAY TO DIAGNOSE A
FLINCH IS TO FOOL
YOUR MUSCLES INTO
BELIEVING THAT YOU
ARE ABOUT TO FIRE
LIVE AMMUNITION...
46
a little more live stuff, another snap cap, and so on. Ran-
domly mix the number and order of snap caps compared
to live rounds. If you only have one magazine, have a
friend ll it for you while you look elsewhere. If you have
two or more magazines, ll them yourself and then shufe
them around so you do not know which one is which.
Using these specially-prepared magazines, on the range
when the ring line is hot, safely load your rearm as you
ordinarily would.
To accomplish the same task with a revolver, you can
either randomly mix snap caps in with live ammunition
in the cylinder, or you can randomly leave a few empty
holes where ammunition would ordinarily go. Before you
close the cylinder, close your eyes and gently rotate the
cylinder. Close the cylinder without looking, so that you do
not know how the ammunition is lined up in your gun.
Now your rearm is loaded partially with real ammunition
and partially with fake ammunition which will not re. The
next step is to re the gun. Line your sights up on the tar-
get, focus on the front sight, and steadily increase pres-
sure on the trigger until the shot res with a bang. When
you get to a snap cap, instead of a bang you will hear a
click. And if you have been inching, you will graphically
see the muzzle end of the gun take a deep dive instead
of remaining steady as it should.
1

Having diagnosed the problem, its time to write the pre-
scription for curing it.
Prescription: Dry Fire
The rst and most important method of dealing with a
inch is lots of dry re. Be aware that dry re can be very
dangerous. If you have never dry red a handgun before,
please read the article titled Dry Fire Safety before you
go any further.
What is dry re? Dry re is going through the motions of
ring the gun when there is no ammunition in it. You can
do this at home as long as you have a safe backstop and
as long as you follow every single one of the rules for
safely dry ring a gun.
Fig 10-38 Safety Note
Be very, very careful not to allow your snap caps to get mixed
in among your defensive ammunition when leaving the range.
That could be very bad.
Random Thoughts #11:
Dry ring doesnt hurt most pistols. If
you are uncertain about your specic
pistol, it is advised that you consult a
professional.
There are no disadvantages to dry r-
ing, as long as it is carried out in a safe
manner. The advantages, however, are
too numerous to name.
Many experts even say that the best
shooters will dry re one hundred times
per every live shot fired over their lifetime.
If youre not dry ring... youre miss-
ing out on a HUGE opportunity to really
boost your pistol accuracy!
47
If you are uncertain whether you can safely dry re in your
home, DONT. You can always safely dry re on the range.
There is no rule that says you must always use ammuni-
tion at the range. It is perfectly safe and acceptable to
dry re there instead. No one will be surprised, because
good shooters often dry re at the range as one part of a
regular practice routine.
Just as if you were ring live ammunition, you will grip the
handgun properly, align your sights carefully, and slowly
increase pressure on the trigger until the triggers break
point is reached. You will keep your eye glued to the front
sight and will continue to hold the trigger to the rear with-
out lessening your ngers pressure on the trigger for a full
two seconds after the trigger has been completely pulled.
As you focus sharply on the front sight during dry re, you
may notice that your front sight wobbles a bit. This is nor-
mal and expected, not something to worry about or ght
against. If you watch the front sight for awhile, you will see
something interesting: no matter how badly your hand is
shaking, the area on the target that is actually covered by
your wobble zone is really quite small.
As long as your trigger pull is smooth, every single shot
will fall within that very small wobble zone close to the
center of your target. But if you try to snatch the trigger
back to get an absolutely perfect shot during the brief
moments when your front sight wobbles across the exact,
perfect center of the bullseye, your shots will land very
low and much further away from the center.
Do not try to muscle the wobble away. The more you
clench up, the worse the wobble becomes. And dont try
to race against it by snatching the trigger back. Simply
increase the pressure on your trigger while accepting the
wobble for the normal phenomenon that it is.
Even though you have accepted this normal wobble of
the front sight, remember that you are still trying to hold
the front sight as steady as you humanly can. Dont allow
it to dip or sway as a result of your trigger pull. If you nd
your trigger pull also pulls the sights out of alignment to
the right or to the left, adjust the amount of trigger n-
ger you have resting on the trigger. Grip the rearm rmly
rather than loosely so that your nontrigger ngers can-
not sympathetically tighten and milk the pistol while you
are pulling the trigger.
As you pull the trigger, you may be able to feel the ten-
sion within the trigger mechanism increasing so that the
pull feels heavier as the trigger gets further back. Do not
allow this to slow down the rate at which the trigger is
travelling to the rear. Instead, pull the trigger at the same
speed during the entire process, increasing the pressure
upon it steadily until the trigger breaks to the rear with a
sharp click.
Never think about the triggers break point, or about the
shot ring. Let the hammer fall surprise you, every time.
In order to keep themselves from thinking about the trig-
ger break and to allow the trigger break to come as a
surprise, many folks nd that chanting front sight front
sigh front sight helps keep their minds from trying to an-
ticipate the shot.
Fig 10-39 Even though you have accepted this normal wobble
of the front sight, remember that you are still trying to hold the
front sight as steady as you humanly can.
48
This is an important step: after the trigger has broken to
the rear, do not take your nger off the trigger for at least
two full seconds. Keep the sights steadily on the target
and continue holding the trigger completely to the rear
while you count one-one-thousand-two-one-thousand.
Try to dry re for at least ve or ten minutes every day or so.
Prescription: On The Range
On the range, try to do exactly as you have practiced
in dry re. Get the sights lined up on the target, focus
sharply on the front sight, and gradually increase pres-
sure on the trigger. Do not think about the shot ring. Do
not try to grab the magic moment when your sights are
completely and perfectly centered on the bullseye. In-
stead, accept that the front sight will wobble a little bit,
and concentrate on keeping it as steady as you can while
you steadily put increasing pressure on the trigger. Do
not try to gure out when the shot will re. Let that be a
surprise to you.
If you need to chant front sight front sight front sight, do
so. Anything to keep your mind from anticipating when the
shot will re. You want the shot to be a surprise to you.
Practice good follow-through. After the shot goes off,
continue holding the trigger completely to the rear while
you line the sights back up and focus sharply on the front
sight. Count one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand while
you hold the trigger to the rear. Then and only then, re-
lease the trigger and allow it to come forward.
If you feel your muscles getting ready to inch, take a deep
breath. Then safely unload your rearm, and practice dry-
ring right there on the range until you have settled down
a little. Any time you feel ready to inch, consciously relax
every muscle in your body except the ones you need in
order to shoot safely, and go back to dry ring until you
feel ready to try it again.
Checkup
After you have red live ammunition for awhile, its time for
a checkup. Mix snap caps in with your regular ammuni-
tion again, as you did for the initial diagnosis. This time,
you are simply going to shoot the gun and keep shooting
it. Since you have been doing so much dry re, you know
exactly what the sights should look like when you pull the
trigger on an unexpected snap cap it should look and feel
exactly as it does when you were expecting to dry re.
By the way, its kind of embarrassing to nd that muzzle
dipping downwards so dramatically when you come
across a snap cap while ring. The only cure Ive ever
found for that embarrassment is to conquer the inch.
Prescription: More Dry Fire
Back at home, set up your safe dry re area again. You
need to practice dry ring some more. This time you are
going to do something different: youre going to try bal-
ancing a coin on the front sight while you dry re.
2

Fig 10-40 If you need to chant front sight front sight front
sight, do so. Anything to keep your mind from anticipating
when the shot will fire. You want the shot to be a surprise to you.
49
Lay a penny across the top of the front sight so that it is
resting there. Then dry re as usual. Align the sights, fo-
cus on the front sight, and steadily increase pressure on
the trigger while keeping the coin balanced on top of the
front sight. Can you do it?
Practice until you can keep the penny balanced on top of
your handgun during each and every trigger pull, without
fail. Make a game of it: instead of using a penny, get a roll
or two of dimes and use them. Every time a dime falls off,
pick it up and put it into your penalty jar and then get
out another dime. When the jar is full enough, you can use
the contents to buy ammunition or professional rearms
instruction only. (No cheating ...)
Continue to regularly practice dry re, especially when
you cannot get to the range for awhile.
Follow-Up Care: Regular Check Ups
Now that your inch is under control, you should take
your snap caps to the range with you from time to time,
to check on your progress and to prevent the inch from
returning full force. Remember that you will need regular
dry re practice, too.
Most shooters have recurring bouts of inch trouble. This
isnt unexpected or unusual. It only means that it is time to
focus on the basics once again. And now you know what
to do about it when it happens to you.
FOOT NOTES:
1. This is also a good time to practice your ability to clear
a misfeed. The clearing sequence is often called Tap,
Rack, Bang. When you encounter a snapcap or any other
failure to re in a semi-automatic handgun, tap the base-
plate of the magazine to be certain it is rmly seated in
the gun, rack the slide to clear the non-functioning am-
munition out of the way, assess the target to be sure it still
needs shooting, and then bang (pull the trigger again).
2. Not on edge! Lay it at.
About the Author...
Kathy Jackson is the Managing Editor of Concealed Carry
Magazine. An assistant instructor at the Firearms Acade-
my of Seattle in Washington state, she takes special plea-
sure in teaching other women how to shoot. Read more
of her work on her personal website, the Cornered Cat
(www.corneredcat.com).
50
A inch happens when your muscles clench suddenly in anticipation of the shot ring, yank-
ing the muzzle of the gun downwards and off-target at the last possible moment.
Sometimes a habitual inch can be created with just a single negative experience.
The most certain way to diagnose a inch is to fool your muscles and brain into believing
that you are about to re live ammunition.
The rst and most important method of dealing with a inch is lots of dry re: going through
the motions of ring the gun when there is no ammunition in it.
As you focus sharply on the front sight during dry re, you may notice that your front sight
wobbles a bit. This is normal and expected, not something to worry about or ght against.
Do not try to muscle the wobble away. The more you clench up, the worse the wobble becomes.
Let the hammer fall surprise you, every time.
Many folks nd that chanting front sight, front sight, front sight helps keep their minds from try-
ing to anticipate the shot.
After the trigger has broken to the rear, do not take your nger off the trigger for at least two
full seconds.
Try to dry re for at least ve or ten minutes every day or so.
Practice good follow-through. After the shot goes off, continue holding the trigger completely
to the rear while you line the sights back up and focus sharply on the front sight.
Lay a penny across the top of the front sight so that it is resting there, then dry re as usual,
trying not to knock the coin off of the front sight.
51
CONCLUSION
T
his concludes our report on Pistol Accuracy. I hope you have found within this report, many guidelines by which
you can greatly improve your aptitude while armed. The men and women who participated in building this report
are frankly some of the industrys nest (not to mention, nicest) individuals involved in the Armed Citizen community.
They all have done some truly amazing things with their talents, and many of them are current instructors within the eld.
If at all possible, I strongly urge you to seek our professional training if not by these folks, by other professionals in
your area.
With that said, Id like to end by saying that the learning process for ANY given practice is never at an end. You can
never truly master a craft; there is always room for improvement. In addition to seeking professional, handson train-
ing, immerse yourself with books and other reading material which will all help you build a mental advantage and state
of readiness not to mention make your handson practice much more efcient.
Socialize with other people of a similar mindset. Compare strategies, and train together. Community involvement is
crucial when it comes to the learning process, both for your benet, as well as the benets of others who might be
able to learn from you.
Finally, I do hope that you will consider a membership to the United States Concealed Carry Association (USCCA), if
you are not already a member. For the mere cost of a box of ammo per year, you will have regular access to thousands
of folks just like yourself through participation in our members-only online forum.
Moreover, you will regularly receive our very own Concealed Carry Magazine which, through expert contributors in-
cluding those who participated in this report, is an enormous resource to the Armed Citizen. Concealed Carry Maga-
zine seeks to expand the awareness and challenge the comfort zones of those who read it, pushing them to become
more efcient, and more effective Armed Citizens.
Ultimately, a USCCA membership helps its readers lead more safe and secure lives.
Thank you for reading,
The Delta Media Team

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