HANDGUN OFFENSE
By Captain Rex Applegate
The shooting ability of
our pioneers very often put the little fellow on even terms with the big one.
The highest premium of all — life — was often the reward for skilled gun-fighting.
The six-gun experts, Wild Bill Hickok, John Wesley Hardin, Billy the Kid, and
Doc Holliday, and many others, lived — and died by their guns. Their guns were
tools, not game getters or target shooters.
They did not have hand
weapons as mechanically and scientifically perfect as those we have today, but
the principles and methods which they used are still sound. No other nation has
equalled the
The high degree of skill
attained by expert target shooters is to be admired, but the soldier is only
concerned with the use of the pistol to kill a Jap or Nazi. Therefore, the
soldier's goal is to develop confidence in the handgun and to know that he has
the ability to use it on the battlefield, where seconds count.
Most shooting frays take
place at a distance of not over twenty feet. Consequently, the man who can
handle his weapon quickly and accurately from any position without using the
sights is the one who will stand the best chance of not going out feet first. These
conditions are entirely different from those of target shooting. Utmost speed,
plus confidence and ability — which come only with practice are the important
things.
In World War II we are
again meeting the man-to-man warfare of earlier times. We are meeting it in
street fighting, house fighting, and close-quarter
But we cannot learn to
use the handgun properly and skilfully by only sighting and firing at
bull's-eyes. We have to practice killing Nazis and Japs
on targets and in shooting conditions that bear a close resemblance to actual
combat. We must learn to hit close-up targets in the shape of the Axis enemy,
quickly and with little deliberate aiming. The recruit who
battles the black dot on the target range and does no more than that is likely
to find that his confidence rises as slowly as his target skill in this stage
of his initial training.
But pit the same man
against silhouettes and life-size facsimiles of Nazis and Japs
and ask him only to register a hit on a vital spot on the target and the
training story is different. His confidence in himself and his weapon rise, and
a deadly short-range pistol fighter can be produced with comparatively few
rounds, and in a much shorter time.
This is not a
"new" type of shooting. Various experts have advocated its adoption
by all law enforcement agencies. Aside from these experts and the FBI, little
thought has been given to teaching a man how to use his handgun without the use
of sights in offensive combat. The method has been given various names, such as
body pointing, instinctive pointing, or finger pointing shooting. The Shanghai
Police adopted it and trained men in it extensively to combat criminals.
Certain units of the British and
Now to
get down to the shooting. First you think of the gun merely as an
extension of your hand and the barrel as an extension of the forefinger which
you are already able to raise and point instinctively, naturally, and
accurately at any object. If you were able to sight along your finger, you
would be surprised at the accuracy with which you were pointing. All you are
now doing is adding a gun to the pointing hand, with the barrel an extension of
the pointing finger. This is the basic principle. Accuracy is possible as you
will soon discover in shooting at man-sized silhouettes and prove, later on, in
shooting at actual men in combat.
The firing is done with
the body in a crouch. The arm is fully extended, although the elbow may be
slightly flexed. The grip on the weapon is tight — almost as hard as you can
hold it. The crouch is used because men firing instinctively take this
position. With the arm extended, control of elevation and deflection is easier
and the necessity for the large amount of practice in learning to shoot
accurately "from the hip" is eliminated. To repeat, the grip on the
pistol or revolver is extremely tight. You do this in combat, too, because in
the midst of battle a man instinctively grips his weapon hard — and he
certainly does not take time to hold his breath, line up the sights, and
squeeze the trigger.
Let's consider the
difference between instinctive "pointing" shooting and hip shooting.
In hip shooting, the weapon is fired from a locked wrist resting on either the
right or the left hip. The slightest movement of the wrist from this firm
position moves the gun through a decided arc which -makes big changes in
elevation and deflection even at close range. When a gun is resting on the hip,
the shooter is looking at the target on a line from his eyes to the object at a
point roughly twelve inches from that to which the barrel of the gun points if
the two lines of sight are parallel. Hip shooting is not practical from a
crouching position for obvious reasons. It will do in man-to-man combat at
extremely short ranges, but does not have the advantages of firing with the arm
fully extended.
The best system to
combine speed and practicability without the use of the sights gives you a
stance something like this: Body crouched, arm extended with the gun in a
straight line with your belt buckle and your eyes. This is far enough forward
from the shooter's crouch so that he can see his weapon and the target at the
same time and easily line up the two. To get the pistol into the desired
position in relation to the eye and belt buckle, it is necessary to flex the
wrist a slight degree to the right, assuming you are a right-handed shooter. Now
windage (deflection) will automatically take care of
itself and your main concern will be elevation which can easily be controlled
after a few hundred rounds of practice. The man who shoots in this manner fires
in the direction in which his body is pointing. You are automatically in a line
for accurate
In practice you should
stand about six feet in front of a full-length mirror and take the crouching
position. Either your right or left foot may be forward. After taking a crouch,
you should raise and lower your hand, all the while looking at your image but
never looking at the pointing finger — only at the spot you are going to hit.
In the crouch, your body should be leaning forward,
your shoulders as nearly level as possible. This position is in reality only
the pause for firing which you would make if you were walking with your gun in
your hand ready for any Jap or Nazi.
After a short period of
mirror practice, you should practice with a gun, snapping the trigger as you
raise it in line with the point on your reflection in the mirror. The best part
of a man's anatomy to get a hit on is the midriff. Any hit a few inches up or
down, right or left, is almost as good. You should now stand at right angles to
the mirror and then wheel and snap the weapon at your image.
Because of the different
positions in which your feet may be at the time of firing, you should let your
body direction change by moving your feet any way that comes naturally. Any set
method of wheeling the body and moving the feet is not advisable because of the
uncertain elements of terrain, ground, and position of your feet which will be
common in combat.
Now stand with your back
to the mirror and whirl around toward the target. It is apparent that with your
arm extended and the gun in line with your eyes and belt buckle, the body does
the actual aiming at the target.
It can be demonstrated
how much better this method is if you face at right or left angles to the
target and, instead of turning your body, merely swing your arm from right or
left toward the target. It is easy to find that it is hard to swing your arm in
a new direction and maintain the proper deflection for accurate firing without
turning your body. Usually two-thirds of such shots will go off either before
your arm swings to the target or after it has passed beyond it.
After the pointing stage
has been mastered, get a toy gun which fires a little wooded dart with a rubber
suction cap on the end. You can use this just as it comes from the toy counter,
or you can put its mechanism in a wooden dummy of the shape and weight of the
gun which you will later be firing. With this toy you can see in the mirror the
exact point of impact, and also your own errors. Small BB type pistols have
often been used for this purpose.
After some practice with
this you are ready for live ammunition and a target. Start out at a distance of
not more than eight feet from a man-sized Nazi or Jap silhouette. You will be
able to see your hits, and you will find that your errors are: (1) A loose grip
which makes for wide dispersion and is easily corrected; (2) Failure to raise
the weapon to a point where the barrel is parallel with the ground — also
easily eliminated by practice; (3) Failure to adopt a locked wrist and elbow in
the shooting arm; (4) Instead of using the pivot of the shoulder joint alone
when raising the weapon, you may shove your arm and gun forward in firing. This
makes the barrel point downward.
After you have mastered
the feel of your weapon by firing live ammunition and can place your shots in a
group no larger than the spread of an average hand, increase the distance to a
maximum of twenty feet. At this distance, a shot group which can be covered by
a spread of two hands is not bad in the early stages.
From this point — it has
been strictly frontal firing, so far — move back up to the eight-foot range and
practice on the silhouettes from right and left angles, taking care to see that
you make the complete body turn changing your foot positions naturally and
instinctively.
You have probably noticed
that this article does not deal with the quick draw. It is assumed that in
combat you will already have your gun in your hand, perhaps in a lowered
position, and that you are anticipating its speedy use. After the first moments
of tenseness after a soldier goes into a combat, gun in hand, he will relax a
bit and usually carry his weapon with the barrel pointing toward the ground at
about a 4 5-degree angle from his body. It is then necessary for him to raise
it to a 90-degree angle to enable him to fire accurately.
And now a final word as
to the difference if the weapon is a revolver instead of a pistol. The training
method outlined applies to both weapons, allowing for a few variations in
procedure owing to the differences in build of the two types of handguns.
Generally speaking, automatics fall in two classes, the U. S. Army calibre .45,
and all other well-known types of automatics, both American and foreign.
Because of the butt construction of the GI .45, a tight grip will make the
weapon automatically point its barrel downward even when the arm is raised to
fire. This calls for a slight upward cock of the wrist to bring the barrel
parallel with the ground. But the soldier should be warned that if he uses a
revolver or a different type of automatic, he will find that such a cocking of
his wrist will reduce the accuracy of his shooting. The U. S. Colt .32, all
European 7.65mm., weapons of comparable type, and the Luger
are all constructed so that a natural tight grip without the wrist cock and a
slightly flexed elbow will make the gun point accurately when the arm is half
raised so that the weapon is at a point midway between the belt and eye level
for the firing position. The following method has been found equally useful in
handling pistol or revolver.
To fire the gun, hold it
in a tight grip, without cocking the wrist, arm straight and rigid, and raise
the gun to a point not quite on a level with the eyes. Although distance the weapon is raised is
practically doubled because the elbow is not flexed, and the time of firing is
a fraction of a second more, a shooter trained this way can fire a .45 or any
other type of handgun with accuracy and still use the natural pointing
position. Having once learned this way, the
shooter will not be forced to change his wrist action in changing weapons.
Source: Infantry Journal, August 1943.