Weak handed shooting

[kirkland]

So I broke my right hand, which is my dominant hand. It's a Bennett's fracture, the break is in the base of the first metacarpal bone where it meets the cmc joint, basically the break is in the joint where the thumb meets the wrist. I had to undergo hand surgery where they installed k wires (pins basically) to hold the bones in alignment as it heals. I have 5-6 more weeks before the cast comes off and they remove the pins, then probably a couple more weeks of healing, then I'll have to do physical therapy to re-strengthen the hand. As of now I'm not allowed to use the hand at all, not even any of the fingers, nothing. Just doing everyday tasks has been quite a challenge. I may or may not ever gain 100% function in this hand again. So needless to say I'm not too happy about it.

A few days after I got my cast, I was looking at some of my pistols and I decided to do some dry fire practice with my left hand, and it became quickly apparent that my weak handed shooting ability was sorely lacking. I couldn't decide which eye I wanted to use, my trigger pull was abysmal, jerking the sights well out of alignment with the target, and I had no idea how to rack a round into the chamber with one hand. Then I got to thinking, if I was in a firefight and lost the use of my right hand I would be up shit creek. I think sometimes we don't realise how much we take things for granted until we lose them. I was starting to get pretty dang good at shooting, I never expected to break my hand, now all of a sudden I can't shoot worth a darn. I'm toying with the idea of going out to my favorite shooting spot and doing some weak handed live fire practice this weekend, see if I can hit anything.

So my question is how often do you guys train one handed and weak handed shooting? What techniques do you use for weak handed loading and shooting?

I've seen a couple weak handed shooting training videos, but they were few and far between, it seems to me that this may be an overlooked area of training by a lot of people.

[dbain99]

Dot Torture includes weak hand shooting, a shot timer and circles don't lie.
Drawing, racking the slide & reloading should all be practiced but they suck to do, that's why we don't do them as much as we should.


Sent via telegraph with the same fingers I use to sip whiskey

[Leaveammoforme]

It would have taken me a week to type that much weak hand only.

First time I ever shot weak hand only was in my very first pistol match. I chanted "Don't drop it" in my mind before every shot. I was yanking, flinching and accuracy was atrocious.

I've since learned through practice that it's not simply switching the pistol to another hand. I have to hold a pistol at an almost 45° angle canted inwards when shooting weak side. This puts the sights in better line with my dominant eye which allows me to actually hit what I'm aiming at.

Tables, boots or really any surface that has free space under/beside it can be used to cycle the slide. The tricky part is reloading in a safe fashion. I'm sure different trainers have different approaches but I have witnessed pure genius from a one armed fellow.

He simply squatted down and placed the pistol in his knee pit (?). He removed the empty magazine, inserted a fresh magazine and cycled the slide (using pressure from his knee pit to squeeze the slide) while pushing the handgun out with his hand.

I agree it's an overlooked area until someone ,who is serious, realizes they have a major deficiency. Then it gets a lot of attention.

[26 Inf]

If you shot with both eyes open, just bring the gun up until you get a sight picture, it will naturally be in front of your dominant eye. If you close one eye, close the one you always close, same thing.

Most folks roll the pistol a little to the strong side (inward) as your hand would rotate throwing a punch, this locks up everything. I tend to step forward a bit with left foot if I'm shooting left hand and with the right if I'm shooting right hand.

Reloading one hand - If you have a holster you can place the weapon in the holster and insert the new mag, if the slide is locked to the rear and you can't operate the slide catch with the hand you are holding the gun with catch the rear sight on your holster muzzle rotated away from the body and use it to let the slide go forward. If you happen to be near something with a sharp corner or edge, you can catch the front of the slide (not the front sight) on the edge and let it go forward. Using either of these methods 'snap' it to allow the slide to come forward unimpeded, do not ease it forward. (assuming your support hand is disabled - or you can reach the holster with your weak hand)

In reality with an IWB holster, you may be better off just shoving the weapon in a pocket, I generally rotate the weapon so the mag well is forward, shove in the mag, remove the weapon and try to catch the back edge of the ejection port on the hem of the pocket to get it off the slide catch, allowing it to go forward. I have some Wrangler Technician pants have a leather tape measure/knife patch on the right hand pocket which keeps things from getting torn up.

I figured out hooking the ejection port when I was working through one hand techniques with my LCP. For the life of me I could not get on the rear sight (nearly nonexistent) to reliably get the slide forward, so I tried the back of the ejection port - cool beans. The only pistols I have that this method isn't 100% on are my Browning HP, and my 1911's.

A quicker way that requires you to be momentarily stationary, is to dump the mag with the weapon in firing position, then rotate the weapon mag well up and place the weapon between your knees, place the new mag in, grip the weapon and shove the weapon down and forward from between the knees. This allows the slide to go to the rear a little and release the slide catch, and then go forward under spring pressure as you push it from between the knees. If you are doing an in battery reload just wait until you have the pistol rotated with the mag well up before you punch the mag release, that way you can retain the partial if needed.

Hope this helps.

[kirkland]

Awesome tips guys thanks. I will definitely give some of these methods a try.

[293sheepdog]

When I first started shooting support hand I hated it and figured if the worst happened I would make do. Until we started simunition training and you see all the hits guys are getting in the hands because under stress you get tunnel vision and your brain automatically focuses on the threat which is also where you will be shooting towards your point of focus and so will the bad guy. A real eye opener and I take support hand shooting very seriously now. I shoot everything I shoot strong hand witht support hand too. Including reloading and malfunctin drills.

[hermes200]

i have seen people who have master both last and right arms shooting, it depends also on your dominant eye and constant practice.

[Wildcat]

We run an informal practice session (shooting steel plates) on a weekly basis from November through the end of April. Each week there are usually five strings of fire all with mandatory reloads, some with movement; one or two of the strings will often involve use of strong-hand-only and/or weak handed shooting. Its nothing fancy but it does freshen the skills like draws, reloads, target discrimination, target transitions, use of back-up guns..... We treat carbines as any other gun (in this situation, since we are shooting steel plates at pistol distances, the carbines are restricted to pistol caliber) The carbines get shot strong-hand-only or weak-hand-only as the course requires (manipulations may be accomplished using both hands). If you haven't tried it, you may be surprised at the results. To be clear this doesn't mean holding the carbine at arm's length like a pistol, the stock gets nested into the shoulder as usual and you get a good cheekweld but no forward support is used.

We haven't required complete one handed operation (it may be a bit too much for some of the people who attend) but those who wish to practice it safely may do so. One of our regulars lost the use of his left arm in a motorcycle wreck and does everything right hand only. His guns usually have some sort of a projecting tab (slide cover plate on a Glock with a 1/4" long racker) so he can rack the slide easily. He holsters to perform the reload but I don't doubt that he would use some of the techniques that were mentioned earlier.

There is usually some moaning about the strings with the weak-hand-only but I think we've converted most of them to the idea that it could be important to have figured out how to do some of these things. A few people have actually put in the effort to seriously improve their left handed shooting and it shows. They've returned with stories about a match they attended where they proudly -owned- a weak-hand stage and they attribute it to the practice that they were "made" to do.

Keep up the dry firing.