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    How Important Is Weak-Side Shooting?

    I've been shooting 3/12 years. I have never tried weak side shooting and it really seems awkward. How important is this to learn for home defense or maybe a SHTF situation? Have any of you vets. done this in combat? What is your experience and comment?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Bullseye View Post
    I've been shooting 3/12 years. I have never tried weak side shooting and it really seems awkward. How important is this to learn for home defense or maybe a SHTF situation? Have any of you vets. done this in combat? What is your experience and comment?
    For SD and SHTF absolutely a skill that should be learned and practiced. Learn to shoot weak handed, do one handed reloads, etc... I always make it a point when practicing with a pistol to shoot a couple of mags weak handed. Find a competent trainer and take a course with weak handed shooting being part of the training.
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    Depends on how important your life is.

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    A mandatory skill that should be practiced regularly.
    Of course it seems awkward-it’s your weak/non dominant hand/side. It does improve with use and practice.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gaijin View Post
    A mandatory skill that should be practiced regularly.
    Of course it seems awkward-it’s your weak/non dominant hand/side. It does improve with use and practice.
    I sure hope so.

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    Quote Originally Posted by raggedyedge View Post
    For gunfighting, there should be no weak side.

    No dominant eye.

    A truly ambi rifle must have perfectly mirrored controls.

    Please check out my video demonstrating why being an ambidextral rifleman/gunfighter is so crucial.

    The Ambidextral Gunfighter

    Seeking feedback.
    It is great to ask a question and get a response from a specialist in that field. I am right handed, right eye dominant. But I bat in baseball lefthanded and split wood with a maul equally well over either shoulder so I can believe what you are saying. My body is having trouble though. Just a few minutes ago dry firing I felt completely awkward. I guess it is just practice.

    Your video makes the point that shooting from behind cover the wrong way exposes much too much which is why I am interested.

    OK, something else to work on.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dr. Bullseye View Post
    It is great to ask a question and get a response from a specialist in that field. I am right handed, right eye dominant. But I bat in baseball lefthanded and split wood with a maul equally well over either shoulder so I can believe what you are saying. My body is having trouble though. Just a few minutes ago dry firing I felt completely awkward. I guess it is just practice.

    Your video makes the point that shooting from behind cover the wrong way exposes much too much which is why I am interested.

    OK, something else to work on.
    We always advocated transitioning to the left hand for corners where you are turning right and when shooting around the left side of cover.

    I'm a firm believer in this. That being said, unless you are willing to put in the dry time to smooth your transition out and then devote sufficient reps to ensure it is second nature, you may be better off focusing on rolling the pistol to the left in your strong hand grip.

    The reason I say this is because in viewing officers under stress in force on force training it became clear to me that our program did not give officer enough reps to make transitioning second nature.

    If you want to learn to transition:

    Hold your pistol in your normal shooting grip on target. Take a moment and actually think about where the web of your hand hits the back strap, how the grip feels/touches your trigger finger, where your strong hand fingers wrap around the grip, where your thumb goes, etc. Do the same thing with your support hand, where is the heel of your support hand contacting the grip and the heel of the strong hand, how are your fingers interlaced onto your strong fingers, where is your support side thumb, etc.

    This sounds rudimentary, but you'd be surprised how many shooters have never taken the time to look and then take a moment with their eyes closed and focus on what their grip FEELS and LOOKS like. This is important because our goal is to create a mirror/negative image of that grip when we transition.

    Now, transitioning quick and dirty - go slow, accentuating each step:

    1) Take your support hand completely away from the weapon - wave to the crowd with your support hand (this is important in learning a sure, fluid, transition - the support hand completely releases from the weapon);

    2) Relax your strong grip on the weapon enough to let the muzzle depress - this creates a gap between the beavertail of the backstrap and your strong hand;

    3) Slide your support hand over your strong hand and release the strong hand's grip on the weapon, establish the master grip with your support hand as you wave to the crowd with the strong hand (once again, this is important in learning a sure, fluid, transition - the strong hand completely releases from the weapon;

    4) Quite waving with the strong hand and grip the pistol - the strong hand is now the support hand;

    5) Take a moment and check your grip - does it look and feel like a mirror image of your strong side grip - it should.

    6) Slowly take the same steps as you transition back.

    The wave to the crowd thing is designed to get chuckles and in doing so reinforce that the hands have to come completely away from the grip during the transition. Play along with the silliness until you are familiar with the technique, then begin keeping your hands closer to the pistol as you do this.

    As you gain proficiency it will seem that you are tossing the pistol from one hand to the other, but you aren't - if you practice, as I've instructed, you will find that both hands, in sequence, completely release from the pistol, and at no point is the pistol not gripped with at least one hand.

    I think and even more critical skill is being able to use your support hand only. This includes practicing picking the pistol up and achieving a shooting grip from the ground. In our imagined scenarios we always somehow end up with the pistol in our support hand. If you take a round through your wrist or up your forearm (Edwin Mirales - FBI Shootout in Miami) you will likely drop the gun.

    Rogers Shooting School tests are about 50% one hand, a good percentage of those tests are support hand only.
    Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President... - Theodore Roosevelt, Lincoln and Free Speech, Metropolitan Magazine, Volume 47, Number 6, May 1918.

    Every Communist must grasp the truth. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party Mao Zedong, 6 November, 1938 - speech to the Communist Patry of China's sixth Central Committee

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    Quote Originally Posted by 26 Inf View Post
    We always advocated transitioning to the left hand for corners where you are turning right and when shooting around the left side of cover.

    I'm a firm believer in this. That being said, unless you are willing to put in the dry time to smooth your transition out and then devote sufficient reps to ensure it is second nature, you may be better off focusing on rolling the pistol to the left in your strong hand grip.

    The reason I say this is because in viewing officers under stress in force on force training it became clear to me that our program did not give officer enough reps to make transitioning second nature.

    If you want to learn to transition:

    Hold your pistol in your normal shooting grip on target. Take a moment and actually think about where the web of your hand hits the back strap, how the grip feels/touches your trigger finger, where your strong hand fingers wrap around the grip, where your thumb goes, etc. Do the same thing with your support hand, where is the heel of your support hand contacting the grip and the heel of the strong hand, how are your fingers interlaced onto your strong fingers, where is your support side thumb, etc.

    This sounds rudimentary, but you'd be surprised how many shooters have never taken the time to look and then take a moment with their eyes closed and focus on what their grip FEELS and LOOKS like. This is important because our goal is to create a mirror/negative image of that grip when we transition.

    Now, transitioning quick and dirty - go slow, accentuating each step:

    1) Take your support hand completely away from the weapon - wave to the crowd with your support hand (this is important in learning a sure, fluid, transition - the support hand completely releases from the weapon);

    2) Relax your strong grip on the weapon enough to let the muzzle depress - this creates a gap between the beavertail of the backstrap and your strong hand;

    3) Slide your support hand over your strong hand and release the strong hand's grip on the weapon, establish the master grip with your support hand as you wave to the crowd with the strong hand (once again, this is important in learning a sure, fluid, transition - the strong hand completely releases from the weapon;

    4) Quite waving with the strong hand and grip the pistol - the strong hand is now the support hand;

    5) Take a moment and check your grip - does it look and feel like a mirror image of your strong side grip - it should.

    6) Slowly take the same steps as you transition back.

    The wave to the crowd thing is designed to get chuckles and in doing so reinforce that the hands have to come completely away from the grip during the transition. Play along with the silliness until you are familiar with the technique, then begin keeping your hands closer to the pistol as you do this.

    As you gain proficiency it will seem that you are tossing the pistol from one hand to the other, but you aren't - if you practice, as I've instructed, you will find that both hands, in sequence, completely release from the pistol, and at no point is the pistol not gripped with at least one hand.

    I think and even more critical skill is being able to use your support hand only. This includes practicing picking the pistol up and achieving a shooting grip from the ground. In our imagined scenarios we always somehow end up with the pistol in our support hand. If you take a round through your wrist or up your forearm (Edwin Mirales - FBI Shootout in Miami) you will likely drop the gun.

    Rogers Shooting School tests are about 50% one hand, a good percentage of those tests are support hand only.
    Actually, I think I shot a pistol left handed when I was 11 years old. But I have not shot a pistol since. I was really writing about my AR 15 but I get your point about dry firing and practice and muscle memory. There are some large granite boulders near me almost a man's height. You can shoot from either side and there is about 50-75 yards of clearing behind them. This looks like a good live fire place to practice. After doing drys for a couple weeks and live fire once, perhaps there will be light at the end of the tunnel.

  9. #9
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    Here is a way to transition shoulders:

    TRANSITIONING FROM STRONG SIDE TO SUPPORT SIDE WITH THE QUICK ADJUST TWO-POINT SLING (SLING ROUTED OVER STRONG SHOULDER UNDER SUPPORT ARM)

    1. Ensure safety engaged.

    2. Release support hand grip from the weapon. Try to keep weapon as level as possible and your observation down range. It is okay if the muzzle is slightly depressed.

    3. Move the support arm so the sling is on the outside of the support arm. As shown below, one technique is to bend the elbow 90 degrees and place the elbow between the sling and weapon.

    Attachment 53818

    4. Support hand grasps front of mag well.

    5. Shove weapon forward and move stock across body to weak shoulder. Make sure the weapon is shoved far enough forward to clear equipment.

    6. Pull stock into support side shoulder. At this point the strong hand is still grasping the pistol grip.

    7. Strong hand moves forward to grasp handguards/tube.

    8. Support moves from mag well to pistol grip.

    9. Disengage safety.

    Here is a video by Kyle Lamb (3:17 and 4:57 show the movements in the video) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LoGh-tZtKKA

    This one is better, but it's production values are not as good: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhojNCdksYw
    Last edited by 26 Inf; 09-16-18 at 13:49.
    Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President... - Theodore Roosevelt, Lincoln and Free Speech, Metropolitan Magazine, Volume 47, Number 6, May 1918.

    Every Communist must grasp the truth. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party Mao Zedong, 6 November, 1938 - speech to the Communist Patry of China's sixth Central Committee

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by raggedyedge View Post
    For gunfighting, there should be no weak side.

    The Ambidextral Gunfighter

    Seeking feedback.
    Check PM's
    Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President... - Theodore Roosevelt, Lincoln and Free Speech, Metropolitan Magazine, Volume 47, Number 6, May 1918.

    Every Communist must grasp the truth. Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. Our principle is that the Party commands the gun, and the gun must never be allowed to command the Party Mao Zedong, 6 November, 1938 - speech to the Communist Patry of China's sixth Central Committee

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