What does "drive the gun" mean to you?

[Alric]

you drive a gun like you drive a vehicle... on the most basic level, you point it where you want it to go, and then go there. but it involves everything that driving a car involves- seeing your path, judging distance, identifying threats and reacting without thinking, using well-ingrained muscle memory to execute all to get to your goal alive and as efficiently as possible.

I like this description.

Also...

To me it means to make whatever is in my hands my bitch.

is good too

[MarshallDodge]

It means control the gun by making the gun work for you.

Like what bkb0000 said but I will add in ATTITUDE. Some shooters get out there and shoot a gun sheepishly, you see this a lot with ladies. The gun scares them or they concentrate too much on the gun and not enough on the whole picture.

Get a good grip, stance, lean into the gun, sight picture, and consider that target in front you as a threat. I always tell people that "The gun won't hurt you but the target will."

[SHIVAN]

Seems like most have nailed the essence above, but to help illustrate, a symptom of not driving the gun would be how many shooters let the recoil move them backwards, while in a static shooting position. Probably the most common thing I see in open enrollment carbine classes.

[J_B]

I admittedly never paid attention to this term until my division put on a day long tactical handgun class.

In training, I always worked my gun etc but never paid attention to the term since I felt it was a "tacti-cool" guy term until that day.

We had our SWAT guys there teaching etc and when I heard them say it and then saw it, I got it. Hey, I'm a Jarhead, they had to write it in crayon for me.

At the end of the day, I took "driving the gun" as being aggresive with it, beating it like it owed you money and making the gun work for you, not the the gun working you.

This is my take. And if I'm wrong, so be it. My ego isn't that big.

[Failure2Stop]

How I define it to students:

Driving the gun means to move the gun and body in the fastest, most efficient method possible from position to position. It requires smooth deliberate aggressive movement, attitude, grip, and mindset.

Not that anyone else is wrong, but I find it works well to define the concept as a whole as well as specific actions:
DRIVE the sights to the forehead
DRIVE the gun laterally from target to target
DRIVE to the next piece of cover
DRIVE into the supported standing

[Magsz]

Cool thread.

I had a feeling you were going to start a topic about this based upon last nights course of fire.

You did explain it well enough last night but i could see the wheels turning in your head after you gave your explanation as the wheels were turning in mine too.

It really got me thinking whether or not we, the students really understand what your point was.

It was pretty apparent with those that did and those that didnt. Its amazing what a willingness to dominate a skillset, a tool or a mindset will do for the individual.

For me, i kind of laugh about the whole experience as i remember the day when i made a change in my own shooting style that transformed me. I had the trail glades tactical range to myself about a year ago and i was failing miserably on some very simple carbine drills at 15 yards. I just couldnt make my hits to any degree of accuracy at any speed. During one string of fire i let some hate flow and decided to make the gun my prison bitch. Aggressive lean forward, a snarl on my face, tight core and proper grip and i was able to call every single press of the trigger.

As i continue to shoot and invest quality rounds down range ive come to think that the ability to drive the gun has quite a bit to do with mindset as i do firmly believe there is a degree of aggression involved in it that supersedes technical nuance at least to a certain extent.

What say you guys that do this for a living and not on the one way range?

[rob_s]

Not that anyone else is wrong, but I find it works well to define the concept as a whole as well as specific actions:
DRIVE the sights to the forehead
DRIVE the gun laterally from target to target
DRIVE to the next piece of cover
DRIVE into the supported standing

I like this. Especially in conjunction with jsantoro's definition.

I think it's really important to define not only what you mean by the term but also to explain the minutia of things. HOW to control the gun, HOW to acquire the next target, etc. I found that simply saying "drive the gun" wasn't sufficient. In some cases folks tried to do what they thought that meant and actually made things worse. Explaining how to keep tension on the gun so that you could better control your movement from one target to the next. Explaining that you should lead with your eyes not chase the gun. Describing and demonstrating how to keep control of the gun when performing reloads, etc.

[Safetyhit]

My first thought was that there may be some over thinking going on here, but after reading every post I see the clear logic. It takes the simple concept of effectively aiming and controlling a weapon to the next level using a more proactive mindset.

Interesting information to say the least.

[rob_s]

My first thought was that there may be some over thinking going on here,

There is always a danger of that to be sure, but FWIW the topic was borne out of observations on the range last night. In some cases over-thinking is better than not thinking at all!

In re-reading the thread Shivan hit on what I think is part of the concept as well which is to be the opposite of what I call lazy shooters. They stand a different way every time, weight back on the heels, gun loose in the shoulder, and it's clear that the gun is driving them, not the other way 'round. We had a few of those last night, and even when engaging a single 4" circle with 10 rounds at 5 yards in 5 seconds it became readily apparent who was driving who.

As mentioned earlier in the thread, this was one of those things that you say to a group of people that you are semi-responsible for and you see fully 50% of the group look back slack-jawed and then proceed to the line and NOT "drive the gun", at which point you have to drop back, punt, and break it down for them.

Hopefully the drills that we run stand out a bit in this regard. We try to observe, critique, and explain HOW to get the results we're asking for at whatever level the individual requires. There is always room for tweaking and improvement and we try to tailor the feedback to the shooter. When they don't know certain terminology, or think that they do but then don't execute the plan, or know the term, know the plan, but don't know how to make it happen, it became obvious to me that you have to break it down.

[TehLlama]

you drive a gun like you drive a vehicle... on the most basic level, you point it where you want it to go, and then go there. but it involves everything that driving a car involves- seeing your path, judging distance, identifying threats and reacting without thinking, using well-ingrained muscle memory to execute all to get to your goal alive and as efficiently as possible.

I was going to go exactly with that analogy. A LOT of people consider themselves drivers simply because they own cars, and can get in them and make them go where desired, without understanding the mechanics of it.


On a mechanical viewpoint, when I'm driving the gun, that means I'm using body mechanics (shoulder, arms and hands) to make the gun a rigid, but pivoting extension of my torso, and being able to utilize the optic on there to engage whatever I'm shooting at.

Using the term 'Drive the gun' usually works well because a shooter will realize that they need to focus on what's ahead and let the weapon system be an extension, instead of treating it like some lanky mechanical object they have to provide inputs to.