What does "drive the gun" mean to you?

[NC Buckeye]

To me it conveys a proactive, purposeful, aggressive movement (think driving a nail, driving a golf ball, etc).

You are never "along for the ride" waiting for something to happen, you are making it happen. Like a race car it is either accelerating or decelerating it is never maintaining a constant speed.

[jwfuhrman]

Driving the Gun means you are Controlling the Gun, not the Gun is controlling you. You control the gun with stance, trigger control, grip, cheek weld, sight picture. If all of those are not operating in unison and in the correct order and flow, your gun will be the one dictating how you shoot.

[Dano5326]

The vast majority of persons I've instructed aren't lacking for aggressiveness, and only need a refinement of technique or outlook. The term "drive the... " came from teaching this camp. Don't be a passenger, reactive, passive..etc. Drive that bitch where you want it, when you want it.

Persons trained in old school non gun-fightery... Classical marksmanship.. NRA, CMP, Service Rifle, sling in... Natural Point of Aim.. BRASS, etc... Have a rough time with the paradigm shift to getting rds off as fast as possible, only as accurate as needed. Being able to recognize, ride, and act on these compromises instead of settling into absolute "perfect" technique is more difficult for some than others.

[CarlosDJackal]

I've always understood it to mean that one should control the gun especially when engaging multiple targets. Not only does this mean the ability to move from one target to the next; but be able to do it with minimal wasted motion.

Moving from one target to the next is akin to going from 0 to 60 and back to 0 again. In other words, when you move from one target to the other you want to be able to control the movement enough so that the gun stops where you need it to in order to make the shot accurately.

FWIW, I have found that CSM Kyle Lamb's 2x2x2 exercise (do a search on youtube for Viking Tactics and you should find video clips of it) is excellent at developing this. While using an honest "A" zone it forces me to obtain a sight picture before each shot or I end up throwing a round. JM2CW.

[Yojimbo]

To me "driving the gun" means that you are conciously and purposely controlling your weapon so that it goes where you want it to go and it does what you want it to do.

It means the man is imposing his will over the machine in order to accomplish the tasks at hand.

[rob_s]

FWIW, I have found that CSM Kyle Lamb's 2x2x2 exercise (do a search on youtube for Viking Tactics and you should find video clips of it) is excellent at developing this. While using an honest "A" zone it forces me to obtain a sight picture before each shot or I end up throwing a round. JM2CW.

Funny you should mention this, as the subject specifically came up while running the 2x2x2 and the 1-5.

[Surf]

There have been some excellent descriptions of what "driving the gun" means.

I think the analogy of a car is what most people can relate to easily. A car is an inanimate tool or mechanical object that by itself can do little, but perhaps look pretty. However with a driver and depending on that drivers skill level, that mechanical object can perform wonders.

Another way to describe it is, The rifle shall not be a limiting factor in your performance. Only YOU are the limiting factor between good and great. Take control over the rifle and be great.

As our J_B, our Jarhead friend (I say Jarhead with all due respect) so eloquently described,

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.

I am the same way, a visual learner. Paint them a quick picture, in crayon if necessary and run a quick, simple, down and dirty demo of what driving the rifle looks like. This visual experience will more than likely do far more than any verbal description will do. It will sink it in for the majority of people and they will "get it".

For visual learners you can tell them put your feet here, hands here, elbows here, move eyes, head, gun, yada, yada, yada and the results will often be mediocre at best. On the other hand, show a visual learner something once and they will often mimic it very well, or at least have a much better understanding of the "how" and "why". I do not like to be a "demo" whore, but when there is a good amount of confusion as to the topic at hand, a picture paints a thousand words so to speak.

[Kevin P]

I was doing a search on this topic and came across this thread. I think I got the concept, but was just wondering if anyone wanted to contribute some more knowledge specifically concerning a handgun? Thanks

[DireWulf]

It means a better method than that super-slow and exhausting "guns and eyeballs" bullshit that they humped for, like, centuries.

Letting your head and eyes move and pushing to gun to where they rest makes a helluva lot more mechanical sense, is faster, and makes one far less likely to overshoot because you're forced to deal with starting and stopping the mass of the gun in the same plane.

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

Fantastic descriptors. Worthy of a sticky in my opinion. I agree with Mr. Santoro whole heartedly. Thank Christ we've moved past the "guns and eyeballs" bullshit. It was unnatural and clumsy.

[theblackknight]

I win.