[Hard Ball]

Practice Point Shooting

. I think most of us own hanguns and when we are shooting we are practicing shooting in self defense. The vital question is are you practicing foe the most probable actual conditions of a gun fight. To evaluate what you are doing there are some things you shoud know.
Consider these facts about gun fights which actually occur in the United States. The FBI study "In the Line of Fire: Violence Against Law Enforcement (1997) found that the majority of officer involved shootings happen at 10 feet or less and in the dark or under poor lighting conditions and are over in an average time of 7 seconds.
In these encounters the criminals had a 90 percent hit rate while the officers involved had a 41 percent hit rate. Why?
Because the criminals beeing unschooled in modern pistol shooting techniques simply raised his arm to shoulder level, pointed his pistol at the officer and fired as rapidly as he could. Also of course, it takes far less time for a criminal to decide to shoot to kill than for the officer to realize he is under attack and fire back.
Officer debrieffings show that many officers suddenly finding them selves under fire react by pointing their weapon at the target and firing at the attacker as fast as they can.
Why don't the officers use the specialized stances and use their sights as most of them have been taught? Because of the phisical changes that place almost instantly when you are suddenly under lethal attack.
Your body is flooded with adrenaline. You lose fine muscle coordination and complex motor skills. You may suffer from tunnel vision as you concentrate completely on the target. Under the intense stress of a kill or be killed situation loss of near vision is common making it difficult to see your sights clearly and focus on things within four feet. Your front sight may be blurred if you can see it at all and the loss of loss of fine muscle control and complex motor skills means your sight alignment may be impossible.
What will you do under these conditions lookking into your opponent's muzzle flash? You will instinctively point your weapon at the target and fire at the attacker as fast as you can.
If you have not learned and practiced a good syetem of point shooting you will be "praying and spraying." I would recommend that you reject the theories of those experts who have never been shot at and learn and practice point shooting now.
And if you ever have the bad luck to be in a kill or be killed hand gun fight, Good luck when you pull the trigger.!


__________________

 

[andy]

as long as you get both hands on the pc, raise it to eye level, and have PRACTICED so firing, you can reliably hit the chest, to 10 ft, with just point shooting, and you should practice such a great deal, along with firing as fast as you can,many,many shots, as you move,on movers,in bad light. Such moving target practice is hard to get set up to do, as it requires either a motorized target or else a buddy to crank a bicycle pedal-wheel, to move the target. The target doesn't have to move all that fast, , or all that far, but it should move, and the light should be poor. A double layer of black contruction plastic sheeting, hung over a framework of 2x4's,will acheive this "poor light' condition. Remember, 10 yds is EXTREME LONG RANGE for a justifible shooting by a civilian. So your "training range" doesn't need to be large at all. A 4" "brain circle', at 10 ft, is JUST as hard to hit as is the 10" chest circle, at 22 ft. The muzzle of the gun IS 3 ft closer to his chest than are your toes, ya know. If u want to practice 10 yd stuff, inside a 10 ft square "dark room", you simply shoot from one corner of the room to the other corner (kitty-corner) of the room at the "brain circle". You will find it QUITE hard to hit, in the sort of time frames that you MIGHT have before you get shot yourself.

 

[Hard Ball]

" point shooting IS more important than aimed fire"

Posted by .223 Fan on 6-20-2004

 

[andy]

that's right,it IS since nearly 90%of justifiable shooting takes place within the 10 ft practical range limitation of point shooting. that makes it 10x as likely for point shooting to be what's needed as sighted fire. Good thing, too, cause almost nobody is very fast with sighted fire, and they tend to fixate their focus on the attacker, rather than on their front sight, and the latteris BADLY needed for times where you have to hit the chest beyond 5 yds or so.

 

[brass hammer]

practice what you preach.

ask, j. david, glen bartley,


i try a 'cold kwik draw' and generally get a cloud of dust/rocks 3' in front of target,

i have a little naa .22 mag [worn out] i've carried for years,and would snap shoot 12ga. hulls from 6-12' . just haven' fun,


one thing I have learned in life[so far] is, if you put your opponent on the deck.[or @ least hopping around on one foot] 'their' game plan is flushed with yesterdays beer!

thanks. :duck:

 

[Magnum88C]

That's another good point for using weapons that "naturally point" in your hand. Practice drawing and getting into position for your first point shot, with eyes closed. Open your eyes, are the sights aligned? If so, then the weapon is a "natural pointer" for you. It takes a lot of the missing out of point shooting, because the sights ARE aligned on target (or real close) without having to fixate on them.

 

[RIKA]

Excellent and very informative post. Anybody have any links on point shooting training?

RIKA

 

[Hard Ball]

I recommend a video "Shopting for keeps" from Paladin Press. It teaches Appledate's system and teaches effective point shooting techniques at ranges from three feet to 25 yards, Col Applegate's methods saved my life on two ocassions. Training with them is cheap life insurance.

 

[andy]

u got LUCKY,if you hit with point shooting, beyond 10 ft,with a pistol. I've seen this PROVEN, many,many scores of times,in competition,where an AVERAGE of 5-10tries had to be the top time. there's no POINT in point shooting,if it's not FASTER to the hits than aimed fire, and it's just NOT, beyond 10 ft,with the pistol. Not to RELIABLY hit the chest circle. This wasn't under lethal stress, either, where a LOT of adrenalin RUINS the "feedback loop" of nerves and muscles, ESSENTIAL for fast,reliable hitting with point shooting.

 

[andy]

AudieMurphy was man enough to admit that HE got lucky, SCORES of times, during his 2 years of fighting in WW2. YOU, tho, claim it was ALL "skill", cause you are nothing but a bser.

 

[DJetAce]

Point shooting has it's place. But learn sighted fire first. Good sighted fire shots can just point their weapon, seeing a blur for the gun, and shoot very well at close range. This is how all the top IPSC masters hit at close range. They don't look at the sights, they look at where they want to hit. And just as the shot breaks, they look immediatly at the next target and the gun follows their eyes.