[Shay]

I was trained not to do that but I'm always looking to improve and learn. in Israel we train not to switch hands with handgun and shoulder weapon but I know that SEAL's do switch and maybe more US units?
Thanks,
Shay

 

[Shane1911]

Shay,

If you do not switch hands when shooting weak side, you tend to expose more of your body. It is also more awkward (for me) to bring my strong arm in front of my body, to shoot around a corner or barricade.

This is why I believe weak hand drills are an essential part of any training - besides, what if you cannot use your strong hand/arm?

 

[Dane Burns]

This will get you arguenents from many...had some myself :grin:

A RECON Marine explained it best..."incoming always has right away". "Learning to shoot left handed and left eyed while someone is trying to lay some serious whoop ass on you is not a favorable training scenario"

His other grand comment is..."I can tell who's been under fire by looking where they hold their elbows". "Elbow out, is THEIR perfect target ID".

 

[Tom Givens]

I have tried very hard, but I cannot find reliable reports of people voluntarily putting their weapon in their non-dominant hand during a gunfight. As long as your dominant hand works, you have a very strong instinctive reluctance to take a weapon out of it and put it in a hand you have less confidence in. (This is why it is called your "dominant" hand.)
Proper technique allows one to shoot around the weak side of cover with the strong hand, with minimal exposure. Come to class, we'll show you.

 

[Shane1911]

I agree with Tom as far as generalities go. Most people are indeed reluctant to switch hands when under fire. I believe that intensive weak hand training negates some of the lack of confidence that Tom mentions. I have trained to be just as accurate and quick with weak hand (at gun-fight distances), but have not had a need to switch hands under real conditions.

I absolutely agree that the general population will benefit from learning to use their strong hand in all situations - especially if you do not practice weak hand shooting. There are techniques that address this, as Tom indicated.

 

[Just a GI]

I don't switch unless the scenario calls for my strong arm to be taken out of the fight. :smile: I do train with weak hand for just that eventuality if it ever happens.
IMHO, being able to deploy your weapon weak handed is an important skill, but to repeat myself, I don't do it unless the scenario I'm in calls for my strong hand to be disabled somehow.

 

[Guest]

Why do I need to shoot around the corner again? I always relocate to a more advantageous postion, I'm looking for anything sunlight, shadows, footprints, hard cover to bounce rounds into my target, target indicators like shoe tips, muzzles low shadows indicating they are close by
etcetera...

 

[Marty Hayes]

Interesting comment about the SEAL's. Years ago, my favorite student and wife, (the same) and I went to Gunsight and took API 250. Chris Caracci was the lead instructor for the class. When wife was in one of the fun houses, I tagged along for photos, and Chris, (a former SEAL), stopped her during the house clearing and asked why she kept changing hands. (He didn't seem to think it was a good practice.) I later say a video of him doing police tactics, no hand change.

Have the SEAL's changed thier training regimine?

Secondly, I hear the argument that one won't change hands in the middle of a gunfight. I have a theory on that. That theory states that in a DEFENSIVE gunfight, one won't because the adrenaline dump takes over and your body defaults to it's primary survival mode.

But, house clearing isn't defensive , it's OFFENSIVE. And, given that fact, when one is looking for the bad guy, he best do it correctly. If people are not using thier weakhands in the middle of a gunfight, it's because they are controlling the action without pulling the trigger, AND, the number of gunfights that occur relating to an OFFENSIVE incident are very remote, which is why you may not hear about people switching hands.

When on the street doing this stuff for real, I do switch hands.

 

[Chad Ward]

But, house clearing isn't defensive , it's OFFENSIVE. And, given that fact, when one is looking for the bad guy, he best do it correctly.

I think Marty's hit the nail on the head. No, in a defensive situation I probably wouldn't think to shift hands. But in the classes I've taken where we've had to do house clearings, I'm hyper-conscious about giving away *anything* to the BG possibly lurking around the next corner. Body bladed sharply, elbows tucked in, feet within the angle of the corner -- and I switch hands to deal with RH corners. Trying to slice the pie right-handed just exposes too much for my comfort.

Chad

 

[GunzHot]

Ive heard that the problem shooting weak side barricade with the dominate hand is compounded by crowding up to the barricade (which Im sure you would want to do if taking fire!). Instructors have told me to back off it alittle and use a sort of tilt out "slice the pie" lean. It seems to work ok for me but I don't know how much I'm really exposing and don't honestly have enough experience to comment much further. Is this exceptable to maintain strong hand gun but make a small target?

 

[Dane Burns]

On 2001-05-07 11:13, Marty Hayes wrote:
When on the street doing this stuff for real, I do switch hands.

I think Marty hits one of the nails on the head here. When it is "for real" and there is a chance of you getting shot I take EVERY advantage to avoid having that happen. I change eyes and hands. I suggest other's to work to that skill level.

I suspect and have seen over time that the only reason that more folks don't suggest changing or actually do change is because few make it a priority. The VAST majority of trainers down play the ability to do so and don't encourage it. Some will flatly tell you that it won't work in real life and you won't change because of the stress of doing so.

The documantation says so because we as trainers have never made it a priority to do so, IMO. That needs to change.

Any one that has the gun skills will in fact change if there is incoming to encourage you to do so. I have seen a entire cadre of instructors and advanced students at one school do so under the stress of an outside instructor. They trained with both hands and eyes. The techniques worked. They were less available to incoming fire.

That is a good thing, in a offensive or defensive mode.

If you never practice shooting ambidexteriously, the stress of an shooting incident will keep you from doing it under the difficulties of real life.

NO BIG SURPRISE THERE

I teach it, practice it, and repeat the matra over and over again, "you need to be ambidexterious in eye and hand" It is a life saving skill. No it is not easy, yes it takes time and effort.

On the occasions I teach pieing, barricade shooting or search techniques at FAS or Rangemaster I tell our students that we have left fully HALF of our firearms training out of our training schudules if you aren't working at shooting off hand. The eye should be included in the switch if at all possible. It usually is possible, short of physical disability.

Food for thought.

 

[GunzHot]

Thanks for the information Mr. Burns and all!

 

[Matt VDW]

How common is it for shooters to switch hands involuntarily because they've been wounded in a gunfight?

 

[rolexman]

I have somewhat of answer to that...
while my father was in Vietnam (have i just disclosed my age,i'm a youngin')

his superior (in the 11th armored calv.) wore a cross draw colt python revolver for his weak hand in addition to the strong side colt.
reason being... one day he got shot by VC in the right arm, while laying on his back the VC was coming at him with the bayonette, he had droped his rifle when he got hit so he was trying to grab his strong side piece(that's all he had at the time) with his left arm... couldn't do it.. luckily one of his guys clipped the VC in the head and dropped em' well he swore he would never be in that position again so he started carrying the cross draw python..for one handed operation..moral of the story, train weak hand just in case you need it, and when you do, you will instictively use it, just make sure you have an extra gun for it..you may not have a back up with a rifle thirty meters away to take out your bad guy for ya..