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Pistol Question (Really)

Texas Hunter
I have never been a pistol sort of guy mainly because i use rifles or shotguns primarily for hunting purposes.
However something has aroused my curiosity on the way certain semi autos are held or fired by some people.
Watching old war movies over the years or James Bond or guys at the range i have never seen any of the pistols held sideways like i see certain people in movies or worse on real life news video of robbers in convience stores holding up someone.
Why would someone hold the pistol sideways??



mike
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Comments

10 comments

Date Votes
  • Der Gebirgsjager
    This widely movie-adopted technique has little real value. A pistol, when fired in the conventional manner, recoils upward; whereas, supposedly, a pistol fired sideways recoils across the center line of the target. When you consider that the utility of this method lies in close-up combat only, as the shooter does not have the sights available, it becomes of questionable value as upward recoil at that close range won't cause a miss anyway. If the target is a little farther away a quick alignment with the sights is invaluable, but one will practice for many thousands of rounds using the sideways method before they can obtain good accuracy at a distance where using even a flash of the sights would be beneficial. The first time I saw this technique used was by Israelis who carried the pistol with an empty chamber. They taught drawing the pistol with the strong hand and swinging it toward the center front of the body, meeting it with the weak hand to retract the slide and load the chamber, and then immediately firing with the pistol still held sideways to save the fraction of a second required to right the pistol to the conventional position. Looks very efficient, but requires lots of practice, and in my opinion has limited utility. Makes great movies for those unfamiliar with firearms handling.
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  • nmyers
    A good question.

    No sane person would fire a pistol held sideways (unless during a hand-to-hand struggle for his life.) You would hit your target only by luck, unless at point-blank range. I think it started in one of the "gangsta" movies, & other movies copied it, trying to look "cool". I wouldn't be surprised if some of our "civil justice system clients" actually believe that it is the correct way to fire a handgun.

    Neal
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  • rsnyder55
    I had a partner who practice this method for combat competition. This would allow him to have the recoil carry the pistol to the next target in a smooth line vs. the up and down or recoil as well as having to traverse the pistol across to the next target.
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  • gotstolefrom
    One of my boys asked me about the same thing.
    He said he had thought about it, but was kinda afraid to try it.
    I said "Good, I'm proud of you son."
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  • captkirk3@dslextreme.com
    HOLLYWOOD HYPE......Looks Good on the Silver Screen...but No practical advantage.....

    Captain Kirk, Tech Staff
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  • bobski
    all good pistol shooters will tell you the handgun is suppose to be an extention of your finger. wherever you point your finger is where the gun should shoot. now look at your body. you will see that there is a front view and a back view to your arms and hands. most people get them backwards, but the point is there is also a side view. when you hold a gun you actually have to turn your arm sideways to make a gun stand upright in respect to your arms natural design. this causes muscles to tighten. in order for muscles to tighten, blood must be deverted which causes nerves to begin twitching from lack of blood. it usually will take 6 to 8 seconds. this is all basic shooting common knowledge. so, many marine corps shooters adopted what was called the 'cant' or a 'tilted' method of shooting. not horizontal, but somewhere around 45 degrees. try it. you will see it to be very comfortable. too bad handguns couldnt be designed to be held in the hand at 90 degreees with sights vertical. it would be the perfect design for target shooting in my opinion. matter of fact a good place to try this experiment is to go to a metalic silloette match and shoot pigs rams and chickens with a scoped gun. many shooters hold the gun canted and have the crosshairs of the scope proper by having the scope tube turned in its mounts. but to move on to the thread, the horizontal method has been perverted just like the 2 handed version. we all know that the 2 handed method was invented in the mid to late 50's by mr. weaver for long shots, yet all thru tv and hollywood, you see cowboys and buckaneers using 2 hands in combat. ever try carrying a wounded man and shooting a 45 with 2 hands? dont work folks. handguns were meant to be shot with one hand. most old guns were perfect designs where the wrist was held limp and the gun fell into a perfect hold much like modern olympic free pistols are and old muskets. and on those free pistols, they actually pull the trigger up not back. the closer a gun could be to a stick the better. if i could design a gun, i'd put a button on top as the trigger to make for perfect control. the boyz in the hoods need to look cool for effect. hollywoods ignorance just makes them look like ........well, what we all know what they look like already. next they will be shooting upside down. oops, forgot, they do that already. so do specops boys.

    former air operations officer SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 2. former navy skeet team, navy rifle/pistol team member. co-owner skeetmaster tubes inc.. owner/operator professional shooting instruction.
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  • Texas Hunter
    Thanks all for the enlightenment.[:)]

    mike
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  • leeblackman
    Its a young urban cultur trend. Apparently all the little thug and gangster wanna be's think it looks cool to hold a pistol sideways.
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  • chopchop
    God forbid anyone get shot at. But if I do, I hope it is by some idiot that learned his shooting technique form the punk "gangstas" on these shows. Maybe their ignorance is our gain!
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  • SilverBox
    Dude even better then sideways is the new technique.

    But if your set on sideways use these cool as sights..

    http://keepandbeararms.com/information/XcIBViewItem.asp?ID=340

    but if your really on the cutting edge your gonna wanna use this new technique:

    http://www.recoilmag.com/news/new_gangsta_trend_0902.html
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