Stance and Grip

My Dad was telling me about plinking at tin cans while in the Service in New Mexico. He was always more familiar with long guns, but had the opportunity to use a hand gun a bit there. But he definitely feels like a dabbler now. He asked me about what stance I used.

And the preferred stance has changed since Dad was in the service, and you can see some old time shooters in archived copies of Guns Magazine Online. Careful though, they are in PDF format and take a while to download on a slow connection for those that have them. In the old days, people shot one handed from the shoulder or from the hip.

I do a 2 handed grip. It's sort of a Weaver Stance. It might even be called a Chapman Stance, as I lock up the shooting arm, while the Weaver has both elbows bent. But the Chapman Stance is an evolution of the Weaver, so they are similar. I came up with the stance I use all on my own after reading about the Weaver and trying it as best I could. I changed it or misunderstood it and got what I do now as it felt most comfortable to me. I didn't know that I was called the Chapman stance until researching this blog entry. So, lucky me.

Being left handed I lock the left arm straight and pull it across my body at a slight angle. That way the right hand can grip the other hand and bend the elbow a bit. It's as if the pistol had a rifle stock, but in the case the 'stock' is my arm. I'm not shooting straight out where my sternum is pointing, but off to my right so I angle the whole body when presenting to a target. My right foot is ahead a little bit, the left foot points off to the side. You should pull back a bit with the right hand and push forward a bit with your left hand via the shoulder. The purpose of this is minimize muzzle flip from the recoil. Another new thing I have to try is to push the palms together. That might be better than the modified strangle grip I'm trying to do and is messing up my aim.

The grip is wrapping the right hand around the shooting left hand, thumb in top of thumb, both parallel and pointing down range, and fingers on top of fingers. Another way is supportive by having your weakhand cup under the butt, like a teacup. I did that years ago, but I like the wrap-around now.

The other way to hold that isn't old school or some verision of the weaver is both arms straight ahead in an isocelse triangle. The seen a few cops that like this stance. I don't.

None of these stances work if the assailant attacking you is in fist punching range. A good stance will have you resting your pistol OVER his shoulder. But you have to practice a good grip and stance to make it second nature, and you have to practice the close range stuff too. That close range stuff you have to watch you don't shoot parts of yourself or the bad guy doesn't get a hand on your gun. All of that kind of training is still in my future, and first things first is a good grip and stance.

I'll have to think on the other.