Is pistol shooting with one hand good practice?

[randyflycaster]

I recently bought a micro Ruger .22; so I am wondering what are your thoughts about training, in part, by shooting with one hand.

I am thinking it might be a good way to practice my trigger press.

Thanks,

Randy

[LittleLebowski]

Absolutely.

[CCT125US]

I typically use 5-10% of my session ammo on LHO/RHO shooting. I find it very beneficial in building overall shooting skill.

[Suvorov]

I forget which one of the Delta guys said it (I think it's Mac though) - he said if he could only do one drill to keep his pistol skills up, it would be one hand shooting for the very reason you mentioned. It will also reinforce all your fundamentals as it is easier to mask errors when shooting two handed (which is the reason most of us are more accurate with both hands).

I practice between 10-20% of my shooting one hand and given what I consider my most likely self defense scenario - there is a high probability I will be shooting one handed. I probably don't practice it enough.

[Ingramite]

Yes, I highly recommend anything that you can do in your training to make it more realistic.

I know a lot of ranges do not permit this type of training...be sure and check first.

[CCT125US]

Expanding further, shooting one handed shows recoil characteristics, and tracking. If the pistol tracks well one handed, that can indicate an even, neutral, grip.

[Jason M]

One handed shooting with each side is a regular part of my range practice. Since COVID-19 arrived and the range has been closed, I've spent lots of time running one handed manipulations with dummy rounds.

[Erick Gelhaus]

Yes, and I make a point of shooting both SHO and WHO.

[deputyG23]

At least ten rounds each session one handed both left and right.

[rob_s]

I don’t do it, and never really did (but then, I never really “practiced” outside of matches or classes) but I think *you* should for the reasons mentioned. Among other things shooting one-handed appears to positive,y impact one’s abilities to shoot two-handed.

When I have had periods of Getting Serious About Pistol Shooting and have gotten into a dry fire routine, I always included some string hand and weak hand.

As far as manipulations one-handed, I think it’s important to learn a few techniques if you’re shooting with an eye towards self defense, but frankly I’ve found in the past that a passing understanding of a technique and a lot of familiarity with the gun and one’s own body is more than enough to perform said manipulations when called upon to do so. In fact, it may be better than training one only one particular set of one-handed manipulations in the event that your one chosen method may not be available due to real-world conditions.

[critter]

I always begin a range session with strong and weak one handed practice (cold) with and without my glasses, and then again later in the session after being 'warmed up.' I figure if I ever need to shoot one-handed, it'll most likely be an extremely rapid onset with cold shooting reflexes.

[randyflycaster]

Folks,

Thanks for your help.
Glad to know I am on the right track.

Randy

[Rex G]

Yes, train to shoot with one hand Plenty of good reasons already having been stated, I do not need to add much. There is plenty, in real life, for one’s other hand to be doing, at the moment a fight occurs. Do train to keep the other hand out of the way! Folks have unintentionally shot their own hands, from time to time.

[flintlock62]

I am new to this forum. I feel it is very important to practice one-handed. I start each practice shooting three mags, first with the right hand, and three mags with the left hand. It is equally important to keep both eyes open.

[Slalom.45]

Yes. It's important to practice with one hand.

It's also important to know what you are looking for while doing it. Consistent grip pressure and pressing the trigger straight are my keys. These should be the same in two handed shooting as well, but two handed support can cover a lot of faults. If you are tensing the entire hand or pushing the trigger sideways it becomes very evident with one hand on the gun.

I would strongly suggest a lot of dry fire before spending much ammo on life fire shooting. A fast press on the timer beep then assess what you just saw on the sights and felt in your hand.
(Full disclosure. This is all Ben Stoeger stuff. I just use it because it works)

[Dave T]

I had to shoot weak hand unsupported for qualifications in law enforcement and occasionally for early IPSC matches I shot in, so I practiced it some. Back in those days I almost never practiced strong hand unsupported. It was required for qual but that was at close range and I managed center hits in the generous time limit the old qualification course had.

Fast forward to today. I'm old and broken and can't and don't want to take the fight to the bad guy. Much more likely I will be confronted at very close range and will simply want to dis-engage. I see one handed shooting at just beyond contact distance as a very real possibility so it's been added to my limited practice. That has also affected my approach to my carry ammo. Belching and roaring Buffalo Bore Heavy rounds are quite impressive, but dang they are hard to handle one handed for these old, arthritic hands. I'm seriously looking for a different carry load, largely because of one hand shooting and what it showed me. It's educational.

Dave

[Trooper224]

Yes, you should practice one-handed shooting. What percentage of your training time should be devoted to it is up to you. But, it's one more tool in the tool box and you always want a full tool box when you go to work. Two things helped my one-handed shooting, both strong and weak hand: years of shooting bullseye and busting up my shooting arms years ago. After the latter I had a number of months where I could only use my left hand.

[1Rangemaster]

One more word of encouragement to shoot one handed:do.
I would also advocate for a little dry fire time, one handed with both primary and support hand. It has helped me develop my trigger press and consistent grip.
IMHO, one good drill to evaluate where you are at is the 5 yard roundup.
Good shooting!

[rd62]

There has been a lot of good info shared here already is that I agree there is a strong likely hood you may need to be able to accurately shoot one handed and for that reason I suggest and do practice that skill. Both SHO and WHO.

[farscott]

I spend a lot of time shooting strong-hand only because, for years, I have shot Bullseye. In that sport, only one hand is on the gun. The restriction to one hand makes any minor grip or trigger squeeze flaws apparent on the fifty-yard targets. Shooting one hand makes it easier to find and correct flaws as there are fewer variables. It also shows, for me, the need for weight training to help my shooting. It is kind of humbling to see one's hand shake just holding a forty-five ounce pistol at arms length.

[ST911]

Of late, my warm-up / walk-on gut check is a 10-10-10 test, one run each OH, SHO, WHO.

[45dotACP]

I'm a big fan of one handed shooting. Especially with my Ruger .22 pistol. It helps with trigger control, but also helps with the important task of managing the sights.

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[Duces Tecum]

Several years ago I buggered up my left shoulder. It was multiple years before it came back fully on line. That experience encouraged me to become as close to an ambidextrous shooter as I could.

Program: Monday through Friday.
Initial shots are from the holster.
5 draw-two hand shoot-reload-two hand shoot
10 draw-two-hand shoot
10 draw-one-hand shoot

Repeat with other hand for a total of 50 "shots".

Target:
The target is a 1/3rd scale silhouette at 40 feet (adjusted distance: 40 yards). This is "fired" on Mondays.
Tuesday through Friday is the same target but at 7 feet (yards).

Speed:
This practice is done early AM before my wife awakens and needs to go downrange. A "beep" would disturb her, thus no timer is used. Instead, before shooting I calibrate a silent OneGreatBigElephant count to get to 10 Elephants in 10 seconds. On "One" I draw. On "Great" I'm starting the push. That leaves "BigElephant" to get off a decent trigger press. This sometimes works at 7 yards. At 40 it's still aspirational.

[Jason M]

Missed the edit window and didn't get back to link this...

My dry fire lately has included some of this... It illustrates what I believe are solid, relevant performance standards with SHO and WHO

Will run it when the range reopens.

http://pistol-training.com/drills/10-8-pistol-test

[NH Shooter]

My foray into pistol shooting nearly 40 years ago began with participation in a NRA Bullseye league. It took me a while to realize that using two hands on a handgun was a thing.

Most of my dry fire is SHO with my support hand placed on my chest or holding a flashlight. The rest is two handed with some occasional WHO thrown in just for the heck of it.

[heyscooter]

I honestly did the smallest amount possible of one handed shooting until I saw Mason Lane's scores at Nats and said "now just HOLD ON a second"

[Glenn E. Meyer]

Answer to the question - yes.

1. After breaking my wrist, I had to shoot one handed with my non dominant hand for quite a bit. Foolishly, I had signed up for some classes - one at KRtraining (met Paul Gomez there), Ayoob's LFI-1 Stressfire and did them one handed.

2. Now, as an old fart, I have developed tendonitis in my support arm, very painful. So while I can't shoot, I've been shooting up the house with my SIRT.

3. We shoot one handed in IDPA quite a bit.

4. Got shot in the hand, in FOF a few times.

[Baldanders]

Grandpa didn't know any way but one-handed. Watched him own me (no great task in '89), my dad, my uncle, and my uncle's brother, and we were all shooting two-handed on a 1911. It was funny.

[Baldanders]

Oh and to ansewr the question: yes!

Can you guarantee you will have two functional arms in an emergency?

I try to do at least 50% of my shooting this way. If I am using a handgun in my house, it's probably because I don't have two hands free/usuable for my 12 gauge.

I find wrong handed pistol shooting not too awful, my brain locks up with a longarm on the wrong shoulder tho.

[Clusterfrack]

I’m going to be a dissenting voice here. While it is good to be able to shoot well SHO and WHO, training heavily one handed isn’t the magic that will take you to the next level. If one hand yielded great skill advancement, everyone would be doing it. The current top USPSA shooters didn’t get good by focusing even 10% on one handed skills.

Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s going to make you better faster.

I think it is better to train freestyle, diagnose your shortcomings, and focus on that for the majority of your time. SHO/WHO? Maybe 5%, unless you have a mission specific reason for that type of shooting. In my experience, freestyle skills transfer well to SHO/WHO.

[GJM]

I’m going to be a dissenting voice here. While it is good to be able to shoot well SHO and WHO, training heavily one handed isn’t the magic that will take you to the next level. If one hand yielded great skill advancement, everyone would be doing it. The current top USPSA shooters didn’t get good by focusing even 10% on one handed skills.

Just because it’s hard doesn’t mean it’s going to make you better faster.

I think it is better to train freestyle, diagnose your shortcomings, and focus on that for the majority of your time. SHO/WHO? Maybe 5%, unless you have a mission specific reason for that type of shooting. In my experience, freestyle skills transfer well to SHO/WHO.

For shooting USPSA field courses, I agree that practicing one hand shooting is not a good investment. However for classifiers, having strong one hand shooting skills is a good way to harvest strong scores.

Gaming aside, I think there is a lot of one hand shooting in real world defensive shooting.

[Clusterfrack]

For shooting USPSA field courses, I agree that practicing one hand shooting is not a good investment. However for classifiers, having strong one hand shooting skills is a good way to harvest strong scores.

Gaming aside, I think there is a lot of one hand shooting in real world defensive shooting.

Totally agree. I’m feeling very good about my SHO/WHO skills currently, but the vast majority of my training hasn’t been on that. In fact, the way I got better at WHO was by shooting weak hand supported.

[JTMcC]

People who rove around with their toddlers will usually scoop the little one up immediately when any type of threatening situation is developing. That, to me, made one hand practice a regular thing. I can drop a bag of groceries but the little one is going to be in my left arm.

Any wrestler that's had a stinger in the shoulder that last for a few seconds or more, knows it's good to be able to survive with only one fully functioning arm, at least short term.

[Rex G]

For shooting USPSA field courses, I agree that practicing one hand shooting is not a good investment. However for classifiers, having strong one hand shooting skills is a good way to harvest strong scores.

Gaming aside, I think there is a lot of one hand shooting in real world defensive shooting.

This. Nothing wrong with competition, but I (presently*) carry handguns for defensive of myself, and those folks important to me. My support hand may well have other, urgent things to do, like toss a distracting object toward an adversary’s eyes, hold one of my often-carried Surefire lights, hold a dog leash, or, push or pull a family member to a safer position. My most comfortable-est Comfort Gun is a GP100, with the original-pattern factory grip. I am no Thor, but the GP100 is my hammer.

I place a priority on carrying handguns, rather than handS-guns. I retired the last of my handS-guns in 2015, when I was able to switch from my long-time P229 duty pistol, to a Gen4 G17, for police duty. (I switched to 9mm, from .40, for less muzzle flip, at this same time.) The lower-volume form factor of the Gen4 was So. Very. Welcome. I was able to shoot the P229 was well as any auto-loader I had ever handled, and very nearly as well as a GP100/K-/L-Frame, but that wide-body frame resulted in a less-secure grip than I wanted, when my support hand had to be somewhere other than on the weapon. (Due to duty pistol rules, I was not able to resume carrying a single-stack duty pistol until 2016, when an outgoing chief re-authorized the 1911.)

*I have not shot in any kind of match since 1990 or 1991. (IPSC-like, but with use of cover being mandated at particular positions, as one moved along, at the now-defunct Houston PD Downtown pistol range, under the Capital/Rusk bridges.) I remember the time period, because that was while I was using a Colt Stainless Commander as a duty pistol; the 1911 was the favored auto-pistol system, among HPD officers, in those days.

[Clusterfrack]

I could have been more to-the-point in my posts. Here's what I'm saying: if the goal is to get good at one-handed shooting, you need to:

-Aim/index the gun (harder single-handed)
-Confirm alignment as needed for target difficulty
-Press the trigger straight back
-Not disturb alignment by pushing down on the gun as it fires (often the reason people miss single-handed)
-Not disturb alignment by moving the gun as a side effect of your trigger pull
-Observe the gun as it recoils to confirm the shot
-Return the gun to the target or move it to the next target (harder single-handed)

Note that these are exactly the same things that you need to do to get good at freestyle shooting. Only a subset of these needs to be practiced SHO/WHO, and freestyle is a better way to practice the rest of the skillset.

So, my approach is to work on my shooting in general, and spend maybe 5% on single-handed shooting unless a drill requires SHO/WHO, like a low light drill with a flashlight.

[randyflycaster]

I am amazed: When I shoot my Ruger LCP .22 with one hand there is so much recoil. My shots are going way to the right. (I shoot left handed.) Not sure how to control the recoil with one hand.

Randy

[Clusterfrack]

I am amazed: When I shoot my Ruger LCP .22 with one hand there is so much recoil. My shots are going way to the right. (I shoot left handed.) Not sure how to control the recoil with one hand.


There are two things going on here:

1. Your shots aren't hitting the center of your target area
2. The recoil is exaggerated

While there can be a small deviation in POI when the gun is in free recoil (very weak grip), that's not why your shots aren't going where you're aiming. I'm guessing it's a combination of:

--Trigger mechanics: trigger pull moves sights off target
--Recoil control: arm moves sights off target in an attempt to control recoil

I suggest you don't try to control recoil. When you shoot it with one hand, the gun is going to do weird things anyway, so just deal with it. Press the trigger straight back, let the gun recoil, and watch what the sights do during the whole process. If you're pushing down on the gun, or wanking the trigger, hopefully you can diagnose this by watching carefully. Mouseguns are hard to shoot with two hands, let alone one.

[DDTSGM]

Gaming aside, I think there is a lot of one hand shooting in real world defensive shooting.

Coming from the police world, I believe this is true, largely if the officer is caught by surprise and coming from behind, so to speak. Patrol car video on t-stops seems to bear this out.

Another aspect to be considered is level of training and practice. I would probably be less likely to shoot SHO from the holster when caught by surprise than an officer with less than 5,000 total rounds fired under their belt.

You could hypothesize the same would be true across the CCW world.

Don't get me started about the overly complex married-hand flashlight techniques taught to LE.