SHO and WHO with the RDS

[JHC]

Just a few months into RDS on the pistol and I'm pretty pleased generally.

Freestyle the index tuned up in a thousand or so draws. Coming along nicely. Target focus seemed to come easily. Shooting the streak as it shows up has been getting good hits quick.

SHO has been a fair bit more challenging and WHO a fair bit more challenging than that.

What I think I'm finding is that a slight cant works better than vertical. I've been going back and forth on those two styles these past few years with irons. Canted seems to work better for me with the dot.

"Nose to backplate" (ha! nose to charging handle) might be helpful and in dry fire only - I seem to be finding that much more bend at the elbow bringing the pistol that much closing to my nose seems helpful.

Any tips or techniques for WHO and SHO out there for getting the dot index dialed in?

[GJM]

Shooting one hand, I find that extending my arm fully, aligns me skeletally, and makes the dot reliably appear. One or two hands, any time the dot isn't there, I look at the spot on the target I want to hit, and extend my arms fully. Looking for the dot is the worst thing for me to do.

[JHC]

Shooting one hand, I find that extending my arm fully, aligns me skeletally, and makes the dot reliably appear. One or two hands, any time the dot isn't there, I look at the spot on the target I want to hit, and extend my arms fully. Looking for the dot is the worst thing for me to do.

The lock out is what I tried first. I had a rough go of it. Now I think I was not doing it right. Will give that new work. @GJM

This is all today's dry fire mind you. No live fire. But this really working well with nose to back plate

[LukeNCMX]

Are you happy with how your grip and stance affects how the dot tracks single handed shooting aggressively (consistently tracking and preferrably vertically)? Are you happy with how your preferred cant/no cant affects tight/long distance shots? I ask because I feel these needed to be ironed out before you burn in any particular presentation. A drill like Doubles could help figure this stuff out.

I like Tim Herron’s take on single handed technique



I personally developed my single handed indexes the same as my two handed. Slow deliberate reverse draws to find efficient movement paths and focusing on building grip and wrist tension early with the slide level while pushing par times.

[JHC]

Are you happy with how your grip and stance affects how the dot tracks single handed shooting aggressively (consistently tracking and preferrably vertically)? Are you happy with how your preferred cant/no cant affects tight/long distance shots? I ask because I feel these needed to be ironed out before you burn in any particular presentation. A drill like Doubles could help figure this stuff out.

I like Tim Herron’s take on single handed technique



I personally developed my single handed indexes the same as my two handed. Slow deliberate reverse draws to find efficient movement paths and focusing on building grip and wrist tension early with the slide level while pushing par times.

Not really happy with any of the WHO/SHO dot shooting yet. This is a great vid I've studied and worked hard at and found his flagged thumb to not be very satisfying in hits and recoil control. As far as creating support/leverage on the open side of the gun I've found this better for me, my hand. I get a lot of pressure on the open side of the pistol this way vs flagging that thumb. And great precision at distance for slow fire SHO - slowfire with VERTICAL. Tight shots fast at distance SHO aren't a thing for me at this stage of evolution.



But the vertical vs canted is still pending and its a great vid and I'll work both again.

[JHC]

A drill like Doubles could help figure this stuff out.

.

This has got to be the Doubles drill you referenced?

[LukeNCMX]

Thumb position

I think everyone should experiment with flagged thumb, straight thumb and curled thumb when doing single handed stuff. I get my best results with a straight thumb.

Looking at that photo and seeing how the compact frame sits in your hand I would strongly consider a Grip Anchor. It improved the ergonomics of my 19 considerably.

Doubles video?

Yep that's it

[Clusterfrack]

Great advice in this thread! I've settled on a slight reverse cant of maybe 5-10deg because that yields the most predictable return of the sights/dot. Reverse cant is the opposite of 'gangster style' with the top of the gun rotated outward away from the body.

I flag my strong hand thumb SHO, but don't flag my support hand thumb WHO. That's just what works best for me, and I'm not sure why.

Like @GJM, I typically extend my arm to 'jam' recoil. That also seems to short-circuit the pesky pre-ignition push that occasionallyt happens WHO when my brain thinks it's predicting when to return the gun after a freestyle shot. Sometimes I don't extend my arm if I need to shoot WHO really fast after a transfer, or SHO on multiple closer targets.

My WHO index is aided by turning my head to the left. (I do not tuck my chin because I always want to shoot with my head erect, with my eyes centered.)

If you're losing your dot, my Rx is more index dry presentations. Like 100 per day for a month. When you think your index is good, fuck with it by changing body position, lean etc.

[luckyman]

What a great thread! Dang I need to make it out to the range soon.

[GJM]

Acquiring the red dot is certainly a consideration in shooting support hand with a RDS, but I would argue that it is only the equivalent of getting your drivers license. While it makes you legal, it doesn't make you a good driver. I believe the meat of shooting with one hand really is your grip, your arm extension and trigger manipulation. Because you only have one hand, you need to compromise between gripping hard to provide support, but not over gripping, so as to interfere with your trigger control. That is why I extend my arm, because the extended arm, besides making the dot appear, does a lot of the work of supporting the pistol. This is shooting 12 rounds at an 8 inch steel at 15 yards. You can see on shot three that I start to mess up the trigger press, stop the press and fix it before firing the shot.