Getting it right

I'm one of those guys...You know, you're watching a TV show or movie with me and when people start shooting I start calling bullshit on it.

You know what I mean, they shoot at someone 22 times without changing magazines on their handgun, or they shoot the handgun or rifle sideways, they run and shoot one handed or the gun fires and there's no visible recoil. One of the worst ones is the way people hold guns to shoot them! I call it out; All of it!

My wife finds it funny too; This is good because the alternative is she finds it annoying and that would be problematic. She finds it funny and often joins in on calling out the stupidity; She shoots well herself and under my instruction has learned all the right things.

I get it though, it's a movie and not real life...But when someone in a moving vehicle shoots one-handed whilst driving, out the window, at a car 100m away with the intention of shooting a tyre out and actually does it? Come on. Really? Let me help here with the answer...NO, not really.

There's a way to shoot right, and hit things, and...Well all the other dumb-ass ways.

The grip on a handgun, especially a semi-automatic handgun as shown above, is absolutely critical to the accuracy and even the effective operation of the gun. Did you know that a loose one-handed grip on a semi-auto can tear the gun from ones grip? It can also cause the spent case to get jammed as it is being ejected which means the next round won't chamber and the gun is rendered useless unless cleared. You don't want that happening in a firefight as you're driving down the freeway chasing some bad guys!

Here (above) you can see my wife Faith demonstrating the correct grip. Both thumbs pointing the same way down-range, right hand snuggly on the grip. Her left palm is contacting the grip with the ball of her thumb pressed there also, fingers extend around and over those of her right hand. If you could see the right side of the gun you would see her left fingers gripping over the right and her trigger finger full-extended down the frame of the gun. Trigger discipline. At no time does a finger go near the trigger, unless a shot is being made; Even when the gun is empty as it was here.

It's not perfect, I would prefer to see her left hand tilted forward away from her body a little more which would allow the palm more contact with the gun. The gun is not in the right postition to shoot here though so that's probably why her wrists are a little angled backwards. It's pretty good though.

In this position she can aim properly and manage the recoil. She has equal pressure on the gun, left and right, and can effect a shot and have a chance of hitting something.

In the shot directly above she would hit nothing though. You can tell the gun is not even close to the line of sight of her right eye. It's aiming off to the right and the front is high. She would hit zero things, at least not what she wanted to hit. But it worked for the photo.

I watched a movie the other day, in which a woman was shooting. She had a right-hand grip and her left was wrapped around the wrist of the right arm, not even holding the gun!. It was a dumb movie, and a dumb handgun grip. The movie was Austin Powers International Man of Mystery and the actor was Elizabeth Hurley. It was hilarious because Faith called out, look at her grip and burst out laughing. That's my girl!

I get it, it's just movies...However people see it and think that's how it actually is when in reality vary rarely does one see proper firearm use in movies, with the exception of a few of the better military-themed ones I guess.

I see the results when I take people to the range. They want to shoot two guns at once, turn the handgun sideways, throw the shots gangsta-style (idiots) and do any number of other things that they learned by playing a video game or by watching a movie or TV show, even paintballing and Airsoft. It's not the same.

Shooting takes skill. No, you can't just pick up a gun and be good at it, certainly not when the target is at range, or moving. No, shooting one handed isn't going be very accurate especially at range or if you, or the target, is moving. No, you can't just keep shooting without reloading.

I enjoy watching movies and shows, and part of that is watching how badly they mess up the firearms handling and usage. It's often better than the movie itself. However it's a little irresponsible in my opinion as it gives people a false idea of what it's all about.

The internet is full of examples of what goes wrong when firearms are not treated correctly or with respect and to some degree I blame the false images from movies, games and TV shows...But mostly people's stupidity.

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