The Basics Of One-Handed Shooting


Today we're going over engaging targets with only one hand instead of two. One-handed shooting in a practical sense is based on the assumption that maybe you're recovering from an injury with your arm in a sling, maybe you're in a gunfight in one of your hands gets wounded or your arm or your shoulder whatever and it renders you unable to do a two-handed grip.

You might also have one hand occupied holding a shopping bag or your child or grandchild's hand.

One-handed shooting should be included in your practice regimen as you may have to shoot one-handed should you find yourself confronted with a serious threat.

How To: One-Handed Shooting

There's there's a couple different schools of thought for this.

A lot of guys like to shoot squared to the range, with their hand on their chest or their belly, or maybe hook it on your belt or put your hand in your pocket. The reason you want to do that while practicing on the range is so the free arm isn't causing you problems with sight alignment or anything else.

That might not be possible if you're trying to shoot when your arm is actually wounded, but it's a good idea to practice it on the range.

Some guys will want to be squared up to the target and shooting like they normally would. Some people find they have to blade their body off a little bit and point their toe toward the target and drive in a little bit. That helps to control the recoil for follow-up shots.

Blading yourself to the target helps you get more weight behind the gun for better control.

Besides body position, some people want to cant the gun maybe up to 45 degrees to one side before they break the shot. Some people find this works and some find that it doesn't work right for them.

You have to find what works best for you.

As far as the shooting arm, some people just need a little bend in their arm. You might need to try something different, like dropping your elbow a little bit so gun recoils a little like a hinge so it returns to the target under recoil.

Strong Hand And Weak Hand Only Shooting

Once you've figured out how you're going to shoot best one-handed, what helps you aim and control the recoil as close to shooting with the support hand, you practice weak-hand only and strong-hand hand shooting the same way.

Aiming is the same, the grip is the same, and the trigger squeeze is going to be the same. At the end of the day, everything works the exactly the same; you're just using a different hand.