How do you do it?

[Roguish Lawyer]

Originally Posted by Smokin Joe

Nope I was watching my wifes eye candy get voted off American Idol.

We're going to be in the audience on Wednesday.

[jbour13]

I realized this last Friday that doing either weak hand over or pinch gripping the slide hurts a little with pistols that have target sights. I'll venture a guess that the only way to overcome this puss-itis is practice reloading with snap caps and more range time.

I love finding more reasons to work with my pistols and get more shooting time.

The pistol I found this little problem with is my USP 45 Tactical. Another lump of money well spent.

[Smokin Joe]

Originally Posted by Roguish Lawyer

We're going to be in the audience on Wednesday.

Oh god and I thought having my wife force me to watch it sucked bad......Glad I'm not you.

[vsvo]

Originally Posted by Roguish Lawyer

We're going to be in the audience on Wednesday.

What sign will you be holding up so I can look for you in the audience shots.

[Spartan359]

While I'm no QP when it comes to shooting, I find it easier to just use the slide release. I'm right handed. Left eye dominant. I shoot a pistol with my right hand and aim with my left eye. With a rifle I shoot left handed and use my left eye. Odd but I can shoot fairly decent in my opinion. Feel free to bash this freak of nature.

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by Spartan359

While I'm no QP when it comes to shooting, I find it easier to just use the slide release. I'm right handed. Left eye dominant. I shoot a pistol with my right hand and aim with my left eye. With a rifle I shoot left handed and use my left eye. Odd but I can shoot fairly decent in my opinion. Feel free to bash this freak of nature.

I am also right handed, left eye dominant, but shoot with my right eye. I also shoot "OK".

TS

[El Cid]

I use the slide release as I was blessed with large hands and long fingers/thumbs. I almost never have to adjust/change my grip to hit the slide release.

Sidenote: anyone else love the HK USP magazine release? I use my trigger finger (right handed) to dump it.

Originally Posted by Team Sergeant

I am also right handed, left eye dominant, but shoot with my right eye. I also shoot "OK".

TS

Do you shift eye dominance through will when the handgun is raised, or how do you do it, Sir?

I'm also right handed and left eye dominant. Sir Tracy Warrington advised me to try both sides to see which side is most comfortable and natural, because that lends to better accuracy, and eye dominance can be trained. That was in regards to longs, however.

I don't shoot ok, lacking training and knowledge.

[Team Sergeant]

Originally Posted by Martin

Do you shift eye dominance through will when the handgun is raised, or how do you do it, Sir?

I'm also right handed and left eye dominant. Sir Tracy Warrington advised me to try both sides to see which side is most comfortable and natural, because that lends to better accuracy, and eye dominance can be trained. That was in regards to longs, however.

I don't shoot ok, lacking training and knowledge.

Shoot with your strong hand, always, unless you cannot due to being wounded.

Do not ever give up the strong hand for eye dominance, leave that for the amateurs and the gun writers that think they know something about shooting.

Tell me something Martin, hows your eyesight at say 30 inches? With your left and right eye????? Let me know then do some research and figure out why I asked you that.

(I'm also a Special Forces trained Sniper, and also shoot with my right eye/hand.)

Team Sergeant

(call me "Sir" again and I'll IP ban you. )

Slightly sharper with right eye than left.

I have a slight color offset between left and right eye. (even through glasses, I will go back and correct this - test was both with and without glasses)

I have somewhat better control of right eye movement. It feels more natural and less flaky (though it is a very minor feeling) than with left eye. Not that it's hard to use the left eye or it's unfocusable, just that the right one feels more 'determined'.

It feels easier and more natural to focus and retain peripheral vision with the right eye.

There's still a noticeable shift between perspectives at 30 inches.

It feels wrong to hit with the left hand with your right eye closed, and vice versa.

I'd guess that the eye muscle control works through some sort of replication and deviation between eyes that is also linked to prefered hand.
Perhaps there's a line at about 30 inches, where the eyes can still focus well while having good peripheral vision. This is also noticeable when using two eyes, but becomes obvious when looking with one eye at 30 inches and comparing with shorter distances.

About 30 inches also happens to be the length at which H2H becomes more immediate. Overview in that sort of situation is paramount.

Rifle and pistol frontsights come up at this distance. A good target picture benefits, I'd guess.

I will research the subject.

Thanks.

Having an object at 30 inches and then holding a hand out in front while swinging back and forth, looking with one eye, you get a marked experience of close and distant objects. Especially if you look at the hand while doing it.

Ok, I'm overdoing this.

[Peregrino]

Originally Posted by Martin

Ok, I'm overdoing this.

Good Call! It's not worth getting worked up over. I'm with TS on this one. I'm cross-eye (right eye, left hand) dominant as well. With training it is not a big deal. I shoot pistol left hand, left eye because I'm an uncoordinated klutz and I need all the help I can get. I shoot all long guns right hand, right eye. That works well because most long guns are designed for the right handed world - the ergonomics are better when you use them as they were designed and my dominant eye comes in handy (works better) at longer ranges when a little more precision is required. World class shotgun shooters are always making money harping on "eye dominance" and not shooting cross-dominant. They have a lot of evidence to support their contentions but I personally don't make a living shooting clay disks. I've never had a clay bird point a gun at me so I don't practice the shooting skills required to "kill" them. My .02 - Peregrino

[kgoerz]

All depends on the type of handgun in relation to the size of your hands. If my thumb can reach the slide release ill use it. Most important is get it done and do it fast. Doc don't you remember being taught how to count rounds..............

[Tubbs]

I prefer to rack the slide every time I reload. I am a lefty and I cannot always manipulate the slide release on all handguns (I know a lot of others have mentioned the same thing).
Also some european handguns do not feature slide releases thus requireing you to rack the slide regardless. I find that it is just easier to learn one technique that can be applied to all handguns.
Another reason I rack the slide is that I am not infallible and in the off chance that my gun went "click" because of a stoppage and not being out of ammo (I may not notice in a high stress situation), I will be closer to clearing that stoppage if I rack the slide as opposed to manipulating the slide release.

[Gene Econ]

Man:

All these techniques to work a tool whose function hasn't changed much in close to 100 years. I am surprised that no one has figured it out by now. Must be a design flaw by Browning.

Some poor chap stated how competitive pisotleros reload and function their slide. He took a unjustified smoking in my opinion. I noted the film of that AMU shooter changing magazines and no one seemed to criticize his technique. It is precisely what was identified by the smokee.

I can't seem to understand the assumption that because a guy is competitive and extremely good at it -- that somehow what he is doing can't be related to combat conditions. Does anyone here think that a IPSC shooter (for example) isn't looking at both his target array and his pistol when he reloads? He most certainly is as he is taking in conditions, making a decision on how to approach his target array with his fresh magazine, and reloading at the same time. I dare say everyone here does the exact same thing and strives to be just as fast and precise. The best pistolero we had in the 1st SFG while TS was on board was and still is a competitive 3 Gun Shooter. A very competitive one at that. I saw nothing different when he trained fellows than when he trained himself for competition. The reason why there was no difference is because there didn't need to be any difference. The end state was identical and the techniques of pistolcraft that this guy used to win in competition were identical to the techniques used in combat. The exception was that he directly and with specific intent trained his mind to win. The Army stilll refuses to train the mind to win in any direct manner and that is the difference between a National Level competitor and the Army in terms of shooting skills.

Take a look at that AMU fellow again. Note he is inserting the magazine and releasing the slide with his non firing hand as he takes his grip. That is extremely fast, efficient, and uses 'gross' motor skills. I know because I am a 'gross motor skill' person and this technique of loading a magazine is extremely fast, smooth, and efficient. I am not sure what type of fine motor skills are required to bang a magazine into a pistol then hit the slide release with your thumb or even half your hand as you gain your grip.

If you want to do something to confuse and divert a shooters attention from what he really needs to do to perform, demand he does a magazine change or anything else for that matter using a specific technique. He will consciously try to do everything you tell him and he will fuck it up until the cows come home. Instead, how about telling him to change the damn magazine fast, then put him into situations where his magazine changes are absolutely critical to good performance -- in this case it would be a time factor that adds to or detracts from an overall 'grade'. Don't worry, when he sees himself losing seconds of time due to poor technique, he will figure out a very fast way of doing a magazine change. He will even ask your advice as he is ready to receive it.

Oh well, I am stuck using the magazine change technique of that AMU shooter in that film. Don't blame IPSC that I don't pursue either. I learned that identical method of changing magazines at SOT in 1981.

Gene