Manly Ways To Shoot Like A Man - Brief Article

American Handgunner, Jan, 2000 by Ken Hackathorn

When you shoot a man-on-man drill, both parties typically shoot as fast as they can hit. No one slows down in a man-on-man contest, on the range or on the street. The act of presenting the sidearm to the target, getting it into firing mode, aligning it with the target and releasing the sear must be reflexive.

Your subconscious mind must be capable of this or you will fail in your shooting mission. What little conscious process that you have will be used to identify a threat target, select and use cover and observe any other threat targets.

Obviously, we see daily occurrences where individuals make gross mistakes in these areas. As with most things in life, regular and repeated practice creates skill. Believing that an occasional trip to the range where we must consciously think about every principle of our firing will not produce a "reflexive" response when our life is threatened.

Thus, it should be easy to understand how the police officer that only handles and fires his sidearm once or twice a year fails to have any reflexive shooting skills when he must respond to a lethal threat. Seventy percent misses are easy to explain when you consider the lack of programmed reflexive skills.