< PreviousCHAPTER IV TRAINING : ADV ANCED METHODS Chapter m has taken care of all the stages of the recruit's preHminary training, hut before he is turned loose on the world as qualified to use a pistol there is one more thing for him to learn. This is shooting from what, for want of a better term, we call the " three-quarter hip " position illustrated in Fig. 12. This position is designed to meet a condition referred to in the first chapter when describing the circumstances under which shooting affrays are likely to take place. We indicate there that in moments of stress and haste men are apt to fire -with a bent arm. Examination of the Ulustration shows exactly this position. Closer examination shows also that the firer is facing his adversary squarely, has one foot forward (it does not matter which), and that he is crouching slightly. From this position, pistol hand in the vertical centre-line of the body and hand bent to the right as before, the recruit fires a burst of two or three shots, hut quickly, at a distance of 3 yards. If he succeeds in making nothing worse than a 6-inch group, he should repeat the practice at 4 yards. The instructor should make a special point of . 3 8 WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKT R A I N I N G : A D V A N C E D M E T H O D S 3 9 explaining all the elements of this practice. The bent arm position is used because that would he instinctive at close quarters m a hurry. The square stance, with one foot forward, is precisely the attitude in which the recruit is most likely to be if he had to fire suddenly while he was on the move. The " crouch," besides being instinctive when expecting to be fired at, merits a little further explanation. Its introduction into this traming system originates from an incident which took place in 1927. A raiding party of fifteen men, operating before WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UK40 SHOOTING T O LIVE daybreak, had to force an entrance to a house occupied by a gang of criminals. The only approach to the house was through a particularly narrow alley, and it was expected momentarily that the criminals would open fire. On returning down the alley in dajdight after the raid was over, the men encountered, much to their surprise, a series of stout wires stretched at intervals across the alley at about face height. The entire party had to duck to get under the wires, but no one had any recollection of either stooping under or running into them when approaching the house in the darkness. Enquiries were made at once, only to reveal that the wires had been there over a week and that they were used for the wholly innocent purpose of hanging up newly dyed skeins of wool to dry. The enquiries did not, therefore, confirm the suspicions that had been aroused, but they did serve to demonstrate conclusively and usefully that every single man of the raiding party, when momentarily expecting to be fired at, must have crouched consider ably in the first swift traverse of the alley. Since that time, men trained in the methods of this book have not only been permitted to crouch but have been encouraged to do so. The qualification we require before the recruit's course can be successfully passed is 50 per cent, of hits anywhere on the man-sized targets emploj^ed. Time has shown this to be adequate for the purpose in view . We indicate elsewhere our aversion to trophies. WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKT R A I N I N G : A D V A N C E D M E T H O D S - 4 1 badges, etc. No " expert's " or " marksman's " badges are issued to men who pass our, recruit or o t h e r c o u r s e s , n o m a t t e r h o w m u c h i n e x c e s s o f 50 per cent, their scores may have been. K a man makes " possibles " throughout, his only reward is the resultant confidence in himself and the satisfaction of knowing that if he has to " shoot it out" with a pistol he ■\vill be a better man than his opponent. Similarly, we have a dislike of " team shoots." We f e e l t h a t t h e a m m u n i t i o n w o u l d b e m u c h m o r e usefully employed in giving additional practice under instruction. From now on, m proceeding to more advanced training, the use of stationary targets should be abandoned in favour of surprise targets of aU kinds and in frequently varied positions. Such targets would include charging, retreating, bobbing, and traversing figures of man-size. Traversing targets can be either at right or oblique angles. Musketry officers ■will have no difficulty in devising for them selves endless variations on this theme, and current incidents, more especially hi the nature of actual happenings to men of their particular service, often provide valuable suggestions. We ivill give one example of a practice which has been frequently carried out with good results. It is designed not- only as a test of skill with the pistol under difficult conditions, but also a test of bodity fitness and agilitj^ qualities which to the policeman WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UK42 SHOOTING T O LIVE at any rate are every bit as necessary in the circum stances which are so often encountered in shooting affrays. In this practice, which we have called the " Pur suit," the shooter is started off at the run, outside the range, on an obstacle course consisting of jump ing a ditch, running across a plank over water, crawling through a suspended barrel, chmbing a rope, a ladder, and over a wall, finishing up with a 100 yards dash ending at 4 yards from the targets. Without warning or waiting, two surprise targets are pulled, one after the other, and at each he fires a " burst " of three shots. The targets are exposed for no longer than it takes to fire three shots at the highest possible speed. Yet another practice, a " mystery shoot," is described in the chapter entitled " A Practical Pistol Range." In aU practices at surprise targets, opportunity must be found for the performance of two very essential operations. In order of importance, these are:— 1. Making safe after firing only a portion of the contents of the magazine. 2. Inserting a second magazine after totally expending the contents of the first and continuing to fire mthout delay. In the first instance, after firing one or two shots from a fully charged magazine, the instructor should WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKT R A I N I N G : A D V A N C E D M E T H O D S 4 3 give the order to cease fire. The shooter should then come to the " ready," remove the magazine, eject the five round from the breech, vork the shde back and forth several times and finally pull the trigger, all as described on pp. 25 and 31 (Figs. 9 and 10). In the second instance, immediately the last shot has been fired, the shooter comes to the " ready," removes the empty magazine, inserts a fresh one and reloads, either by pressing dovm the shde release stop with the thumb of the left hand or by shghtly retract ing and then releashig the slide. The shde fiies for ward, taking a cartridge into the breeeh, and the shooter resumes the "ready " position by bending his hand to the right and awaits the appearance of the next target. Practice at surprise targets can be carried out first ■with the arm fuhy extended and later from the " three-quarter " hip position. There are still two other methods of close-quarter shooting to be described, but before douig so this wiU be perhaps an opportune moment to call the attention of instructors to several points which Avill be of assistance m getting results. When firmg at sm-prise targets, never let men anticipate matters by standing in the firing position. They must be standhig at the " ready " before the first target appears. If the succeeding targets are pulled with no perceptible interval, the men may continue to stand in the firing position. Other'wise they should come do^vn to the " ready " again after WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UK44 SHOOTING T O LIVE each shot or " burst" while awaitmg the appearance of the next target. Attention has been drawn already to the necessity for the square stance. When turning from one target to another the square stance must be preserved by turning the body. This can be effected by scraping the feet round or even jumping round if the extent o f t h e t u r n w a r r a n t s i t . I t d o e s n o t m a t t e r h o w i t is done so long as the firer faces each fresh target squarely and is thus enabled to retain the pistol m its original position, i.e. in alignment \vith the vertical centre-line of the body. In firing at a crossing target (" runnuig man "), it will soon be observed that 90 per cent, of aU the misses are traceable to firing ahead of it or, as a man accustomed to the shot-gun would say, to " leading it." This holds good even when the range is only 4 yards and the target only travels at about 3 miles an hour. This is not the place for a con troversy over the rival merits of " leading " a moving target or " swinging " with it. Our purpose is merely to assist instructors in correcting their pupils' mistakes, and we content ourselves with pointing out that, distance and speed of target being as stated, a bullet travelling at eight "hundred feet a second would strike only about three-quarters of an inch behind the point of aim; We now turn to the two other methods of close- quarters shooting previously referred to. These are, respectively :— WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKT R A I N I N G : A D V A N C E D M E T H O D S 4 5 The " half-hip " (Fig. 13). The " quarter " or " close-hip " (Fig. 14). Apart from shortening the arm by brmging the elbow to the side, the " half-hip " is no different from the " three-quarter," and should be practised at not more than 3 yards. Above that distance it would be more natural to shoot from the " three-quarter " position. The " quarter " or " close-hip " position is for purely defensive iDuiq^oses and wordd be used onlj'- when the requirements are a very quick ch-aw, followed by an equally quick shot at extremely close quarters, such as would be the case if a dangerous adversary were threatenhag to strike or grapple Avith you. Practise this at 1 yard. This is the only position in - which the hand is not hi the centre of the bodj^. Before we close the subject of shooting at short ranges, we would ask the reader to keep m mind that if he gets his shot off first, no matter whether it is a hit or a miss by a narrow marghi, he will have an advantage of sometimes as much as two seconds over his opponent., The opponent ivill want time to recover his wits, and his shooting will not be as accurate as it might be. It ivUl be appropriate now to turn our attention to training ourselves for shooting at longer ranges, for m spite of having said that the great majority of shooting affrays take place within a distance of 4 yards, the need does arise occasionally for a long shot. WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UK46 SHOOTING T O LIVE Fi o. 13.—" H al f-Hip " Positi on . WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKTRAINING: ADV ANCED METHODS47 / Fia. 14.—" Quarter " or " Close-Hip " Position. WWW.RIFLEMAN.ORG.UKNext >