By John Gilstrap
As most of you know by now, I am an unapologetic gun guy. I own a few, and I train with them regularly. I enjoy the process of taking them apart and cleaning them and then putting them back together again. The aroma of Hoppes cleaning solvent mixed with gun oil is perfume. I belong to a shooting club that’s populated by the nicest, down-to-earth folks you’d ever want to know. But it would be unwise to break into their homes or mess with their families.
Weaver Stance
As with any other bit of hardware, trends come and go. In the video above, from the SHOT Show, I am shooting a suppressed Glock 19, using a modified Weaver stance, with my body bladed to the target and my right foot behind my left. Think of it as a natural fighting stance. It’s the stance I was first taught a thousand years ago, and it makes the most sense to me. Most fights don’t start with guns, they start with fists, and the Weaver stance mimics a boxer’s stance.
Isosceles Stance
Nowadays, the Weaver stance is considered outdated, and for the last eight years or so, every range instructor I’ve encountered has scolded me for using it. The new trend in shooters stances is the Isosceles stance. In this one, you square your body to the target, with arms completely outstretched. In your fiction, if you’ve got a rookie cop, this is the stance that they will acquire when they shoot, because in stressful situations, people revert back to their training. Among gun folk, there’s a raging debate over the relative wisdom of the two stances.
Personally, the Isosceles stance makes no sense to me. You present a bigger target and by extending your arms out so far, you make it easy for a bad guy to disarm in close quarters confrontations.
Everything changed when that jerk was foolish enough to kill John Wick’s dog, Daisy, and the world was introduced to an established, effective, but until that movie, a little known set of gun handling techniques called Center Axis Relock.
This technique embraces the fact that gunfights are often intimate affairs, conducted within bad breath distance. From the instant the pistol is drawn, it’s ready to join the fight. At the draw, your body is severely bladed toward the target, such that your elbow is pointing at the bad guy’s center of mass. In close quarters, your elbow acts as a front sight and allows you to get shots on close-in targets instantly.
When it’s time to deal with targets beyond, say, 7 yards, you bring the pistol up to the position shown in the picture by Keanu Reeves. This grip and stance is tough to master, and even in the picture, Keanu isn’t doing it quite right. The difficult elements are to keep your wrist straight in line with your forearm (Keanu’s great on that), but he needs to have the gun canted over further to aim only with his left eye–otherwise at that distance, he’ll see two front sights.
The downsides to this stance, I think, are pretty severe outside of a fight for your life–which a day at the range is not. The report of the gunshot will be much louder, you’ll be more susceptible to powder spray from the ejection port, and anytime you’re pulling triggers close to your body, you’re upping the likelihood of shooting yourself.
Your protagonist, however, has no fear of any such outcomes.
Comments and questions are welcome.
And now, by way of shameless self promotion . . .
Here’s the press release for BURNED BRIDGES, the first book of my new Irene Rivers thriller series.
What a great primer on stances. Thank you. I love your gun porn posts—so educational. Many times I’ve referenced them when writing a scene.
I’ve never been a shooter though my grandfather could shoot a dancing tick off the back of a running deer at 100 yards with just about any shotgun or rifle (a Wild West show trick shot performer taught him to shoot over 100 years ago). At my request, for Christmas my wife bought me a beginner’s class at the local gun shop/range and I am excited for it now that Spring has sprung. And now I’m curious what stance they’ll teach—it’s an old school place.
Thank you for sharing your knowledge.
Fascinating, John. Trends come and go. I leaned the Isoceles stance way back in the early 1970s. Then the Weaver stance started coming in, which is what my BIL, a state park ranger and champion target shooter, used. I got scolded for being old-fashioned but to me, Weaver felt off balance, although presenting a smaller target makes total sense. So now Isoceles is back. Everything old is new again.
Just tried center axis relock which caused lot of snap-crackle-pops in my shoulders and elbows. Plus my left eye is the worst. Interesting but not gonna work for me.
Congrats on your new book–already preordered.
Excellent info as always. The LAPD handbook still teaches the Weaver stance, stating that it allows for quick follow-up shots by using isometric muscle tension to control the recoil; keeps the holstered pistol away from the suspect; and easily integrates with the Harries flashlight technique.
Some say there’s a downside when a cop is wearing body armor, i.e., a right-handed shooter exposes his left armpit, which is an entry way to the heart.
Might one argue that the Isosceles is better for aim and accuracy?
I suspect that the Isosceles stance was born of body armor for exactly the reason you state. That’s likewise the reason why the “POLICE” or “US MARSHAL” insignia is directly over the armored plate. In practice, many cops don’t wear the plates in their vests because they’re to heavy and only necessary when coming against rifle fire. Another lost statistic, albeit apocryphal: In a gunfight, hands are the most frequently shot body part because people aim at the thing they fear most–the gun.
I am getting older. My world has more threats than ever in my lifetime. A 9mm Ruger is in my house now. I just realized I should read your blog. Next week will be the first day at a range. Should be interesting.
Supposedly the Army taught my uncle to shoot his rifle from the hip. Also, supposedly he could hit a tossed quarter from the hip. He was one of the first Green Baret instructors.
I use a Weaver stance and was chided about it by my instructor. It just feels right.
I recently saw a feature on John Wick’s reload method. The actor came up with the technique himself. Some shooters are in love. My gun has always been for close up protection inside my home so my stance would most likely be crouching behind a bed or arm chair with my arm extended over it. I’d shoot before they were close enough to disarm me. I’m small, elderly, and female they wouldn’t be intimidated by the gun. Fools. My dad, the gun instructor, taught me well.
“Legendary author, John Gilstrap…” 🙂 Congrats, and I’m eagerly awaiting my preordered copy of Burned Bridges.
This post is a treat for me, John. As most of you know, I’m a gun enthusiast going back 30-40 years. I used to shoot rifles and pistols in competition in my younger years. My husband and I train regularly at our local range.
And stance has always been a problem for me, (and holsters, too, BTW…) until I just stopped trying to do it everyone else’s way. I do what feels comfortable for me, which is the Weaver. The classes we’ve attended teach the isosceles stance, but some trainers do teach to use what’s most comfortable. For most women, IMHO, the Weaver makes sense because we are more easily pushed off balance in an incident.
The key is to train, train, train . . . and have fun while you’re at it.
Thanks for a fun and informative post!
What’s this to do with writing.
Information to use in our writing, since this is a blog for thriller/mystery writers.
Thrillers often involve gunplay and writers often get the details wrong.