Survival Shooting Techniques: Why Train With One Hand?

What is the real reason we should train to use only one hand to manipulate and shoot the firearm?

Lots of people might say, “Because it is common to get shot in one of your extremities and lose the use of one hand.” While I agree, and the statistics confirm this to an extent, over the years I have witnessed some other factors that force us to use one hand, and some of these factors might change the way we look at and select techniques for one-hand-only operation. Depending on the reason we are manipulating the handgun with one hand, we might also realize very quickly that some techniques are good for certain situations, and others are basically useless. One-handed survival training is a must have in your defensive handgun training program, and for you rifle operators, I suggest you entertain the idea of handling your rifle with one arm only too!

In the one-handed survival-shooting course I teach, I run through a variety of techniques that allow someone to accomplish all of the basic manipulations of the handgun: draw, reload, and malfunction clearances. My goals in this article are to inform you of the importance of this type of training and to give you some basics to consider in relation to training to shoot and manipulate your gun with one hand.

Hand/Arm Occupied

This is the second reason that the arm might be unusable and is as common as or more so than losing the use of an arm after being wounded. Situations I have observed that will occupy the arm include holding an opponent (fighting, cuffing, etc.), carrying something important (e.g., a baby), and dragging or helping your partner or teammate in a combat situation. When having to access or manipulate the gun when one hand is otherwise engaged, you might find some techniques less effective than others.

For example, if one hand is holding onto a stronger opponent, you might not be able to use some reloading methods that require you to squeeze your knees together to secure the firearm for the reload simply because you are going to be pushed and pulled all over the place during the fight. Squeezing your knees together to secure your handgun to place another magazine it in might not be an option.

If you have to manipulate the gun with one hand while the other hand is doing something that takes a good deal of strength, such as fighting another person, assisting a partner, or controlling a principal, you might find it very hard to use certain reloading and malfunction clearance techniques, which is why it is a good idea to know and train with several techniques that might each be used differently.

Gun Access

As far as gun access (draw process) with one hand occupied, your preference should be drawing with your strong hand, so get in the habit of having your strong (gun) hand available and occupying the other hand with non-pertinent tasks. If you do this, the strong draw process should really not change much from what you normally do, except the second hand will not be placed on the gun. If you violate this principle of keeping your strong hand free, you might find yourself set up for failure if you have to access your firearm. I can draw my firearm with both hands, but certainly prefer to draw with my strong hand!

Gun access is a key consideration when you have to access it with one hand only, and either hand. You will find out fairly early if your chosen (or issued) holster and gear will be accessible with both hands. Some holsters and carry locations make it much more difficult to access your firearm, and I always want my students to look at the weaknesses of their holster system as it pertains to access with either hand and find ways to work around them.

Spare gear (magazine) location is also something you need to seriously consider. If a situation occurs where a reload is necessary, and you are using the same side of your body where your spare magazines are to secure the person in some sort of physical hold while fighting, you might find it impossible to get to your spare magazines. I have also worked with many students who carry their spare magazine in their pocket (usually their support-side pocket), and when given the task of performing a one-handed reload, it often takes them an immense amount of effort to get to the magazine, especially when they are physically fighting with someone.

Checking Your Gear

One of the first things we cover in our one-handed manipulation and shooting blocks of instruction at U.S. Shooting Academy is gun and gear set-up. Obviously, the type of holster and magazine pouch you wear will affect how you operate your gun with one hand beyond the access considerations discussed above. Certain techniques require you to use your holster, belt, or magazine pouches to work the slide or secure the gun during a reload, and some gear works well for one-handed manipulation, while some just doesn’t work.

An example might be a high-quality leather pancake holster that collapses after the gun is drawn from it. Due to the fact that the holster collapses, it will be very difficult to secure the firearm in that particular holster to perform a reload. Holster selection and testing are critical, and you might not have the ability to pick a different holster (for example, a law enforcement agent/officer who is required to wear a certain rig).

What you can do is test your equipment by trying different one-handed techniques, so you know their limitations, and then find ways to work around the problems you may have. This takes time and dedicated training, and absolutely must be done to ensure you don’t end up having to figure this out during an actual fight!

un set-up is another important factor in operating the firearm with one hand. Most of the techniques that I teach during slide manipulation require a rear sight design that allows one to hook the rear sight on a pocket corner, belt or holster, and some rear sights are simply not going to work when trying to rack the slide with one hand. Guns that are designed with ambidextrous controls (slide lock/release, magazine release, etc) are nice to have for one-handed manipulation, but not mandatory.

For example, one of the strong points of the Smith & Wesson M&P 9C that I carry is the fact that the slide lock/release lever is ambidextrous and I can operate it with both hands (not that I recommend using a slide lock/release–generally I do not) if I need to. Magazine release buttons should be inspected and tested for use with both hands, and if you carry a gun with a magazine release on the magazine well area, you will have to use a different technique to release the magazine with one hand only.

Selecting the Right Technique

Techniques are usually best chosen by finding ones that are consistent and simple, but you will have to know several in order to operate with only one hand. The reason for this is that certain techniques will not work in all situations. During my one-handed survival shooting class, I always teach multiple techniques and discuss with students when each might be used. For example, I teach one where you use your knees to pin the gun and hold it while performing the reload, but this technique will not work if you are in the middle of a scuffle.

In this particular case, you might be best served by securing the gun in the holster and using that method. A back-up gun might also be a good choice for this situation, and consider placing that gun somewhere you can get to it with both hands. Try not to limit yourself to firearm techniques only, and think outside the box when it comes to surviving with one hand. I often stress the fact that a gun solution is not always the answer, and it is best for you to utilize some sort of physical technique to shift the fight in your favor before you try to reload the gun or clear a malfunction with one hand.