Proper Shooting Stance!
There is a lot of debate about what is the best shooting stance to use when you are out on the range. I have tried several different shooting stances over the years and my “go to” standing shooting stance is the what has been called the “Combat Shooting Stance” or the “Tactical Shooting Stance.”
Here I am doing a drill at an advanced carbine class where I am running to my right between stations and I stop briefly to engage 4 targets.
My mentors have taught me well. I seek the best in the firearms training industry to help advance my own skills when I am a student on the range. My boys at Charles Ferrera and Anson Beck at Falcon Operations Group have drilled the tactical shooting stance into my head and it makes sense.
To assume the Combat Shooting stance you square up to your target, extend your arms forward with your firearm using a nice firm firing grip, your center of gravity should be slightly forward, and the weight on your legs should be slightly staggered with your firing side leg slightly behind your other leg.
There are several reasons I like the Combat Shooting Stance.
1. In a fight or flight situation your body’s natural response will most likely be to square up to your target, rather than contort your body into a sideways or weaver position.
2. When you square up to your target more of your body-armored chest is facing the target rather than exposing your vital organs on your uncovered side.
3. In the tactical stance your firing side leg is positioned slightly behind the other leg. This gives you approximately a 60-40 split to how you bear the weight through your legs. Most of your weight will be on your forward leg. Not only does this give you a wider more stable standing platform, but it also allows you to move quickly and change positions easier.
You want to be able to “Get Off the X” as James Yeager would say.
Consider trying the Combat Shooting stance your next time out on the range.
To Your Surviving and Thriving,
MaryAnne Morcos, The Urban Survival Chick
