Re: RARA-AVIS: living in a book

Ned Fleming (ned@cjnetworks.com)
Tue, 20 Oct 1998 00:53:14 GMT Mark Sullivan wrote:

>Now that's a very interesting point, but it also raised a question with
>me: Can someone in law enforcement, emergency services or with gun
>knowledge tell me if this is accurate? I had read elsewhere that it is
>damned hard to shoot straight when holding a gun sideways, but I had
>never heard this. Also, where does the recoil throw a gun when shot
>this way? Does it throw it back into the shooter's chest?

Rotating one's hand 45 degrees when being filmed shooting a
semi-automatic pistol may look cool, and it may even be more natural,
but semi-automatic pistols are not designed to be aimed that way.
However, with practice, they can be just as accurate aimed that way.
Still, Vasch (sp?) has a significant point with regard to the extraction
of (hot, hot, hot) brass and where it lands. Would the shooter prefer
the brass on the grass next to him or thrown into his eyeballs?

Given the classic (and designed) aiming hand position, a properly
adjusted extractor will throw the brass to the right, up, and to the
rear of the shooter. Rotate the pistol 45 degrees counterclockwise.
Where would the brass land? Right in the old jelly-orbs. I had a Glock
that, even when aimed "classically," threw brass straight back into my
face. I caught an expended shell casing between my glasses and my face.
Big Owie! The Glock is a nice pistol, but reloads void the warranty and
the unpredictable (and uncorrectable) extractor caused me to swear off
them. I've since become a 1911 aficionado.

As for recoil, it is always straight back from a line following the very
center of the barrel. But considering that one grips the pistol below
(or to the right of) the barrel's centerline, then there is this: Aimed
"classically," the recoil raises the arm; aimed sideways, like a
precious lad might do so from a nearby single-family dwelling unit among
a number of single-family dwelling units, the recoil moves the arm to
the left.

-- 
Ned Fleming
#
# To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca.
# The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.