One handed .45?

Do you shoot one handed with a .45?

Yes.  This is required by the rules of conventional pistol.

http://compete.nra.org/documents/pdf/compete/RuleBooks/Pistol/pistol-book.pdf

5.5 Firing Position - Standing, gun held in one hand only, the 
other hand being used in no way to support the gun; all portions 
of the shooter’s clothing, body and gun clear of artificial support. 
Competitors will take their position at their numbered firing point 
in such manner as not to interfere with competitors on either side. 
No portion of the shooter’s body may rest upon or touch the ground 
in advance of the firing line. (Fig. c)

It is what the sport was founded on and is what REAL bullseye is all about, but not just with a 45, with any gun used in a match, only recently has the NRA decided to open up a limited competition that allows two handed but it is only limited to special matches that will be few and far between.

Thanks for the quick responses.  This sort of goes with my other post on practicing with a purpose.  Most if not all of the BE shooters in our local club use both hands.  After reading some of the NRA rules I thought there might be exceptions.  This is one of the reasons for not just following the crowd when trying to develop shooting techniques.  The other area that concerns me is that all of the club's shooting is at 20 yards instead of what I believe is the required 25 yd and 50 yd distances.

You can use a copy machine to make the targets appear and score more like normal. Outdoor BE shooting competitions occur at 50 yards for slow fire with timed and rapid being shot at 25 yards. 

Use the ratio of 20 to 25 or 50 to figure out the size to shrink the target copies.

beeser wrote:Thanks for the quick responses.  This sort of goes with my other post on practicing with a purpose.  Most if not all of the BE shooters in our local club use both hands.  After reading some of the NRA rules I thought there might be exceptions.  This is one of the reasons for not just following the crowd when trying to develop shooting techniques.  The other area that concerns me is that all of the club's shooting is at 20 yards instead of what I believe is the required 25 yd and 50 yd distances.

No the match that you describe does not meet the regulations for the new probationary matches the NRA came up with that allows two handed holds, they are shot outdoors at 25 yards and must be registered with the NRA and the use of regulation targets is required. Not sure what those guys are shooting but its not  Bullseye. At best its a modified gallery type match loosly based on one sport or another. You will have fun but you will not be shooting the sport this forum is dedicated to, nor can you acquire true NRA Conventional Pistol Classifications. Best consider that type of match just for practice and look for the real bullseye matches you can attend.

Yes, the guys who participate do have fun and they try not to take it too seriously.  I'm fortunate to have the opportunity to shoot and learn with them.

Sounds like you need to read all the articles here.
http://bullseyepistol.com/index.htm

And especially
http://bullseyepistol.com/amucover.htm

Dear beeser,


Could you let us know which city and state you live in?  We will try to find you some sanctioned bullseye leagues or matches to attend--it's a whole lot easier to get the information you are seeking from mentors who shoot near you.


Welcome to bullseye shooting!  It's so much fun and full of really fun and helpful people!


-Rob


P.S. to all the other members who chimed in on this thread--beeser is new to bullseye and we all should do our best to be welcoming.  We need new shooters like beeser to keep our sport thriving.

It all depends on whether you want to just sling lead or truly follow the American tradition known as Marksmanship.

The fine art of holding still.

Operating the trigger without disturbing the firearm.

Doing it in 5-round strings with a generous time limit, then again in half the time.

Finessing the finger-trigger with front sight focus with fabulous firearms.

We do this BECAUSE it is hard.

I strongly recommend that you graph your scores. Every new high score is a victory. Repeating a high score is pretty cool. A slump should be merely temporary while you teach yourself and train your brain for Zenlike calm in your shot process. That past high score is NEVER a fluke--it is proof that you can do it again.

But be sure you KNOW your ammo and gun and what they can do. I struggled at 50 yards with the .45 for three months of practice before I tested and found that my great ammo in two other guns couldn't group tighter than the 9-ring at 50 (and pretty loose in the 9 ring) in the one I was using. And that one has the optic. Switched to the iron sight gun and picked up 7 points right away and the mysterious shots off of call almost disappeared.

Welcome to Bullseye.