Single Hand Weapon Positions
To start off, this is not a discussion of if you should be shooting one handed or running for your life etc. This is simply a brief guide with pictures to several positions that are used for one handed firing.
For the purpose of this, I did all the pictures of myself being right handed. If you want left handed pictures tell me. All that really changes is the way you manipulate the safety, bolt catch, mag release etc.
These positions are very dependent on your body type and what you are physically capable of.
Are the positions below the only ones that exist? NOPE.
However these are the main ones I have trained on.
As for how much you do train these. I personally think it’s a smart idea to know how to drop into these. A gun fight is not a good learning environment to figure shit out for the first time.
Most of these base positions I learned from Viking Tactics and then modified to my body type capability.
When practiced a little these positions become quite accurate and quick.
This first position is standing with only a firing hand grip on the weapon. This position is somewhat slow on presentation and is quickly tiring on your arm. However you still remain mobile and can still place very accurate fire on the target. I have found that I usually square up a little more than normal when shooting with this position.
This next position is a modified position of the above. Instead of having a normal stock weld into your shoulder, you tuck the stock of the rifle in underneath your arm pit. This helps to relieve some of the stress on your wrist. The downside of this is recoil management. You have to pay extra attention to ensure you do not bust yourself in the face with the charging handle or BUIS. This position is also dependent on your optic, and how much you can crane your neck over.
This next position is relatively easy to drop into/out of and allows for very accurate fire on target. With this position you raise the opposite knee of your firing hand and split the magazine and pistol grip with your knee (see picture).
This is a modified position of the above that is a little faster to drop into, but I find it to not be as accurate and it is bouncy with recoil. The magazine is dropped down to the firing side knee for support.
This position is a little timely to get into, and some what hard to move in. It makes you a very small profile and allows you to hide behind things such as a tire. In this position you are pinching the magazine between your knees to brace the weapon for firing. It is also a very accurate position.
Finally is a method for securing the rifle for basic manipulations such as reloading and malfunction clearing. In this method you pin the barrel into something like a tire, wall, tree etc using your chest to keep it pressed into the object. You now have a free hand to work on the weapon. The ground is fine also, just make sure you are not causing a barrel obstruction.
What most of this comes down to is what your body can do, how bad you are hurt and what the situation allows for. This is not an all inclusive or “the only way” to do it. I would highly encourage shooters however to fool around with this so that they have an idea of what they need to do to shoot with a single hand.
PJ