Shooting Methods for Handguns in Other Countries

[Sam Browning]

In America as most of us here know, Police and the military are basically taught to shoot a pistol either with the Weaver stance, or isosceles stance. I know the Israelis used to teach their people a modified point shooting technique. What techniques to the rest of the world, especially the former eastern bloc use when teaching combative pistol shooting? Do they imitate us, or have something very different?

[SFGOON]

For what it's worth, I've never seen a person trained in the eastern bloc fire a pistol with two hands. A good point of research for you would be studying declassified East German military doctrine.

[Sam Browning]

Has anyone translated this material into English?

[Don Gwinn]

When Weaver and later Isosceles were being developed and popularized, the Cold War was in full swing. Interesting that apparently nothing similar happened over there.

Of course, Weaver was developed by a police officer, but shooting on his own time in the Southwest Pistol League. I assume Isosceles was also developed (or at least popularized) through private citizens' competitive efforts. I don't think there was anything similar in the Soviet Union or its satellite nations.

You do think up some interesting posers.

[SFGOON]

Things like Weaver and Isosceles get developed precisely because handguns have such a strong history in the US and are widely proliferated. The rest of the world has no such infatuation. Western european nations have borrowed and integrated US weappins handling techniques, especially when it comes to pistols. The USSR is enmaored of snipers and thier weapons handling and task organization refelcts this. Most Makarovs were issued to officers too lazy to hump a pistol, and they rarely trained with them. You can also look at Kim Jong Il, who loves to impress his troops by shooting with a pistol. He claims to be an expert but uses only one hand, though if his claims are true he is fairly ambidexterous.