Lean About the Types of Pistol Shooting Stances

Series Summary

Guns are explosive weapons that shoot projectiles at very high speeds. Simple enough, right? Yet, if we fill the culture vacuum by inspecting the influence firearms have in modern society, we see that guns are used as talismans of power, complicated machines that represent safety, protection, revenge, freedom, fear, authority, or gender identity—and perhaps a host of other undiscovered connotations.

Since the first handguns were invented in the 19th century, advances in technology have fed man’s desire for continuous design and functionality upgrades. New generations of firearms have become easier to load, smaller, and more powerful.

In this free handgun instructional video series, learn proper firearm shooting stances and forms. Our gun expert will show you how to shoot a gun from a kneeling position, laying on your back, or advancing forward, as well as how to position your arms and feet, how to shoot a gun one-handed, how to stabilize your shot, and much more.

Video Transcript

"We're going to get into types of stances for shooting. Whether it's recreational or for professional, law enforcement, or military. The certain stances that you use that you shoot from provide a stable platform. The first one I'll demonstrate is considered the weaver stance. That's where you start with your feet pretty much shoulder width apart. I would take my strong side, which in my case, I'm right handed would be right foot. I'm going to slightly bring a few paces behind my left foot. I'm going to slightly bend my knees. This right here is considered weaver stance. When I go to shoot, what I'll do is probably lean forward into it little bit. It gives me a very stable platform for shooting. It's comfortable. I can react and move as I need to. The second stance I'm going to go over is considered the isosceles stance. An isosceles is pretty much like the 1970s cop shows when they run out flat footed and they bring the gun down and they're standing square to their target. It takes away from mobility. Stability; there is a good platform there but again, in certain realms, whether it's law enforcement of military, the smaller target that you can make yourself, the better your chances are if you get into an encounter. If I'm standing there square with my target, all of this is accessible to someone who may be firing at me. However, it's still used through law enforcement and military. Not necessarily a bad stance. It's pretty much what a person prefers and what they're comfortable with. The third stance I'll talk about will be pretty much the modified weaver stance, which is only slightly different than the first weaver stance I showed you where the foot is a little bit more exaggerated where the foot is actually brought back more versus just a few paces. The foot is actually dropped back quite a bit. This is a very energetic movement on the move, shooting on the move, engaging, disengaging, moving forward, moving rearward, side to side type of stance. It's a very dynamic stance. Provides again a very strong base for shooting, but it takes time to acclimated to it. From this position here again, just like the weaver slightly bladed, but you don't want to go too far where you feel off balance or off kilter. You still want your knees slightly bent kind of on the balls of your feet. In law enforcement, what we call this is the interview position. This here is a little over exaggerated for our normal interview position, but again it provides a very stable base for shooting platform."