learned the various shooting positions when I earned my merit badge in Scouting.
Always felt the prone position is the safest if defending yourself in a home invasion. Hear somebody kicking in the front door? Stay in your bedroom. Get on the carpet and wait for the intruder to come to you. Odds are, he’ll be shooting over your head. Its the best strategy to stay alive and just maybe the intruder will steal the tv in the living room and leave. Avoiding any shooting at all is the best possible outcome.
I make a point to practice from the prone position every time I go target shooting. like this
*** Please, no anti gun rants. *** You can easily start a different thread.
Seriously though, I don’t shoot prone because the range I go to doesn’t allow it. All pistols are shot standing and all rifles are shot sitting at a shooting bench. It’s a fairly strict range and the range officers have a bit of a reputation for being Range Nazis. I’m all for safety so them being strict doesn’t bother me. I actually appreciate it. Cuts out the nonsense you sometimes see at less well policed ranges.
When I want to squeeze as much accuracy as possible from my guns, I go prone, usually with at least one homemade shooting bag supporting the front, I try to shoot from multiple positions, don’t limit myself to one
Shooting a pistol from the prone position, even in target shooting, isn’t very common. Handguns are an order of magnitude less accurate at longer distances than long arms (rifles) and shooting prone isn’t going to improve that very much. Plus handguns are designed to be used while standing, so practicing prone wouldn’t make a lot of sense.
Unless of course she’s got a nice ass, then by all means…
Of course, for rifle shooting, you practice prone because it is part of the course of fire, and your best scores are in prone. Pistols aren’t shot prone for any specified course of fire that I know of.
But defensive shooting is a much different ball game. I ran our practical defense program for 8 years and set up courses with prone shooting several times each season. Also rolling over while reloading, scooting backwards to gain cover, etc.
It does require practice if you want your shots to count. It is fairly hard to get the correct sight alignment with a pistol when prone, specially if the situation is realistic, i.e., a threat standing over you at close range.
When I opened this thread I thought the OP was referring to shooting a rifle in the prone position, not a handgun.
Shooting a handgun in the prone position is rather useless. The only time I do it is when I shoot it from 25 yards, and not for any practical reason; I just think it’s fun and very challenging to shoot a handgun at that distance.
My favorite position for shooting a rifle is the prone position while using an M1907 sling. I love my M1907 sling.
Yes, I find it difficult shooting a pistol from a prone position too. I practice just enough that I could hit a home intruder from 12 ft to 14 ft away.
Tried the kneeling position one afternoon with a pistol. Shot maybe 20 rounds. I felt off balance and my shot was erratic… This guy seems ok kneeling.
I’ve found prone shooting to be much easier. Lie on your side, head resting on your arm, and it’s an extremely stable position. Not much deviation in sight picture/alignment.
I’m getting too old and with my bad back prone isn’t something I do on a regular basis. I’ll use probe when using a scope and shooting out hundreds of yards, but other than that no.
I practice it more with a rifle than pistol but that’s probably because I spend more time with the military rifle league at my club than the pistol folks. The rifle shoots are always all three positions; pistol varies but its mostly classic off-hand one-handed.
Nice pistol that lady is wielding.
