Close Retention Shooting
Don’t Blink, You’ll be Shocked and Amazed at the Speed of this Draw with a Glock!
If you watched the late Bob Munden when he did his quick draw while shooting from the hip, it was amazing to watch. What’s really kind of neat-to-know is that this type of shooting is similar to what law enforcement term “retention shooting”. Retention shooting was taught to the officers when they had to pull the weapon out and fire while in close proximity to a suspect. (melee time) This way of shooting is not new as a matter of fact, the history of it goes back to the early 1900’s taught by William E Fairbairn the author of several tactical shooting books.
Fast forward to modern day, the person in this video blasting away at high speed below is Baret Fawbush, he says that he is not an expert, but when watching him draw and shoot from the retention at close quarter, he looks pretty good.
Calling this a “close retention shooting drill,” he puts his hands up, clears his mind, and then empties his magazine like a boss.See him in action below. Wow! That is the epitome of fast, controlled shooting with a sidearm. While he says that this is not a video on defensive tactics, seeing Baret in action against targets with t-shirts and a box for a head. Don’t know looks like very much like a drill for defensive purpose.
Talk about shooting from the hip!, this is the modern version of gun slinging at its best. Whoever thought this technique would turn out to be one of the most important to have at your disposal.
Close Retention Shooting Variation
For those in the CCW and/or LE circle, there will always be a question of would this type of retention shooting hold up while under a serious mano mano brawl.
Which means you are so close that you can smell the bad guy’s breath as you’re struggling to get your pistol out to defend yourself. When you watch an actual fight of this scenario, it almost looks like two people playing tug-of-war over the pistol. But, seriously this becomes a fight for the control of the pistol when its pulled out.
Many gun instructors have come up with ways to deal with the real issue. Several that stands out is one that is taught by Craig Douglas of ECQC and Don Gullah (Extreme Close Quarter Concepts) of Arrestling.
The initial movements are similar to the original method but the follow-up is transition to shooting with two hands as you create distance from the bad guy. The video below is quite long, but it should start at what this technique should look like.
Here’s some short clips while fighting.
GWRAP
Here’s Don Gulla’s method – originally the concept may have been traced back to the British SAS(Special Air Services), designed for CQB. This was based on both parties have their hands on the pistol and fighting over it. Brace contact was the initial term until Gulla made it his own as GWRAP (Gulla’s Weapon Retention and Positional Shooting). Here’s a quick breakdown of it during contact:
- non-gun hand grab the whole barrel slide part of your pistol and press to your chest
- gun hand fingers off the trigger while grasping handle firmly and press to your chest
- non-gun hand elbow position forward
- upper torso turn sideway
Drilling this technique is about position and holding on to your weapon (pistol). You will find that this drill can have you and your partner scrambling standing and going to the ground. Going to the ground will be a different subject to follow up on.
This technique was tested by officers of Arrestling, Black Tiger Tactical and other military units. Testing’s pitted big males against the smaller female with some training in this method. This type of weapon retention is about mitigating your injury and safety. Ease of learning and putting it to use quickly.
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