What Are the Effects of a Contact Shot for Personal Defense?

[Talyn]

Holding an opponent at bay with your off-hand forearm (while keeping it from slipping in front of your muzzle) can prevent contact between the pistol’s muzzle and your adversary, which could possibly cause a malfunction.

An Official Journal Of The NRA | What Are the Effects of a Contact Shot for Personal Defense?

In your extreme-close-quarters-encounter class, you were cautioned that contact shots could cause a handgun to malfunction, and possibly not fire at all, leading to an even graver situation.

www.shootingillustrated.com

 

[TSiWRX]

Craig Douglas - aka Southnarc - the chief instructor of ShivWorks, is probably the most well-known for ECQC and in-fight weapons access.

I really believe that his thoughts and techniques in this area are gold.

There's a lot of good stuff of his posted for-free on YouTube, hosted by both Surefire's "Field Notes" Channel as well as The Warrior Poet Society, and I would really encourage everyone to take a look at those resources:

WPS - retention shooting, w/Southnarc

Surefire - Fighting in a Clinch

And from Trigger Time TV -

Retention shooting
ECQC off-hand fending positions

To-supplement with some of the instruction I've received in the past that I hold very valuable, I also really think that it is very important for folks to understand that "retention" -be it in the sense of hanging on to your gun and keeping it from your aggressor(s) or the shooting technique- should be thought of as more than just a technique. Instead, that it needs to be a true "martial" consideration.

And towards that, we should recognize that we will likely need to shoot "from retention" at far greater distances than arm's reach (at which point it really becomes the problem of introducing the firearm into an entangled physical fight), as well as realize that the isolated flat-range techniques taught/learned will need to be performed under the most dire conditions imagined, and will be much, much more dynamic than what can be hoped to be learned in the flat-range, belt-buckle-to-belt-buckle way...that it will need the pressure-test of training like that of the ShivWorks ECQC program.