Enhanced Peripheral Vision ©
In 1981 I was taught how to use my peripheral vision while shooting shotguns, rifles and pistols. The skill was called instinct shooting by Bobby Lamar “Lucky” McDaniel, who was known to have developed the technique in what the U S Army later was to name Quick Kill after adopting the technique for it’s rifle program in the late 1950’s.
Instead of using direct vision sighting and utilizing the sights on a rifle or pistol, we were taught to use a narrow range of our naturally occurring peripheral vision to “see” the end of the barrel/front sight while staying threat focused with our direct vision at all times.
These peripheral reference points from the end of the barrel/front sight to the intended target for the pistols, rifles and shotguns make the techniques repeatable and reliable. Once the reference from the weapon to the target is established peripherally, one fires and hits the intended target.
I became so familiar with using peripheral vision that it became a part of my subconscious and as natural to use as anything that can be done without conscious effort. Things like driving a car and riding a bike are easier the more we perform the activity. This use of the peripheral vision to verify the relationship between the weapon and the intended strike point became no less automatic over the years of using it with firearms of all kinds.
Late in the year of 1991, I was getting bored with shooting a handgun using Quick Kill. It had been 10 years since being taught to use my natural abilities by Bobby Lamar “Lucky” McDaniel in Georgia. It did not require any effort to make hits, required little to no practice on a regular basis, and I needed something to stimulate my mind further where handguns was concerned.
I had taught a police officer earlier that year how to use two kali/escrima sticks simultaneously in combat. Over 10 weeks he had become fairly ambidextrous and had developed enough skill in his off hand/arm to work the stick as well as his strong hand/arm. He was able to use a single stick in either hand proficiently and could move the stick from one hand to the other without loss of any dexterity, coordination or speed.
When I realized what the officer was capable of doing, it dawned on me that I had also walked that path a decade before when I had bee trained in double stick work but I had not realized just how much improvement in use of the off hand had come from the double stick training then or over the subsequent years.
I determined I would work on developing my shooting skills using two guns simultaneously, one in each hand at combat distances based on what I had observed with the police officer. This would be interesting to say the least. Could I develop the use of the off hand with a handgun to a level of proficiency like the sticks had shown us? This was something to work on that would take the boredom with handguns I had been experiencing and it just seemed like it would be a lot of fun trying even if the results were poor. It would challenge my mind to work again using handguns.
I went to the range and shot with a gun in each hand at one target. I used two model 36 Smith and Wesson snub-nosed revolvers initially. In short order, I could shoot both at the same time onto a threat 4-6 feet out and keep the shots centered on the target. I only had one threat to look at so I could stay threat focused. Using the technique Lucky McDaniel had shown us worked with two guns pretty good. I moved the target out to about 10 feet with the same stellar results, then 12 feet and still the hits were there every time. I was using the narrow range of peripheral vision that Lucky’s threat/target focused method used, the guns well below line of sight and seen in that comfortable narrow range of my peripheral vision.
It was time to try this on two targets with the two guns at the same time. I put up a second “threat” target and both were moved back in to the 4-6 foot range. Initially I place the stands so they touched one another so the threats were less than four feet center of chest to center of chest. Initially I tried to just get the guns up and check their positions individually on the threats, then fire simultaneously. That worked pretty good, as would be expected, by first verifying individually that the guns were where they needed to be before firing.
Though I had good results that way, it was not going to be something I could use in battle on the streets if I had to. The time to physically verify the two guns individually first would get you killed. Still this was promising so I determined I needed to keep working at it.
I found myself at the range again the next week setting up two more threat targets. I was using full size silhouette/body targets at the same distance of about 4-5 feet away and about four feet apart from the centers of the chests. I worked hard that day on developing this skill. I tried looking at one threat and hitting both, that didn’t give me reliable center hits on the threat I wasn’t looking at very often. I tried looking at the left one and hitting both, then the right one and hitting both, alternating between them with varied results that were better but not what they needed to be.
Then I tried to focus/look at neither of the two threats but look between them with direct vision. That seemed very promising in multiple runs. The hits were very good, but the range was short and the threats close together. I was onto something here. If I didn’t look at either of the threats directly, I got better hits on both at the same time. I was definitely onto something but I didn’t know what, it was too new to understand at the time. I was using “multiple threat focus” © and still using the peripheral vision of Quick Kill to “see” the guns, though the narrow peripheral vision range of the one threat/one gun Quick Kill technique had to be expanded.
I moved the threats farther apart by a few feet at the same distance and tried this again. Looking at neither of the threats directly, nor the guns, I worked it slowly and in a few runs found the hits were centered on each simultaneously again. My mind was figuring out that the narrow range of use in the Quick Kill could be expanded, and the gun/s did not have to be directly below my head and line of sight to use the peripheral vision to “see” the guns at the same time. This was getting really interesting to say the least.
I moved the threats out to 10 feet and moved them about 10 feet apart. It reliable center hits fell apart again. More work would be necessary, but I was on the right road to getting solid reliable hits shooting two threats at the same time with one gun in each hand. I went home for the day to think about what I was doing here.
Continued:
In 1981 I was taught how to use my peripheral vision while shooting shotguns, rifles and pistols. The skill was called instinct shooting by Bobby Lamar “Lucky” McDaniel, who was known to have developed the technique in what the U S Army later was to name Quick Kill after adopting the technique for it’s rifle program in the late 1950’s.
Instead of using direct vision sighting and utilizing the sights on a rifle or pistol, we were taught to use a narrow range of our naturally occurring peripheral vision to “see” the end of the barrel/front sight while staying threat focused with our direct vision at all times.
These peripheral reference points from the end of the barrel/front sight to the intended target for the pistols, rifles and shotguns make the techniques repeatable and reliable. Once the reference from the weapon to the target is established peripherally, one fires and hits the intended target.
I became so familiar with using peripheral vision that it became a part of my subconscious and as natural to use as anything that can be done without conscious effort. Things like driving a car and riding a bike are easier the more we perform the activity. This use of the peripheral vision to verify the relationship between the weapon and the intended strike point became no less automatic over the years of using it with firearms of all kinds.
Late in the year of 1991, I was getting bored with shooting a handgun using Quick Kill. It had been 10 years since being taught to use my natural abilities by Bobby Lamar “Lucky” McDaniel in Georgia. It did not require any effort to make hits, required little to no practice on a regular basis, and I needed something to stimulate my mind further where handguns was concerned.
I had taught a police officer earlier that year how to use two kali/escrima sticks simultaneously in combat. Over 10 weeks he had become fairly ambidextrous and had developed enough skill in his off hand/arm to work the stick as well as his strong hand/arm. He was able to use a single stick in either hand proficiently and could move the stick from one hand to the other without loss of any dexterity, coordination or speed.
When I realized what the officer was capable of doing, it dawned on me that I had also walked that path a decade before when I had bee trained in double stick work but I had not realized just how much improvement in use of the off hand had come from the double stick training then or over the subsequent years.
I determined I would work on developing my shooting skills using two guns simultaneously, one in each hand at combat distances based on what I had observed with the police officer. This would be interesting to say the least. Could I develop the use of the off hand with a handgun to a level of proficiency like the sticks had shown us? This was something to work on that would take the boredom with handguns I had been experiencing and it just seemed like it would be a lot of fun trying even if the results were poor. It would challenge my mind to work again using handguns.
I went to the range and shot with a gun in each hand at one target. I used two model 36 Smith and Wesson snub-nosed revolvers initially. In short order, I could shoot both at the same time onto a threat 4-6 feet out and keep the shots centered on the target. I only had one threat to look at so I could stay threat focused. Using the technique Lucky McDaniel had shown us worked with two guns pretty good. I moved the target out to about 10 feet with the same stellar results, then 12 feet and still the hits were there every time. I was using the narrow range of peripheral vision that Lucky’s threat/target focused method used, the guns well below line of sight and seen in that comfortable narrow range of my peripheral vision.
It was time to try this on two targets with the two guns at the same time. I put up a second “threat” target and both were moved back in to the 4-6 foot range. Initially I place the stands so they touched one another so the threats were less than four feet center of chest to center of chest. Initially I tried to just get the guns up and check their positions individually on the threats, then fire simultaneously. That worked pretty good, as would be expected, by first verifying individually that the guns were where they needed to be before firing.
Though I had good results that way, it was not going to be something I could use in battle on the streets if I had to. The time to physically verify the two guns individually first would get you killed. Still this was promising so I determined I needed to keep working at it.
I found myself at the range again the next week setting up two more threat targets. I was using full size silhouette/body targets at the same distance of about 4-5 feet away and about four feet apart from the centers of the chests. I worked hard that day on developing this skill. I tried looking at one threat and hitting both, that didn’t give me reliable center hits on the threat I wasn’t looking at very often. I tried looking at the left one and hitting both, then the right one and hitting both, alternating between them with varied results that were better but not what they needed to be.
Then I tried to focus/look at neither of the two threats but look between them with direct vision. That seemed very promising in multiple runs. The hits were very good, but the range was short and the threats close together. I was onto something here. If I didn’t look at either of the threats directly, I got better hits on both at the same time. I was definitely onto something but I didn’t know what, it was too new to understand at the time. I was using “multiple threat focus” © and still using the peripheral vision of Quick Kill to “see” the guns, though the narrow peripheral vision range of the one threat/one gun Quick Kill technique had to be expanded.
I moved the threats farther apart by a few feet at the same distance and tried this again. Looking at neither of the threats directly, nor the guns, I worked it slowly and in a few runs found the hits were centered on each simultaneously again. My mind was figuring out that the narrow range of use in the Quick Kill could be expanded, and the gun/s did not have to be directly below my head and line of sight to use the peripheral vision to “see” the guns at the same time. This was getting really interesting to say the least.
I moved the threats out to 10 feet and moved them about 10 feet apart. It reliable center hits fell apart again. More work would be necessary, but I was on the right road to getting solid reliable hits shooting two threats at the same time with one gun in each hand. I went home for the day to think about what I was doing here.
Continued:
