"Two Gunning" v0.01
Written and researched by Herman Mok (aka Dolphin Command) - last updated Wednesday, October 3, 2001 9:12 PM

HiCaps?

In the UK, Most Games are fought with hi-caps, Lo-caps are sneered at, This is due to the large numbers of sites that have walk-ons, where anyone from teams to complete newbies can turn up, Hence the need for fire power against everyone, even a newbie can compete to a degree, if he/she/it has a hi-cap.

Two Gun Techniques
To clarify in RL, Two gunning, is really rather ineffective, it was pioneered, or at least used a lot more then it used to be in the "western" era, when SA guns were the norm, DA was an expensive and unreliable oddity.

When armed with TWO SA revolvers, having two of them, allowed you to double your Firepower and increase your ROF in gunfight situations. Yes. Many people got by tin these times, just with the one revolver, but at that time, the slow cycle rate of SA's meant that two was much better then one.

Nowadays, Two gunning is really an oddity and is referred to in the RL press as being pretty Combat ineffective :( However, every one agrees it looks pretty cool! Even that Naboob Said(sic) bloke, who is famous in the US for being some sort of combat master, (middle eastern, wirey, Moustached, with glasses, works for Gunsite?) says this! However, This does not mean it is not a valid combat technique.

Why is that? well, If you can use two weapon in each hand, that means that you use one in either!

Drills

here are a couple of drills published by the aforementioned bloke, in a recent "GUN!" the US magazine annual, 2000 i think. although it may have been HANDGUN! not too sure, as ever, Copyright to whoever is due.

Choice of gun, Ideally, the guns that you use should be as similar as possible, To allow for easy transfer of skills and nice balance.

1. Strong arm un supported

Shoot as normal from whatever position, however, do so with NO help or support from the weak arm, until you can hit your target.

2. Weak arm unsupported

As above, but this time, sort out your firing with your weak arm, You will be surprised how cack-handed you will be,
You should now be able to hit a target, one handed

3. One Gun yes, One gun no

Do NOT load your guns, always attempt these drills with DRY guns to begin with, In RL, twogunning is pretty dangerous, even in experienced hands. although this is Airsoft, That's no reason not to be AS safe!

Adopt whatever stance or firing position you normally take with your normal "strong" side, Extend your firing arm to the fire position, Now take the "weak" side arm, and raise the gun, However, Do not extend it to a fire position, Instead have it at either a "enguard" position, NOT pointing at a target, but safely down range, Or, at a low forward position canted away from your body, Down towards the range floor.

This drill allows you to get used to holding another gun in your "weak hand" however, note that it is WELL away from the firing line, in a "Stowed" but not necessarily upright position :)

Repeat this drill, making sure you can still engage the targets well with your "Strong" arm. then REVERSE the arms, Until you can engage targets with your weak arm, Always making sure that the un used arm, is WELL AWAY from the firing line.

4. One at a time...

adopt the same start position as drill 3, This time, Fire an entire magazine. Cylinder, whatever from the "Strong" gun, until the slide locks back or you are empty, move your "Strong" arm out of the firing line, make sure it is pointing well away and is "Stowed" mirroring the "weak" hand.

Now move the "weak" hand up to the firing position, you may need to rotate your upper body or move your foot position, depending on what fire stance you take with your dominant side, make sure you keep the "strong" arm, "stowed" at all times. make sure you do this NICE AND SLOWLY, pause at each point and CHECK you are "stowed" away.

Once in position, and checking you are still stowed away on your "strong side" let rip with another full magazine, until you lock back.

5. NOTE

Okay, this may not be a step, but it is Very important, The main risk in Two Gunning, Especially with pistols, is getting your Arms or pistols in the firing line, Especially since you have TWO!! firing lines when two gunning.

Drill.4 is meant to make you appreciate this, and instil the fact that you should keep your arms away from each other.

6. Two Guns Up! one gun hot

now comes to the fun, technical and difficult bit,
Stance is very important for this one, Its easiest to use the isosceles stance. feet facing the target dead on. Both a shoulder width apart, and in line. however, you can revisit this stage with your chosen stance later.

with one gun, You would have it sticking straight out, directly in front of your mid-section with just about straight arms, Forming, if views from the front, an isosceles triangle from your Barrel of the gun, Down to the tips of your toes!

Now in the Two gun stance, you have both Arms, sticking straight out, shoulder distance apart all the way, with the guns also parallel. To begin with, DO NOT have the "weak" gun loaded, and slowly fire the "Strong" gun at the target, Concentrate on keeping your guns parallel. don't let them drift apart or together.

In actual fact, you should try this drill with the "weak" in the raised position physically SWAPPING the gun over to the other hand, halfway through a magazine.

Once competent, swap the live hand over to "weak" side.

at this point since you are keeping the guns parallel you probably wont hit the side of a barn at 10 paces.

as ever, remember to do this nice and slowly.

7. Two Guns Up! Two guns HOT!

Nice and tricky, have both guns in there relative fire positions, resist the urge to empty both of them at the same time! plenty of time to do that later :)

Now that you are used to having the two guns parallel to each other, You have to get used to having live ammo in both of them, So in this drill, fire off one gun completely at a time, Before moving on to the next gun, however, when you have emptied one gun, keep it in the upright position, covering its fire lane.

congratulations! you are now Two gunning! However, at this stage it is doubtful whether you are hitting anything. lets get a bit more into it

8. Fire Control

After this drill you still wont be able to hit anything, but it'll look stylish.

There are several ways you can approach this, Each technique thus far, has involved emptying one "side" before emptying the over, This is effective, but not "movie style" Two gunning. Now we have to get the guns firing in unison,

You have several different options. Alternating, simultaneous and Movie madness.

[i]Alternating,[/i] is when you pull the triggers on the guns, in turn, first One side, then the other, When doing this, Do it slowly at first, and try to keep in rhythm, One shot every 3 seconds to begin with, Count it in, One...Two...Bang!..One..Two..Bang! Make sure you keep your guns parallel and you don't cross your fire lanes.

[i]Simultaneous[/i] is when you pull the triggers on both guns at the same time, Follow the above, but pull both triggers at the same time.

[i]Movie[/i] Just means going mad on the triggers and firing with no rhyme or reason, Very ineffective and the least stylish looking, good in combat situations for putting down a hail of fire. You will find that your trigger pull rates will be different on your "strong" and your "weak" side. fairly dangerous, due to the fact that one gun will run dry before the other, leaving you wondering about your ammo situation. also the most inaccurate, should only be used, if you are cackling insanely or screaming black epitaphs. :)

that's you, now you can Two gun! but.. You probably cant hit anything, Looks good though!

9.Aiming

up till now, You have had the guns at shoulder height, Shoulder distance apart, With your head in the middle, and the guns parallel to each other. You may be looking at the target, but your Rounds are probably hitting the extreme sides of your target if you are lucky, or using 4 metre wide targets, now its time to learn to aim those two guns at the same time.

[i]centring your fire lanes[/i]

The easiest way to make sure you are hitting, or at least nearer to hitting your chosen target is to move the pistols closer together! so that they are in line with your eyes! keep them parallel though! otherwise you may find yourself shooting your barrels off!

The extreme of this is bashing your hands together so that the palms would be touching if you only had one pistol and firing away like that. Using the gap in the middle of the pistols as the "sight" picture. You can even shift your stance so that you are sighting along the

Either that or using the infamous "Crossed Wrist Brace" Where you cross your Wrists so that the knuckles are touching. This looks good, however, it causes the pistols to be out of alignment vertically, It is also very easy to skin your knuckles on a moving slide! no such problems with a revolver!

the final way of centring, is to cant your pistols, and point them more towards your body. i.e. angle them towards each other, so that the BB trajectories actually meet on your target. USing lasers during practice will really help you here, And this is considered by many to be "true" Two gunning.

However, You will run into the "X-wing S-foil" problem, As you will need to continually change angle to hit targets at different ranges! and of course you will probably train at one fixed distance, while in combat, You will be shooting at all ranges!!

[i]Shooting Unsighted[/i]

a lot of Shooting nowadays with pistols is Sight Centric, Yeah, You have to use those little white/green/glowing/radioactive Dots/marks/dips/food stains on the top of your gun to hit things with! i.e. line up your Eyes, Rear sight, Front sight, Target, BANG!

However there is something to be said about NOT using the sights, especially when two gunning, as it looks cool!
Now I don't use the unsighted technique, and I'm sure someone else will take over and explain the finer points of combat pistol shooting here but...

The idea is to raise your pistols to mid waist/chest level, and be able to hit your specified target! Just think of 1940's Black and white Gangster movies and how the "Cops" would hold their SideArms, Shoulders Straight down, Elbow at 90 degrees! gun straight forward! Also seen in many Westerns!

Now, when i try to use this technique, I try to observe the impacts of the BB's, and adjust the aim!! Yeah, This isn't the proper method but!!

10. Two Gun Guru

Well, After all that you should be able to Two gun, Impress and influence people! What's left on the agenda?

Stance.

You will now need to adjust these techniques to fit in with your stance, Be that Applegate, Classical, Isosceles, Tactical style, whatever! here you will find, your guns are NOT parallel. hell! they may be at different heights or angles!

Making it look good.

Airsoft guns have no recoil, so although it looks good, You get no muzzle flip, Sometimes to make it look good, you have to "add" muzzle flip to impress your audience. best used with "alternating" trigger control, take the shot and flip the gun up slightly with your wrist! returning to level and taking the next shot with the other side when it returns to horizontal.

Drawing your pistols.

Make sure you have a good rig of holsters and practice your double draw, Mainly for looks, but also to instil confidence in your own abilities! If your draw is smooth and fluid, then obviously you shoot like a demon! Try to draw both weapons at the same time, and bring them to the "enguarde" position in one movement. The trick to this is making sure you have a good hold on the controls and the grip BEFORE you remove the pistols from there cradles. You may want to pop the thumb breaks BEFORE you do a double draw in front of an audience!

Multiple Targets.

So far we have concentrated on Engaging ONE target at a time with both pistols appliquéing a fusillade of fire onto it! pretty cool! I think you'll agree. However, this is very basic "Two gunning" The use of "two Guns" can be much wider. For instance, the use of two guns to split your arc of fire. Each Side covers a 45 degree sector, allowing faster response time to targets of opportunity, as well as massive firepower to the forward arc! Varients include, using the "Strong" side as the leading arm, Which concentrates on a "set" point, Whilst using the "weak" side to engage targets of opportunity that appear outside of the set point, (notice this is how I use Akimbo AEG's) This is a good technique when moving against walls, One gun Pointing along the wall, the other pointing outwards towards incoming threats, or one Gun through a window, the other along the wall.

Hope that's interesting!

Airsoft Two Gunning! 90% Style. 10% fun. 0% combat effectiveness!

Any gun crime lawyer Columbus would agree that real world gun violence is not a game. Recent studies have shown that playing gun-related games has little relation to real world gun violence.



This page last updated: Wednesday, October 3, 2001 9:12 PM

copyright 2001Arnie's Airsoft.