How to simultaneously walk and shoot like a pro

Big Bad

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
1   0   0
Got this from some of the SEALs that come and whisper to me in the night (troll joke.) To me, it's mostly a handgun exercise so I'm posting it here.

I like practicing practical things and staying active on the range. You just have to find the right range.



How to simultaneously walk and shoot like a pro


1000w_q95.jpg


By Kurt T 05.29.2018#Expert Analysis


Walking and shooting is an incredibly simple task that is often made unnecessarily complicated by instructors and the general shooting community. For instructional purposes, this article will be targeting beginners — but you paper-slayers out there might learn a thing or two as well. There are a great deal of practical uses for shooting while on the move, anything from competitions to creating your own base of fire while maneuvering on a threat in a gunfight. However, to attain any level of competence at this skill, you should know how to shoot standing still first; learn the fundamentals and master them, then move on to more complex things.

The good news is that you already know how to walk, hopefully. Walking while shooting is pretty much the same thing with some minor changes. The most noticeable change is that you will be wielding a firearm, but let’s forget about that for a minute. To get started let’s imagine walking in a normal fashion down a sidewalk. Now we modify it starting from the ground up — and remember to relax a bit, don’t walk like a robot.

Beginning with the feet, you should roll from the heel to the toes with each step. Lower your center of gravity slightly by bending the knees and leaning forward a bit at the waist. This is often referred to as the combat glide, duck walk, or Groucho walk because of its similarity to how Groucho Marx would walk around with a cigar in films or how a duck heel-toes when it waddles on land. The idea here is to create a steady stride that is smooth and has as little bounce in the step as possible. The smoother, flatter the walk is, the less vertical sway there will be when a firearm is introduced into the mix.

Now that a technique has been introduced we need to establish a tempo. Many people try to time their shots between or during steps and this is a poor way to do things because it is forcing you to focus on way too many things at once. Instead pick a pace and stick to it, then take shots accordingly. Much like a tank turret, the upper body should function separately from the legs here; the upper body pivots at the waist to engage targets. Stride length can also be a factor here, shorter steps equal more stability because larger steps can create increased vertical sway of the weapon. Your stride length should be a balance and entirely dependent of the individual shooter’s body type.

Now we sling lead; simply apply the technique and practice keeping your sights on target in a steady fashion. Terrain can make things difficult depending on how uneven it is, so it’s best to practice on a flat surface first. Avoid sidestepping when possible here, keep your momentum going in the direction your toes are pointed. Just remember that this is an advanced skill and will require a good deal of practice to master. Work on doing it dry (with an unloaded firearm) and then if you can practice it somewhere safely, move on to live fire.

Featured image: U.S. Marines and Sailors perform “combat glides” while shooting during combat marksmanship training at Melissatika training area near Volos, Greece, June 10, 2009. The Marines and sailors are assigned to the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit. By English: Cpl. Theodore W. Ritchie [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons



https://sofrep.com/103858/how-to-simultaneously-walk-and-shoot-like-a-pro/
 
Thanks for this.

Walking and shooting is one of the elements of our CQB shoot, and the element where I do poorly. Very poorly.

I will try this walking while aiming in the back yard and then try it with my Ruger 10/22.
 
Can't see any magazines, so must be a dry run.
That person toward the right side of the photo needs to get caught up.
The technique works.
 
Marching fire or walking fire, from WW 1 is fashionable again ?

Very accommodating that your targets stand up making it easier for you to hit them.

The cause for the high infantry causality rate.
 
Last edited:
Marching fire or walking fire, from WW 1 is fashionable again ?

Very accommodating that your targets stand up making it easier for you to hit them.

The cause for the high infantry causality rate.

I'm assuming that your vast understanding of infantry tactics and casualty causality derives from your own extensive infantry experience? Please do enlighten those of us who made a career of it. Clearly we were all "doing it wrong" and that's how we get/got hurt.... ��
 
Marching fire or walking fire, from WW 1 is fashionable again ? Very accommodating that your targets stand up making it easier for you to hit them. The cause for the high infantry causality rate.

Don't read too much into the picture provided with the article. Just because a group of soldiers are learning/practising a fundamental skill in line abreast on open ground in the photo (for the sake of training convenience, no doubt) does not mean that is exactly how it would be employed in combat. The skill being learned is individual in nature.
 
I'm assuming that your vast understanding of infantry tactics and casualty causality derives from your own extensive infantry experience? Please do enlighten those of us who made a career of it. Clearly we were all "doing it wrong" and that's how we get/got hurt.... ��

I think he looked at the photo and thought we brought colonial style warfare back. Reality being they are practicing walking and shooting which would be integrated with tactics to improve “firing while moving”, not actual warfare tactics in the photo.

OP: thanks for the post, will have to add some more training to my range time.
 
The above is a good article. Some more tips:

- Get low. If your thighs start to burn, then you are doing it right.

- Focus on grip, front sight and trigger press. Just because you are walking doesn’t mean you can skip the fundamentals.

- Don’t over-aim. Your sights will be in constant motion and it will be virtually impossible to time your shots. You will have a wobble zone where the sights will be moving around on the target. Accept and work within that wobble zone; grip hard, front sight, press and you will be surprised how much slop you can have in your sight picture and still get acceptable hits.

- Practice it! A drill I do often: draw a 6’X6 square on the ground and put an IPSC target at 12 Yards from the front of the square (or 7 yards - I just need to work on longer targets). Start at the left-rear corner of the box. Draw and fire two rounds while moving to the left-front corner of the box. Then draw and fire two rounds while moving to the right-front corner of the box. Repeat until you end up where you started, then do the drill in reverse. Guaranteed if you do this drill and use the tips above, shooting on the move will no longer be a weakness.

Good luck folks!
 
Last edited:
Great drill, Clobb! I'm at the range right now about to do some paperwork and I'm out of ammo..... Argh! I'd love to try it.

:cheers:
 
Don't read too much into the picture provided with the article. Just because a group of soldiers are learning/practising a fundamental skill in line abreast on open ground in the photo (for the sake of training convenience, no doubt) does not mean that is exactly how it would be employed in combat. The skill being learned is individual in nature.

I think he looked at the photo and thought we brought colonial style warfare back. Reality being they are practicing walking and shooting which would be integrated with tactics to improve “firing while moving”, not actual warfare tactics in the photo.

OP: thanks for the post, will have to add some more training to my range time.

I conceive that this type of training is being pushed in response to the house-to-house urban warfare scenarios being encountered in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Other practical exercises I play with include shooting prone, shooting prone from behind barriers and weak hand shooting, all of which would be particularly useful if the shooter is wounded. As I'm told, the latest prone technique is to orient yourself with feet towards the target and shoot between (not through!) your feet. Behind a barrier, if you need to move to the side to get a shot off, you shift one leg over the other and let that help roll you over and then you roll back the same way. Weak hand shooting of course involves operating your handgun with your non-dominant hand only, shooting, changing mags, cocking it, the whole works, the premise being that your good arm is out of action. Just fun and potentially practical stuff to do on the range to keep the dull times off.

Shooting prone, the percussive effect of a round going off is BTW quite surprisingly different, everyone should try it at least once, IMO. Just so you know.
 
I conceive that this type of training is being pushed in response to the house-to-house urban warfare scenarios being encountered in the Middle East and Afghanistan. Other practical exercises I play with include shooting prone, shooting prone from behind barriers and weak hand shooting, all of which would be particularly useful if the shooter is wounded. As I'm told, the latest prone technique is to orient yourself with feet towards the target and shoot between (not through!) your feet. Behind a barrier, if you need to move to the side to get a shot off, you shift one leg over the other and let that help roll you over and then you roll back the same way. Weak hand shooting of course involves operating your handgun with your non-dominant hand only, shooting, changing mags, cocking it, the whole works, the premise being that your good arm is out of action. Just fun and potentially practical stuff to do on the range to keep the dull times off. Shooting prone, the percussive effect of a round going off is BTW quite surprisingly different, everyone should try it at least once, IMO. Just so you know.

Much of this stuff is old hat to folks who regularly play with one of the action shooting sports, like IDPA, IPSC, 3GN, etc.
 
Much of this stuff is old hat to folks who regularly play with one of the action shooting sports, like IDPA, IPSC, 3GN, etc.

Yes. But if a person has no experience, the information in the article gives a good start.
 
Much of this stuff is old hat to folks who regularly play with one of the action shooting sports, like IDPA, IPSC, 3GN, etc.

Most people don't get to see those things happening however, it's a weakness in the Canadian firearms community if you ask me. Back at the beginning of the 90s, a show called 'Shooting USA' featured the early startups of all those sports and competitions and because they were on a channel that most every cable service carried in Canada, they were much better known to everyone, gun people and antis alike- the antis raged that the new sports were thinly veiled attempts to arm everyone and make guns good things. Then Rolling Stone magazine bought the channel and when they realised how popular they were they shut down the gun shows and awareness faded in Canada. The fact that most of those sports are in real life now basically run by closed communities in Canada doesn't help anyone, I've only seen a few efforts to broaden them out to more members. It might be nice to have a small tight group for one's advanced activities but it doesn't help the larger sport or promote firearms ownership in general.

Oh hey, I got off on a rant. What else is new I guess. Standing back, while hoping sofrep will post some other similar stuff.
 
For IPSC and 3Gun I loooove shooting on the move!
trying to shoot my way into an array and shooting my way out of it is always on my mind when trying to make a stage plan.
It can shave so much time off as long as you can hit the target. If you practice it you will figure out how much the sights can move and still be effective.

Also no one has yet mentioned that you can shoot walking backwards easier than you can moving forwards. Seems counterintuitive but it's true.
 
Guess it's a good way to clear a minefield quickly. :( Would hope they stress cover fire and leapfrogging along with it.

Completely missing the point here. I guess the photo was unfortunate. That is the USMC training a group. Instructors are teaching the move and shoot technique to 25 people at once, it is not a fighting formation.
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom