Pistol Grip Argument

[ajaffe]

So I was sitting here playing with my paintball gun and got to thinking about how I have never seen anyone shoot from the hip despite the fact that almost all paintball guns have pistol gripsband foreward grips. Could this be used as an argument against the notion that pistol grips are intended to be fired from the hip? I think it might be useful as everyone from beginner to pro shoulders a paintball gun as opposed to firing it from the hip.

Your guys' thoughts?

[johnrunner89]

I don't think it would be a good arguement. Paintball guns are WAY different than real firearms and used for WAY different purposes. And paintball gun's are always put to one's shoulder. Most paintball guns don't have stocks too. They are simply raised to eye level to help increase accuracy, but in paintball you can see the ball flying so you can adjust your aim off of that.

[rgs1975]

Most images/video I've seen of modern era combat shows our soldiers with weapons equipped with pistol grips and usually a forward pistol grips being fired and/or aimed from the shoulder position. I can't honestly recall seeing one of a US soldier firing such a weapon from the hip. I'm sure it's happened but I haven't seen it. I have seen images of fighters of a lesser caliber doing this. Haitens, Iraqis, Afghanis, "terrorists", etc... Something tells me that the whole firing from the hip thing with anything other than a belt fed machine gun is a result of lack of training. Even with the belt fed auto's...I've seen video of our boys firing SAW's in the aimed and shouldered position while standing.

[johnthomas]

If you shoot a 1911 rapid fire from the hip......your hip will be gone.

[Hayashi Killian]

If you're shooting from the hip, you're likely shooting at someone who's right on you and you don't have time to properly aim. That's the only justifiable reason I can think of.

[MSL209]

Here is my theory. The antis put out the statement that the pistol grips were meant to allow "spray firing from the hip". People believed it to be true because the saw it happen. They saw great demonstrations in movies such as Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Scarface, Rambo. I'm sure since they were naive enough to be fooled by the politicians they believed the movies put out by Hollywood were accurate portrayals/recreations of real world scenarios.

I too have pointed out to people the foolishness of that pistol grip argument and told them to if hip firing was so effective why don't you see our guys in Iraq doing it? The only people I see dong it are then insurgents who are spraying and praying.

I would rather be shot at by some idiot firing from the hip than someone who actually properly aims their shoulder wielded rifle.

[supersonic]

Just a little reminder on how moronic the notion of pistol grips making a rifle easier to "spray/fire from the hip" is: just try practicing (or dry-firing) from the hip first with a pistol grip-equipped rifle & THEN with a rifle with a traditional stock. You tell ME which "method" is WAAAAY more ergonomic/effective.