July/August 1978 - American Handgunner

Sykes back in the 1930's. This providedvery realistic conditions, with dim lighting,bobbing silhouettes, moving targets,and friend or foe situations, plus ahealthy measure of mental stress.During World War 11, Rex Applegateset up a very elaborate indoor reactionrange, very appropriately called "TheHouse of Horrors," for training U.S.Army personnel. This included bloodchilling sound effects and dramatic lifelikekill or be killed scenarios.Jeff Cooper has constructed a modernversion at his Gunsite Ranch which hecalls "The Fun House." His layout allowsfiring with full power loads, a 360 degreefield of fire, and quickly changeable setups for variety. The training provided onthis type of range is invaluable for thepolice officer or military man.Following close on the heels of "Shootingto Live" came another advanced textby then Captain Rex Applegate. His book"Kill or Get Killed," was published in1943, and included information on unarmedcombat, knife fighting, and closecombat use of shoulder weapons, as wellas much thought-provoking informationon practical pistol shooting. Applegatestudied under Fairbairn early in WorldWar 11, and many of his concepts canbe traced back to the methods used byFairbairn and Sykes in their trainingprograms.This is approximately where mattersstood for the next fifteen years. The late40's rolled by and then the early 50's. Bythis time the fast draw game, inspired bythe many TV westerns then in vogue, wassweeping the country. This activity,complete with SA revolvers, blanks, waxAMERICAN HANDGUNNER JULYIAUGUST 1978bullets, boots, and ten gallon hats did notproduce any worthwhile innovations of apractical nature, but it got a man into theact who did.Jeff Cooper, a retired Marine CorpsLieutenant Colonel with combat experiencein the South Pacific during WorldWar 11, and the Korean War, enters thepicture around 1955. At about this timeCooper helped promote a number ofquick draw contests near Big Bear Lake,California, with an important difference.In these man against man matches, allweapon types, SA, DA, and auto, wereallowed to compete equally, not justsingle action revolvers. Additionally, fullpower service ammo was required, notblanks or wax bullets. These shoots werevery simple affairs, usually at sevenyards, and the targets were inflated toyballoons. All a competitor had to do wasdraw and burst his balloon ahead of hisopponent. The man shooting down allcomers walked away with the prizemoney.This was a stimulating game, but verylimited in scope. It wasn't long before themore adventuresome participants werebored with the routine and looking forsomething new. With that in mind, JeffCooper set out to oblige them.Soon Cooper was putting together contestsof a type and nature that had neverbeen dreamed of before. Some contestswere man against man, while othersmight be scored or timed, but all of themwere designed to simulate the realities ofclose range combat with the handgun.Another important and unheard of innovationwas an almost total lack of restrictionson the contestant. As long as heused a serviceable weapon of adequatepower, and approached the problem in asafe manner, he could solve that problemin any fashion he deemed best. Diversitywas the name of the game, and the shooterwith a good imagination was free to trysomething new in the name of greaterefficiency.Needless to say, this sort of programgenerated quite a bit of enthusiasm andinterest. Before long clubs sprang intobeing in different areas of SouthernCalifornia, all more or less participatingin the new sport of freestyle practical pistolshooting. The ideas and concepts ofthe new sport were still quite sketchy andnot widely understood, even thoughinterest was still growing. So, in 1961 Jeffhelped found the Southwest Combat PistolLeague, later modified to the SouthwestPistol League, to give order anddirection to the program.As things progressed, and a little timewent by, the virtues of freestyle combatshooting became apparent. With no setroutine to slavishly drill for, each individualslowly became a more rounded andversatile performer, since each matchcalled for a slightly different approach. Inlike fashion, equipment could not be overspecialized, it had to be adaptable enoughto meet a variety of situations.Since few restrictions were placedupon the performer, the more innovativeshooters began to experiment with improvedequipment and techniques. Theclassic example in this'area, as everyonenow knows, is the Weaver Stance. In themid-1950's everyone shot one handed foralmost all pistol problems, this includeddeliberate fire and speed situations. The2 1