Rufus Hussey was a noted master of the sling shot (bean shooter) whose talent was featured on a number of televised interviews, including an appearance on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. His skill offers a few insights.
So point shooting can be made to work, but at what cost? At the time of this interview Mr. Hussey was 65 years old. He started with the bean shooter at age 10 and remained a devotee. Considering it takes at least five to ten years of serious pursuit to obtain mastery of most skills, Mr. Hussey has been refining his mastery of his instrument for some five decades. He began formally demonstrating his skill in 1952 and had handmade 4156 sling shots when this interview was conducted. The man lives without the distraction of television, telephone or other modern convenience and the day-to-day work on his farm gives ample opportunity to polish his skills at will.
Despite his very impressive demonstrations he takes a humble stance when asked if he is the best bean shooter in the world. “I’ve not been challenged lately, I don’t know what you’d call. We’ll let you decide that.”
Ted A Sames II
Mar 28, 2011 @ 10:21:29
Good job: I keep copies of all your articles for study, instruction and research. People should study carefully what the military marksmen say and do.
I do have a different point of view about point or instinctive shooting techniques. First, you can not compare sling shots and pistols in regard to instinctive shooting. Shooting the slingshot has many more variables than the pistol. I have a great deal of respect for Mr Rufus’ talents and his skills are honed for many years.
Shooting the pistol using an established method like the Israeli Method uses 1 index and that, in basic terms, is the outstretched arms toward the target. The two arms form a triangle, similar to a boat trailer. If the arms are not equal-like the Weaver Position-that’s when you run into trouble. The most basic unarmed defensive or offensive move is the Push–the rapid pushing with the arms toward the adversary’s chest. Now, you have a pistol to push toward the Bad Guy. In my classes, I call it the “Pit Bull on the Chain”. Point shooting or instinctive shooting should be used up to 3 and maybe 7 yards maximum. This happens to be the danger zone to 98% of all armed conflicts. I would use this method in a real and actual gunfight. The problem lays where instructors believe that only one type of technique has to be used. I am a firm believer in sighted fire and I am a stickler for trigger control. I spent several hours fine tuning the students’ trigger finger. When possible…when you are behind good cover or when the Bad Guy is at distance, by all means use sighted fire. Remember and really understand: Most conflicts occur within arms distance, less than 2 to 3 seconds and without warning. Knowing and truly understanding this, it become self-evident that precision sighted fire is impossible. Matter of fact it might be physically impossible because our eyes are unable to focus on the front sights when we are totally stressed in a life or death struggle. There is just no time to perform a Bullseye Precision Shot. The Bad Guys are waiting to surprise attack…there is no preperation for a gun fight.
I had to prove to my Rangemaster at a large Sheriff’s Office in Tampa, FL that Point Shooting works. I completed two classes with Hanan Yadin..came back and exclaimed, “I can qual on our standard course…it’s so good of a method…blindfolded!”. The Rangemaster said to me, “Hot Shot, do it and I’ll approve it!” Blindfolded, I was able to make 100% hits from 3, 7 and 15 yards. At 25 yards, my hits were 50%! I qualified with a respectable score…all while blindfolded! The class and method was approved and I taught the class for 1500 deputies for many years until retirement.
For demonstration purposes, I can usually hit a fly on the target at 3 yards with 2 or 3 shots using my pistol. I use for this, the Universal Cover Mode…where the pistol is indexed near the upper chest as H&K teaches.
Within an hour or so, Instinctive Shooting can be taught. It is up to the student to practice it along with sighted precision fire.
Theodore A Sames II, Sames Instinctive Shooting School, Ruskin, Florida