Karl Rehn at KR Training has developed Historical Handgun, a course that presents the history of handgun skills and drills throughout the years paired with the guns most commonly associated with that particular era.

In developing his coursework, he reviewed the 1942 book Shooting To Live by W.E. Fairbairn and E.A. Sykes.

http://blog.krtraining.com/book-review-historical-handgun-shooting-to-live-1942-fairbairn-sykes/

Important points:

  • Point shooting approaches advocate for some initial target work. Applegate recommended the same as well.
  • A primary reason these approaches took hold is mostly due to equipment limitations of the day coupled with misunderstanding on how to make it better.

    • As trainer Tom Givens points out in his instructor training courses, the duty and carry pistols of that time had tiny, hard to see sights, compared to the higher visibility sights that became common in the 1970s and beyond. Similarly, the amount of light, and reliability, of flashlights of that era were significantly less than what became available in the 70s and later years.