Firearms Hit by Gunfire

4

45ACPShooter

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I've heard about firearms being hit by gunfire during a firefight. Is there any reason why they seem to get hit more often or is it just coincidental?
 
I've heard two reasons:

1. You focus on the opponent's weapon - called weapons focus. Thus you shoot where you are looking.

2. Weapons are carried towards COM and you shoot at that region and hence the gun.

In a FOF exercise, I took a round on the front of my revolver cylinder. It was a Code Eagle and made a paint splat, I had to clean.
 
I think another reason might be because often people are trying to use cover so only their weapon and a little bit of their body is exposed.
 
I've never heard of this as a common occurance, but exactly as Meyer posted...

Point your pistol at your reflection in the mirror. The gun will be exactly where you would aim at an armed threat... high center of mass.
 
Point your pistol at your reflection in the mirror. The gun will be exactly where you would aim at an armed threat... high center of mass.
Click to expand...

This is an interesting exercise if you've never tried it. I've done this several times to see where I would instinctively point the muzzle without aiming. Several things I quickly realized: 1) every gun "points" a little differently; and 2) I naturally tend to aim too high - closer to the neck than center of mass.

Wondering what others have observed while doing this?
 
It's quite common in FOF to get shot in the hands. I got shot once there and in an NTI exercise, I put two rounds into each hand of the opponent and one in center mass - why? The hands were at COM.

I recall someone's revolver getting jammed up from some paint goo.
 
Super-common in paintball too, in my experience. I've been hit many, many times on the hands and back of my dominant hand many times as well.
 
I had a round hit the Aimpoint on my M4 while returning fire once. I thought they was just going for a headshot on me since my head was down looking through it.

p1010079j.jpg
 
The biggest reason for hitting firearms in a gunfight is because we shoot where we look.

If you go to an IDPA shoot that uses 'shoot/no shoot' targets you will find that the shots gravitate towards the weapon, or what makes the target a shoot target. Again, we are looking at what makes this a 'shoot' target.
 
It's pretty common, actually. During F.A.T.S. training, I've noticed that the first shot from my people (including me) tends to be on or near the weapon, and subsequent shots migrate toward COM.

As Glenn stated, the weapon is the first thing the eye centers on. Kinda lends credence to the belief that point shooting is instinctive after all, doesn't it? ;)
 
Threat focus isn't unusual among folks placed under the stress of being attacked by someone using a weapon.

It's sometimes amazing the amount of detail someone can see regarding the weapon, even if they aren't able to recognize or understand the details of what they're seeing.

When we went through a period of using some of the large color photo threat targets it caught many of our folks by surprise when they saw their hits often clustered around the firearm being held by the threat target's 'attacker'.

Interestingly enough, this was just as prevalent and noticeable when the image of the attacker was holding a handgun down at their side, or waist level (but still pointed toward the people). They saw it, they looked at it while shooting ... and a surprising number of them clustered many of their shots around it, wherever it might have been held in relation to the attacker's body.

Naturally, when the guns were held more in line with COM, the hits were more clustered in the COM.

One time when I was doing some Sim training I was with a partner, and he took some nasty hits (lacerations) along both unprotected forearms. He was wearing a T-shirt and used a 2-handed shooting technique.

I can think of a shooting where a cop making entry during service of a search warrant was caught and jammed up in the entryway, and was the only person on the entry team able to get off a shot, fired from the hip with a pistol, when he saw an armed suspect grab a gun and point it at them. It struck the armed suspect's forearm of the 'gun arm', causing him to drop the gun. The cop remembered seeing the suspect's gun in great detail as he was trying to bring his own gun to bear and shoot at the suspect. Makes you wonder about the 'coincidence' of the shot placement.

Of course, I can think of other shootings where the suspects took hits all over their body, too.

I remember talking with a cop from another agency about an off-duty shooting where one of their cops drew against an armed suspect attempting to rob him, and as I recall the cop ended up drawing and putting 8 rounds from a Colt .45 into the suspect, essentially in a vertical string which started in the lower legs and ended up high in torso. (This incident reportedly took place at little more than arm's reach, and very rapidly, from what I was told.)
 
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One quick question, what do you mean when referring to FOF exactly ( sorry :confused:)

I don't claim to be an expert by any means at all, but back when I played paintball and airsoft, it was very common to get hit in the gun. My reasoning was if I was using cover, I am sticking my gun out, and a little bit of my head to see my target, when they return fire.... 90% of what they saw would be my gun.

And Hoytinak.... all I can say is WOW.
 
While participating in simuntion training, more often than not I was shot in the fingers or wrist at close range, and gave the other guy the same thing. Just seemed to happen that way. And because my hand and gun were out in front. I suppose when you think about it it is a very likey possibility.
 
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