I aim for the sternum.
Good man Bill.
Yeah, bottom of the sternum for me.
Interesting. I went and shot a few on Sunday. Without thinking about location, really. I shot first, then my compadre. I went to see how he did, at first couldn't find he hit anything. Then looked further down. All his shots were gut shots. All mine were between the eyes. For some reason, I'm always thinkin kill, and quickly, not disable, hurt bad or bleed to death.
I always shoot at the sternum.
At a weapons retention/take-away class the instructor advised that after taking a gun away and controlling it to aim at the attacker's groin. His thinking was that this accomplished two things: 1) aiming that low allows you to see their hands (decent enough point) and 2) most men are going to think twice about continuing their attack when they have their own gun pointed at the family jewels.
I had a problem with that. You can live a long time without balls.
Never go for head shots, never go for groin shots. Any fighter will tell you that people fake with their heads, but they don't fake with their chest. Wherever their chest is going, that's where they're going. It would be nice if people would stand there and let you shoot them, but I wouldn't train for that.
As noted, gut-shots hurt real bad and are fatal after a half-hour or so. So you can look forward to spending a relaxing 20 minutes with a really pissed off, fully capable bad guy who probably tackled you after you wasted your shots putting holes in his gut.
If you adopt my triangle technique... I would advise you to score every shot... and every shot that lands outside that triangle should be scored as a miss.
When you jus say... "I go for X general area..." its to subjective to score reliably.
I totally agree with avoiding headshots. If you aim for the center of the chest and miss it by 3 inches you may well have scored a hit. 3 inches on a head is a total miss.
I will point out again that police now shoot for the hip, as a broken hip will drop even the doped up crazies. This keeps the person alive which is of course the police intention. Its useful to know, but of limited use in a self defense encounter.
Erik, where did you hear about hip shots? If I was a cop I would call B.S. on that directive.
Whoa whoa... Hip shots are extremely effective... but only in certain limited circumstances.
You don't go for the hip if you're in a gun fight.
Why?
Because the dude can still shoot even though he's down.
You go for the hip when its extremely close proximity and its a melee fight with someone doped up or simply huge.
Its a total technique... its a sidestep and shoot deal.
It is a specialty move... advanced. Not something most people should worry about to much.
Thanks for the clarification.
but I'll bet having your heart blown through your spine hurts like a bitch to.
I bet it doesn't. Or at least not for long enough to be noticable 
Think of shooting like sex, go for the cleavage first. Thats the 18 year-old perky cheerleader cleavage, not the 60 year-old, nipples on the knees cleavage.
You want everything to land in that area of the chest. In a fight its not going to, but a stray in any direction of a couple of inches will still produce a solid hit.
SB,
you'd be suprised how long a man is alive an conscience with just the oxygen that's already in his head.
Long enough to feel some real hurt.. I'll promise ya that.
ya know I have a practical tale about a cop and a hip shot.
My buddy is a deputy... or was... he was grappling with a 330lbs crack head... dude was jacked big time. The deputy managed to get his gun out and get a hip shot.
Crackhead collapsed instantly. Dropped like a ton of bricks.
Touble is... he dropped right on my buddy's knee. Now he don't walk right... and he's gettin' disability.
Somethin' to consider.
He might not be walking right, but I think he should be thankful he is walking at all.
but I'll bet having your heart blown through your spine hurts like a bitch to.
that made me smile.
Experiments after the French revolution determined that a severed human head lives for another 7 seconds.
...But it isn't much of a life.
When you are being held up by your hair to face the crowd, you pretty much know it is going to be a bad day.
HA! My hair's too short to lift my head by!
You've been reading sniper books ... huh?
No. I spent the day at the range and this stuff was on my mind.
Nate, what you're describing is the classic "sniper's triangle". It's what military snipers (as opposed to police snipers) are trained to shoot at. Police snipers are trained to shoot at the "no reflex" zone, which is a band approximately 2 inches wide around the head and centered on the eyes. Supposedly it shuts down the brain so fast that the perp doesn't even get a reflexive muscle spasm, which prevents a last trigger jerk.
The military of course doesn't care if the target flops around a little. They just want him dead, and a triangle shot does the trick nicely with a much easier shot.
didn't know that Papa. Good stuff though! Thanks!
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