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I carry a gun while I drive, but I’ve never really thought about weapons deployment from the driver’s seat. How, exactly, do you kill someone who’s trying to kill you when you can’t get out of your seat? Thankfully, the guys at Gunsite have thought this one through and have an ap for that. But shooting with one hand with the muzzle so close to your body is kinda strange . . .

Gunsite’s solution is to draw, normally, with one hand on your gun and the other plastered to your gut. But when you get to the point where you’d usually unite your hands and push out, just go ahead and fire out the window in the general direction of the threat. It’s actually pretty amazing how accurate you can be at nearly contact distance without even using your sights.

The trick to this is (A) NOT lasering your legs with their gigantic femoral arteries and femur bones, and (B) keeping the muzzle clear of your extremities when you fire. That’s where plastering your hand to your midsection comes in handy, as it keeps it safely out of the way.

What I never realized was just how loud it is firing a gun inches from your face in a confined space. Even with the super awesome Surefire ear pro, I still felt an uncomfortable level of pressure.

Definite props to Ruger for bringing the SR1911s for us to play with, BTW.

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19 COMMENTS

  1. Cool.

    As for myself, if someone tries to carjack me i’m driving away unless there’s literally no practical alternative to shooting. A totaled car is cheaper than lawyer fees accrued through a civil wrongful death lawsuit.

    • ST: is your theory like mine?? If I can drive away then I will, and if I am lucky the BG’s arm will be trapped in the window so I can save the PD some gas money and take the BG to them?
      I just wonder how fast a BG could run like that?!

  3. This has a dedicated place in my top 100 “Things I Hope I Never Have to Do”.

    BTW: I’m betting Leghorn didn’t blow chunks afterwards.

  4. My question has long been if it would be better to press the muzzle against the glass, or to be back a few inches away from the glass. Anybody ever compare this?

    • Your shot will probably shatter the glass into thousands of pieces. My son managed to take out the rear window of a Jeep with a pumped up BB gun from 15 away. I can’t imagine that a handgun would be less effective. Plus it is a flat plane of glass, so it should deflect the bullet little if any. From what I’ve read of many car jackings, however, is that the perp rips the door open and shoves a gun in your face while simultanteously dragging you out of the driver’s seat. In the few seconds that these incidents go down, you will not have time to raise or lower your window. So don’t worry about it.

      • Sorry I didn’t have time to respond earlier (work and all) but that isn’t what I was thinking. Non laminate safety glass should have virtually no impact on bullet ballistics at the ranges we are talking about. What I’m curious about is more akin to the contact blowback you get if you press a shotgun muzzle against a door with a breaching round vs holding the shotgun 1 – 3 ” back or using a stand off. Just curious if anybody has tried this (if this sparks any ideas, just understand the results could do some damage).

  5. This is one of many reasons I’m not comfortable with the 1911 style of pistol. Watch the video. In order to return the gun to his holster Nick has to shift his body to access the holster and it appears that he’s got the muzzle near his upper leg area while doing this. It’s a single action gun at full cock, any mechanical failure could ruin your day.

    And any mechanical device can pick any moment to fail. Add in the human factors in a stress situation and I just would not be comfortable with a single action auto in those circumstances.

    • In an actual situation, re-holstering the weapon isn’t going to be very high on my priority list (presuming it was in a holster in the first place).

    • I like condition 2 carry.And like DonS stated,reholstering might not be an option.Expect hearing damage depending on caliber.

      • Expect hearing damage period. Airbags routinely cause hearing damage and they aren’t nearly as loud as handguns. Being enclosed with glass around you amplifies sound several times over.

  6. If you really want to learn to shoot from a car window, visit Chicago where the true experts are. I understand that there’s a live fire exercise every Saturday night.

  7. I wonder if they adressed left handed shooters? I’m a southpaw and have wondered the best way to draw and shoot from the drivers seat.

    • Being a natural southpaw myself, and an ambi shooter, I usually just keep my ccw on my right hip when I am in the car. Even as a passenger it still works out ok. Use the left hand to move the driver back and fire right handed or if someone is on passenger side can draw and swap hands and carry on.
      Haven’t actually live fired from inside the car or truck bit have done a lot of dry runs to try out different stuff.

  8. Ready….our SWAT team practices vehicle assaults placing the muzzle of the weapon against the glass. The theory is that the muzzle blast helps break through the glass with less chance of deflecting the bullet if you inadvertantly have the muzzle at an small angle.

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