What Shooting Stance is Right for You?
Scroll through your Instagram feed. Go ahead, I’ll wait. You’ll notice a steady stream of Isosceles stances in that feed — in all shooter-heavy social media feeds — and you might be thinking, “Hey, that’s cool, I use Isosceles, too.” But what if there is more to shooting than the currently popular stance?
What if…you learn all three stances and discover one works better than you anticipated? Or, what if you need that alternate stance with a specific gun or during a certain scenario? There is significant value to being a well-rounded shooter, and that includes being able to accurately shoot in Isosceles, Weaver, and Chapman (often called Modified Weaver) stances.
A large faction of shooters today are hardcore Isosceles fans, which frequently leads to them mocking anyone using the other stances as Fudds and for being out of touch (if you aren’t familiar, Fudds are on one end of the spectrum and the Tacticool crowd is on the other). Here’s the thing, though: everyone’s body is different. There is no one hard-and-fast rule for stances because there is no single body type, hand size, or shooting situation. Figure out what works for you and do it, be it for competition, hunting, or self-defense training.
Before we get too far into this, remember there are variations on every stance. Some instructors will insist you either broaden or narrow your stance not due to your individual needs, but because they tend to feel the entire firing line should match. Just, no. So much no.
Take what you can from those guys and leave the rest. There is always something to learn — to varying degrees — but there are also frequently things to leave in the dust the moment you exit the class.
Read more about the different stances to try at Range365.com.
In this video, professional pistol shooter Doug Koenig shares his favorite shooting stance.