Firing One-Handed: Difference between revisions

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== Handguns and Other Small Arms ==

=== Anime and Manga ===

* In the booklet of ''[[Audio Adaptation|StrikerS Sound Stage X]]'', all art of ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha]]'''s Teana with the [[Hand Cannon|Cross Mirage's Blazer Mode]] show her wielding it one-handed. A little weird since she usually uses her gun with two hands when she's not going [[Guns Akimbo]] or using her other hand for something else.

* Subverted in ''[[DOGS Bullets and Carnage]]''. Mihai chastises Ian to "stop trying to look cool" and hold his gun in two hands when he sees him practicing with a one-handed grip.

 

=== Comic Books ===

 

=== Film ===

* All the characters in ''[[The Matrix]]'' fire all manner of weapons one-handed, sometimes while performing various acrobatics, including one character who at one point dual-wields a pair of drum-fed automatic shotguns. This is all possible because it's happening in the Matrix, where the characters can bend the laws of physics.

 

=== Literature ===

** This goes so far, in that Roland uses [[Guns Akimbo|a revolver per hand]] before above happens. It goes so far that he draws, shoots, (probably) cocks the gun, and even reloads with one hand per gun, one bullet at a time.

*** [[Improbable Aiming Skills|And never misses.]]

* Discussed in the [[Tom Clancy]] novel ''Teeth Of The Tiger'', in which one of the protagonists expresses a preference for firing one-handed whilst standing side-on to the target, on the grounds that this presents a narrower profile and makes him harder to hit. Whether this makes up for the reduced accuracy (his preferred sidearm is a .45ACP weapon) is a matter for opinion.

 

* ''[[Blake's 7]]'', justified most of the time by the fact they're using directed-energy weapons.

* In ''[[Torchwood]]'', Captain Jack Harkness teaches WPC Gwen Cooper to shoot this way rather than the modern two-handed technique, though it may just have been an excuse to [[Covert Pervert|feel her behind]].

 

=== Tabletop Games ===

* Ashelin from ''[[Jak and Daxter]]'' usually wields her handgun single-handedly, as does Veger.

* In ''[[Boktai]]'', both Django and Aaron fire their smaller Solar Guns one-handed during normal gameplay. During the cutscene where Aaron fires his first shot, he uses both hands; the resulting shot is [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|so powerful that it]] ''[[Gameplay and Story Segregation|goes through]]'' [[Gameplay and Story Segregation|the skeleton he was firing at]]... wait, change that. The shot was big enough to annihilate the skeleton and ''keep on going''!

* Shepard in ''[[Mass Effect]]'' uses two hands in combat, but only one when s/he wants to look cool (like at a photo op) or is threatening someone.

* ''[[Soldier of Fortune]]'s'' Desert Eagle-lookalike [[Hand Cannon]] is fired one-handed.

* In ''[[Half-Life (series)|Half Life]]'', Gordon Freeman holds his trusty low-powered, low-recoil Glock 17/Beretta M9 two-handed, but somehow fires the high-power, high recoil Colt Python revolver with one hand. In ''[[Half-Life 2]]'' it's reversed, with the USP Match held one-handed and the Python held two-handed. It just goes to show that [[Revolvers Are Just Better]].

* Nero in ''[[Devil May Cry]] 4'' fires a double-barrel revolver in which the caliber is almost that of a Smith & Wesson Model 500 revolver with ''one hand''. Revolvers of that size are normally shot with TWO hands to brace for recoil. Can be justified by him being a quarter-demon with [[Super Strength|superhuman strength]], much like Dante.

* Saika Magoichi from ''[[Sengoku Basara]]'' fires her flintlock pistols one-handed at all times and has impeccable aim. Thankfully all her other guns she holds with two.

* Many handgun shooting events require the shooter to use only one hand.

* A common misconception is that the only "proper" method of firing a handgun is using two hands. However, professional use of one-handed firing is not unheard of, more so in the past than now. In fact, it used to be how many militaries trained their men to shoot since it developed from the shooting styles used for the earliest military pistols, which were designed to be fired one-handed.

* Almost all single-actions revolvers are made to be fired with one hand and become very awkward when using the modern two handed setup. It also doesn't help that if that second hand isn't placed properly, you can [[Fingore|lose fingers.]]

* If someone was badly injured, silly or desperate, some muskets could be fired one handed, mainly because the accuracy of a musket was so poor anyway.

=== Tabletop Games ===

* [[Tabletop Games]] ''Spycraft'' actually has a character option that lets you do this, albeit at a penalty to hit.

** Bolters/Boltguns are fully automatic weapons that fire rocket-propelled, armor-penetrating, explosive rounds. They have a pistol grip, however, so sufficiently [[Badass]] characters have been known to shoot them one-handed, an old special rule called "True Grit." Only two examples come to mind: the [[Space Wolf|Space Wolves]], who are heroic [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture|Vikings in space]], and Plague Marines of Nurgle, who are so bloated with disease that their bulk allows them to absorb the considerable recoil. Both are [[Powered Armor|power-armored]] [[Super Soldier|super soldiers]], however, and even the most [[Badass Normal]] Imperial Guardsmen who try similar tricks usually end up breaking their wrist. That said, bolt pistols differ only in rate of fire and effective range, and there are models made for normal humans without powered armor. There are discrepancies between the sources, but according to some materials, "mortal" versions of boltguns and bolt pistols use .75 shells, while Astartes versions of those weapons use 1.0 inch, rounds like Heavy Bolters made for normal humans. But stats on tabletop are the same, and stats in RPG vary with the version. Either way, they are larger to be handled with a [[Powered Armor]] glove and have larger magazines.

** In ''[[Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay]]'' series firing a Basic (i.e. two-handed long arms, but not Heavy) weapon with one hand usually is possible, but at -20 penalty to hit. Fitting the weapon with pistol grip negates this penalty, but halves the range increment instead. There's no advantage in firing most pistols with two hands. But between the classes of Pistol and Basic weapons there are also subclasses of Carbines (for Basic) and [[Hand Cannon]]s (for pistols), both of which receive half penalty for one-handed shooting. ''[[Only War]]'' even pays homage to the old [[Cool_Guns/Handguns#Mauser_C96|Broomhandle]] by allowing "Carbine" customization for pistols (increases effective range by half). And then there are more custom cases of "Hand Cannon, counts as Basic unless user has Strength X" and "Pistol, counts as Hand Cannon unless user has Strength X" (though ''[[Black Crusade]]'' applies this to all "hand cannons"). Curiously, some bolt pistol patterns fit under the latter, but not under plain Hand Cannon; Also, there's autopistol that if used with large magazine counts as Hand Cannon without changing statistics other than capacity - it's an issue of balance as much as recoil.

* In [[Jurassic Park]]: [[Trespasser]], main character Anne uses all weapons one handed, due to her other arm being broken (read: not being programmed into the game). This includes rifles. And an ''extremely heavy metal mace''.

* In ''[[GoldenEye 007 (1997 video game)|Golden Eye 1997]]'' on the Nintendo 64, one bonus mission has Jaws coming at you with dual ''<s>M-16s</s> [[AKA-47|AR-33's]]'', which you can use if you take him down. With the all weapons cheat, this extends to everything from submachineguns to ''rocket launchers''.

** There's also a glitch that can be done with the all weapons cheat that allows you to mix up weapons, resulting in such combinations as having an RCP-90 in one hand with a shotgun in the other, or somehow managing to use the Moonraker Laser in tandem with the Watch Laser (which altogether, would require ''three'' hands to operate).

* In ''[[Team Fortress 2]]'', the Heavy doesn't use his shotgun with one hand to fire, but he does [[Super Strength|twirl it around like a pistol in a taunt.]]

* Plenty of people use sawed-off shotguns in ''[[Umineko no Naku Koro ni]]'', but [[Hot Chick in a Badass Suit|Kyrie]] is the only one to wield it one-handed, which makes quite a sharp contrast among them. You can really tell that under her [[Cool Big Sis]] personality, she's not to be trifled with.

* In ''[[X-COM (Video Game)|X-COM]]'', weapons that do not automatically take up both hand slots can be fired one-handed, but if the other hand is not empty, accuracy drops ([http://ufopaedia.org/index.php?title=Accuracy_formula to 80% base]). Of course, accuracy is penalized for critical wounds on both arms if both are involved (by 10%, thus with more than 1 wounds to the off hand, may as well fire one-handed). The character models, however, will always show your characters firing them one-handed.

 

* In ''[[The Last Days of Foxhound]]'', Sniper Wolf occasionally uses her rifle with just one hand. But that's a [[Charles Atlas Superpower]] for you...

 

=== Real Life ===

*** [[Reality Is Unrealistic|I can think why...]]

**** [http://www.imfdb.org/index.php/Untouchables%2C_The_%281987%29#Winchester_Model_1912 Instead, it was Ness himself.]

* Certain bullpup weapons ([http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f76wGxg3fzw such as] the [[Cool Guns|P90]]) are easier to use one-handed than conventional firearms, due to the ammunition and chamber (and therefore much of the weight) being behind the point where one grips it. While that doesn't mean they can be accurately fired one-handed, it's still more reasonable compared to using normal firearms one-handed.

** Possible [[Justified Trope|justification]] for [[Stargate SG-1|Teal'c]] using a P90 in [[Guns Akimbo|each hand]] in later seasons.

* The inevitable culmination of this trope has to be shooting two 15-pound, belt fed [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4nfZu8VqgQ squad automatic weapons], one in each hand, from the shoulder!

* The SPAS-12 convertible (capable of firing semi-auto or pump-action) shotgun often came with a folding stock with a hook attached to the buttpad that (allegedly, the gun was too damn heavy for it to really be practical) allowed for one-handed shooting while using a riot shield.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Guns and Gunplay Tropes]]

[[Category:Tropes Examined by the Mythbusters]]