From studying the old illustrations of the frontier days, we see that the frontier shootist tended to face the threat with his whole body. And while the old-timers still generally used just one hand, their shooting arm was slightly bent. This allowed the shooting arm to act as a sort of shock absorber, giving better control for repeat shots with the full-power blackpowder loads of the frontier revolvers.

As an aside, the frontier shooters were somewhat divided as to whether or not to use the handgun's sights. Quite possibly, at close quarters--such as a small, crowded saloon--it was not necessary to actually acquire the sights to make a killing hit. On the other hand, one would imagine that Bill Hickok must have used his sights when he dropped Dave Tutt with one shot at 75 yards on the square in Springfield, Missouri.

The next most significant turn of events came in the early 1900s, when W.E. Fairbairn was placed in a training role with the Shanghai police. That agency had been losing men in gunfights with the various Chinese gangs, and Capt. Fairbairn was tasked with the job of making better fighters out of the policemen.

By studying actual gunfights, often as an actual participant, Fairbairn determined that his men usually crouched when they heard gunfire or sensed a threat. Instead of trying to overcome the natural inclination to crouch, Fairbairn decided to incorporate it into his training. In addition, he determined that most of their gunfights were occurring at nighttime when the light was too poor for the officers to see their sights.

For these reasons, Fairbairn taught his men to face the threat in a crouch very similar to the boxer's stance. The feet were spread apart for better balance, with the weak-side foot slightly forward of the other. The handgun was held at an angle in front of the shooter and pointed at the ground, similar to the current low-ready position. The shooting arm was straight and stiff.

Once the threat was identified, the shooter's eyes were focused on it--actually, on the spot on the threat where he intended his bullets to hit. The handgun, in the straight, stiff hold, was raised into the lower edge of the shooter's vision and brought to bear on the center of the threat. At this point, two shots were quickly triggered. From start to finish, the shooter's eyes were always on the target, never on the handgun's sights. Once the handgun was forward in the firing position, the shooter moved his whole body if he needed to move or address another target.

In the early days of World War II, a young Army officer named Rex Applegate used the Fairbairn point-shooting method to teach government agents that were part of the O.S.S. In fact, Fairbairn came to the U.S. and personally assisted in some of this training.