Tactical Pistol Marksmanship: How To Improve Your Combat Shooting Skills [Paperback]

Gabriel Suarez (Author), Gabe Suarez (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 2001

Best-selling author Gabe Suarez provides a graduate-level course in shooting with lightning speed and dead on target during the intensity of an actual gun battle. In Tactical Pistol Marksmanship, Suarez revisits some of the topics in the classic book The Tactical Pistol and presents even more gun-handling techniques, different twists on basic skills and unique tricks to help fine-tune how you aim and fire a gun under stress. Just some of the topics he covers are the primary requirements for the ideal service pistol according to combat vets; the rule of thumb for choosing a serious combat caliber; the 4 most important fundamentals of combat marksmanship; secrets to shooting in extremely low light situations when even tritium sights are of no use; the solutions to emergency failure-to-stop situations; and practical drills you can perform safely at home.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Gabe Suarez is a veteran of Southern California law enforcement, where he has served for many years. His extensive field experience includes single officer patrol, gang enforcement, special operations and tactical training. He was one of the founding members of his department's Special Weapons and Tactical Precision Rifle teams.

Product Details

• Paperback: 208 pages
• Publisher: Paladin Press (November 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1581602782
• ISBN-13: 978-1581602784
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #195,241 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Accurizing your shooting technique, January 19, 2003

By 

Seppo Vesala (Helsinki, - Finland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tactical Pistol Marksmanship: How To Improve Your Combat Shooting Skills (Paperback)

Gabriel Suarez is one of the best known authors on tactics and shooting, and for a reason. As with other books by Suarez, this book is written in clear and easy to read style, and the book is filled with photographs to add to the clarity of the text. Sadly, most of the photos are a bit too dark, or the lighting is bad (strong light coming directly from the side, for example). However, the pictures are clear enough to see what they are depicting.

Suarez starts with a brief history of combat handguns and combat handgunning. Then he proceeds to weapon and ammo selection, and he also touches the subjets of accessories. These chapters are short however, and you just can't make a selection on proper defensive ammunition, for example, by just reading three pages. Suarez gives a few valuable pointers on what to take into consideration when choosing proper gear, however.

Next Suarez addresses the basics of handgun shooting: the grip, stance, loading and unloading the gun, proper sight picture, and safety rules. After the basics he advances to ready positions, tactical and speed reloads and so on. Interestingly, he is not as strict in his opinions as he used to be. These chapters contain some ideas that are very interesting and were new to me.

The next few chapters are what sets this book apart from most: Suarez gives detailed training program to improve your accuracy and speed. He also advises that you don't have to spend vast amount of money on trainig ammo, as majority of training can be conducted as dry practise. Besides, quality beats quantity anyway. This section is worth the price of the book alone.

At the end Suarez tells "the truth about point shooting", and answers to some frequently asked questions. The question of point shooting seems to be a hard one, as Suarez defends aimed fire by giving what seems to be almost the same rationale as point shoters use when defending their point of view.

In the end, I would give this book 4 ˝ stars, if it were possible. Full five stars is reserved for special occasions, so I give this book "only" four.

58 of 61 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book That Can Really Help You Improve Your Shooting, May 21, 2004

By 

AFN1000 (N. Hemisphere) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Tactical Pistol Marksmanship: How To Improve Your Combat Shooting Skills (Paperback)

This is a very good and useful book. It really is. If you are a pistol shooter and you are not shooting to your potential and you can tell yourself, though painful as it may be (we are guys after all) that you need to improve, and that you believe the fundamentals of shooting are the foundation of advancing your skill then this book will help you. If you're like the average guy I see at the gun range who "knows it all" and is just interested in piling a lot of brass on the range floor then this book will not help you at all.

If police academies taught the fundamentals of tactical marksmanship the way Gabe presents it in his book then they are getting some really good initial training that could very well save their life. The problem with this book is that it concentrates on the basics of not only marksmanship but practical tactics that can make you a really good and effective shooter but people don't want to do the leg work any more, they want to skip right to advanced techniques that couldn't be executed without having a strong foundation anyway. Then what they ultimately miss out is what this book really does well. It takes you from the basics of marksman ship and fundamental tactics and molds you to a practitioner of a useful skill. It's not the end of your training but part of it. There are so many books and videos out there that promise you what Suarez delivers for a few dollars.

My shooting was frustrating me. I reached a plateau and wasn't improving. I wasn't able to attend a shooting school and I seemed to have more empty casings than holes in my targets. I have had pistol training in the past but it was forgotten and I was just relearning bad habits. The book takes you through the necessary steps you need to make you better and more effective. It is that simple. It is concise, well written, it teaches concepts that are easy to grasp and no matter how good you shoot I would bet that you would be even better after reading and practicing what is taught. I was able to make the jump from practicing a lot to practicing more perfectly a lot. There is a huge difference. My shooting has improved immensely from this study. When I feel I am starting to slip I either re-read it or review the appropriate chapters. I am a better shooter because of it. It is that simple. I still need to learn, I still need to continue to dry fire and then go to the range and validate my practice but I am a better shooter. This book has really motivated me to improve even more. That's what you will get from this book.

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Truth About Gunfighting, December 5, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Tactical Pistol Marksmanship: How To Improve Your Combat Shooting Skills (Paperback)

As a Federal LEO, I can safely say that I have seen a lot of firearms training and Gabe is in the leage of master Trainers. He tells it like it is in this book and doesn't paint gunfighting with the rose colored glasses that cloud this sometimes PC topic. Gabe's techniques work and they work in the real world. I have used them on duty and they are far better than what is being taught at many of the so called high speed low drag schools.

Gabe teaches Gunfighting, not shooting. real gunfights are violent and while violence seems to offend some of the more timid readers, it is reality and anyone that is carrying a gun ahs a responsibility to be trained in its use. This book is a big step toward that training. Unlike many of his detractore, Gabe has actually been in gunfights and won. He knows what happens when it is time to sling lead and he knows how to win. I highly recomend this book for anyone interested in using a firearm for self defense.