I’m pretty sure it’s not just Hollywood, I’ve seen old drawings and paintings of people in battle or duels and they always only use one hand to aim and fire pistols, even after multishot revolvers and pistols are developed.
Why? It’s not like using two hands only became more supportive and stable after 1910.
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Revolvers were not made to be held with two hands. They generally weren’t terribly accurate to begin with but the grip itself and the shape of the gun did not allow for a two handed grip. Also when a round is fired some of the gas escapes from the gaps in the cylinder that holds the cartridges. This means that if you’re using two hands then one of them will probably get blasted by some super hot and super fast gases and that’s not very pleasant.
Most modern handguns are not revolvers and they don’t blow out gas anywhere other than the ejection port so along with their different shape and ergonomics they encourage a two handed grip.
Well, when most can tear the head off a fish, or hold a fighting pig down one handed, you certainly dont need 2 for a pistol…
Find some freinds in the trades. The hand strenght us surprising.
To be fair, handguns before the 20th century were heavier, made of steel, and generally fired lower caliber bullets woth lighter charges. Both of these factors aide greatly in managing recoil. You’d think, a heavier gun would be better to have two hands holding it. But the weight of the gun has nothing to do with being able to hold the thing, it’s managing recoil.
The 1911 became the standard issued military semi automatic handgun starting in the early 20th century. This shape and design lends itself to the need for a two handed grip. Instead of a few bullets being loaded in a revolving calendar around the barrel allowing the grip to be just being enough for one hand to grip and hold it, the bullets we loaded in a magazine that installed into the grip. This allowed the grips to be increased in size as magazine sizes increased. The larger sized grips lend themselves to multi handed grips.
Another consideration, since the introduction of the 1911, nearly all handguns have modeled the basic design. It was a genius level design. Today, plastic polymers have been introduced and incorporated to gun designs. Plastics allow the pistol to be manufactured cheaper, and be more comfortable in the hand. Polymers do not however aide with recoil.
And recoil is in essence where we come back to. It is the number one reason why the two handed firing technique is used today and why it wasn’t used in days past. A semi automatic firearm allows for rapid firing of bullets. The accurately fire the bullets, recoil management is a must.
Before semi automatic weapons, either guns were once shot, like the old flint lock pistols you’d see a pirate like Jack sparrow fire, or a revolver like the ones the cowboys would duel with. For the flint locks, it makes sense to fire from one hand, first it prevents you from blowing both your hands off when the littoral hand cannon unexpectedly blows up, and second, firing from the side, looking straight down the barrel woth your dominant eye is a very practical firing stance. We see sport rifleman using the same pose in their sport to this day.
Also, the revolver can be two handed gripped. The .357 magnum is a great example. This caliber wasn’t available back then though. Since a revolver is not semi automatic, it requires a manual pulling back and recocki g of the hammer to advance the culendar after every shot. This is often done woth the held hand’s thumb. But a rapid fire technique known as fanning could be used. Fanning was nothing more than the off hand slapping the hammer quickly while firing. Only the most skilled shooters have been able to somewhat accurately fan a revolver. The technique tends to also require the shooter fire from the hip. This minimizes the play of the revolver, while allowing the body to better absorb the recoil. Of course this means that the gun can not be handled with both hands.
So today woth our more powerful caliber bullets amd in an effort to aide with recoil, two handed grip techniques have become the norm. Though its still taught in self defense courses to learn to shoot with one hand, Inc are of injury or what not.
Revolvers emit fire from between the cylinders. Fire hurts pretty bad. This makes it very difficult to use a revolver 2 handed. Most of the late 1800s weapons were still getting over the use of revolvers. Meaning that the 2 handed grip didn’t develop for things like the c96 because it wasn’t as common.
Also the one handed “dueling” stance you see, is inherently more accurate which is why you see it used by Olympic athletes.
Another big thing is that the 2 handed grip is the best for FAST repeating shots. Revolvers required a reset, meaning your hands would need to change positions. Shoot, cock, shoot, cock, shoot.
Modern pistols like a glock don’t use this, they are repeating. The second hand in modern shooting techniques like the proctor or weaver method are used to control recoil. You don’t care about recoil on a non repeating weapon. It happens after the bullet leaves the gun and therefor has no effect on accuracy.
When modern repeating handguns became common place with the Luger, and the 1911, the 2 hand method became actually practical
The pistols were so shitty back then you had to stand directly in front of eachother during a duel and still that didn’t mean anyone would get a hit. You stood to the side to make your target as small as possible
Point of aim. One-handed shooting, especially with revolvers, comes naturally. Sights often weren’t great. Point shooting using intuituve aim was used in formal training till after World War 2. The ‘FBI Crouch’ seen in old police shows was standard for the time to get quick close range hits.
One thing that wasn’t mentioned is simply heritage.
People do a lot of things the way they did it previously. Pistol duels were just replacements of sword duels. They kept the ceremony and all the general stand and stuff. They didn’t try all the possible ways of holding guns and selected one on the logical basis. Maybe the earliest pistols didn’t even allow holding them with two hands, but as they evolved, nobody checked each time a new gun came out whether it’s better now to hold differently.
It’s very similar to things like our computer keyboards that is a heritage of mechanical typewriter keyboard that has some relevant reasons for the “qwert” layout. There were alternative mechanic typewriter layouts that didn’t work out and there are alternative layouts today that *would* work but nobody wants to change anymore. Simply because nobody is trying 5 different keyboard layouts when buying a computer and chooses on the logical basis. So nowadays even your phone is “qwert” because of typewriters.
Doing things differently often requires an inventing mind who dares to think out of the box and says why not trying this way.
Old-school pistols had serious kickback and were designed for one-handed use. Plus, shooting was a formal affair, even a gentleman’s sport. Duelers and soldiers would often hold their other hand behind their back or at their side, for manners and balance. The two-hand grip came later with more accurate firearms and a focus on practicality over style.
Handguns are referred to as such because they can be fired one-handed; that was their initial design, and other techniques are fairly modern, having only reached prominence in the 1950s. They evolved from hand-cannons which required another hand to light, and evolved into single-shot pistols (typically carried with a sword) and eventually cap and ball revolvers (typically carried by officers and cavalry units, requiring a hand free for horsemanship.)
While stability is a major factor in today’s pistol marksmanship, traditional methods were instead focused on achieving a faster draw, and minimalizing the target presented to one’s enemy. This eventually evolved into the stance you’re referring to: body roughly perpendicular to the weapon, and the weapon held in the single hand.
Generally, the modern pistol stance can be traced to the Shanghai Municipal Police Department. There, officers Fairburn and Sykes would pioneer a two-handed grip. These two officers would go on to teach British, American, and even Dutch and Canadian forces their techniques during World War 2. Around that time period we see the first training materials suggesting the usage of a two-handed grip. For example, [this video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP7J-JNSUu4&t=194s) showcases WW2 era American pistol techniques, which featured a combination of one-handed and two handed grips (the two handed grips were used in prone and kneeling positions, where greater accuracy was required, and the one-handed grip was for standard use. To the best of my knowledge, the Axis powers continued to utilize a one-handed grip entirely).
In the late 1950s, a competition shooter by the name of Jack Weaver would develop this further into the “Weaver Stance,” the basis for modern pistol techniques. Notably, in addition to a standardized, two-hand grip, it focused on proper footwork, to improve accuracy further. The FBI would adopt this technique in the 1980s, leading it to become standard nation-wide, alongside the alternative “Isosceles Stance,” both of which are still used today.
Look at fencing stances and old pistol stances. Minimum aspect, left hand supporting the body right hand out but elbow not locked. They’re the same
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