Same-side hip under your coat is the fastest for a draw and the weapon is moving up and forwards as it comes onto the aim so it will not be drifting off laterally as you fire. But it is not very well hidden and will be found in a quick pat down. Behind your back may sound strange but it is a good hide when you may get a pat down. If you have worked on checkpoints you must have searched countless people. I bet you checked down each side and never felt their back. The problem, of course, is that it is a little slow to access. In your underpants against your crown jewels is the best place for hiding a pistol because most men will not search another man’s crutch. Of course, it is slow to get out and it needs to be a fairly small pistol but then you only need a small pistol. Under your arm in a well-fitting shoulder holster is probably the best for most situations as it is well hidden, quick to access and hard to take off you. The weapon is moving sideways as you draw so it will tend to drift off the target. To counter-act this, from the holster point the weapon down to the floor then up onto the target so it is rising when you fire. Make your decision according to your operational situation.

Pistol shooting

I am not going to say much about pistol shooting technique here as, although I do teach fancy shooting, this is not what you need on operations. You just need to stay calm and use your common sense. After reading what I have to say about pistol selection I want you to get yourself a pistol and practice, practice, practice. In your barracks get the stripping and assembly fast and sure as this is the best way to familiarize yourself with a weapon and come to trust it. Then practice stoppage drills, with blanks if you can get them, until these don’t hold you up any more than a magazine change. Pistol shooting in a combat situation is not target shooting. It is not so-called combat pistol shooting either. It has almost nothing in common with shooting on a range. Your goal, depending on your mission, is to stop someone killing you by shooting at them as quickly as you can or it is to get up close to someone and kill them without a fuss.

My pistol technique is a little different from what is taught almost everywhere but it works for me. Compare what you are taught with the following: draw your pistol with the hand you are going to pull the trigger with. As you come to the aim, grip the base of the hand grip with your free hand, palm facing up, to keep the weapon on the target as you squeeze the trigger. Get the first round off as quick as you can in the general direction of the target then keep shooting until the target goes down. Aim for the centre of the observable mass – body – unless you are very cool, very good and the target is within spitting distance. In which case go for a head shot as there will be no body armour in the way. After your first hit the target is likely to be no immediate threat owing to being shot somewhere that hurts. According to the circumstances you might want to put further rounds into the body from a distance or approach and kill with a head shot. There are many clever techniques employed by pistol experts which lead to greater accuracy and rate of fire but they are more an art than a science and have little place in combat. Your job is to kill your target before he gets you – not put on a circus act.

Working undercover

The one advantage of a pistol over a rifle, from the SF operator’s point of view, is that it can be hidden when you are working undercover. A pistol on show, like a knife or a rifle, simply means no one will mess with you unless they have a weapon or get the drop on you. If they want to kill you they will smile and chat until the time is right. Then you will be dead without getting a shot off. If you carry your pistol hidden, on the other hand, you are in a position, should it suit your purpose, to allow people to show how friendly they are before you draw. A person is likely to threaten an apparently unarmed operator before shooting or stabbing them. And carrying a hidden weapon allows you to be armed where others are not – like a bar.

Undercover operators do get to use their pistols now and again but perhaps they don’t carry the sort of pistol you expect and probably they don’t use it in the way you think either. A couple of months ago a good friend of mine working in the Balkans was sitting in a bar in a rough part of town. He was meeting someone there and dressed in the typical British expat-abroad outfit – jacket and slacks – but a bit on the scruffy side and he looked pissed. This was where all the business was done in town and he was selling a truckload of Russian cigarettes and hoping to make some vital contacts. The place was full of drug dealers, weapons dealers, the odd Al-Qaeda operator and the Intelligence operatives of more than half a dozen nations keeping an eye on it all and each other. Two big, crop-haired, guys in suits and dark glasses walked in and looked across at my friend. One stood near the door and one walked towards him and made the mistake of reaching as if for a gun. As if they were amateurs coming to make an arrest. My friend drew a tiny .22in automatic from a rear belt holster and, aiming under the table, shot the furthest guy in the knee so he went down screaming like a stuck pig. In a flash he was on his feet with his pistol stuck in the mouth of the nearest suit. The standing suit raised his hands wide eyed and the situation calmed down. As much as it ever got excited – it being that sort of bar.

It turned out that the suits were from a supposedly friendly organization and thought they could act like they would at home. Wrong. They only wanted to talk to my mate and should have approached in a clearly non-threatening manner. But I’m not training Spooks here I am trying to give you some idea of what pistols can do. To tidy the story away, these guys were so unhappy they had a bomb placed in my friend’s car which subsequently killed his local driver. My friend was quickly and quietly pulled out of the country to avoid a diplomatic incident between friendly countries. Of course no one has a monopoly of blue-on-blue do they? If you know what I mean...

Choosing Your Pistol

Many operators carry a .22 automatic as the tiny automatic can be hidden in a trouser waistband or holstered pretty much anywhere else. In use it is relatively quiet and a head shot will kill. On the other hand, if I were going to a fight with pistols I would take the 9mm automatic loaded with armour piercing because it will always knock a man down.

The Walther PP series are all excellent and include .22in and 9mm calibres. The Walther PPK 9mm is small and easy to conceal. The Glock 9mm is good too and both have all manner of useful features. These pistols are relatively small yet the hand-grip is chunky and easy to get a grip on.

The ubiquitous 9mm automatic pistol. Probably a variant of the Browning Hi Power. (Brian Douglas © UK Crown Copyright, 2010, MOD)

Don’t select something like a .40 that fires expensive or unique ammunition or you will not practice. In most theatres, 9mm is the easiest ammo to get hold of and therefore cheap or free. If you get the choice, go for something light if you are going to have to carry it all day.

The Heckler & Koch P7M8 or P7M13 in its 13 round 9mm form is a superb weapon with many outstanding features. There is a system for automatic safety and another to stop you burning your fingers on the hot casing. Being German, the engineering and design are superb but you will have to buy one yourself if you want one because I don’t think anyone but the British SAS issue them. For many years I carried a Berretta 9mm as I found the hand grip comfortable, the magazine carries a couple more rounds than the Browning and I got one cheap. If I am going to give you a guide go for a well-made 9mm so it won’t jam and you will have lots of bullets when you need them. The first time you might tend to fire a little quickly.