For the purpose of defensive shooting, this bladed, slow-fire bullseye stance got supplanted in the early 20th century by various forms of “instinctive” or “point” shooting. There were reasons for this, however, beyond it being some sort of fad or trend.Bullseye and Free Pistol shooters don't hold pistols one-handed because it's more accurate, they hold pistols one-handed because the rules say you can't hold them two-handed.
For instance, W.E. Fairbairn and Eric A. Sykes of the Shanghai Municipal Police, had a large force of officers to train, less than 40 rounds a year to issue them for practice and, as trainer Tom Givens points out, Colt .45 and .380 ACP semi-automatics with rudimentary sights with which to arm them. Given that he was mostly preparing them for close-range gun battles in dark alleys where those thumbnail sights wouldn’t even be visible anyway, it’s probably unsurprising that the program of instruction emphasized coarse pointing techniques. Reflecting this, the qualification course was all at a range of 6 to 12 feet and 50 percent or better of hits anywhere on a silhouette was a passing score.
At about the same time here in the States, the “FBI Crouch” was becoming popular, despite it being a technique employed by Jelly Bryce who was, as Texas firearm instructor Karl Rehn notes, a physical prodigy who could see the traces of pistol bullets in flight. It was like expecting every Little League pitcher to be blessed with the abilities and talents of a Cy Young winner. “Just throw it like Randy Johnson did, kid.”
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