[Barry in IN]

I saw this mentioned in the post on weak hand shooting, and was reminded of it.

What is it? I know it's a stance, or style, but what are the specifics?

I have seen and heard it mentioned about 20 years ago, mostly, but know little about it. As I recall, Paris Theodore (ASP) either invented or refined it. I know he promoted it.

Wasn't there a QUELL target also?

 

[Snake45]

I remember it. It got some ink in Combat Handguns and maybe SWAT or Firepower in the mid to late '80s.

IIRC, it was sort of like a Weaver stance, but you laid your head on your right arm and sighted with your left eye for some reason. I think the theory was that the left eye was tied to the right half of the brain, which was better suited to making some sort of shooting decision or another. (This also cuts down your side vision to the left to just about nothing. And doesn't do much for your peripheral vision to the right, either, come to think of it.)

Well, no shooting champ I've ever heard of adopted the system or any variation of it. That should tell you something.

I wonder if Theodore was cross-dominant. That would explain it. The system might work well for cross-dominant people.

I seem to recall the target had anatomically correct junk printed on the BACK of it. You shot and then saw if you hit something important and/or painful, like a spine or a kidney. I've never been a fan of targets that allowed you top points for hitting something a couple feet away from where you were aiming, even if the "real world" sometimes does reward luck.

 

[Barry in IN]

OK, thanks!
I have heard a couple of people say the system wasn't successful because it was "misunderstood".
Let's say you only have a 5% understanding of it, although I'm sure it's more than that. You described enough to make me greatly question it's worth.

 

[Dean Speir]

 

I swear I addressed this here sometime in the past month, but damned if I can find it.

The "Quell Stance" portion of the Quell System sounds nutty… just as nutty as Theodore is/was… 'til you try it.

It works!

Is it something I'd adopt? Nope, but in the mid-to-late '80s I twice took cross-dominant Southampton Town female MOS who were terrified that they weren't going to re-qualify after their FTO insisted that everyone transition to a Weaver Stance, and instructed them in the Quell. They both felt more comfortable with it, and started getting hits… and both re-qualified, albeit one only barely.

The "Quell" targets are/are a superior concept, and I exhausted myself ten years ago trying to get the guy who was making the "Nervous Norvous" targets to pop for the extra bucks for a two-sided printing. He was a very nice guy… Fernando also knew him, from the gun show circuit, as I recollect… but John just didn't see the "bigger picture."

 

 

[Barry in IN]

Thanks, I'll give it a whirl anyway, just to see..........but not with anyone watching me.

 

[Dean Speir]

O sweet honey mustard!

Barry, for the love of Paris Theodore and Chick Gaylord, if you do it right, hardly anyone's gonna notice!

Sheeeeeeesssssh!

 

[Snake45]

Just found the magazine article about Quell, Jan 87 SWAT. Not much to add to my previous post on the topic, I remembered the material pretty well!

As for does it work, the authors were impressed, saying they improved their shooting slightly. I've found that to be true of almost anything "new" you try (Hawthorne effect). When Ayoob made me shoot isocoles in LFI-I, I was shocked at how my groups tightened up. But I didn't stay with it. I'd been shooting Weaver for almost 20 years by that point (over 30 years today) and I'm convinced that that's what I'm always gonna revert to under stress.

Again, the Quell system doesn't seem to have caught on in any appreciable way in the last 17 years. Speaking of which, anyone know anything about this Turnipseed guy and his "system?"

 

[Dean Speir]

Speaking of which, anyone know anything about this Turnipseed guy and his "system?"

Yeah, he's a former Marine who once shot a dead guy in the back in the streets of Pasadena, and as for his "system" which he was at one time promoting as the "Kent Turnipseed Enhanced Low Weaver," Mas and I decided just about ten years ago that it was little more than the Chapman.

He's still around, and you can find photos and videos of him doing his thing on the Web.