Double tap

A double tap is a shooting technique where two shots are fired quickly at the same target. The term hammer is sometimes used to describe a double tap in which the firearm's sights are not reacquired by the shooter between shots.

Origins

The origin of the double tap technique is credited to William Ewart Fairbairn and Eric Anthony Sykes, British Police chiefs in Shanghai during the 1930s. In Ian Dear’s book Sabotage and Subversion about British Special Operations Executive (SOE) and United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS) forces, Fairbairn is reported to have instructed SOE personnel in the double tap from 1944 to 1945 at the SOE training school directed by Fairbairn and Sykes near Arisag in Scotland. The tactic is still used today by well-trained firearms handlers, police tactical teams, regular infantrymen in the U.S. Army, counter-terrorist military units, and other special forces personnel.

Theory

In the double tap technique, after the first round is fired, the trigger is quickly pulled again while maintaining the same point of aim. Ideally, both rounds should strike anywhere within the center of the target, causing two sites of trauma and maximising shock. The technique is meant to both impose restraint and fire control on the users of any weapon while maximizing the potential of both hitting and incapacitating the target.

Extensive testing shows that after the third round of sustained fire, accuracy drops off sharply, as aim is thrown off by gun recoil. Using the double tap technique maintains target accuracy without wasting ammunition and decreases the probability of damage to non-targets. Furthermore, since single rounds tend to have poor terminal ballistics characteristics, a pair of bullets traversing through a target in close track (eg. the double tap) increases the probability of incapacitating a target. Also, since the center of mass is the most desirable target for a sidearm, firing two rounds helps compensate for the possibility that the first round might be deflected by heavy bone or miss a vital organ.

Against armored targets, the double-tap is sometimes the only way to penetrate armored protection. While appropriate soft armor can stop almost any pistol-caliber round once, two rounds impacting the same spot will almost certainly penetrate the armor. Likewise with hard armor, two rounds from a higher-powered weapon stand a much better chance of penetrating the armor if the rounds strike closely.

See also

• Mozambique Drill
• Point shooting
• Modern Technique of the Pistol