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The Gunfighter’s Clinch: Weapon Retention, Clinch Control, and “Stealin’ from the Belt” by Mark Hatmaker

 


[Look at that photograph HARD. Imagine the dire straits that officer is about to be in. One adjustment [ONE] in his underhook would deprive the scum with a hand on his weapon the opportunity for that deadly pull that is getting ready to occur just as it did in real life.]

The Clinch Fight of the Early America’s Rough n Tumble days was a different breed from the clinch across the pond.

In Great Britain, Continental Europe and the Mediterranean Basin we see a heavy sportive influence.

Think of Cornish Wrestling, and other belt/jacket dominant sport styles: jiu-jitsu and judo included.

In the non-jacketed forms, we have many sport styles to choose from with Greco-Roman Wrestling being the dominant example that comes to mind.

In all these versions, the grip, the hooks, the control of wedges to topple, unbalance, to throw is the leading edge of strategy and tactics.

As we cross the pond to the Americas, we enter a realm where rules slough away the deeper we get into frontier territory.

We must always keep in mind; the frontiers were not merely “Old West.”

The frontier was an ever-expanding push.

“For some people the term ‘frontier’ may bring to mind only the way west. That is acceptable as long as one remembers that everything from where the Atlantic Ocean breaks upon the shore was west at one time. It was all frontier.”-Louis “Amour, Frontier.

“All these Americans are, as they say, ‘Strapped.’”

The west-faring peoples of the Americas were a people of weapons.

There was often a rifle in hand, if not that, a bow, a lance or tomahawk.

At belt or waist-strap we find pistol[s], blades, tomahawks, cudgels, war clubs and sundry other weapons.

Yes, there were sportive tussles for fun, for dominance where “unstrapping” before the often brutal affair might return the clinch concerns to the tamer realms of toppling only but…

The ever-present threat of skirmishes and/or one-on-one warfare with an armed and dangerous opponent changed perspectives on the clinch in this New World.

Strapped Clinch Affairs & The Gunfighter’s Clinch

The clinch of strapped opponents be it both strapped or merely one strapped alters how the idea of the clinch itself must be approached.

Ideas of Entry—to gain weapon/belt control are different.

Ideas of Exit—Getting out of the unexpected/unwanted clinch to clear one’s own weapon were different from the sport versions all the while using tools that appear the same, but most assuredly ain’t.

Ideas of holster smothering, “reach hand” control, maintaining your “pull” [weapon access] and “biting them with their own tooth” [pulling their weapon against them] alters the game a good deal.

Street to Sport; Not Sport to Street

The Gunfighter’s Clinch allows us to reverse the causal arrow where we no longer use sport tactics to address real-world concerns as in the photo of the unfortunate officer.

If we focus our attention on an arsenal of dire circumstances it requires ZERO alteration when we go unarmed.

I go so far to say The Gunfighter Clinch arsenal improves ALL aspects of the sportive arsenal.

This month’s Black Box volume is all about the base materials comprising The Gunfighter’s Clinch.

It is ideal for the street, and it will even serve my unarmed scufflers in the weapon-free clinch scrum; it will build intuitive positioning from the jump.

I repeat, look at the offered photo again---one [ONE]alteration in the officer’s underhook changes his game.

The devil is in the details.

We'll demo the material dry and some with gun belt to highlight the why's of much early clinch wisdom from the days when everyone was strapped and rarin' to pull.

Rough n Tumble Vocabulary Word: Buford

A Buford in rodeo parlance is a small, weak, easily thrown steer or calf.

In human correlation a Buford is a small, weak, easily thrown human.

Don’t be a Buford.

Control the Clinch.

Keep your weapon.

Take theirs.

Save your life.

To snag your copy hit the link. The Gunfighter’s Clinch.

To save over 50% off + gain additional premiums consider joining The Black Box Subscription Service.

The Rough n Tumble Raconteur Podcast

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