I imagine the opposite. I imagine myself shooting with a perfect grip. Muscle memory is using one’s subconscious. One uses more of their subconscious than their conscious. I have never been in a gun fight but I have been in fights and situations where I have to use my muscle memory. I think I seem to do better when the adrenaline is pumping.
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I imagine the same thing and usually achieve something close enough to it in practice. But not every single time. Every once in awhile my pistol gets caught up on some clothing or my grip is a little low. This most often happens when drawing while quickly moving which I plan to do in most self defense scenarios.
From the videos of actual events I have seen there are lots of times when people aren’t able to react perfectly. When you have to react without any warning to a threat that might already be bumping into you there are a lot of reasons you might not be able to get or maintain your perfect grip or a solid stance. If your body only knows how to shoot with a perfect grip then your subconscious may have no idea what to do when things are less than perfect.
That is why I do some of my practice with things less than perfect. I’ll shoot while moving or standing on one leg to get my mind used to shooting while off balance. I’ll shoot with a low or loose grip to see if the pistol will malfunction and how much harder it is to control recoil. This way my subconscious knows how to compensate when things aren’t going perfectly.
Perfection is a good goal to keep striving for but not something that should ever be counted on in order to succeed.
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Perfection is only imaginary thing. We must constantly practice the best possible way to make things great… but even that nothing will be perfect the moment you need to react instinctively.
Instead of practicing things less than perfect, we should practice things the best way, trying to improve.
If my grip is not consistent, doesn’t keep handgun tight enough to shoot 5 times without correcting it… I don’t practice shooting this bad grip, I practice my grip to never let it be weak again.
I personally don’t like any shortcuts or compensations. If I know how something must be done, I’m doing everything to make it done this way (proper way).
Perfection is a good goal… but I doubt it is achievable.
I heard several times: “constant practice makes you perfect”… but it is wrong.
Not even “constant perfect practice makes you perfect”.
The truth is: “constant perfect practice makes you permanent”. How you train, how you practice is how you react to incident. Low, weak or bad grip cannot be practiced, because it makes you shoot this way.
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I mostly agree though I believe it is a good idea to teach our bodies to deal with imperfections while focusing on trying to teach them to get as close to perfection as possible.
There seem to be more self defense instructors looking into the neuroscience behind defensive actions and training these days. For instance I have now seen several instructors recommend not trying to get a perfect stance when shooting because you are unlikely to get one in a self defense situation so it is important for your body to be able to compensate for poor balance and movement while shooting. Practicing shooting while off balance trains the proprioceptors in our bodies to deal with the more complicated situations they are likely to face in real life.
I generally don’t practice poor grip except to make sure that my SD firearms aren’t overly susceptible to limp wrist induced Jams. But if I get a less than perfect grip while drawing I don’t just stop the process and start over without taking the shots I was planning on. That could produce a significant training scare since the bad guys aren’t likely to give us a do over because our grip wasn’t perfect. I continue with the draw and fire so my mind knows to just keep going even when I make mistakes and my body learns to compensate for those mistakes.
And I think this is all relevant to the topic because the more our bodies are prepared and trained to deal with these challenges the faster and more effective our shots will likely be, hopefully leading to less shots being needed to stop the threat.
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That is true. And I really like it. I was introduced to this teaching in 2022 and it really works. The idea is to act the same way as we act everyday, trying to avoid creating “artificial” actions and forcing your body to do unnatural things.
It definitely improved my skills - it shortened my reaction times, I started shooting faster and more accurate. It makes me less tired after few hrs of training / practice.
Anyway… jumping back to OP… I shoot as many times as needed to stop the thread. 2 x center mass, if doesn’t work another center mass, if doesn’t work - pelvis… if does’t work… no… nothing more needed. 
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“If you HAVE to use a gun, DON’T stop using it until the job is DONE!!”
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I am a retired FF/Pm, and you are correct when a person is under drug or alcohol control one or two shots my not be enough to stop a threat. What may be more important is WHERE your shots are placed, rather than how many are fired.
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Exactly. Perform a tactical reload, wait for his gang to return, then unload!
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Given a SHOOT vs. no shoot I will land as many rounds on target as possible until there is no threat. If necessary I will beat them senseless if it comes to that. If you threaten my life all cards are on the table and I will win or die.
Cheers,
Craig6
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We are so out numbered that we are going to have to restock and buy more ammunition who has three million rounds 
Until it is stopped!
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