The irony is that those who don't begin the gunfight when they should always seem to be the ones who have the most trouble.....
It has become a truism that in a 'real' gunfight we never shoot like we do at the range, and that may generally be true for a great many reasons, most of which are psychological.....but it isn't ALWAYS true.....a trooper I know had to use his pistol in a shooting incident involving an armed gunman....and when the gunman moved to bring his rifle toward the trooper...he fired three rounds at five feet, all three of which hit EXACTLY center-mass, all three penetrated the heart, and the entire grouping could have been covered by a silver dollar! It can be done under combat conditions......what separates him from you or me?
I believe the main thing, other than his skill and training at arms, is that he has the type of personality that if he believes he's right, there's no room for questioning, he moves on confident that he's right......and that leaves no room for hesitation or psychological distraction......then it's just a simple matter of front sight, PRESS!
We can see the same effect in combat....most men see combat as a life or death struggle of great weight.....there are those, however, who really don't experience that over-whelming feeling.....who are able to view the enemy as prey, little more than shooting ducks!
A good example of this mindset is provided by Chuck Mawhinney who had the highest confirmed kills of any Marine Sniper in Vietnam, even more than the legendary Gunnery Sgt. Carlos Hathcock.
"Once I had a Charlie [slang for Viet Cong] in my scope, it was my job to kill him before he killed me," said Mawhinney, now 51 and retired from a desk job with the U.S. Forest Service. "I never looked in their eyes, I never stopped to think about whether the guy had a wife or kids."
"It was the ultimate hunting trip: a man hunting another man who was hunting me," he said. "Don't talk to me about hunting lions or elephants; they don't fight back with rifles and scopes. I just loved it. I ate it up."
http://www.snipersparadise.com/history/chuck_mawhinney.htm
He once caught a platoon of 16 NVA crossing a river on foot.....he took all 16 with head shots, one after another, front to back so that they wouldn't appreciate how accurate his fire was......in a manner very similar to Alvin York.....taking them back to front shows a lethalness of thought and intent beyond what most people would be thinking. That goes to show if mere 'survival' is your goal, you're behind the power curve.
One might point out that the Mawhinney example is a man with a rifle, from concealment......well, then consider the example of Wild Bill Hickok.....one may say that some of his legend is apocryphal, but enough of it is validated to support the notion of Hickok as a cool and deadly opponent......no better example than the Hickok/Tutt duel in Springfield, Mo......in one of the only real examples of the stereotypical movie high noon gunfights, Hickok and Tutt drew down on each other on the street......both firing simultaneously, at a distance considered by most historians to be about 75 yards, Tutt missing entirely......and Hickok's .36 bullet drilling right through Tutt's heart, killing him where he fell! A single shot fired at 75 yards striking his opponent in the heart, while Hickok was being fired upon himself! Even if the 75 yards range was exaggerated, even if it were 50 yards or 25 yards......it still demonstrates a cool deliberation under fire, and how that ability translates in to being able to place a lethal bullet shot!
Cool deliberation is a constant trait we see in the history of men who are deadly at arms.....is a train we're born with, or a trait we can be taught?
