Moments before the signal to shoot, Gabe White takes a deep breath. His lanky form relaxes as he drops his hands to his sides, just touching his pants legs. He’s very precise about this, as he is with every other detail of the shooting process. His finger tips are curled, ready to draw…
If You Meet the Buddha on the Road, Shoot Him
It seems odd that one of the best shooters on earth was raised by what he describes as “hippie” parents. But perhaps that’s part of the secret to Gabe White’s success. His mother practices Tibetan Buddhism, and White himself has an almost Zen-like serenity about him when it comes to shooting, something he’s been interested in since he can remember.
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Growing up in rural Oregon, White roamed the woods with his BB gun. He shot .22 rifles, as well,but always dreamed of the day he could graduate to something more. Since childhood, he’s been obsessed with the idea self-defense is the most basic of human rights.
“The oldest philosophical realization is that everything has a right to continue its existence. Whatever you think about it, you need to be alive to exert your other rights,” he said.
Early on, this fascination led him to take up various martial arts. He trained in kung fu, dabbled in kali, and was a nationally ranked junior fencer. But these were all just sidelines until he came of age to get a handgun carry permit. After a youth spent devouring gun magazines, he already had a reasonable grasp of tactics. And by his late 20s, he began developing an astounding level of pure shooting skill.
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“Gabe’s a very unassuming guy. Because of that, you might not be aware of just how good he is when you first meet him,” said Matt Little.
Himself a master class shooter in USPSA who’s served in the Army Special Forces and as a SWAT officer, Little finds White’s abilities astounding.
“I have my own strengths relative to Gabe, but on the things he focuses on, I can’t touch him.”
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Practice, Practice, Practice
When the signal to shoot arrives, White has already done what he calls a “focal shift.” He’s pulled the focus of his eyes back to the empty space his gun has yet to inhabit. It will allow an immediate, razor-sharp focus on his front sight as he excludes everything else from his consciousness…
White’s skills are truly formidable. He can draw from concealment and hit an A zone at seven yards in under three-quarters of a second. He was just the fourth person ever to clean the final test of 125 pop-up plates at the famed Rogers Shooting School, and the only one to do so from concealment. He’s best known for making a master class in USPSA shooting his basically stock Glock 17 from concealment in limited division.
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He arrived at this level through a monk-like dedication to practice.
In what he considers his heyday of training, 10 years ago, White would shoot 3-4 times a week. Though he would only shoot 50-100 rounds per session, he supplemented this with an obsessive amount of dry fire. He’d do dry fire drills three times a day. He’d even dry fire on days he did live fire.
“There was still time available at home when I got back from the range, so I’d dry fire. How recently you’ve practiced a task adds a level of sharpness to it,” he said. “You’re better off doing more short practice sessions than one long one. I never wanted to go longer than eight hours since the last time I drew a pistol, aimed at a tiny target, and pressed the trigger well, at speed.”
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Tactical Hobo
His hands move simultaneously to draw from his appendix carry holster. As his left yanks his shirt upward, his right takes a slightly circuitous path to the gun to avoid fouling. The backstrap is against the palm, the fingers against the front strap, and the middle knuckle hits the trigger guard. The gun comes straight up to the diaphragm, and the hands meet, just a little in front of him…
White first came to notice in the shooting world online via the Pistol Forum, where he posted training videos of himself. Though it’s common, nowadays, for shooters to post videos, sometimes doctored, of their best runs, White’s footage was unfiltered. The drills were often done cold. Even so, the images of things like shooting a moving bowling pin on a dead sprint were remarkable. Among those who took note was firearms legend Tom Givens.
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An instructor for 50 years, Givens still attends a new class every year to remain current. He attended White’s class seven years ago and wasn’t disappointed.
“Gabe’s not just an excellent shooter, he’s an excellent trainer. He comes with a written lesson plan and even takes notes on his students,” said Givens.
White calls what he teaches “high performance concealed carry,” a marriage of sound tactical methods and pure shooting skill. It’s an ideal that’s led him to sometimes sacrifice competitive success to remain true to his art.
“Gabe could easily be a grandmaster and in contention for national titles. But he competes in what he’d wear to Walmart. He looks like a tactical hobo,” said Givens. “You’re not going to win any national championships that way. But shooting like that from that gear means more than being able to shoot that way from a race rig.”
A Jedi Needs Not These Things
The gun rises and extends from his sternum in an inverted “J” pattern, finger already starting to work the trigger. He decelerates in the last few inches as he brings the front sight into his vision…
Amidst all his detail-oriented, esoteric talk about the art of shooting, White sometimes sounds more like a mystical samurai swordsman than a modern gunfighter.
“He is a martial artist. Shooting has become his martial art,” said Little. “I trained very heavily in martial arts, and that became a path of perfection. Gabe is following that path with the pistol.”
Though he admits to feeling a certain kinship with zen-influenced samurai of yore, White tries to avoid sounding pompous.
“Swordsmanship only became mystical thousands of years later. But they were just using their skills and the best weapons available, which is all I’m doing,” he said. “Though I find a lot of those eastern concepts resonate, I definitely don’t consider myself some kind of shooting Yoda. And if I ever start to think of myself that way, someone should kick my ass.”
White’s actually reduced his training recently as he’s focused on family and his new passion for producing electronic music. He said that, while the goal is to protect your life, you shouldn’t sacrifice too much of that life training. Otherwise, it’s just not a life worth living.
He’s been aiming and triggering throughout the presentation. As he nears full extension, his entire conscious mind is directing his gaze. The shot breaks, the front sight rises, but he keeps his trigger finger in motion, ready for his next shot.
To find out more about Gabe White, visit gabewhitetraining.com
