Quick background: I have shooting for a little over ten years. Most of that time has been on handgun. I'm right handed, left eye dominant. I shoot with both eyes open. If I get out once a month, I'm doing good. Below are some pics of the last two outing I had in the last 30 days with my new Shield 9mm. All shooting done unsupported with gun in stock configuration.

First outing, I was trying to dial in my sight picture. 68 rounds of Blazer brass at 4 yards. 33 rounds shot at the X ring. The remaining 35 between the 7 ring and the head. A little faster with some double taps; hence, the groups starting to open up a little.


Target moved back to 7 yards. Another 50 rounds of Blazer brass shot. 45 rounds slow fire at center of target with a few double taps here and there. Target moved back up to 4 yards for the last five shots right hand only to the head for shits and giggles - no more than 1 second between each shot.


Second outing started with target at 6 yards and 50 rounds of Blazer brass. Last 5 rounds shot to the head at 4 yards right hand only - again - for (you guessed it) shits & giggles.


Target moved back to 8 yards and 50 rounds of Speer Lawman shot. Focused on the front sight only - wasn't really looking at the target just reacquiring sight picture and squeezing off the shot. I was not rapid firing, but definitely going a little faster than 1 second per shot.


I noticed my shots pulling more to the left as the target moves further out. I'm thinking this is because of my support hand, right?

How far in the trigger guard do you have your finger? You may be "pushing" the gun over.
I've noticed myself doing the same when I try to speed up; I have a tendency to use less finger so I can get the trigger to reset quicker.
It can be difficult to keep up speed while still keeping the same finger position.

I try to be conscious of my trigger finger's position most definitely. I've always read that the sweet spot is on the pad and definitely nowhere past the first knuckle. I try to be conscious of not using too much finger or strong hand grip so as to avoid pushing the shot left. That is why I'm almost wondering if I'm not gripping with my support hand enough; hence, the recoil impulse is making the shot go left.

I do. One thing I noticed during dry fire is the tendency of the front sight to "jump" when the trigger breaks. I know this is the result of overtravel which is why I had the Apex Shield kit in my last Shield. The thing is, during dry fire I can keep the front sight centered in my rear sights. On a hot range with live ammo, and trying for faster follow-up shots, that all starts to go out the window. Plus, there isn't any way to dry fire a follow up shot, i.e. mitigating recoil impulse and reacquiring sight picture can only happen in live fire.

I could slow fire all day long to shrink my groups, but I don't think that will translate to better accuracy and precision as I increase my rate of fire. Maybe I'm wrong; maybe it just takes time. I don't know.

Your farthest target had one out and it was a head shot, not bad shooting. I shoot a lot and teach some, I always want to look for the positive and work on the rest, confidence in your skills and weapon are one of the most important aspects of being a good shooter. Shoot more and enjoy it, we sometimes want to shoot better so bad, we forget how much FUN it is.

Stop shooting 50 rounds at a time on B-27s at 4 yards. If you want to diagnose and improve your shooting, you need to be shooting 1 to 6 round strings, evaluating what is happening and then taping your target. Use that target carrier switch, that's what you are paying Reds the big bucks for.

Buy or make some 4" dot targets and put them at 7 yards. On the first one, shoot the best 6 round group you can. Fire one shot, follow through properly and set the gun down. Stretch your neck, hitch up your pants, pick your nose, do whatever you need to do to ensure that each shot is a separate process from beginning to end.  After all 6 shots are done, this is the native accuracy that you are capable of that day.

On the next target, shoot 2-shot groups as consecutive pairs, that's 2 trigger presses and 3 good sight pictures.  Make sure that you see the sights correctly before you press the trigger, don't shoot on a timed cadence and don't shoot hammers, make them be consecutive pairs. Get a timer or a phone app and figure out what your splits are between the shots. It's a pain on an indoor range but you need to know that info.  (and write it down in your notebook, you do have a training notebook, right?)

Make sure you are hitting both shots inside the 4" dot. If they are outside of the dot then you are pushing too fast, the gun is not returning to the original position (not managing recoil correctly) etc. Fix what is not working.  If you need to bring the target back to 6 yards or 5 yards, do it.  This is all about getting you a baseline of the speed of the splits that you can shoot 2 shots into a 4" dot.

Make sure you tape the target so you can see your hits. I only tape the misses to save time. You don't want to be looking for hits while you are shooting the gun, check that after the gun is back down.

Once you know how long it takes you to shoot that second shot at 7 yards, say 1.25 seconds, try to decrease that time just a little. You still have to have a good stance, good grip, good sight picture and  good trigger control but you are doing it just a little faster. Instead of 1.25 seconds your goal is 1.05 seconds. If the shots start going a little wild, stop and figure out why.  Are you smacking through that trigger instead of a smooth press? Fix it.  Is your support hand not gripping correctly? Fix it.

Once you fix all the issues that the increased speed brought out, congratulations, you just got better, met your goal and are ready to set a new goal, say .85 second splits.

There is a real temptation to getting bored with this slow but steady improvement. I fight it all the time. My brain says "Hammer that target" and with perfect stance, grip and luck I can pull off a .35 split and both hits will be in. But 70% of the time, I miss.  All that I am teaching myself that way is how to do it wrong.

As your splits improve you can increase the distance, change from a 2-shot  to 3 or 4 shot string, maybe add a transition to a 2nd 4" dot.

The reason that I am writing so much about this that 14 years ago I was in the same place. Shooting at Reds ( It was called Cook's Sureshot back then) and wanting to get better. I had my CHL and was doing pretty poorly in IDPA. Until I got serious about setting goals and measuring my performance, I just kind stayed in a rut.

Figure out how much time, money and ammo you can spend on improving your shooting, set your goals accordingly, and see the improvement come.

Gringop

Dry fire and take note of where your sights wind up. I think that it's more important to know where your finger rests on the trigger when you break the shot rather than which portion of your finger you should use.

At the point where you break the shot, your finger should be flat against the face of the trigger, not favoring one side as that will influence the bullet impact right or left. (mostly left for a right handed shooter...)

Shoot Dot Torture

http://pistol-training.com/drills/dot-torture

Start out at 3m, once you get 50/50 normally move back to 5m and then 7m.

Yeah, let me be brutally honest with you here. You're shooting what you're "good at" - group shooting at close range. It's fine to start, but you need to start moving back to at least 15 yards if you are serious about improvement. At four yards, your fifty rounds should make one jagged hole about the size of a quarter. Your groups won't look as pretty at 15 yards, but you will gain a lot more from your training.

I have to agree with these other guys, you need to move the target out to atleast 15 yards to start with, and then move it to 25 yards.

The real question here is, are you trying to practice target shooting or defensive shooting?