Like many, I'm constantly on the quest to learn and get better.  I've always found that learning with a handgun comes it peaks and bounds.  You plateau for some time then suddenly get this "eureka" moment where you progress to the next level.

As I read, and learn, I hear a lot of mention of "Calling shots".  This hasn't been mentioned in any basic or intermediate level classes I've taken in the past and so I'm assuming its a more advanced topic.

What does this mean and how should I be using this in my training?  I can't figure out if this is something I should be "learning" or this is one of those "eureka" things where suddenly it will click and I'll get it.

Thanks!

Shot calling is a learned skill that means you can know where the shot went in relation to the target at the moment the shot broke.

As opposed to visual confirmation of your hits, which means you only know where the shot went after looking at bullet holes in your target.

It's very important in speed shooting and action shooting, where you don't have time to make visual confirmation.

I would say it's a fairly advanced skill.  If you're just happy to hit the target or if you're only slow-firing, it doesn't matter so much.  But if you're wanting to shoot fast or participate in a time-based game, eventually it's going to be vital to learn.

You accomplish it by having complete awareness of the sights, their alignment (or degree of misalignment), and any degree of trigger control or grip error at the very instant the hammer falls.  It helps to conceptualize it as taking a snapshot in your head of what the sights looked like the very nanosecond the trigger breaks.

Very good sport shooters call all their shots without looking for holes in targets.  A called bad shot will be immediately made up with an extra shot.

The best guys can score their targets from the back line without visual inspection because they have such a finely tuned shot-calling ability.  They can feel their errors in real-time.

I will also add:  It ain't easy.

Thank you kindly.  That helped a ton.  That explanation not only told me *what* it was, but how and why it is used.  Thank you so much.

As for me, I'm certainly not to that point yet.

I'm at the point where I'm picking up speed.  I've mostly broken the habit of holding the trigger to the rear after each shot and am now resetting in recoil and learning to watch the sights hop up and down and let that sight picture drive my trigger press instead of the reset.  I'm also at the point where my accuracy is sometimes almost "better" this way when picking up the speed, sometimes it falls off if I lose focus.  At this point it still takes me a lot of mental focus to make sure I'm doing all the things I need to be doing.

However, as far as parts of this definition...

I'm certainly making progress.  I'm way far from the level wtturn described above, but I can usually determine, as it happens, when I've got a "less than awesome" trigger press...when I've jerked, snatched, or anticipated a bit.  That sort of thing.  I'm able to see my mistakes as I make them and know something was wrong and what that thing was....but not to the point where I can tell where my hits were without looking and be able to use that information to my advantage as I shoot like wtturn described).

For some of them, for example, if in the middle of a string I know I started anticipating I'll have a pretty good idea that one or more of those shots are going to be low...etc.

For me, the real challenge has been recoil anticipation.  I know lots of techniques to deal with that and they all do help (I do 15 or 20 minutes of dryfire every other day)....but its just one of those things where through intense focus and really concentrating I'll get the recoil anticipation beast beaten and everything will be great...for a bit...then out of nowhere it will rear its ugly head again and I'll realize I lost focus enough to let it creep back in.  That whole recoil anticipation thing is like a monkey on your back that is there as you work on all the other things...making learning those things harder.

Thanks again for helping me to understand that topic :)

Very good.

Thank you for that.

That explained it well and provided examples.

If your eyes are open when you break the shot, you should know if the sights and target are correctly aligned.  Don't laugh, some people blink, some don't have good trigger control.

I hear it (in my mind) all the time.  Damn, that one will be low left.