So I suck at offhand shooting and have been trying to improve / set some standard.

50 yard 8" steel target from low ready.
(hitting about 1 out of 5 shots)

100 yards 2/3 IDPA steel from low ready.
(still about 1 out of 5)

I feel like my sight pic is moving all over the place and I am snatching the trigger at times.

Anyone have any suggestions on some good base line standards for off hand shooting?

Dry fire ideas, do I just need to set up a target at 50 yards, or use some reduce size?

try this link/


Master the standing shooting position.

Standing for service rifle matches BTW is 100 yds and uses the arm rested standing position

For dry fire you can do a dot on the wall in your house. You can do the math and figure out exactly how big it needs to be or just use a sharpie or push pin.

Start with the advice above with a .22

Strongly recommend an Apple Seed Class. I think it is best to be taught the basics, rather than going it alone.
The course of fire is Prone, Sitting and Kneeling and the dreaded standing position.

If you want to get really good at this, hit up your nearest smallbore (rimfire) or high power (centerfire) metallic silhouette match. Offhand can be as precise as prone once you learn how to do it and build up the muscular strength where it's needed. I started out pretty bad at it and ended up with a few state level titles. Pro-tip: develop your belly bench-rest.

most of the replies above refer to very untactical offhand styles of relatively precision shooting (CMP 200 yard 10 ring is 6"), while you, although vaguely, seem to be trying to impose a time constraint on yourself and coming up from low ready to hit a practical threat or animal, probably with a carbine.

there are a number of popular carbine class drills you can search for here that have a standing 50 yard component and start from low ready with a fairly fast time constraint.  MEUSOC is an example.    just my opinion, but to answer your question, i'd say if you're just snap shooting one shot in 2 seconds or less from low ready at 50 yards, the borderline between embarrassing and not embarrassing is about 8".  with a red dot.

your sight picture will move all over the place.  everyone wobbles.  you have to focus on trigger control because you have to time it when you're wobbling.  snatching is not good.  stop doing that.    

This is very fair to point out, but the similarity between the two (or more) disciplines is that you're never trying to create a benchrest like sight picture where the dot/crosshair/sight doesn't move relative to the target, because that's impossible.  Instead you're trying to make the trigger break when the sight is on target.  In the "tactical" discipline that may mean a combination of muscle memory, to get shouldered and on target in a time restriction; and "muscling" the gun to stay within that 8" circle, which isn't impossible for a short period of time.  In the "untactical" discipline that means a combination of using your body geometry to the greatest advantage possible without "muscling" and breaking the trigger as your sight passes through the target relative to your breathing (figure 8 or vertical typically).

They can compliment each other as long as one understands the differences and the similarities.  When those aren't understood, either can create poor habits for the other.

exactly.

just pointing out that when the OP asks for standards and dry fire ideas, there's a pretty big gap between answers for someone wanting to shoot CMP / NRA HP vs one of the late, great Pat Roger's carbine class drills.    would be helpful if OP clarified

FBI Carbine Qual standards make most people look good:



Seriously though, with offhand dryfire practice seems to help a lot.  After that shooting reactive steel gives you great rapid feedback.  22cal makes this affordable.

Let me preface this by saying I'm not a firearms trainer and don't pretend to be. So I'm not looking to step out of my lane here as this is my personal experience and training preference. And if what im saying is captain obvious feel free to call it out.

For me being able to call my shots after I break it helps. If I know I break a bad shot I'll call it. "I pulled it to the right" or "I dropped that one low"
It helps in keeping me "locked in" and paying attention to each round I send. When checking my targets after and if I find those fliers I called out, one off right, and one low confirming what I recognized initially when I threw that bad shot. I'll consider that a win. If I think I'm on and find my targets are a shit sandwich then theres work to do.

This make a lot of since, and thanks everyone for all the advise.