Posted: 5/20/2004 6:58:56 AM EDT
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Aside from a few articles I have read (including one on the proper grip - dramatic improvement), I am 100% self-taught in shooting a handgun. So, I am soliciting serious input on your shooting methods. When I am at the range, I generally practice at about 10 yards, almost strictly with a 2 handed grip, taking aimed shots at a B-27 target. I generally aim for the center of the "chest area" (between the 8 and the 9). What range do you practice at? Is 10 yards (distance between the couch and the front door, and my bedroom door and the back door) Do you practice one-handed shooting or "point shooting"? If you aim at a downward angle, do you have a problem with your shots going low? (The reason I aim a little higher) I have noticed that even with my AR, if I am standing and aiming downward at a target 50yds away, my POI is about 2 1/2 - 3 inches lower than my POA. If I get into a position where I am holding the rifle level using the same POA, my POI is dead on. Is it natural that since I am pointing the gun downwards, the bullet is going to drop faster? How important is stance? My shots have always gone a little to the left. I recently got my first .45 (previously only had 9mm's) and this problem has become much more exagerated. I have done some self evalutation and I think that this is due to my stance. I had previously been taking an "open" stance, where the front of my body is more or less facing the target. I think that this causes my to hold my right arm at an angle, thus pointing the gun at an angle. Am I right on this? Would this be corrected if I took a profile/batting/rifle/side stance? |
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Practice 2 hands, one hand only--right/left, and point shooting also. 10 yards distance is good. IIRC, 20 ft distance is the most common in a lot of shooting. Longer distance is also good after you have a good handle at 10 yards. Stance and grip are very important to help reduce recoil and giving you a more consistent follow-up shots. |
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in addtion to point shooting and one handed, I practice off handed shooting. As for shooting to the left, it maybe your grip or flinch from moving up to a more powerful gun. See if you can pratice with a 22 or pellet gun if you have the same problem. A buddy of mine was self taught on a 45. He could hit with the first shot, but follow up shots wouldn't even hit paper 5 feet infront of him because of the flinch. |
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I shoot mainly at 7 - 10 yards, at a 3" or 5" Shoot-N-C target. I'm disappointed when I can't put five slow shots into a 3" target. Two-handed stance is usually Chapman (stand ~45 deg to target, gun arm fully outstretched, other foot forward, other arm supporting gun arm). One-handed stance is gun arm fully outstretched, other hand in pocket or on hip or somewhere out-of-the-way. I don't want to spend a pile o' cash on shooting ONLY my defensive ammunition, but where the recoil is significantly different (like +P rounds out of my Glock 26), I try to put a few through it just to remain familiar. Yes, I should do failure drills, and holster draws, but I don't.  At least, not yet.Here's the "diagnostic target" I use. I keep a copy in my wallet for quick reference. 
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I can recommend Andy Stanford's 'Surgical Speed Shooting' as a good beginner catch-all book for defensive shooting. Your shots are probably breaking left (I'm assuming you're right handed here  ) because you're not pressing straight to the rear on the trigger. You're moving your index finger from the 1st knuckle, at the hand, and this is pushing the gun sideways. Focus on isolating your trigger finger from the rest of your hand and pulling straight back. Some people recommend imagining a line coming from the tip of your finger to your eye.As far as ranges to practice, it's helpful to be proficient at all ranges, however, the majority of defensive shootings happen REALLY close. It's hard to get mugged or assaulted from across the street. I think that learning to access your gun under 'less than ideal conditions' (ie, when you're on your back and having your face pounded or shrugging out of the jacket someone is slinging you around by, etc), shooting from retention and shooting really fast and accurately at close targets from awkward positions is the most important stuff for a defensive shooter to get a handle on. 
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I have many targets with one hole almost dead center, and the rest 2" inches left and 3" inches low. |
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I shoot from 21 feet to 50 yards. I shoot a lot and need to keep challenging myself. My primary practice is with the .22. I can buy .22 cheaper than I can buy primers for reloading of my centerfire pistols. One of the things I found that helped all types of my shooting was becoming proficient at 50 ft (17 yards) bullseye style (one hand only) shooting. Once I became good at this everthing else was a snap because trigger control had been mastered. Now it took a lot of shooting to become what I call good. I fired 50-60 rounds 4 days a week for a summer. By the end of summer I had fired a 100-8X and a 100-6X on the std. NRA 50 ft. rapid fire target (I shot slow though). I did this a few years ago and the skill is still there today. I don't shoot 100s now, but mid 90's are a snap. My typical method is: I practice a technique with the .22 until I am satisfied with my performance. Then I switch to the .45 ACP and all I have to do is adapt to the greater recoil. (In the mean time, I'm still practicing the other techniques I've learned with the .45 so I remain accustomed to the recoil and don't develop flinch issues.) I also work on developing more than one skill at a time so I don't become bored. Because I shoot 4 times a week I'll only fire 10 or 20 rounds per day learning the new technique. Of course, after 2-3 weeks I've expended 120-240 rounds on the skill. If I were to suggest a starting point it would be fire very slowly. Predict after you shoot, but before you look for the hole on the paper, where the hole will be in the paper based on the sight picture you had when the gun fired (i.e. call your shot). Adjust your grip and trigger finger placement and see how it affects your group size and location. Other advice: Don't shoot too many rounds at one piece of paper. Once you can't tell where the last bullet hit you stop learning. Use optics if you can't see the bullet holes. If the light is good I don't need optics with the .22s until I get past 50 ft. This is why I like 50 feet, no messing with binoculars or spotting scope usually. Keep a few labeled targets from the first time you try a new technique to compare to other targets you shoot later so you can see your progress. The greatest requirement is time. The more time you spend in meaningful practice the more you learn. Kent |
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some great warm ups to do at the range. they have dramaticly increased my accuracy and consistency. they are as follows : proper stance & grip assumed. 1) no tartet, zero in on something down range concentrate on breathing & sight alignment and dry fire. after 6 dry fires, come down to the ready posistion, come up and do 6 more dry fires. in doing this you'll work out: bugs, the "just got to range excitement jitters", and aclomate yourself to the suroundings. 2) then, after doing the above, do this: on the back of a target put 3 or 4 of those 1inch flourescent orange dot/stickers in a row (left to right) about 4 inches apart. hang target, put it about 5-7 ft down range. try to hit one dot at a time moving left to right repeat after last dot is hit. do this exercise with about 2 or 3 mags. * try it again after you're done for the day & compare to the first set of dots you shot at the beginning. we did this all the time at the academy, it did wonders for beginers and for experienced shooters too. my stubborn lame buddy finally gave into me telling him to try the above. he was amazed at the results, he does it all the time when going to the range now. |
I do this all the time in the basement with my S&W 908S. I practiced until I could complete a full trigger pull with an uncocked hammer without moving the sights. I'm pretty effective with this gun out to about 7 yards (3.5" barrel).
Thanks! I was actually hoping that a cop would chime in (I assume you're a cop, with the academy and all). I will definately use your excercises. One thing that I didn't take into consideration, is that my .45 is a 1911 which means it is skinnier than my other guns (Beretta 92FS, Glock 17, S&W .357 magnum and HK P-7 which I'm actually pretty good with!) and it has one of those "backstrap safeties" where you have to push in a safety on the back of the grip in order to engage the trigger. I wonder if I am squeezing this gun more than my others without even realizing it. Plus it's a Springfield Armory USGI, which means it has crappy sights. |
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I'm not the gratest in the world with a pistol but I do practice with one. I practice with it like my life is on the line. I work two handed, strong hand,weak hand, point, because you never know when yer gunn have to do it for real that way. Distances very I do shoot some stuff out at 25 yards but right now I'm working on getting my skillz up so I shoot closer ranges more often, but still shoot about 30 rounds or so at 25 everytime. But for most of the shooting I consentrate on closer ranges, and move back further after I'm happy with how I'm shooting at the range I'm at. I started at 3 yards, than went to 7 nopw I do most at 10. once I'm happy with how I'm shooting at 10 I'll go to 15 and so on till I'm at either 25 or 50. I don't see needing a pistol past 25 really either, I mean I porefer to use a AR for anything, but if I got to use a pistol I'd like to know I can hit accuretly with it at at least 25yards. |
I agree there is no tactical reason to shoot past 25. I do it because I like handgun hunting and its a good challenge. All of my "tactical" shooting is done between15 and 50 feet. Kent |
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Ten yards is a pretty good range for practicing defensive pistol. You could even do closer, say 4-7 yards, if necessary, and move further as your groups improve. Of course, if your groups are okay at 10, then by all means... Some people are actually put-off by shooting at a target that's really close. Not sure if it's too personal or what. As sanchezero pointed out; most gunfights happen at arm's length. Stance is a matter of personal preference, and the reality is, if you ever get into a gunfight, chances are you won't be able to utilize your stance of choice. I personally like to use a modified Weaver of sorts. My strong arm isn't quite as bent as in a classic Weaver, but not completely straight like a Chapman. Anyway, the basic concensus is that, regardless of which stance you use (wever, isoscoles, etc) have your feet in a boxing stance, with the strong side to the rear at @ 30-45 degree angle and lean into your shot. You want a good solid base. If you're in a traditional isoscoles (facing straight on with feet feet squared up) and somebody rushes you, your balance and mobiltiy are not going to be there, and you'll wind up getting tackled and/or on your ass. The key to pistol shooting is trigger control, much more-so than stance. Anticipation, flinching, jerking, etc. are all things that will throw your shots off. Check out this site for some great targets to help diagnose your problem. www.sportshooter.com/improving/targetgallery.htm Be sure not to try to "time" your trigger pull with when the front sight is on target - as in you want to shoot.... NOW. A little drift is gonna happen and won't screw up a shot, but jerking the trigger will. Some instructors recommend a "crush grip". I once heard the statement that if the sap starts oozing out of your grips, then MAYBE you're squeezing too much. I found that it doesn't work that well for me - I prefer a looser grip. Not too loose, but not fighting it either. Don't fight the recoil, work with it. One handed shooting, both weak and strong hand, is not a bad thing to practice. As far as point shooting goes, I actually started out point shooting to start with. I thought I was a better shot that way, and probably was until I got educated on the proper use of sights and trigger pull. I had thought about getting new sights, barrel, etc. for my Combat Commander, but after being shown I could, in fact, put all my rounds into one hole with the pistol as-is, I decided that it shot better than I did and that sort of stuff could wait a while. |
I would but i am afraid i'd get shot in the back in a mysterious "freindly" fire accident  she already comes close to outshooting me on the plate range.
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