[v35]

I never held a gun of any sort until recently, and I've been lurking around here for a while trying to pick up some tips. I shoot an H&K USPc .40 cal.

After several trips to the range I've noticed a pattern... the first shot of the day hits the center just beautifully. Always. Then after firing several rounds I noticed myself anticipating the point at which the gun will fire. This causes me (I think) to not press the trigger in smoothly like I ought. I don't believe I flinch or anything but I think this anticipation is causing me to be less accurate.

So... I want to become comfortable with the H&K, but as I'm becoming more familiar with its characteristics I can tell exactly whan the hammer will release, which causes me to anticipate. I don't want this to become a bad habit. How do I break it before it does?

I haven't been shooting long enough to know anyone who can give me some one-on-one instruction. I hope to go to a local competition and perhaps ask some pros for advice, but until then I was hoping someone here would have some pearls of wisdom.

Thanks!

[poortrader]

Dry firing will help with the problem. When you're at home just practice with the pistol. Concentrate on trigger pull. Try to keep it consistent everytime. You can always ask the people at your range for adivce.

[v35]

Ahh. I forgot to mention I've done that. An seasoned instructor told me to place a dime on top of the slide and if I can dry fire it without knocking it off then I'm doing OK. I can do that all day long. It definitely helped but there's not a lot of recoil in dry firing :)

It's anticipation of the recoil which I think is causing my accuracy to be less than ideal.

[LHB1]

V35,
Welcome to the "mental aspect" of pistol shooting. What you describe is one type of flinching. Only real firing practice with strong mental concentration on proper trigger control will help to overcome this natural anticipation/reaction. Don't worry. Most of us, except perhaps those who claim to walk on water, have been there.
One good exercise is to buy some dummy rounds and intersperse them with live rounds in your magazine. When you jerk the trigger on a dummy round and see the barrel jump, you will feel foolish. Speak sternly to yourself and continue practicing! Good luck.

Good shooting and be safe.
LB

[antsi]

Dummy round drill, as described above.

Also very helpful is to get a .22 pistol and shoot it A LOT. This "trains" your mind that handguns don't recoil much, so there's nothing to anticipate. I try to shoot 2-3x as much .22 as anything else. The more .22 I shoot, the better I shoot when I pickup a centerfire gun.

[v35]

Sound advice... thanks!

I took up an offer to buy a U22 Neos. Wouldn't have been my first choice of .22 from what I've read here but the price was right and I can do a lot of hole punching for the price of one box of .40 S&W. I'll let you know!

[JohnKSa]

WARNING! BEFORE reading farther, please read the disclaimer at the end of the post.

Put all your concentration into aligning the sights, pulling the trigger smoothly, and holding the gun consistently. Don't think about the gun going off, just think about keeping everything right while you pull the trigger.

Stop between shots and make a conscious decision to relax your shoulders neck and back.

Dryfire at home to program your body that nothing bad happens when you pull the trigger.

Starting out with a lightweight .40 S&W Compact pistol means that you'll have to fight the flinch more than if you had worked your way up a bit more gradually as most experts recommend. The Neos will definitely help and is a bit more fun than dryfiring. ;)

[GoBrush]

buy some snap caps and have someone load a magazine with live ammo and snap caps you are flinching. Think "Squeeze Trigger" dont "pull Trigger".

I would also reccomend renting a 22 pistol a ruger or browning and shoot that a while and just concentrate on your trigger work.

I have shot all my life and have shot 1000's and 1000's of rounds with such a short barrel handguns are not very forgiving just keep at it and you will work out of the problem.

One last thing to concider double up on your hearing protection with plugs and muffs some times killing the sound fixes flinching problems.

Good Luck

[MatthewVanitas]

I'll second on dummy rounds, extra hearing protection, etc.

One trick for keeping a smooth trigger pull, which helped me out during M9 quals:

If you're having trouble with "jerking" the trigger, try firing a round, and not releasing the trigger right away. So pull...bang...(pause...pause)...release. If one of the things you're doing wrong is spastically clutching the trigger (which I've been known to do when sloppy), this could help solve that.

Just one of many little possible methods, try 'em all and see what works for you.

Very, very good call on buying a good .22LR. Hope that Neos is working out for you, very slick-looking gun. Should help you maintain that cool-guy H&K image *grin*.

Glad to see you enjoying the world of shooting, and putting out the extra effort to hone your skills. Cheers,

-MV

[gudel]

I never held a gun of any sort until recently, and I've been lurking around here for a while trying to pick up some tips. I shoot an H&K USPc .40 cal.

After several trips to the range I've noticed a pattern... the first shot of the day hits the center just beautifully. Always. Then after firing several rounds I noticed myself anticipating the point at which the gun will fire. This causes me (I think) to not press the trigger in smoothly like I ought. I don't believe I flinch or anything but I think this anticipation is causing me to be less accurate.

So... I want to become comfortable with the H&K, but as I'm becoming more familiar with its characteristics I can tell exactly whan the hammer will release, which causes me to anticipate. I don't want this to become a bad habit. How do I break it before it does?

I haven't been shooting long enough to know anyone who can give me some one-on-one instruction. I hope to go to a local competition and perhaps ask some pros for advice, but until then I was hoping someone here would have some pearls of wisdom.

Thanks!

What you need to do is to buy more ammo and practice more. As for me, dry firing doesn't really help. There's a difference between actual shooting in the range vs dry firing at your TV :D
Buy more ammo, shoot it, and repeat as necessary.

[v35]

So - after a couple or three hundred rounds through my .22 I went back to my HK USP. I hadn't fired the HK in about a month. I had so much practice with the Beretta that the .40 cartridges seemed SO much bigger, the USP SO much heavier, the slide SO much harder to pull back... those of you who know what I'm talking about are laughing to yourselves, right? Anyway... the difference is amazing - my groups have closed up to about half of what they had been.

Thanks everyone for your priceless advice. The U22 will easily pay for itself in what I'm saving by not having to practice as much with the HK. A few more hundred rounds of .22 (for a few bucks) and I'll be putting the .40 cal through the same holes! :D