Defensive (Combat) Accuracy

This subject doesnt seem ignored from my perspective. It seems pretty prevalent, as people often discuss how 'placement' is paramount, even over caliber. And then discuss all the different ammo and their effects on the significant stopping areas in humans.

For myself, in order to gain some proficiency here, I'm involved in the action shooting club at the range, specifically to learn to shoot accurately in defensive situations. Not really interested in competition...just skills.

I went thru your article and it was helpful. Those trigger control wheel graphics have helped me in the past. Thanks.

Movement seems to be an overlooked aspect of accuracy. Drilling the bad guy while he's moving and your moving is something to train for.

Good article

It's a good article, well written and interesting!

Great read! A lot of it makes sense.

In regards to figure 8 in your "Trigger Control" section, there are some instructors (such as James Yeager) that claim that correction wheel is outdated and have very little truth to it (with the exception of low left). I don't have a source because it is coming from another instructor, but he claims that the wheel was developed back in the 1960's for one handed shooting competitions.

Thanks for posting the article. I enjoyed it!

Well written article, gave me a lot to think about and to practice. I do well on the range with paper targets but they are not armed or trying to shoot back.

Movement seems to be an overlooked aspect of accuracy. Drilling the bad guy while he's moving and your moving is something to train for.

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In general, does the shooter train to maintain a sight picture with such movement or is point shooting practiced, or something else? I'm not that advanced, so sorry if my question makes no sense. Also, would laser sights help the learning curve or provide false confidence?

As stated above it is different from shooting at paper that doesn't move nor shoot back. Where I shoot the rangemaster has a class that has you do 50-100 squat thrusts to get your heart rate up and breathing deep, quick and hard to simulate a real lfe situation. Then has moving targets, from slowly waving to full motion from place to place. You also do squats between firing sets to keep your heart and breathing rates up. You get a better idea of what you will be experiencing and gives you a workout during every class. You are also able to occasionally get to shoot when not doing the physical stuff to show you the difference. Personally I am around 15% better when I don't do the exersises and around 25% better when I don't exersise and can set myself in one spot.

btg3 writes:

In general, does the shooter train to maintain a sight picture with such movement or is point shooting practiced, or something else? I'm not that advanced, so sorry if my question makes no sense. Also, would laser sights help the learning curve or provide false confidence?

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I would assert that if you want to score solid hits, and I'm sure you do, you should put that front sight on the intended target and apply the fundamentals of marksmanship.

With your movements being fluid it is not difficult to maintain a reasonable (nobody said perfect) sight picture while moving and engaging a moving target. I would have to say that this scenario is just one reason why I am a critic of the point shooting method. If you are moving, your target is moving, and you are focusing your vision on something besides the sight alignment with the threat, your results are likely to be marginal at best. It takes no more time to get that snap sight picture so use it.

We've kind of addressed the laser sights in another thread, but there is nothing wrong with using a laser sight as affirmation of what you already know. It's use is only supplementary to the fundamentals of marksmanship. Yes, it can instill false confidence if it is your primary means of target acquisition.

Be aware. Shoot accurately.

Joshua Scott
www.FrontSightFocus.org

Practicing with the practical action shooting club at my range has helped me with this alot...moving, aiming, and shooting. Trigger control, upping stress levels, positioning, reloading, etc.

The trigger wheel comes in handy there too. Found it's quite accurate for me.

Get defensive pistol training. Then practice by shooting IDPA regularly. Then get more advanced training. And shoot more IDPA... use cover, train shooting only either weak hand or strong hand. Practice holding pistol and flashlight together. Train shooting while moving.