What? I was missing?

Coulda been the lose nut behind the grip?

Work on your trigger control. I've owned both the G19 and the 92, both fine guns that just take a little getting used to; both more than accurate enough for their intended purpose as well.

Pistol shooting is not as easy as it looks. Work on your technique, especially your grip and trigger pull.

I never got to shoot a pistol before

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Of course it was the guns. Did you hand that exact same gun to the person next to you who was hitting the target and ask, "Please try this and tell me what you think?"

I took my brother-in-law shooting Saturday. He had never shot a pistol before but brought his own rifle. He could not hit a full-size sillhouette at 7 yards with a pistol. Not even on the paper. And we are talking a piece of paper 3 ft tall by 2 ft wide! His son and myself could put 100% of our rounds in the vital organ area of the target.

Do yourself a favor and take a class.

My guess is you have too much finger on the trigger and pulling the gun towards your dominate side AND that you are anticipating the shot and/or trying to force the gun to fire and in doing so pushing the gun down when trying to fire the shot.

Humility

I have an "assortment" of short and long guns.

I'm reasonable with a rifle, and do "okay" with a pistol.

I have a Taurus PT911 (15 x 9mm) that I was practicing with a couple of years ago, and I was having trouble holding a six-inch group at 10 yards.

I collared one of the local instructors at the range, a fella who happened to be an LFI trainer and president of the local club, and asked him if he could give me a couple of pointers.

He watched me shoot a magazine, indicated I was pulling my shots, and proceeded to empty the next magazine into a neat two-inch hole in the center of the target, at the same distance. He handed the pistol back with the quip: "nice gun."

I've managed to correct my grouping problem, but it was much easier to correct *me* once I knew for sure the problem wasn't the gun.


Even if your sights are off, your grouping should be consistent.

It can be very instructive to observe someone else shooting your pistol.

Humbling, in fact.

Heck, some of the best deals I ever got were on guns the owners were convinced were bad because they couldn't hit snot with them!

LOL. I hear ya. I am pretty good with a rifle. My first time on a pistol range, was about the saddest spectacle you ever seen. between anticipating recoil, too much finger on the trigger, and just P*** poor stance, the safest place in my lane was right where I was aiming for.

it took some serious practice. Really, with a pistol it seemed to even more minor things made a HUGE difference than with a rifle.

One pointer I received years ago that helped me and the way I shot was so simple yet so effective, I was instructed "not to miss what I'm aiming for".......no, not funny, ok..J/k. But seriously, I was totally squeezing the trigger and I was inadvertantly pulling up and a little to my dominant side when I did it, its hard to notice that you're doing it because the gunshot plays a pretty good role in masking the error of your ways but, as I said you do not want to pull the trigger but rather squeeze it but when you practice this you'll want to do it slowly and not be too concerned with emptying your magazine in a hurry, that way you get the mechanics down, if you start sqeezing and you find that your groups aren't getting any better, chances are you are slapping the trigger and you may need to slow down a bit and get the basic mechanics down first before you worry about speed. It will take a lot of practice, but you won't do youself any good practicing with the wrong fundementals. If that makes any since

I've seen it the other way. My best friend's wife is all over the paper with a rifle, but when we got her a pistol all the bullets mysteriously wound up dead center. She won't touch a rifle now but she loves her little Sig. My best friend is no longer allowed to shoot it

P.s work on your breathing to

A friend was big into the "2700" matches. Most call it "Bullseye". We were talking at the range and he said that 1/100 inch movement of the front sight equalled 4" change of bullet impact. Made me think about sight alignment a lot.

Good luck in your quest with hand gunning. Its fun...and sometimes frustrating!

Mark

"training" is a relative word, can suggest big bucks to some
friends (range buddies), priceless....

having a friend who shoots same or extreme similar gun, and shoots it real well, watch you whilst you shoot (and you watch them whilst they shoot), a few friendly tips, goes a long long way towards "getting on paper"

once you get "on paper" consistently, you can better judge just how $eriou$ you want to get re: training to get consistently on bulleye
and you just might

make friends, make lots of friends, obsrve how well they do or do not shoot before blindly adopting their advice... but a man cannot ever have too many range buddies


PS
I always heard most of those those old old west cowboys couldn't hit a 5 gallon bucket a 5 yards, not even SA slow fire
good with horses and ropes, though

Why hasn't someone published one of those RCBS targets that show you what you're doing wrong? I have one of the targets but I don't have a link.

Seriously, start by renting a .22. Ammo is many times cheaper and recoil is negligible. Use your fingertip to control the trigger. Get a chair and, sitting, grip the gun with both hands and rest your elbows on the bench. Squ-e-e-e-ze the trigger. Repeat until ammo is exhausted. It's easier with an auto but if you're using a revolver, cock the piece first and shoot single action.

When I teach people to shoot, I always tell them, "Keep practicing until you can shoot me a group. It's easy to move a group."

Also, hearing protection--even .22's are loud indoors. Use earplugs UNDER your earmuffs and even a .45 will sound like "poof...". This may seem a minor consideration when you're shooting .22's but what if the guy in the next lane is shooting a .500?

Practice, yes, but start with the target CLOSE--about three yards, then, as your confidence builds, move it further back. Next session, start where you started the first session but move it more quickly, and finish further out. Third session, start where you FINISHED the first session and go even further out. Before you know it, you'll be shooting 90's at 50', one-handed.

Good luck and good shooting--

ed

Zack, aside from getting some training from a COMPETENT instuctor, I strongly suggest you learn handgun familiarity, safety, and accuracy, with a .22 LR pistol or revolver. Aside from the small cost of ammunition for lots and lots of practice, you'll learn the basics of shooting accurately without the psychological detriment of actual recoil and anticipated recoil, and muzzle blast.

Later, after plenty of .22 LR practice, when you are very competent with that handgun, then move up to more powerful handguns. You'll not be sorry learning on a good .22 LR handgun.

Good luck with your shooting.

L.W.

Grip, trigger control, breathing and FOCUS ON THE FRONT SIGHT.

Pistol shooting is not as easy as it looks.

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+1,000

Here's a link to a helpfull article that will get you started in the right direction...

http://www.backwoodshome.com/articles2/ayoob85.html

Another common mistake is hooking the trigger, meaning you hook the first bend of your finger around the trigger (which causes pulling and slappage) instead of the second bend in your finger. Using the second bend of your finger will in turn, help you get a better grip on the gun. Also, I hear a lot of people say to start with a .22. I used to shoot an old colt woodsman .22lr and when I switched to revolvers and full size 9mm's, it was still a whole different ballgame and I still had a long ways to go before becoming profficient with full size, full power handguns, but who knows, it may still help in some aspects, I'm no pro by any means, just thought I'd share a few pointers that really, really helped me. Good luck. BTW, a lot really depends on the gun you are using too, when I shoot my LCP I have to throw out everything I ever learned about shooting handguns and hold the gun in such a weird, awkward looking way, that you would never think accuracy would be possible, but surprisingly can now shoot 3-4inch groups at 25feet.

I'm not too bad a pistol shot, but couldn't mark the paper with my wife's p32 at 20 feet.

I would suggest you try and find a rental or a friends gun that has a laser. Then do some dry fire drills and see what the laser is doing on the target. I have two 1911's with crimson trace grips and it really helped my trigger control.

I fully agree that the best thing a laser does is help teach trigger control if you dry fire.

Dry firing reduced my groups by half with handguns.