Anyone else find they shoot more consistently when shooting FAST?

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HOOfan_1

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I shoot handguns for fun, I don't concealed carry and I only get to the range once a month if I am lucky. When I am there however I usually shoot about 500 rounds between 3 different guns. I usually start off pretty bad and as I get my feel back I get better. But I am still shootin 6 to 8 inch groups at 12 yards when I am slowly and methodically aiming every shot. However, when I decide to blast away and just squeeze the trigger when my sights are right around the target...my groups shrink to less than half that.

Only thing I can think of is my methodical aiming is causing my arms to waver ever so slightly, or my trigger control is just better when I blast away.
 
I shoot more accurately when I'm more focused on "flowing" from draw to trigger pull. I look like I'm fast but in all actuality I'm just being smooth and consistent.
 
Are you shooting slow earlier in the session? Might just be the same trend you noticed - that you shoot better after warming up.

Trigger time in general helps. I will say that I definitely shoot more accurately when I shoot slower myself, but the more rounds I put downrange the better I get either way. What really helps too is trigger time on a particular gun. I have several guns that I shoot and have few delusions of any one being more accurate than the other, but I've put a particularly lot of rounds through my M&P lately (5500 rounds in the last year). I notice that even in slow fire, my grounds are MUCH better with that gun than some of the guns that I've only put a few hundred rounds through in the last year.
 
The reason is:
You aren't flinching and jerking the trigger as badly when you are just blasting away.


IMO: Shooting 500 rounds in one range session never did anyones shooting skill any good.

Your concentration, and muscles all wore out well before the 500 round mark.

Then your brains protective instinct took over your shooting to protect you from the muzzle blast and recoil.

It's saying lets just jerk the trigger and get this over with as soon as possible.

rc
 
Yeah, with my old glock, shooting as fast as I could, no 'overthinking', I made the same dumb mistakes exactly the same way every time, and consistently shot pretty tight rapid-fire groups, low and left of center every time. :p
Jerry M., I am not...
 
less thinking and more doing when shooting fast.

when shooting slow: quit thinking. just front sight and squeeze trigger, repeat.

murf
 
This is pretty common with less practiced shooters.

When you are shooting slowly, you are anticipating the break of the trigger and trying to make the shot go off when the sights appear aligned...this usually results in the jerked trigger.

What you need to practice is seeing the sights and squeezing the trigger in a steady motion without hurrying when the sights look perfect
 
I had the same issue for a when I really started getting serious about Bullseye shooting. I'd consistently shoot low-to-mid 90s on timed and rapid fire and low 80s in slow fire. Its an over-thinking thing. The key to good, consistent shooting is constant repetition to build muscle memory. You don't want to be thinking about your trigger pull, you want it to be an instinctual task completely divorced from your conscious mind. If you over-think your trigger pull, you'll screw things up, most commonly "forcing" shots like 9mmepiphany mentioned. When you're firing faster you don't have time for that thought. Three things that really helped me:

1) Dry fire practice. It allows you to build the muscle memory and instinct of a good trigger pull without building the bad habits that come from recoil and frustration of a bad target.

2) Repeat something to yourself over and over while sighting in. I always liked "Front sight, front sight, front sight..." Not only does it help keep you from bouncing your focus between the front sight and the target, but it's a lot harder to think about other things when you're doing that.

3) Wear some earbuds under your muffs and put on some music. Also a good way to keep your conscious mind from getting over-active.
 
Back in December, a friend let me borrow his glock 30 sf to shoot a BUG match with and I actually won it! I never had the chance to shoot it before or any kind of warm up. Fast forward a couple of months and I now have a 30 (non sf) that I took to the range and cannot shoot it well at all! The recoil is horrendous, and I never noticed that kind of recoil in the 30 sf that I had borrowed.

Is there that much of a difference between the 30 and 30 sf, or was I blasting away real fast at the BUG match to notice?

I normally shoot a glock 19 in IDPA.
 
When I was qualifying for my CCW using a Ruger P90, the instructor told me I could slow down if I wanted to. I told him I wasn't aware that I was shooting all that fast. When I finished I had a perfect score and he just shook his head.

There were four of us taking the course, two with .45s, one with a 9mm and one with a .38 SPL. All had perfect scores until the nut with the 9mm decided to do a head shot and mess things up.

That was many years ago but at 21' I could still probably do OK.
Move things back to 25 yards and I have to slow way down now.
 
..Mee Too..

Hi HOOfan, Actually I don't always shoot tight groups when shooting rapidly,

but I have on many occasion shot my tightest 5 shot groups during the

rapid fire phase in bullseye matches. Those groups ranged from 1.25" through 1.5"

at 25 yds, single handed. Bullseye rapid fire is 5 shots in 10 secs. This only

happens(so far) in the Rimfire Bullseye class. I have no idea why I have been

shooting tighter groups in rapid fire instead of timed fire(5 shots in 20 secs)

Slow fire(10 shots 10 min). I've tried not to dwell much on this paradox; I

figured my shooting better groups in the other strings will eventually catch up

to the rapid fire string.

Tony
 
It depends on the gun. Some guns have better recoil characteristics than others, and return perfectly back on target after firing. In these cases, slowing down will result in overthinking and overcorrection.
 
I agree with rc; fatigue is a bigger factor in shooting inconsistencies than most people realize or will admit.

I don't shoot well when I try to go faster than I can pay attention to what I'm doing. But I also don't shoot well when I over think the matter.

Slow is smooth; smooth becomes fast.
 
I do have a Steyr M9A1 that I can shoot really well fast. (as mentioned above, by WardenWolf)

But with most guns accuracy decreases as speed increases.
 
One surprising gun I found that can be shot well fast is the Tokarev. If you watch videos on Youtube of it firing, you'll notice it settles back perfectly level after firing. In my opinion, it's all about matching the grip angle of the gun to the recoil. This is far more important than initial comfort or discomfort with a particular grip angle. If the gun settles properly, you're going to shoot better with it. The Tokarev feels awkward at first, but once you start firing it, it is surprisingly easy to control and shoot well.
 
Slow fire can lead to fatigue with your arms handing out extended. And the slow massage of that trigger can get tweaked. A good, smooth, fast trigger technique allows a faster controlled rate of fire. I tend to fire poorest the slowest or fastest I fire.
 
I can do very well with a good rhythm.

Whether it be slow or fast, as long as it's consistent, I'm consistent.
 
try something for me on your slow-fire.

every time you shoot, immediately bring the gun back down from recoil and realign your sights. every shot. don't immediately shoot again. just realign your sights then lower the weapon and rest. then repeat for the next shot.

murf
 
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