cant shoot handgun?

[spEKTre]

Some awesome tips in here, I want to copy some of them and put them into a printout if nobody has issue with that ? We get alot of new shooters into our club and most give up after a few months because there is no one around to teach properly.

There is another phenomena I have come across with guys trying to shoot hand guns, some can't. I had one guy I tried to teach a few things and in the end I said go and take up bench rest rifle and he has never looked back. I don't think he would of ever got it personally. The funniest thing was he could never comprehend the turning targets, he would come up from the 45 degrees as soon as the targets faced away and it was like ok what medication is this guy on.

 

[fredg]

My buddy had the same problem... turns out he was moving the gun left and down to see where on the target the round hit. So he was pulling the trigger and moving the gun out of the way to see his hit at the same time.

Once he realized what he was doing and concentrated on holding the gun up for a second or two before looking at his target and not worrying about where he hit the target he resolved it.

 

[zb338]

I have a friend that claimed he couldn't shoot a pistol well. I took him out on
the range and told him that with my pistol he could hit anything. I loaded
two rounds and left the rest of the cylinder (revolver) empty. When he got
to the empty chamber and squeezed off he almost fell on his face. I told
him "now you know what you have to work on".

Zeke

 

[MutinousDoug]

After shooting a lot of handgun silhouette, in 1985 or so I graduated to NRA Conventional pistol with a Ruger MarkII and a modified 1911. I never could compete with the top guys in my league matches but I regularly shot in the top 20%.
Thirty years and a couple of bike crashes and shoulder surgerys later, my shooting has degraded some. Glasses, and a Merit Optical attachment help me see the front sight.
Even with strength training, I still struggle with being able to keep the gun on target for a thirty round match.
I can still call my shots, I just can't keep them in at least, the 9 ring. Or even the 7.

 

[Mike J]

I would agree with those that suspect a flinch. I took a friend to the range with me. He hit low consistently with everything. I loaded up a revolver with 5 rounds & moved the cylinder so he wouldn't know which chamber was empty. He was pulling the gun down anticipating recoil when he pulled the trigger. He did it really consistently. After that he started getting hits.

 

[LiveLife]

This is what I do now when I am introducing someone to shooting or helping them improve their accuracy.

After I go over the basics of grip, trigger and stance, I have them dry fire while watching the front sight. I tell them to practice dry firing until the front sight does not move, jump or jerk when the hammer/striker is released. I found this to be the fastest method to address many issues.

After they reach the point where the front sight does not move, we do live fire drills so POI matches POA using sights.

Then I have them do point shooting drills so POI can be called out around 4"-6" at 3 yards and they practice until they can reproduce at 5 and 7 yards - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=9859706#post9859706

So they can perhaps do something like this - http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?p=9866378#post9866378

Shooting handguns accurately is difficult and takes a lot of practice.

Er, I must disagree.

Most women can quickly master shooting a handgun and will show noticeable progress after just one shooting session. In our shooting classes women progress faster than men.

That's been my experience.

There was an elderly lady who was shooting on the next lane entirely missing her target at 5 yards. After working with her 15-20 minutes, she was shooting 5" groups at 7 yards.

On a different range session, a couple was shooting in the next lane. The husband was making fun of his wife not being able to shoot as well as him. When she looked at my targets and several pistols I was shooting, she asked if I could help her. I spent 10 minutes coaching her in my shooting lane and then she went back to her lane and shot better than her husband. Without saying a word, he quietly packed up and left while she gave me a smile.

Here's a video of 53 year old lady point shooting without sights (She's good as I cannot do what she does) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WOPOu8EL1mE#t=127

 

[gwpercle]

Practice , lots of practice.
Start with a 22 at 15 feet....work up.
Too many beginners think they can buy a compact 9 mm handgun , walk out and shoot iddy-biddy groups at 75 yards...doesn't work that way.
You get good by paying your dues practicing....no app for that .

 

[Skribs]

Step 1, Hand him the gun with a full magazine and an empty chamber.
Step 2,Tell him it's loaded and ready to go, and all he needs to do is take the safety off.
Step 3, Focus on him when he pulls the trigger.
There's a high possibility that he is anticipating the recoil and flinching during the trigger pull, this is a good way to see it, and it will probably be obvious. You can shoot a pistol accurately hanging upside down, with your weak side hand, if you have 0 flinch on the pull and proper sight alignment at the same time.

I don't know about you, but I check the chamber every time I'm handed a weapon. If he's not doing this, he needs more than just marksmanship training.