Help! I can't hit anything with my springfield!

[Nick1911]

Hi, My name is Nick, i live in indiana and have a question...
So i finally broke down and bought a springfield 1911A1 "loaded" in SS(full size). I love the gun, it has great fit and finish, BUT; whenever i shoot it my shots are WAY off (on the order of about a foot low at 20 feet) and i can't figure out what the problem is. I know it's me and not the gun malfunctioning because my dad can shoot it fine; and about a year ago i shot his WWII vintage colt 1911 and had the same problem. It's driveing me nuts, so far i'v shot about 80 rounds through it and almost all of them are low by about a foot.
I grip the gun firmly with my right hand and my left under the bottom of the magazine, both elbows locked. I'm just shooting regular UMC rounds.

Anybody ever heard of this happening? I am open to any and all sugestions.

Thanks for your time,
-Nick

 

[The Reverend]

Welcome!!!

Two things to start with...

1. Welcome to THR...Great to have you here

2. Thank you for being open and honest about your experience. Very few will claim to have problems with their shooting.


Now first it seems that you may be holding the pistol wrong. Instead of holding the gun with you left hand under the magazine, which will only serve to excentuate the recoil of the rounds being fired, place your left hand over your right as if you were going to lace your fingers together. You should have you index of your left between the index and middle finger of your right. Then secure your right thumb by hold it down with your left.

Then you can either use the isosolese stance you are already using, or use a "weaver type stance" (more of an angled position toward the target with the weak arm bent yet still supporting the shooting arm. It might be a good idea to take a basic shooting course at your local range to hammer out the details.

You should be aligning your sights evenly holding DIRECTLY under the spot you want to hit. Keep this principle in mind:

AIM SMALL, MISS SMALL!!!

See if your dad can help you out as he is not having any problems.

practice, practice, practice!!!

God Bless

 

[Jim K]

First, do not put your left hand under the grip. Wrap it around the right hand with your left thumb alongside the right one. Keep both thumbs away from the slide stop. Resting the butt of a pistol on anything, even a hand, will affect the recoil and change the position of the bullet strike.

Second, if you have not fired a .45 very much (or even if you have) you may be flinching, that is "jerking" the gun in anticipation of recoil. One way to check that is to obtain (or have made by a reloader) some dummy rounds with no primer and no powder. Have someone else load the magazine out of your sight and put one dummy round in it between live rounds. When the dummy comes up and chambers, you will easily see if you flinched. If you don't notice the flinch, your friends will be happy to tell you about it, usually with laughter. Until they try the same thing.

Jim

 

[Nick1911]

hey thanks, i tried the grip that you suggested and low and behold.... i was almost right on! I haven't shot a .45 before, my only prior pistol experience is with my browning buckmark (never had any problems hitting anything with it; then again, there isn't much recoil) Thanks again!

Nick

 

[Rich357]

Hi Nick,

Glad the new grip is working for you.

Dry firing really helps to show what happens to the sights when you squeeze the trigger.

Here is a website with lots of good info. Take a look at the items on the right side of the first page.

Site Features:

USAMU Pistol Guide
Bullseye-L Forum
Zen in the Art of Shooting
etc.

http://www.bullseyepistol.com/

Good luck,
Rich

 

[kalibear45]

This is what helped me improve my shooting:

http://www.sportshooter.com/improving/images/correction_chart.gif

 

[JoeHatley]

Nick,

Buy yourself a copy of: How To Become A Master Handgunner : The Mechanics Of X-Count Shooting, by Charles Stephens.

Trust me, it will be the best $12 you'll ever spend. Dry read, but it is packed clearly explained ways to identify shooting problems, and then how to train to solve them.

Good Luck...

Joe

 

[spacemanspiff]

my shooting is starting to improve, because of two things:
1. going to the range more frequently
2. dry firing

i dry fire almost every day, anywhere from a couple dozen times to more than a hundred. the trick is to watch the front sight and watch for any movement as the trigger falls. once you know your trigger intimately, you will know exactly what you need to do when you are on the range.
a couple other things that have helped me is to alternate shooting my 1911 with a .22 pistol. just enough so that my hand stops trying to flinch from the recoil. also, dry fire a few times while at the range.
and when you start feeling your hand pull away, often i can feel it in my hand before i even take the shot, put the gun down and stop for a minute.

on one hand, flinching could be your body telling you 'i've had enough for one day', but i rarely listen to my body anyways.
one drill i tried that seems to work, is to dry fire on the range while repeating 'the gun is empty'. keep repeating it while you load a magazine in and start firing. repeat the sentence between each shot. convincing your mind that the gun is empty will allow you to be truely surprised when the shot does go off.

and finally, i got some helpful suggestions from another shooter at the range, and as soon as i applied what he said, my groups shrank waaaaay down. nothing to really brag about, but i could see an immediate difference.

 

[10-Ring]

You've gotten some good advice so far. That, some patience & I'm sure you'll be able to improve w/ that Springfield of yours! Welcome to THR too

 

[larryw]

http://www.sportshooter.com/improving/

 

[Lane Mullins]

Another good plan is to take a handgun course from one of the reputable firearms schools. You need to be familiar with your weapon, and practice will help. Look around here and you will find many posts on training. The Training and tactics section is a good place to start. It is somewhat expensive, but the learning curve is through the roof.

 

[Pumpkinheaver]

Practice, practice, practice and an arched mainspinghousing helped me shoot my 1911 better. It just seems to point more naturaly for me when it has the arched housing.

 

[Chairman Meow]

Two things...

First, a LOT of people report that their Springfields shoot low from the factory. Mine did. There is a recent thread about it in the Springfield section over at 1911forum.com. Mine shot low even when I was holding it with the supr kung foo grip braced on a bag. My Kimber shoots POA. I was told that you can simply file the front sight down on the Springfield (make sure it really is shooting low first!) but that might be a problem with night sights. Don't want to splatter tritium all over the place!

Second, try the snap cap game; it's humbling. You will probably find, as most of us do, that you can't not flinch a little, at least at first. 1911's can be somewhat forgiving of this as their super-crisp single action doesn't give you much time to get off target, but I still do it too and I have shot thousands of rounds in the last few years. When I flinch, I shoot low and a little to the right.

 

[Brian Dale]

Welcome to THR, Nick!