Hi there, THR community. I've been reading your collective wisdom for months without posting anything; I'm happy to finally come out of the woodwork (though not the closet). I hope I can be a valuable asset to THR.
Background
I have fairly decent experience in shooting long guns/"assault rifles" and some experience with pistols --though I just bought my first a few weeks ago. I've tried to self teach as much as possible by reading The Gun Digest Book of Combat Hangunnery and a few other pistol marksmanship instructional books. All that aside, I'm a huge cherry. I'm going to be asking a lot of questions!
The Setup
All shots, unless noted, were fired from approximately 10 meters, using a power-isosceles stance (a bit crouched, legs shoulder-width and aggressively placed). I put 100 shots downrange into 4 targets, firing my SA XD9 4".
The Gear
My beautiful new XD, and my best grip (for the pictures, don't 'ya know). Yes, I have very large hands, which makes rolling the trigger something interesting when I have both of my mole paws on that polymer frame.
The Targets
*Ahem* Be gentle. As you can see, I'm having a bit of trouble, among other things, in finding my vertical Point of Aim. My XD has the three dot aiming system, so its a bit of a "new thing" for me. I also don't know the trajectory for my rounds (Remington UMC +P 124gr.); at 10 meters, would the bullet have reached its max ordinate yet? Honestly, I can't eliminate enough error in the wetware to find out. I seemed to get bullets pretty close to the center of the target by covering the center of the target with the center of the white dot. What the heck should my sight picture look like?
I think I got a little better the second 25 rounds or so. This was all fine indexing --taking plenty of time to focus on the front sight post, control breathing, and roll the trigger. And I'd be a happy camper if this was a picture of my target at 25 meters
. Nope. 10.
In my defense, the third 25 rounds was fired a mix of dominant hand, non-dominant hand, and power-isosceles.
Now this target is the one that I have the most puzzlement about. All of the shots were fired power-isosceles, but some of them were fired with a fairly gross indexing. In other words, I just sorta pointed the pistol at the target, not aiming, and fired a series of slow shots that went pretty much all over the place. But that I understand. What I don't get is the part I have circled in paint pen and written "Fast, Relaxed Semi-Gross Index". IMHO, this is a pretty decent shot grouping (although not-so-decent shot placement). And the kicker is that after I generally aimed the front sight post, I fired in fairly rapid succession, right after I "felt" the pistol "fall" back into place. To be perfectly clear, I aimed the first shot, and just "felt" the rest...and I really wish that I could shoot my aimed shots that well. That's about nine shots in an awesome grouping (for a cherry) --why does this happen when I'm not trying so hard to get a tight grouping?
Background
I have fairly decent experience in shooting long guns/"assault rifles" and some experience with pistols --though I just bought my first a few weeks ago. I've tried to self teach as much as possible by reading The Gun Digest Book of Combat Hangunnery and a few other pistol marksmanship instructional books. All that aside, I'm a huge cherry. I'm going to be asking a lot of questions!
The Setup
All shots, unless noted, were fired from approximately 10 meters, using a power-isosceles stance (a bit crouched, legs shoulder-width and aggressively placed). I put 100 shots downrange into 4 targets, firing my SA XD9 4".
The Gear
My beautiful new XD, and my best grip (for the pictures, don't 'ya know). Yes, I have very large hands, which makes rolling the trigger something interesting when I have both of my mole paws on that polymer frame.
The Targets
*Ahem* Be gentle. As you can see, I'm having a bit of trouble, among other things, in finding my vertical Point of Aim. My XD has the three dot aiming system, so its a bit of a "new thing" for me. I also don't know the trajectory for my rounds (Remington UMC +P 124gr.); at 10 meters, would the bullet have reached its max ordinate yet? Honestly, I can't eliminate enough error in the wetware to find out. I seemed to get bullets pretty close to the center of the target by covering the center of the target with the center of the white dot. What the heck should my sight picture look like?
I think I got a little better the second 25 rounds or so. This was all fine indexing --taking plenty of time to focus on the front sight post, control breathing, and roll the trigger. And I'd be a happy camper if this was a picture of my target at 25 meters
. Nope. 10. In my defense, the third 25 rounds was fired a mix of dominant hand, non-dominant hand, and power-isosceles.
Now this target is the one that I have the most puzzlement about. All of the shots were fired power-isosceles, but some of them were fired with a fairly gross indexing. In other words, I just sorta pointed the pistol at the target, not aiming, and fired a series of slow shots that went pretty much all over the place. But that I understand. What I don't get is the part I have circled in paint pen and written "Fast, Relaxed Semi-Gross Index". IMHO, this is a pretty decent shot grouping (although not-so-decent shot placement). And the kicker is that after I generally aimed the front sight post, I fired in fairly rapid succession, right after I "felt" the pistol "fall" back into place. To be perfectly clear, I aimed the first shot, and just "felt" the rest...and I really wish that I could shoot my aimed shots that well. That's about nine shots in an awesome grouping (for a cherry) --why does this happen when I'm not trying so hard to get a tight grouping?
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