Shooting handguns is damn hard!

[Classical Liberal]

I read about some new laser dryfiring thingamajig that would instantly show you if were using bad technique. The people at the gun club knew about it too. Anyone here know what I'm talking about?

 

[sgphoto]

While good books are no substitute for actual practice, I would recommend Massad Ayoob's books, particularly his book,"The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery, 5th ed."

Here's a guy who has done what he says he's done, writes in an easy-to-understand manner, and offers solid advice for the beginner as well as the experienced shooter.

His other books are just as good, such as his Stressfire series, and "In the Gravest Extreme" is a must read.

Here's what to avoid. Those gun-lounge lizards who talk a good game, but can't tie their own shoes. You'll recognize them because they're dressed in camo, have enough "tactical" gear on to outfit a SWAT team, profess to have "special knowledge" and the "truth", and have cobwebs in their guns to match the cobwebs in their brain.

They'll confuse the hell out of you, do their best to embarress you (to make themselves look big), but they can quote verbatim the latest Guns and Ammo magazine article.

Look for a mentor yourself. Find a good shooter who's not a loudmouth, who's consistent in his shooting skills, who's shooting regular guns and not the latest "gun-of-the-month". He'll also be the guy who doesn't know-it-all and will tell you so.

That's who will be your biggest supporter and a true teacher. Not only will you gain good experience, you'll get a good friend.

Regards,

Steve

 

[Malapai]

The more you shoot the more you develop the muscles needed. Biggest mistake at this point is to try to have good scores on your targets. You will only get discouraged.

Although when shooting you should always try to hit the bullseye, and in doing so you will learn the disciplin your body needs to properly maintain a steady hold.

1. learn a "cadence" where you do the same things from raising the pistol, aquiring target, going through the trigger pull sequence, until the gun fires. This should, depending on your rangemaster, from chambering the round, proper grip on the pistol, raising the gun, acquiring sights.... etc.

2. As a new shooter, You will notice that as you point the pistol at the target and line up your sights, the pistol will wobble from side to side. This is normal as average humans cannot hold perfectly steady. This will slowly decrease as you develop your muscles but will always be there at some level.
You do not want to "punch" the trigger as your sights wander, for instance, from right to left crossing over the bulleye. You will develop a trigger punching habit. Instead as you settle in and line up your sights, start your trigger pull sequence. Generally your gun will eventually stop wandering out of the black circle as your muscles and skills develop, so shall your groups.

3. Your trigger pull, once you have lined up your sights and settled on the target, (although for new shooters this may well mean your sights are wandering in and out of the black, refer to 2 above) should be a constant rearward steady pull. If it surprises you when it goes off, you did it correctly.

Again, you are practising more mechanical motion now than really worrying about what the targets look like no matter how horrible. Relax and stick to developing these motor skills.

4. Cherish the time you are spending now. Many shooters covet the training you are receiving even if it is mostly self taught. Ask seasoned shooters questions, try to keep from getting discouraged, and you will develop a strong shooting discipline.

 

[Just_a_dude_with_a_gun]

I went through all this twice. Once when beginning in my youth, and again in my 20's when I started again and needed glasses.

#1. Get your eyes checked

#2. Focus on the front sight, and it's relation to the top of the blurry rear sights and blurry target.

These were the kickers for me.

 

[MCgunner]

I've seen those lasers, I think, go in the chamber and flash when the firing pin strikes, the ones I saw. It was in a catalog, don't remember which, not in the flesh. I'd think they'd be excellent for dry fire practice because you could put a mini target on a wall in your den or something, stand and practice and see where the shot broke. I think it's an excellent idea.

Another thing I used to do when I was off at home and the wife was working, the kid at school. They make these plastic cases with plastic bullets and you put a primer in the back of the case. That powers the plastic bullet. It will only shoot very short range. This was pretty decent practice for home defense or such, draw and fire, that sort of thing. I built a little cardboard "bullet trap" with a piece of plyboard at the back. The box would slow the bullet and the plyboard stop it and it'd drop down in the catch box. I'd put silhouettes up on it to shoot.

I think the laser is a much better idea than the plastic bullets for bullseye competition practice, though. I got the bullets at Midway and probably saw that laser thing there, too. Check out http://www.midwayusa.com and see if you can find it.

 

[GoRon]

Align your sights and focus on the front sight.

You will have a "wobble" when pointing at your target, normally you will waver back and forth through the bullseye. Do not try and squeeze off the shot when your sights are in the center of the bullseye. This will cause you to jerk the trigger as you try and get the shot off quick.

Accept that the wobble is there and focus on the front sight and keeping it aligned with the rear. Squeeze off your shot making sure your sights are aligned, do not worry about the wavering or wobble.

For the type of shooting you are doing the old standby book "The Pistol Shooters Treasury" by Gil Hebard will help you immensely.

 

[real_name]

I've seen those lasers, I think, go in the chamber and flash when the firing pin strikes, the ones I saw. It was in a catalog, don't remember which, not in the flesh. I'd think they'd be excellent for dry fire practice because you could put a mini target on a wall in your den or something, stand and practice and see where the shot broke. I think it's an excellent idea.

It's the Rovatec Bullite system. I've been sitting here all evening shooting the target above my TV.
http://www.bullite.com/

 

[5Wire]

Here's guide from the U.S. Army Marksmanship Manual (Google it, it's available online as a PDF.) I can't find my copy

For Right Handed Shooters


For Left Handed Shooters


Same source for both

 

[Malapai]

I might point out -

to understand the guide posted by 5Wire is after shooting groups. When your groups are concentrated in a certain area of the target, you can refer to the diagram to somewhat correct the fault.


The guide is excellant source to refer to. It even covers things most people ignore. But as far as proper form and technique, its awesome.

http://www.mit.edu/~birge/books/US-Army-Pistol-Marksmanship-Training-Guide.pdf

 

[bdutton]

If I may...

http://www.bullseyepistol.com/ is a great place for information. Read that.

1. Get a coach/shooting buddy who has some knowledge in the bullseye format to help you along.
2. Excersize: low impact arobic workouts for 20-30 minutes to improve overall cardio/vascular health. Lifting 5lb weight at arms length. Hold until tired... repeat.
3. Food: Avoid high sugar high caffeen and high fat drinks and foods 2 hours before shooting. Good food: Bananas and turkey.
4. Training: go to the range with a set plan to work on something. Don't go to the range and shoot the national match course of thirty shots adn call it a day. You may not even shoot at all! Just going to the range and dry fire might be just as good as shooting a hundred rounds if that is your training goal for the day.
5. Goals: Set them. Make them realistic and achievable in a medium time period. Say 6 months. Write it down. Read it every time you think about shooting, train or shoot in a match.
6. When you go to the range, setup everything and shoot one shot. Then sit down and write every single minute detail from the time you opened up the box to the time you fired the first shot. That includes little things like getting the oil out or settign up the spotting scope. My routine has 35 items in it. Your's may be very similar. Repeat the same process every time you go to shoot. (EDIT: I mean follow the same routine... not write it down every time
7. Fundamentals:
a) Stance: find you natural point of aim.
b) Grip: Firm. Do NOT lock your elbow as thsi may lead to damage to your cartilage (tennis elbow). The majority of the tension should be in the forearm.
c) aim: iron sights - focus on the front sight. dot sight - focus on the target.
d) trigger pull: Once you have settled and sight alignment is approaching the center, start the trigger pull. It should be aggressive, firm, straight back. The trigger will affect sight alignment. You want to focus on pulling the trigger in such a way to move the sight alignment towards the center.

Breathing. Deep breath, exhale raise gun... and deep breath and partial exhale... aim... settle... trigger... bang.

Many people have trouble getting the trigger pull right. Either it's too fast and they pull the trigger after it has entered perfect sight alignment and they miss. Or they are not pulling hard enough and take too long to get the shot off. You have to find that perfect place where the trigger pull is timed perfectly with the sight alignment crossing the center. Dry fire a lot will help your sub conscious mind pull the trigger while your conscious mind is focusing on keeping the sights alligned.

Mental game: 90% of shooting precision pistol is mental. You have to believe you will shoot a ten in order to shoot tens consistently. Read "with winning in mind" by Lanny Bassham.

There is some good training documentation available on:

USA Shooting dot com
and
Brian Zins dot com

I am working on my own training workbook combining the best training methods from the USMC pistol training handbook and the documentation I found on USAShooting.com. Check out my website: http://www.NEPistol.com. I will be putting that document on that site when I get the details worked out.

 

[dam8]

I agree with an airgun. Pilkguns has a used section. As it was said already an airgun being slower ( 450 - 600 fps) you can see the pellet go if you pull up, jerk, or otherwise throw a flyer.
A 5 lb. weight, milk jug ets can be used to exercise with, held out at arms lenght, like a pistol, for increasing lengths of time