I shoot low - any noob advice for me?

pistolshewter

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I'm new to target shooting and have a .45 auto Sig Sauer P220. I'm shooting at about 15 meters. First few times most of my shots are pretty low, last time around I was getting better but I'm not sure what I was doing different lol how's that for a Noob shooter! :rolleyes:

Any advice on the proper grip and trigger pull I should try tomorrow when I go to the range? Is it ok to have (I'm right handed) my left hand underneath the magazine? What is the correct position for my wrists? Any other advice as far as stance/breathing/technique would be appreciated. Thanks guys!
 
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Sounds like a flinch, through and through. Practice dry firing with your sights on target, and watch where the sights go the first time you pull the trigger, I'd bet down. Get comfortable dry firing and keeping it level, and knowing it ain't gonna hurt ya, then load it and fire, with the same "dry fire" mind set of keeping the sights on target. Follow through, holding the trigger in until the sights are returning back on target, and then let the trigger out to reset for the next shot. Relax... ;) :)
 
get yourself a snap cap or have a dummy round made up and let a friend load your mag for you. You'll find out very quickly if your flinching or not. I did this when I first started shooting a .44 mag. It helped me a lot becasue you really need to focus on not flinching, you know there is a misfire coming but you don't know when!!
 
The hardest thing is not to "now" the shot -- a rapid press on the trigger to force the gun to go off rather than breaking the shot smoothly. This is usually accompanied by a rapid muscle twitch that pulls the sights down, coming from your subconscious.

Your subconscious doesn't like having explosions going off in front of your face, for one thing, and for another it knows that the sights are going to jump up when the shot goes off. It gets confused. It knows it's supposed to keep the sights still but it also knows that when the gun fires there's going to be a big bang and the sights will jump. So it tries to do both at the same time -- forcing the gun to go off and pull it down simultaneously. Wrong, of course, but your subconscious isn't very intelligent. Unfortunately, it also controls all of your physical movement, so there's an issue there.

Work on calling your shots. That is, you must know where the front sight is when the gun goes off. You will see it rise sharply under recoil. Where the top of the blade was at the moment of firing is where the shot went. If you can't call your shots you are not getting a surprise break with the trigger -- your subconscious is slapping it (doing a "now!"). Start by putting all of your conscious effort on watching the top of the front sight through the shot, while applying a steady, slow pressure on the trigger until the shot breaks unexpectedly. You should be able to call those shots. Once you know what calling shots looks and feels like, you can try letting your control of the trigger go back to your subconscious while still making the calling of shots the priority in your conscious mind. Ideally, you can get to the point where your subconscious is controlling the trigger, but with the goal of having the front sight in the right place all the way through the shot.

It ain't easy.
 
pistolshewter said:
Is it ok to have (I'm right handed) my left hand underneath the magazine? What is the correct position for my wrists? Thanks guys!

That's generally reffered to as "tea cupping"

It really takes your weakhand out of the equation...so you lose some recoil control.

When you shoot two handed (not everyone does) you want the weak hand (and strong hand for that matter) as high as possable on the grip...and you want as much hand to hand contact between your strong and weak hand (weak hand under the trigger guard covering the fingers of your strong hand)

Position of the weak hand thumb is one for great debate :rolleyes: ...but most people agree that you should just point it towards the target...with no direct contact with the frame of the gun

You'll get the best recoil control and recovery with your weak hand wrist cocked slightly down...you can easily do this by just forcing your weak hand thumb forward...

When your grip is perfect...you'll be amazed out how little grip force it takes to control the gun...

Cheers
 
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With the two handed grip, the majority of the gripping should actually be done with your weak side hand. Squeezing tightly with your strong hand will pull the muzzle down as you fire.
Quigley is bang with the description of the two handed grip. One more thing to do to check to see if you are properly set up is to check to see if your wrists are the same level. As you look down along your arms they should both be extended equally and the top of your wrists should be lined up like you are clapping your hands together.
 
Dry fire, dry fire, dry fire, dry fire, and then dry fire some more.

I used to have a terrible flinch from shooting with out ear protection. An old timer told me to dry fire while aiming for people on TV, pictures on the wall, etc. Cured me and you can pretend you are shooting that douche bag Dr. Phil.
 
Another thing SLAVEX actually taught me at the Skills and Drills night is that when you have that perfect two hand grip if you place your trigger finger alongside the slide your finger and thumb should be the same lenght. Takes a bit to get used to but it works.
 
I would suggest taking at least one lesson to learn proper technique. where ever you are local to, I am sure someone must be teaching. Money spent on lessons will save a ton in bad practice with ammo.
 
Armedsask said:
Dry fire, dry fire, dry fire, dry fire, and then dry fire some more.

I used to have a terrible flinch from shooting with out ear protection. An old timer told me to dry fire while aiming for people on TV, pictures on the wall, etc. Cured me and you can pretend you are shooting that douche bag Dr. Phil.

You watch Dr. Phil? (snicker) :D
 
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