Pistol Training

[LastUnder]

Starting a new thread on pistol training, now that I know it's me, not the sights on my P226 Thanks to all the great advice I got on trouble-shooting from the original thread http://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php?t=689934.

I spent a bunch of time dry firing, and then went to the range to try what everyone's been recommending. Shooting an early model P226 with 124 gr BDX ammo. I'm right handed, but shoot two-handed in a weaver stance with the grip that has both thumbs pointing fwd. Shoot with both eyes open and I've verified that my right eye is dominant.

Today I started at 50 yds, and was only able to hit an 8.5x11 sheet 20% of the time, so my "grouping" is way wider than that! There was no other brass at this distance from the target line, so I can only surmise that the skilled 50yd shooters pick up their brass

Moved to 25 yds and was getting the sheet 70% of the time, but with no real grouping inside of that. Interestingly to me, I was getting a much better average POI. Was focusing on the front sight, not the target. Was focused on sitting low in the stance, and keeping right arm straight. Was focused on even trigger pull all the way to the stop, and then an even release of pressure to the reset point. Focused on using my non-dominant hand (left) to apply pressure onto my dominant hand, thereby not squeezing too hard with my right. Stayed at 25 yards for about 150 rds and improved a bit.

Still not much brass at this distance, in fact, judging by the leftover brass, most shooters fire at between 4-10 yards.

Moved to 10 yds and was able to get a consistent 3" grouping, just slightly left and averaging right on in elevation - thanks for all the tips.

Some things I know I need to work on still:

1. Breathing. Found I was holding my breath too much;
2. Handgrip. Still squeezing too hard and my fingertips/nails on my dominant hand were annoyingly pushing into the palm of my non-dominant hand. Need to work on that grip a bit more, as it didn't seem comfortable.
3. Focus. If I didn't concentrate, my focus would default to the target and not my sights, but when I focused on the sights my shooting was way better. I'm thinking maybe I should focus on target (confirm it), then bring the focus back into the sight just prior to shooting. Will need to train that habit though.

I like the comment that one CGN'er made "if you want to shoot from a distance, you need to train at a distance"; but given my poor grouping I'm thinking it might be better to train well at 10 yds for 70% of the time and try to apply that training at 25 yds. Thoughts on that anyone?

Again, thanks for all the great advice on fixing my flinching; I feel like I'm training instead of plinking now!

 

[PH Racing]

Ditch the "weaver" and start closer, get confident and then move the target back. Work some groups from the bench.
Read this, I posted it here before but read through it and try it in dryfire first, then take it to the range:

Stance and Grip

I wrote this up awhile ago and posted it on a couple of forums. I thought I had put it here but somehow I missed that, so I'll throw it up now. There are a couple of things I'll add to this but I think I'll make another whole post about it.

So here goes!

Lets start with the grip, with the strong hand grip the pistol/revolver as high as possible. With a pistol you want the beavertail/tang at the rear to be right down in the web of your hand. The wrist needs to be right behind the grip. If you were shooting it one handed the forearm, wrist and pistol would form a straight line, in a two hand hold the forearm will be canted a bit to the side but the wrist will remain directly behind the pistol. The middle finger should be right tight up to the trigger guard, you will notice that on most newer 1911's this area is relieved and on competition guns we will hawg even more material out here if we can. the fingers should wrap around squarely and be able to get a good purchase on the left side grip (if shooting right handed, reverse this if not.) The trigger finger should be free to move and will contact the trigger somewhere on the first pad, where depends on the size of the shooters hand, the size of the gun and the need to pull the trigger directly to the rear. This can be found in dryfire, find out where your finger likes to be and you can pull the trigger without disturbing the sights. The thumb can rest on the safety, or rest at the top of the frame for now, unless I am shooting single handed I will usually leave it relaxed and high off the gun until my support hand mounts on the pistol and then it will rest on the base of the support thumb.The support hand now comes onto the pistol. The index finger will be right tight up under the trigger guard (some like it on the front of the trigger but for the most part this was a phase we went through because a small number of top shooters used it but most others found it didn't help, some notables are Chip McCormick, Jerry Barnhart, and Eric Grauffel ) the fingers will wrap around and overlap on the shooting hand. My left index ends up on the back of the lower portion of my right middle finger, I have a callous here from dry firing. The large pad at the base of my thumb will mount as high as possible on the left side grip. On a 1911 it will be right under the safety, on a Glock it will be just below the slide. The fingers of the right hand will be in the pocket made by the gap between the center of my left palm and the grip and the large pad at the bottom of the hand (below the pinkie finger) will be at the base of the grip. The heel of the left hand will be butted up against the heel of the right hand. You now have completely surrounded the grip on all sides with as much contact as possible. The right wrist is directly behind the pistol and the left hand is canted downwards roughly at 45 degrees. Both thumbs will be pointing towards the target, neither should bear on the gun. They should just be relaxed and pointing forwards.
The arms should be extended as far as you can without locking them. Locking the arms out will allow recoil to travel through the arms to your shoulders, keeping the unlocked will allow the arms to absorb some of the recoil. This is important, throughout the stance anything rigid will transmit recoil to the rest of the body. Both arms push forward giving the gun something to recoil against. The shoulders should be forward slightly and down. The torso should be leaning forward, the shoulders should be in front of your hips. I find I am leaning more aggressively these days, even with the Open guns and my .22s it helps return the gun from recoil. My torso and hips will be facing pretty much directly at the target I am shooting. Any movement to turn or get to the targets is done with the legs.
The legs should be bent, these days I am more aggressive here too, my stance is wide, with the left foot forward. The heel of the left foot is even with the toe of the right, perhaps slightly more forward. My weight is on the balls of my feet, I don't usually have to try to do this, the rest of the stance should cause this. If you find your weight is on your heels, you are likely too erect and leaning back. Even slight recoil will drive you back, either knocking you off balance or at the very least causing the gun to be slow to recover. You should be leaning progressively forward against the gun.
Now this stance is adaptable, by that I mean depending on the circumstances I can make it more or less aggressive. For fast close stuff I can lean in a bit more or if I'm shooting something that requires more accuracy and less speed I can stand more erect and reduce some of the stress on the body and shoot more relaxed. Also when shooting under or around ports, barricades etc. the basic parts of the stance don't change a whole lot and when they do the effect is in degrees. Overall it still works but it will be reduced. If I'm really kinked up behind cover, I will be leaning forward more and my arms will be bent more but I won't be off balance and recoil control will still be effective, just less.

Pat

 

[Gundoggy]

There's an exercise on an external site that uses index cards for targets. Start up close, 5 yards or closer until all shots hit the card, back up repeat, or speed up repeat.

I really like this exercise since the targets are so inexpensive, and you're training to hit a relatively small target.

 

[Clobbersauras]

Start at 3 yards. Work you way out from there. Don't mess with anything past 3 yards until you are confident at that distance.
[Youtube]nm9uG5bPubw[/Youtube]
[Youtube]ysa50-plo48[/Youtube]

Targets that I find helpful:
ht tp://pistol-training.com/drills/dot-torture

Check out the shift gears target/drill and the twister drill from this web site:
ht tp://www.haleystrategic.com/blog.php

If you can shoot any of these targets clean at 3 yards (I can't ) then you are well on your way. Professional instruction always helps, seek it out if you can get it. Good luck.

 

[LastUnder]

Yep, that index card drill is brilliant. Lets me focus on keeping my focus on the front sight and my grip. Still need to work on my breathing though, really coming together now - practice practice practice.