The more I shoot the worse I get

A lot of good advice here. If you think or dont know if you are flinching try this. Mix some dummy round in with your reg ammo. (this works best if you have a friend do it and a few mags) When you pull the trigger on the dummy round you will no doubt know if you have a flinch. Focus on maintaining sight picture, trigger press and follow through on each round.

I do this frequently. my 2c
 
Myself I had one heck of a learning curve becoming just an okay shot with handguns.
One little thing I myself did, which may or may not work for you, is that I loaded a maximum of two rounds in my handgun at a time. I critiqued these two fired shots in a careful manner before I reloaded and carried on with another two shots in a slowfire manner that is typical of bullseye shooting. (but two handed!)
This takes a bit of patience, but I found the worse habits were exposed earlier, with an expenditure of less ammunition.


ymmv
 
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KDX said:
I don't dry fire practice at home.
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You got it. Dry fire is the cheapest (free and you can dry fire all you want...hundreds per day if you wish) and most effective (no recoil so you see your sights and target before and after the shot...you know you "hit" what you were aiming at) way to build muscle memory.....your grip, trigger finger, eye-hand coordination, etc.

As well, get someone who knows how to shoot, teach you the basics....stance, grip, trigger pull, follow-through etc. Just to be sure you are not practicing and learning the wrong habits.
 
Without seeing how you're shooting I'd say it's either a flinch or you're "death gripping" the gun so hard that your muscles are beginning to shake.

For the flinch try to focus on pulling the trigger smoothly and cleanly back all the way to the rear travel stop and hold it there until after the recoil. Build pressure on the trigger rather than pull it. These seem like the same thing but one lets the trigger move as it wishes while the other can end up being more of a snatching at the trigger. By holding the trigger back you are focusing on the action of fully pulling the trigger rather than only pulling it until the BANG! That removes your focus from all the fire and noise and puts it onto the action of smoothly pulling the trigger and letting the BANG! surprise you.

If you're gripping too hard it makes your muscles begin to shake sooner and makes it hard to hold the gun steady. It also makes it hard to isolate the trigger finger motion from the rest of your grip. You want to hold the gun with the sort of pressure used for a firm but friendly handshake that isn't intent on showing the other fella who is the boss.
 
Shoot , shoot and shoot; it'll come to you.
Sooner or later you'll relax and it'll all come together.
I shoot every day when I'm at home. Gotta love antiques and country living.
On my way down to do chores at dusk this evening I put 6 out of 6 into my usual target; a block of wood as wide as your wrist to elbow and as high as fingertips to elbow.
It was borderline shooting as it was dusk but knowing the backdrop was good, why not?
But if it's middle of the day and I'm aiming as careful as I can I can usually get 2 out of 6 in the block. Totally relaxed and aiming half on instinct nailed 6 out of 6. At 58 yds on the range finder.
I'll never replicate that tomorrow midday, LOL
Sooner or later you'll relax and it'll all come together.
Stay safe.
 
Bear in mind, only perfect practice makes perfect. Just dumping rounds down range won't make you a good shooter unless you work on your form/trigger control at the same time. At this stage of the game, you'll learn more dry firing at a target then actually shooting, especially in 40.
Line up on the target with your unloaded pistol then pull the trigger as if you where shooting and watch the sights as you do. Did they move? If so, keep practising until you can do it without moving the sights.
If you have a good 22 pistol that makes cheaper practice and wont cause/magnify flinching. Plan on taking some time at the range and fire short strings (a mag or even less) then take a break, look at the target and figure what your doing. Don't try to slap at the trigger when the sights look good, work on keeping the sights looking good and let the trigger pull look after itself, just do it slow and smooth. This will make you a decent shot, and from there you can develop into more specialized types of shooting, ie bullseye or IPSC, which use this as a foundation and modify it to fit the nature of their game.
 
GunGuy34 said:
With glocks, with factory sights, with the white U in the back and white dot on the front, whats the correct hold?
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I could never figure out the correct alignment of the factory Dot and U on my G17 .:confused:
I've since installed Trijicons Night Sights on my G17 and G21...I'm no longer confused. Besides, I never felt right about polymer sights being your primary sights.
 
Man, this is timely. Some good intel here for sure.

On Saturday I was pulling everything left with my PSP. This was after a very nice grouping with my Shadow. I think my support arm/grip has something to do with it and I know there is a flinch involved to boot.

This is a lot like golf IMO... just when you think you have your swing down, some quirk works it's way in and you are chunking one off the tee... sigh
 
BLACKBRIAR said:
A lot of good advice here. If you think or dont know if you are flinching try this. Mix some dummy round in with your reg ammo. (this works best if you have a friend do it and a few mags) When you pull the trigger on the dummy round you will no doubt know if you have a flinch. Focus on maintaining sight picture, trigger press and follow through on each round.

I do this frequently. my 2c
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:agree:BLACKBRIAR just named the main things that improved my pistol accuracy exponentially. I was taught his "snap cap" trick when I first began shooting handguns and it helped A TON in eliminating my flinch as well.

TIPS:

1. Use the above trick. At the range have a friend load your mags, peppering in snap caps every few rounds. When you pull the trigger on a dummy round, you will probably flinch. Eliminating this flinch and thus properly maintaining your sight picture when the shot breaks is the most important factor in improving overall accuracy.

2. Find an accepted stance and grip that feel the most comfortable to you and stick with them.

3. Aim using your dominant eye, but leaving both eyes open if possible, and make sure your front site is in focus and the target and rear sight are slightly blurry.

4. All together now. Take your stance, steady your breathing, aim carefully holding on target, and squeeze the trigger straight back evenly so when the shot breaks it "surprises" you. With practice, this collective action will become automatic and natural, and once mastered can be applied to a variety of shooting scenarios.


5. Practice as much as you can afford to. Keep your mind clear and focused and build your muscle memory. (grip, stance, follow through, etc.) This will give you the confidence you need to shoot more consistently.

These ought to help you tighten your groups, especially if you can practice the "#4 ritual" while shooting slowfire at the range.

Happy Shooting
 
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johNTO said:
I could never figure out the correct alignment of the factory Dot and U on my G17 .:confused:
I've since installed Trijicons Night Sights on my G17 and G21...I'm no longer confused. Besides, I never felt right about polymer sights being your primary sights.
Click to expand...
When shooting Glocks I line the top of the front site dot with the top of the rear sight "U uprights" and cover the bullseye with the front sight dot. The top of the white on all three points (top of the dot to the tops of the U) should all be even. In my ongoing love affair with Glocks this is how I have always lined up stock Glock sights. I have never had a problem with accuracy using this method.

Hope this helps.:)
 
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