Practice, Practice, Practice

Practice, Practice, Practice…but Practice Right! Common mistakes… Trigger Control: Relax, comfortable stance, good sight picture, focus on the front sight, slowly pull the trigger straight back until the gun fires. That should always be a surprise. Hold the trigger back for a fraction of a second as you are reacquiring your sight picture, then ease the trigger out just until you feel it reset, it is like a click that you can feel. Then you know your gun is ready to fire again. Try this for several shots before taking your finger off the trigger and lowering the pistol to see what you did. You will probably be surprised at how well you did. Two of the most common issues for new shooters are to take their finger off the trigger between shots and look up after each shot to see where it went. Both of these can cause you to have trouble with your aim. If you aren’t getting a nice tight grouping, try to fire several shots in a row before you look, keeping your finger in the trigger and following through to the reset. How far out should my target be? I usually start at 8 feet, then ease that target out in 2-4 foot increments, to 25 feet. The farther out, the easier it is to see the impact of anything I might be doing wrong. My 2 inch group at 8 feet might become a 9 inch group at 25 feet. How are you standing? Feet shoulder width apart, weight forward on the balls of your feet, dominant foot slightly back. Shoulders relaxed. As a student said recently, “maximum meat on the grip”, we laughed, but it was a great point. You want a secure, solid grip. Raise your pistol from a low ready straight up to eye level. Your head is up, your sights at eye level. Soft wrists are a real issue. I learned this the hard way. You need to find your right wrist control. To hard and you get sore and have control issues. Too soft and your gun will bounce on the recoil causing a mis-feed. You want to “aim” for firm, but not white knuckled. Practice often, once a week if you can, but don’t go in with the idea that you will shoot 150 rounds, or whatever your round count it. Stop if you get tired, sore, uncomfortable. Trying to push through because you drove “all the way to the range” and want to make the trip worthwhile will not end well. When you are distracted by pain, or exhaustion, your accuracy will decrease and then you will add frustration to your list. Don’t get frustrated, we all have off days, but it gets better! Shooting is fun! It can also be very empowering. Sometimes I go to the range frustrated about something in my life and shoot for an hour and leave feeling very relaxed. The focus and attention needed to shoot well can be an almost zen-like experience. It beats counting to 100, for me, anyway. Happy Shooting!