Help me shoot moar bettar!

[sstalder5]

I went out shooting this past weekend for the first time in about 3 months after being out of the country, and I noticed that my pistol marksmanship wasn't anywhere near as good as my rifle and shotgun skills. It seems like I'm really shaky when shooting pistols. Also, I was told that I was trying to "fight the recoil". We do a lot of shooting in the summer and I'd like to spend this summer getting halfway decent with friends pistols since I'm getting a Glock 17 as soon as I turn 21. I know there's some pretty serious shooters, LE, and Military on here, feel free to share some tips.

This is all I have for you to critique right now. I'll get someone to film me shooting something that actually has some recoil next time we go out.

302 Found

302 Found

[ultraNoob]

Plenty of things will make you inaccurate with a pistol.

Breathe
Relax
Aim
Squeeze


When people bolo'd on the pistol range, I would have them hold a 3lb weight like a pistol, for 5 min intervals as often as possible over the span of a week. That exercise, along with plenty of trigger finger work and plenty of range time, had them scoring at least marksman within 7 days.

[benny_mech]

Dry fire
dry fire
dry fire
aaaaannnnddd more dry fire.

Your brain is not used to: big bang, bright flash, object trying to jump out of your hands. It's a very unnatural thing to do, and the natural response is to try to counteract the recoil. The problem is that it's impossible to time it correctly. What you need to do is train your brain to expect "click" instead of "bang." Dry fire twice for every bullet you send down range, and you will get better fast. You can also have a friend load a dummy round into your magazine in a random place. You'll see the muzzle move forward and down as you try to anticipate. Dry fire until you can do it without the sights moving at all.

There are plenty of other pointers, but IMHO pistol shooting is 90% trigger control. I've seen Marines put 9mm rounds into the dirt half way down the range because they were trying to push the gun forward to counteract the recoil.

[jimmydean]

[Westy]

Weaver stance and have a fat bearded man dry hump you. If shooting isn't homoerotic you are doing it wrong.

[sstalder5]

I thought my weaver stance was pretty good already...? Going to shoot later today and tomorrow. I only been shooting shotguns and rifles for the past few weeks but I'm going to try to shoot as much pistol as I can this weekend.

On a side note, I shot an AK-47 for the first time the other week. That's an effing fun gun to shoot.

[BUFFALO]

I think you are on the right track. Lots of good tips in here. Just practice, practice, practice.

[vcnw]

feet shoulder width apart, good grip, solid smooth continuous trigger pull,(let it surprise you when it fires) continue to keep focused on front sight post. dont keep re-focusing on target. it shoud be slightly blurry in the background. Later, Practice with your glock*******EMPTY, NO MAG, NO AMMO IN SAME ROOM***** and practice trigger squeze with a Quarter resting on slide just behind front sight. this helps with dipping jerking etc. try to keep quarter from falling off when pulling the trigger.


good luck

[IH8Rice]

shooting usa's site has some good tips on practicing shooting.
Julie Golob's section on dry firing is actually a pretty good practice drill. the video is better if you can find it but heres the text
http://www.shootingusa.com/PRO_TIPS/...12dryfire.html

http://www.shootingusa.com/PRO_TIPS/pro_tips.html

[TheMontashu]

1) Slow down, you can't miss too fast. You will never learn to shoot correctly pulling the trigger fast

2) Get your basics down, sight picture, sight alignment, trigger control, follow through. I can pull my target pellet pistol down from a 10 to a 7 before the pellet leaves the barrel in 10 meter matches.

3) trigger control (if you're getting a glock get the lighter seer connector pin, they make 3 of them) instead of pulling the trigger give it a nice even strait squeeze, try and imagine you're pulling your finger strait back through your arm into your shoulder

4) get a .22 as well. If you're having trouble with recoil, learn to shoot something without much, then learn to deal with recoil (and save yourself boatloads of cash practicing)

5) unless you have GIANT hands do yourself a favor and don't get a full size glock in .45. The full size glocks across the board are massive, I have a 23, and it's a "compact" that's roughly the size of a 1911 and fits my hands great. The other issue with a glock in .45 is that .45 in a double stack mag makes for a super wide gun as well. Basically if you don't wear XL gloves that thing wont fit in your hands right.

[DirtyMike]

1) Slow down, you can't miss too fast. You will never learn to shoot correctly pulling the trigger fast

2) Get your basics down, sight picture, sight alignment, trigger control, follow through. I can pull my target pellet pistol down from a 10 to a 7 before the pellet leaves the barrel in 10 meter matches.

3) trigger control (if you're getting a glock get the lighter seer connector pin, they make 3 of them) instead of pulling the trigger give it a nice even strait squeeze, try and imagine you're pulling your finger strait back through your arm into your shoulder

4) get a .22 as well. If you're having trouble with recoil, learn to shoot something without much, then learn to deal with recoil (and save yourself boatloads of cash practicing)

5) unless you have GIANT hands do yourself a favor and don't get a full size glock in .45. The full size glocks across the board are massive, I have a 23, and it's a "compact" that's roughly the size of a 1911 and fits my hands great. The other issue with a glock in .45 is that .45 in a double stack mag makes for a super wide gun as well. Basically if you don't wear XL gloves that thing wont fit in your hands right.

As much as I hate agreeing with Mueshue, He has some good points.

Slow it down, firing that fast is just wasting ammo.


Trigger type/pull weight is of little concern, some are nicer etc etc... something you will learn to compensate for.

Start with a .22.... theya re cheap, you can fire them for days, will teach you the basics to start with.

As far as glock goes, I have large hands and I HATE the way any of the glocks fit in my hand, the grip size i can deal with but the finger grips on the front..... those are fitted for small hands. Probably one of the worst weapons when it comes to ergonimics. To me the glock has great functionality, but the follow through on design was dropped half way.

if you want a .45 look for a 1911, colts are teh nicest, but sprinfield makes a very nice one as well.....



Oh, and the idea of a random dummy round works wonders for evaluating your shooting. I use that with a bunch of buddies to explain why they shoot low, most everyone in the larger calibers without getting basics down does the same thing and thats push the gun down right before it fires

[TheMontashu]

As much as I hate agreeing with Mueshue, He has some good points.

Slow it down, firing that fast is just wasting ammo.


Trigger type/pull weight is of little concern, some are nicer etc etc... something you will learn to compensate for.

Start with a .22.... theya re cheap, you can fire them for days, will teach you the basics to start with.

As far as glock goes, I have large hands and I HATE the way any of the glocks fit in my hand, the grip size i can deal with but the finger grips on the front..... those are fitted for small hands. Probably one of the worst weapons when it comes to ergonimics. To me the glock has great functionality, but the follow through on design was dropped half way.

if you want a .45 look for a 1911, colts are teh nicest, but sprinfield makes a very nice one as well.....



Oh, and the idea of a random dummy round works wonders for evaluating your shooting. I use that with a bunch of buddies to explain why they shoot low, most everyone in the larger calibers without getting basics down does the same thing and thats push the gun down right before it fires

Kimbers are super nice too, my dad has for his IDPA gun

The dummy caps work amazing. When I was regularly shooting IDPA me and my dad would load each-others mags with a dummy during practice and blast at the plate rack. Took away my flinch right away

[manimal]

Are you wanting to get better at target shooting or defensive/combat shooting? The "let it surprise you", stance, sight picture/alignment, pretty much go out the window for everything except paper target shooting. You'll never stand still or get a proper sight picture when someone is shooting back at you. That being said, it is important to learn the fundamentals and become proficient with static shooting before you can effectively move on to combat/reflexive shooting. And no..you should NOT be using the weaver stance ...it was designed for long distance paper target shooting and has no business being used by the modern gunfighter.

Tip from your video:

Square off your shoulders to the target, lean in, and lock out both elbows to better handle the recoil allowing for faster follow up shots.

[sstalder5]

Whoa... Manimal returns to the monkey!!

I'd like to improve both, but defense is definitely more important. I'll be getting my concealed carry permit in a little over a month, but I won't EDC a gun until I'm completely comfortable with it. I plan on taking some more advanced pistol classes in addition to the CCW class to get more comfortable with defending myself. Do you know if the HPPD offers any classes to civilians?

[IH8Rice]

I won't EDC a gun until I'm completely comfortable with it. I plan on taking some more advanced pistol classes in addition to the CCW class to get more comfortable with defending myself.

if you arent comfortable carrying a gun, then a "advanced" pistol class is probably not for you.