Quote:
Originally Posted by seagill
Aim small, hit small. It works. I've tested this with handguns, bows, even blowguns. The smaller your point of aim, the tighter your groups will be. In a high stress situation, the best trained marksman will shoot half as well as his best day on the range. Are you willing to trust 16" groups to save your life? I'm not.
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I fully agree with this. When the stress enters the factor, many of the things people have been taught goes out the window.
Practice is a good thing. Everyone ought to do it more than they do now.
However no amount of practice can prepare a person for the unexpected, unusual circumstances and the emotional stress.
We have to remember that being faced with a life or death experience is not a daily occurance to many of us and our minds and bodies do not react in a normal manner.
Police officers train for weeks to use their firearms on others. Then we see videos of them missing their intended targets from less than 20 feet. If it happens to trained officers, think how it will effect a person without all the formal training of an officer or one that switches guns as often as they switch their shoes.
It is fantastic to be able to shoot the face off a playing card at 50 feet and the shooter will certainly impress their friends. Yet when a man in a parking lot puts a gun to your child's head and demands your wallet and your car keys, then all bets are off. Or when three punks jump you as you walk to your car after work and they each have a gun and you do not have to take out one but rather three. Or as I was trained for and hope it never happens, have one with a knife, one with a shotgun, one with a handgun and each is in a home and at varying distances.
Practice is good but training is better. Consistency is even better. Use the same gun each time. Changing guns decreases accuracy and makes you less famillar with the gun in your hand or on your side. Practice different shooting positions. Use different hands. Shoot at different distances and from different angles (I assure you that in most instances you will not be shooting straight on). Practice point shooting. If you have time to take a careful aim, you may not have the critical situation you feel you do.
Most will never be faced with a deadly force situation so be happy about it. For those that will be, just do your best and let all the preparation you have done for those few seconds pay off.