Trouble keeping on paper-

tops · Oct 9, 2015

The picture of your target is for 50 ft. You are shooting at 75 ft. so you are shooting 25 ft. farther than the distance your target was made to shoot. A beginner should be closer than the distance the target was made for instead of farther. Post #17 (stu1ritter) shows you the group that a very good shooter can expect at 75 ft. with a short barrel. I am lead to believe since you are a new shooter there is nothing wrong with gun and you are starting to find out that pistols are difficult to shoot accurately. All you need is a bunch of money to buy a bunch of bullets and time to practice, practice, practice. Good luck and have fun. Larry

Krell1 · Oct 9, 2015

stu1ritter said:
Harumph! A snub at 25 yards, indeed. I have been shooting bullseye competition for 55 years. I am high expert with one leg toward distinguished. Here is a target I shot with a 2" snub nose at 25 yards for an online competition. That's a 7.5" group. I'm just saying, start at the beginning.

I've done the same. When I was an active bullseye shooter (high expert) I often practiced with a friend by shooting our Mod 60's at 50 feet. We'd shoot shot for shot until we missed the black center of the target. We often went upwards to 50 shots before one of us missed. great fun but really a lot cheaper to shoot back then.

flagman1776 · Oct 9, 2015

You have had soome good tips on shooting technique already however...

Let's start... What kind of ammo are you using? Is your barrel leaded?
Start with a clean barrel. I recommend a light film of Break Free CLP... chambers & barrel & everything but the grips outside. Run the BF patch through & then a dry patch... This way any lead or fouling will be on top of the film, easier to clean & clean barels are accurate.
Now we have the housekeeping out of the way, fire off the bench with sand bags, start close & move out. You must know which ammo your gun likes... pick a mild - mid load for practice.
I always bench every load... if it won't group off sand bags, it won't be better off hand.
Depending on your hand size & grip style, you might want to try different grips on the gun. And different hand positions. With small guns, I like to lock the thump of my support hand over my strong hand, but there are other grip styles.

You need to prove your shooting system up close... gradually moving back as your skill improves.

Front sight, front sight, front sight. You can not focus on your target, the front sight & rear sight at once. It's a physcal impossibility. Initially your focus will be on your target... You must bring your focus back to your front sight... the rear sight will be almost in focus on a short barrel revolver & that is good enough as you silouette the front sight in the gap.
Can you see your sights clearly? I recall a detective who needed to reset his bifocals so he could see his front sight... before he shot.

rockphikapps · Oct 9, 2015

Wow!

What a great community! I loved reading all the responses. And actually, you all said what I was thinking. But I was quite discouraged that my dad had thought I should be able to do better.

Also- The only distance at the local range was 25yards. When everyone else left I kept shooting at 10yards and did quite a bit better.

Still not great.

I know it's not a great target gun, but it's the one I own. I'd like to get comfortable enough to be able to rely on it for protection (to an extent).

ON a lighter note, I just bought a 1985 Marlin 336 in 30-30 (Old Weaver 4.5W on top) the week before shooting. My first time shooting a rifle in about 8 years. Zero'd in at 50 yards, then here is my first grouping on moving up to 100 yards:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/omptl32itbnx8l9/2015-10-04 16.52.40.jpg?dl=0

I guess I felt like I was doing pretty great at rifle...felt depressing to miss the target so badly.

K-framer · Oct 10, 2015

Don't be discouraged. It takes TIME. Shooting well, as much as anything else I can think of, is ALL about experience and technique. Practice, practice, practice. Get the fundamentals right FIRST (technique)....then do the experience part.

So, pull that target in to 3 or 5 yards....and get shooting ! You'll get there.

stu1ritter · Oct 10, 2015

When I was shooting competition I would practice, at the range, 5 nights a week, usually between 90 and 150 rounds a night shooting practice matches. Dry fire at home about half an hour every morning. With a friend, do "ball and dummy" training at least 2-3 hours a week to keep the recoil/flinch devil under control. On Army teams we did "ball and dummy" for an hour every morning before live fire practice. There is a lot to this pistol shooting game.............Keep at it, keep analyzing your mistakes, and just keep shooting, it just gets better and better.

Double-O-Dave · Oct 14, 2015

Hi Rockphikapps:

This is a follow-up from my previous response with the photos I was looking for when I first read your original post. The Ergo grip is a fairly new product that is an ergonomic grip for S&W J-frame revolvers. I tested a pair against my preferred grips for S&W J-frames, the Crimson Trace (CT) LG-405 laser grips. My EDC consists of a Model 638-1 and a Model 38-0 - both air weight (alloy framed) J-frame revolvers chambered in .38 Special. Trying to do as close to an apples-to-apples comparison, I mounted the Ergo grips on the Model 38 and fired 20 rounds at each target at a distance of 7 yards. I tried to shoot each revolver as quickly as possible, and tried to fire as soon as the front sight was on the center of the target. I used the front sight only on the Model 638-1, and did not use the laser to aim with.

My conclusion, without attempting any type of measurement beyond an "eyeball guestimate" is that both revolvers shot roughly equal groups. While I think either would be equally useful in a self defense situation, I wanted to provide you with a photographic example of what I would consider reasonable accuracy with a J-frame revolver at a reasonable distance of 7 yards.

I hope this helps.

Regards,

Dave

BE Mike · Oct 14, 2015

There is nothing wrong with your shooting at 25 yards. If you used a silhouette target, you would have scored decent hits. Your biggest problem was the choice of target for that distance. As has been stated, the short sight radius of snubbies, makes detecting small errors in sight alignment very difficult. If you had been shooting, say a 6" revolver, you would have seen much more movement and errors. So this means that you should focus even more intensely on the front sight and trigger control to get really great hits. The revolver itself is most likely able to shoot small groups at 25 yards without the interference of the "loose nut behind the trigger". Check this out: [ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIwVK_FxGZk[/ame]

DWFAN · Oct 14, 2015

As a range officer I used to qualify the local PD at our range once a year. Sometimes it was the only time these officers fired their weapons. We used the B21 at 3 and 7 yards for snub users. This was the early 70's. Sometimes it took all day to get a guy qualified. Just practice. That's the only way to get good at anything.

DW

Trouble keeping on paper-

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