Not shooting accurately

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Geezer with an AR

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Took my M&P 2.0 to range for the first time, I was all over the target from the first shot, shooting at 7 yds the first shot barely clipped the left side of the target, judging from the reports i've read on the 2.0 and it's accuracy it's definitely not the pistol.Pretty obvious I need lessons.Ckd at the range where I shoot and they charge $75 per hour.Is this in line with what you guys have seen or paid,suggestions?Thanks.
 
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Yes. A few years back I paid $70 for an hour with one of the instructors at our LGS to watch me shoot and give pointers to improve fundamentals, accuracy, speed, etc.
 
Reinforcing bad habits through continuing to shoot without someone pointing out flaws is expensive, frustrating and usually unproductive.

If the $75 seems too steep, hang out at the range and observe other shooters. Find the best one. Ask him or her to give you some pointers in exchange for a couple of boxes of ammo, when he has time.

There are usually three or four tips that can significantly improve your accuracy. After that, dry fire practice at home. When you can point into the target with aligned sights and fire without disturbing your front sight aligned on target, go to the range to check your new skills. Shouldn't take much ammo.

If you are satisfied, keep dry firing at home to ingrain good habits, checking your progress at the range. Don't waste ammo if you are not satisfied with your results.
 
Save your money for a bit and do some dedicated dry-fire practice. Gun unloaded, pick a small target, line up your sights, then stroke the trigger through smoothly and quickly, paying particular attention to where the front sight goes. Keep it up, always watching the front sight and bit-by-bit training your grip and trigger technique to eliminate the sight movement. Next time you go to live fire, you will be amazed.
 
$75 an hour is probably not unreasonable for really competent instruction, except that there are so many other ways you can get it for less, including much less. Gil Hebard's Pistol Shooter's Treasury, which used to be included in his free catalog gratis, is probably the best collection of printed material. There are others. Sight picture. Trigger control. Recognizing a flinch (dummies?). Recognizing that a flinch is usually a reaction to an event that is not actually an adverse event (if it is, stop doing it).

Get the book, and read up on it. If that doesn't work, figure out which local will help you for free. If you can't find one, pay the $75/hr, which will be worth it if it works (no guarantees here, either).
 
Get some snap caps and put a dime on the front sight. Practice pulling the trigger till the dime doesn't fall off. Helped me with trigger control.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I've taught a lot of people how to shoot over the years. Most were good listeners and could translate what they heard to being able to do it. Good shooting boils down to two basic functions. Sight alignment and manipulating the trigger without disturbing the sight alignment. If you do it right, you'll do both at the same time. It is simple, but very difficult. Having someone to coach you can save you a lot of grief, so yes I think paying someone to teach you is worthwhile, if the person doing the coaching (instructing) is competent. The problem of trying to fly solo is that you may not have a clue as to what you are supposed to do and/or you can pick up bad habits that take a long time for you to pick up on, where a good instructor can spot them sooner. Once bad habits get ingrained, it is hard to break them and learn the proper technique instead of building on good fundamentals at the outset.
 
I learned accurate handgun shooting by dry firing. Make sure the pistol is unloaded, point it at a target and concentrate on the front sight. Practice until the front sight no longer dips as you press the trigger. Yes, press, not pull, the trigger.
 
Tape one of those cheap laser pointers to your handgun and then do the dry fire exercises mentioned above. The laser will help show you exactly what is happening when you pull the trigger. This is a good exercise, as the more centered you can keep the laser, the more centered your shots will be.
 
stansdds said:
I learned accurate handgun shooting by dry firing. Make sure the pistol is unloaded, point it at a target and concentrate on the front sight. Practice until the front sight no longer dips as you press the trigger. Yes, press, not pull, the trigger.
Click to expand...
Of course, ultimately one has to shoot live ammo to learn not to anticipate recoil and follow through. Anticipating recoil will ruin good sight alignment and trigger control. Having said that, dry fire is a good technique to have as a part of an entire training program.
 
BE Mike said:
Good shooting boils down to two basic functions. Sight alignment and manipulating the trigger without disturbing the sight alignment.
Click to expand...
This is what it's really all about. It's also harder than a lot of people think.

There are 6 fundamentals of shooting:
  1. Stance
  2. Grip
  3. Sight Alignment
  4. Sight Picture
  5. Trigger Control
  6. Follow Through

Of these the most overlooked and misunderstood is Follow Through. That may be a topic for another thread though.

In the end, operating the trigger without disturbing the sights is really all that matters.
 
Geezer with an AR said:
Took my M&P 2.0 to range for the first time, I was all over the target from the first shot, shooting at 7 yds the first shot barely clipped the left side of the target, judging from the reports i've read on the 2.0 and it's accuracy it's definitely not the pistol.Pretty obvious I need lessons.Ckd at the range where I shoot and they charge $75 per hour.Is this in line with what you guys have seen or paid,suggestions?Thanks.
Click to expand...

Trigger is too gritty or tough to pull ./somewhat slapping the trigger ,because they are fairly accurate from MFG.JUS sayin.
 
I haven't tried the 2.0, but when we transitioned to the M&P 1.0 a lot of folks had issues with trigger control. They tended to lose patience and finish off the trigger stroke with a hearty yank (me included). The suggestion to do lots of dryfire is a good idea.
 
Geezer with an AR said:
Never understood follow through
Click to expand...
Understanding follow through also involves understanding why we miss.

Think of it this way, no one cares about the shot. Everyone cares about the result of the shot. With this in mind, think about how we act while practice shooting. We take a shot and look at the target to see where the shot hit. This isn't a problem as long as we shoot first and look second. Alas, we're so interested in seeing the results, we tend to look too quickly and take our eyes off the sights. This is a miss every time. Follow through fixes this issue.

Here's the correct shot sequence:
  1. Get proper sight alignment and sight picture.
  2. Keep focus on front sight.
  3. Press the trigger straight back.
  4. After recoil, obtain another sight picture. This is the second sight picture.
  5. Now, and only now, look to see where the holes are in the target.
It's the second sight picture that is the main component of follow through. By getting the second sight picture, you ensure your focus is not taken off the sights until after the shot is done. Every shot sequence includes one extra sight picture. So, if you take two shots, there are three sight pictures. Three shots, four sight pictures and so on.

Quality follow through will tighten your groups considerably. It will also improve accuracy.
 
Walt Sherrill said:
I found this video on YouTube recently and it's got a LOT of good ideas and suggestions. In some respects, it's one of the best video on handgun technique (and training) I've seen. Give it a view:

HTTPS://youtu.be/nYzheuJE47E
Click to expand...
Some of the ideas put forth seem conflicting, such as the ideas on trigger manipulation. I also disagree with the steps starting with "freeze". I believe that sight alignment and trigger manipulation need to be considered as two functions taking place together. The part regarding anticipation of recoil is good. I'm not sure about his take on dry firing. Most every top competitive shooter I've known have done extensive dry fire training and most continue even when they reach very high levels of proficiency. I do agree that training doesn't depend upon the amount of rounds fired, but how much is learned from each round fired. It is NOT the best video I've seen regarding handgun shooting.
 
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