"guilty of being lax on practicing"
I'm just curious.... how many hours a month would be considered "good practice and ongoing training" with my EDC?
That's a good question. I trained-practiced quite regularly as the department range officer. 18 years of access to all the ammo I could shoot. Retired, reality hit with the cost of ammunition.
Since I always carried a S&W Airweight I bought a 317 and .22 by the case. Added a 351C too. All three guns have the same standard Smith 2 finger synthetic rubber grip, which fits me well. If you have the proper grip and trigger squeeze for a .22 or the even harder. 22 mag you will shoot a bigger caliber revolver like nobody's business.
It's not a question of training with bigger recoil. It all comes down to proper grip and trigger discipline. If you have that, you can shoot anything. If your EDC is a bottom feeder find a .22 that is close in operation to your carry. That solves the ammo cost issue.
Range time can be a problem, but dry fire time is free and available when you are. Slow, steady dry fire will reap excellence. Here too, grip and squeeze is the objective. I belong to a club with a outdoor range and volunteer as a RSO as well. Retired, range time is easy. But even with that I dry fire more times in the basement concentrating on front sight, grip, trigger squeeze. Practice the draw too. Most importantly set your grip before the draw then come up to your firing position. Do this thousands of times.
Make sure the EDC weapon of choice fits your hand-wrist-arm when the grip is set. The barrel should point just like pointing your index finger. This is where many hobby shooters go wrong. A huge double stack gun that doesn't line up naturally is a no win weapon. Can you group one well on the range on paper targets? Sure. Can you do the same thing with adrenaline leaking out your ears and your heart beating a drum solo? No freakin' way. This is where the proper fitted weapon and all that basement draw and dry fire comes to the surface.
That's all I have, good luck.
