Recommended books

[blp965]

I am a relatively new shooter and was wondering what books you might recommend as tools to help me improve my shooting. I'm not a duty/carry guy, I shoot an M&P 9mm at my local range. My primary goal is to get better tighter groups and increase my consistency. I may try IDPA some day if I feel I gotten good enough to try it without embarassing myself.

I think something that really takes you through stance, grip, breathing, trigger control, fixing errors, etc. With plenty of dry fire drills. Anyone know of any good books or DVDs that cover that?

 

[Dragon88]

What you need is one-on-one training from an instructor. A book or website can give you tips, but if you apply those tips incorrectly, you are building in bad habits that will be hard to fix later.

Look for a basic pistol course in your area.

 

[hobby-gunsmith]

better shooting tips

If you want to do it right, take the NRA certified 1st steps intro to basic pistol. Log in to the NRA web site and link on to education/training. Search for the nearest class in your area. You need the basics to practice what you learn and then move up to the next level of their basic pistol class. The first class is three hours and the next class is 8 hours. The NRA has a multitude of classes to learn the right way. If you want to spend the bucks, you can learn from a premier shooting academy from basic to advance in a one day course or several day courses. The books give you some tips but you still need the basics.

Nick

 

[hfl73]

The NRA Basic Pistol Course will include a booklet called "The Basics of Pistol Shooting". Near the end of the book is a section called, "Common Shooting Errors" that will help you correct shooting problems. I keep mine as a staple in my range bag and refer to it often when I am practicing. It is as good as any publication on the subject.

 

[Bluelou]

Look into this book (the pistol shooter's treasury) by Gil hebard.this book helped me out a lot when I first started out.good luck and happy shooting.

 

[Kelly Green]

There are many books out there by different authors, some offering good and some not so good advice to improve your shooting skills. The tips these authors give are what works for them. They may work well for some shooters and not so well for others. If you have the basics down then skill will improves with practice. The more you shoot, the more proficient you should become.

 

[walkin' trails]

Anything by Jeff Cooper!

Massad Ayoob's books are good to study.

Books complement a good instructor, but won't replace one.

 

[chuck s]

Save your money on books and NRA courses. Spend it on real training. Good course will run two, preferably three days. 300-500 rounds per day for ammo planning.

Practice without previous good training just reinforces bad or inefficient practices.

Since your first post omits your location we can't get very specific as to where you can take this training.

Gunfights are more about gun handling than marksmanship. Good courses teach the first, the second comes along naturally with the process.

Expensive? Time consuming? Sure. But most folks would rather just pretend.

-- Chuck

 

[blp965]

thank you all for your input

I'll follow your collective advice and focus on hands on instruction, and then look at some of the books as references and reminders. I've completed the NRA pistol basics, but thats really safety focussed (as it should be). To improve my actual shooting, I have signed up for a shooting fundamanetals class that starts tonight. Can't wait.
Thank you.

 

[Houdini1953]

Good shooting in your endeavors at the range at your new class and try not to be too nervous because except for the instructor the others there are also new to shooting a pistol of any kind and you seem to already have quite a bit of knowledge about your particular weapon so go in with confidence and also humility!

 

[Dragon88]

I'll follow your collective advice and focus on hands on instruction, and then look at some of the books as references and reminders. I've completed the NRA pistol basics, but thats really safety focussed (as it should be). To improve my actual shooting, I have signed up for a shooting fundamanetals class that starts tonight. Can't wait.
Thank you.

You made the right choice, congrats. Good shooting fundamentals will stay with you for the rest of your life. Well, as long as you practice them anyway.