Shooting Basics (I need Help!)

[BongoBoy]

If simply holding the gun to allow use of your dominant eye works while keeping both eyes open, then I don't see any downside to doing that. Folks do succeed in learning to use the right eye though, and that may come in handy for rifle should that be of any interest.

One technique I've seen work is to put a strip of frosty Scotch tape over the left lens of your shooting glasses. This is similar to closing the left eye in that your right eye is the one that has to do the work. But, it has the advantage of allowing normal ambient light into the open left eye. That ensures the pupil of the right eye doesn't compensate and open up, AND it keeps you from developing a habit of closing one eye.

With sufficient practice, the tape can be removed and all should remain 'normal'.

This is probably better used in cases where the left eye is only slightly dominant and keeping both eyes open is an irritating distraction, as it is for many shooters. I'm not an instructor, but I'd say if your left eye is strongly dominant, then just use it.

 

[Seanhagerty]

Wow. Lots of discussion here, all over the target backer.

I was in your same shoes, hadnt shot pistol in decades, and got back into it. For the longest time I was hitting low left. I just couldnt get past it. Then I started dry firing. A lot. I mean like ten minutes a day. (My left forearm hurt a lot.)

Once I started being honest with myself about whether or not the sights moved off target when I pulled the trigger, I started getting better. I then started trying different hand and finger placements, and different grip tensions.

Then the tricky part was getting someone competent to further my training. I found a training group that tries to meet once a week and I go. Irregularly, but I get out there. It has helped the things I couldnt see with my grip and sight picture and follow through, etc....

I can do ok with a pistol nowadays, after about a years practice. I won a local pistol tourny last week using my shield. Targets werent past 15 yards, but I won.

This approach works.

 

[BongoBoy]

For the longest time I was hitting low left. I just couldn't get past it. Then I started dry firing.

I started shooting as a wee lad in 1960 or so, and shot every weekend with dad. Mostly trap, but eventually at about 13 I focused on handgun, using the 1911 that I still have here now within arm's reach. Wasn't ever very good with handgun.

About 8 years ago I took quite a bit of training at Sig Academy, all defensive pistol courses. I started learning to shoot for the first time.

With that training came dry fire practice. My shooting improved immediately, and the previous decades of shooting I just chalked up to goofing around. I'll strongly +1 the benefit of dryfire practice--and personally I think most handgun shooters would benefit FAR more from 10 min a day of dryfire than they would from any amount of live fire at the range without it.

Combine the two, and shooting is a joy again.

There were three comments my favorite instructor as Sig Academy made that were so brain-dead simple and made so much sense, they stuck with me and always will.

1) When you press the trigger the gun goes Bang! and recoils. Get over it.
2) The holes are in the target in exactly the spots where the gun was aimed when it discharged.
3) Your objective is to press the trigger without moving the sights.

You do dryfire practice, then go the range and make it 'feel' the same way. Use a black target and ideally put it in a place where you can't see where you're hitting, and stop looking at the target while you're shooting. Absolutely DO NOT use the indicator targets--probably the worst disaster for learning shooters I can imagine. Don't feel compelled to empty the magazine before taking a short break. Look at the target later.

These are some ideas & techniques that have worked very well for me and others I've worked with at the old range.

 

[Rickgus]

I am right handed and have always shot long guns left handed. When going into the Army and having to qualify, most DI's seem to think all shooters were meant to shoot right handed. I had trouble trying to shoot right handed and one of the DI's asked me what the problem was and when I told him I have always shot left handed, he was receptive in me making the switch. I started knocking down the popups like I knew I could. The DI shook his head and smiled!

I was never really good at shooting handguns and it wasn't until much later I heard about eye dominance and shooting cross dominance. It really does make a difference and I still to this day watch different You Tube videos watching the various techniques, wondering if this old right eye could be retrained? I think for now, I will continue shooting the cross dominance. The dominant eye has been identified long ago and I don't think there will be any chance of me confusing which eye to shoot with on any given day! JMHO

 

[FreedomRocks]

You should not kick yourself. It sounds like you got the 10 Yards and under down pat, and that is where personal defense happens. If you're able to group nicely at 15 Yards and maybe even out to 25 Yards with a Shield, great shooting, but its just bragging rights you earn. You're not going to be defending yourself that far away, and if you did, I'm sure a Grand Jury would want to know why.

For me at 50 feet, I can get 95% of my shots inside an 8 inch target with a Shield, but their scattered throughout. But I haven't had it very long either. There is a break in period for it and me. I'm more concerned with how I am doing at 7 Yards. If I want to test distance, I break out my M&P 9 Pro Series, or my XDm .45.

 

[johncal]

I would just shoot with whatever hand works best even if that's different from a handgun to a long gun.

I'm left handed and I do certain things much better right handed than left. That's just how some people are.

It reminds me of back in the day when the Nuns would hit your hand with a ruler if you wrote with your left hand. I wonder how many people that _ucked up.

Anyways, certain peoples brains are wired a certain way and not necessarily the wrong way, just differently.

Does it make sense to learn how to shoot with the other hand? Sure. There are a lot of reasons it could come in "handy" so to speak. But I wouldn't sweat it.