shooting tips

[gordon_00]

hi guys,
well after a few trips to the range, i can definitely say that i am low and to the left.

my first question is a bit of a newbie question, but how do you sight this (and generally any other pistol) properly?

my first instinct, coming from shooting pellet rifles as a kid, is to align the three dots on what i want to hit.

but when i do this, i generally hit about 8" low at 15 feet or so.

then i tried aligning the front dot with the top of the rear sight, completely ignoring the two dots.

this gave better results, but now its more to the left.

next i completely ignored the back sights and focused on pointing the front sight at the center of the bullseye.

maybe it was just luck, but this seemed to get the best results.
as it is, its hard to test things out, because after about 50 rds my stamina is shot and i need a break.
any tips on how to be able to shoot longer or is it just more practice?

 

[Spidey2011]

The low and left thing is very common. Shoot as much as you can and get some snap caps to dry fire it whenever you're not shooting it. After about 500 dry fires and another 400 rounds at the range, my trigger smoothed out and I rarely suffer from the low and left shots anymore, at least until my trigger finger starts to give out.

50 rounds is probably going to be the limit until you get used to the trigger (dry firing will help here too). But after a few trips to the range you'll start noticing those ammo boxes emptying a lot quicker.

If after a few more trips you're still shooting low and left, get set up on a bench to eliminate the human factor and see how you do. If you're still off, you can move the rear sight to adjust for windage only. If you're still low, that's just the way it is unless you replace the sights. At 15 feet it should be pretty close though.

 

[.357 mag]

More practice for sure. I'd stay your jerking the trigger causing you to shoot low. Best thing you can do is in your home, clear/check/empty your gun, put a dime on top of the slide, and dry fire the gun without dropping the dime. Also if you have a laser pen you can put it in the end of the barrel, and dry fire at the wall without moving the laser.

Welcome to the forum,

.357 mag

 

[gordon_00]

More practice for sure. I'd stay your jerking the trigger causing you to shoot low. Best thing you can do is in your home, clear/check/empty your gun, put a dime on top of the slide, and dry fire the gun without dropping the dime. Also if you have a laser pen you can put it in the end of the barrel, and dry fire at the wall without moving the laser.

Welcome to the forum,

.357 mag

haha, i read the dime thing, and tried it.
i could pull off as many shots as i wanted without the dime shaking at all.
ill try the laser thing.

edit:
laser doesnt fit in a 9mm barrel apparently.

dont get me wrong, i had about 4 dead center bullseye shots, but my precision was way off.

if i were to break it down scientifically, i'd say i have high accuracy and low precision.
i only had a few outliers, the rest were within a 6" diameter circle centered on the bullseye.

 

[Akbrener]

Double check your finger position, might be too far over the trigger. which could make your finger pull the gun in and the barrel to the left

 

[massdraw]

These may help you

http://www.degrata.com/pdf/commonshootingerrors.pdf
http://www.targetshooting.ca/docs/shooting_faults.pdf

I also found this online a little bit more detailed. Not sure if it's dated

http://www.saveourguns.com/Ar_Marks_Un_Pistol_Train_Guide.pdf

Good luck stay safe

 

[gordon_00]

When you say finger too far over the trigger, do you mean that I need to move my finger so I press it closer to the tip?
Currently the trigger lands about dead center of the second joint in my pointer finger.

 

[Akbrener]

You kinda want the trigger to be on the pad of your finger tip that way your finger can pull straight back. if its too far in then your finger will curve around the trigger and pull it ever so slightly

 

[marlin.357]

Assuming your right handed apply more grip pressure with your left hand than your right, press the trigger straight back with the pad of your index finger s-m-o-o-t-h-l-y to the rear until it fires. Don't try to stage it, remember, s-m-o-o-t-h.

 

[gordon_00]

will do.

btw that last link to the pistol training guide is AMAZING.
way too much info for one reading though

 

[Akbrener]

that last link is definitely the mecca of info for shooting, but dont think about it too much, just get a comfortable grip, ensure your trigger finger is in the right spot, and keep the squeeze slow and smooth. You are lucky and have a trend in your shots, just adjust your grip to not go low left.

Another thing that we use in the Coast Guard to train new shooters is to put a pencil or pen ( tip facing out) into the barrel and position the gun with the pencil/pen touching the target or a sheet of paper.

Dry fire the weapon and see if the pencil leaves a line or a dot on the target. You can see if you are jerking the barrel, even just a little 1/8" mark can mean alot 20 yards down the line.

 

[gordon_00]

aha! a pencil is 7.5mm as i recall, so will work much better in a 9mm barrel lol.

i think im going to have to limit myself to 50 rounds or so until i get better because im afraid that by going on, im just building bad habits.

i can dryfire for 45 minutes straight, but the noise, recoil, shock, ect seems to be whats getting to me more than anything.

 

[Akbrener]

If the shock, recoil etc. is getting to you, have a friend go with you to the range and help you out.

have him/her hand you your weapon, behind your back and out of your sight they will either give you a gun with one in the chamber or empty. You wont find out until you pull the trigger. If you are anticipating the recoil you will find out when you flinch to a click rather than a bang.

 

[gordon_00]

It's safer with snap caps placed randomly, but yeah, that's definitely my main problem I think. I went and got some 26db reduction shooting ear protection but I may put in the foamy ones in addition