Quest To Be A Better Shot

[x101airborne]

I have looked high and low for a knowledgeable handgun shooter to help me get to be a better shot but to no avail. Dont get me wrong, you dont want to be a bad guy standing in front of me at 50 yards, but that aint what I am after. I am after being able to deliver that one great shot out to 100 yards to be able to put down that one special deer of the season with a revolver.  

One article said about grip that your grip should be firm enough to make another man uncomfortable. That is so vague I dont understand it. What man? Someone who types all day or a man that drives 150 steel posts by hand in a day? I might just be overthinking it. Im frustrated looking for answers. Plus I think I am afraid of the target. I shoot great out in the field but put me on a 3 inch paster at 30 yards and deer in the next county think they are being poached. The only thing safe IS the target. 

I have even gotten out the Dan Wesson 22lr and the New Blackhawk 45 ACP to try and get over this. I am wanting to pursue this because sometime soon I have a 500 Linebaugh coming and already own a 454 Casull that I just cant seem to get accurate with. 

Does anyone know a video series or book or something that I can study and work with? I am also really concentrating on "pressing" the trigger not "pulling" it. My tardive dyskinesia is NOT helping either. Getting older really sucks and I am not all the way there yet.   

[45MAN]

DO YOU WANT TO SHOOT AT A DEER AT 100 YARDS:

1. OFF HAND OR OFF A REST?

2. OPEN SIGHTS, RED DOT OR SCOPED?

MOST SEASONED HANDGUN HUNTERS I KNOW LIMIT OPEN SIGHTS HANDGUN HUNTING TO UNDER 100 YARDS, MY PERSONAL LIMIT BEING 50-60 YARDS, AND PREFERRABLY OFF A REST. YOU gott'a BE REALLY VERY, VERY GOOD TO USE OPEN SIGHTS OFF HAND AT 100 YARDS AND EXPECT TO DO SOME PRECISE SHOOTING. REMEMBER, THE OBJECT IS TO KILL 'em NOT JUST HIT 'em.

[bigbrowndog]

www.handgunhuntersinternational.com/_files/ugd/6e60fa_af4f3f8e9989494a86ef6744f899c75a.pdf
This can help some for bench accuracy work as well, although it’s written for field work. TARGET PANIC, is a malady that takes concentrated effort to overcome, it is not something that can be casually overcome with random effort. It is also seems to be best overcome with short sessions and light recoiling guns, 22’s. Banging away for 50-100 rounds does no good if you’re not learning or have not overcome your issue. Start with 6 or 10 rounds only, and concentrate on two things,…trigger press and sights. Use a 3” post it note at 25 yards and a larger clean backer. You can even fire one round with full concentration and walk away, come back in an hour and shoot one more, then repeat. Short sessions and a clear mind uncluttered with any other thoughts except sights, trigger press.
Also, have the gun solidly held by bags or a rest, you do not want to concentrate on holding the gun offhand, just sights and trigger press. Once you start working in Target Panic do not change guns until you overcome the issue, and do not casually shoot any other guns. You are trying to overcome a serious shooting malady and if you take it casually or not serious you won’t correct it. 
The article covers grip tension, and no one can tell you what enough is, you determine that.
Trapr

[aciera]

Apr 27, 2024 8:33:50 GMT -5 x101airborne said:

I have looked high and low for a knowledgeable handgun shooter to help me get to be a better shot but to no avail. Dont get me wrong, you dont want to be a bad guy standing in front of me at 50 yards, but that aint what I am after. I am after being able to deliver that one great shot out to 100 yards to be able to put down that one special deer of the season with a revolver.  

One article said about grip that your grip should be firm enough to make another man uncomfortable. That is so vague I dont understand it. What man? Someone who types all day or a man that drives 150 steel posts by hand in a day? I might just be overthinking it. Im frustrated looking for answers. Plus I think I am afraid of the target. I shoot great out in the field but put me on a 3 inch paster at 30 yards and deer in the next county think they are being poached. The only thing safe IS the target. 

I have even gotten out the Dan Wesson 22lr and the New Blackhawk 45 ACP to try and get over this. I am wanting to pursue this because sometime soon I have a 500 Linebaugh coming and already own a 454 Casull that I just cant seem to get accurate with. 

Does anyone know a video series or book or something that I can study and work with? I am also really concentrating on "pressing" the trigger not "pulling" it. My tardive dyskinesia is NOT helping either. Getting older really sucks and I am not all the way there yet.   

I may be able to help a lil. Sorta.
Your grip needs to be on the pistol. Not a death grip. And you lose consistency when you grip too much.
You ain’t gonna BadAzz the big ones. Just control them through their arc. But keep a good grip on the gun itself.


Just my $.02.

[sharps4590]

One thing that helped me is what Byron Ferguson said about shooting a longbow.

"It's better to practice one shot with 100% concentration than 10 shots with 10% concentration."

As 45Man said, 50-60 yards is my offhand, open sight limit. I guess it will stay that way because I am not about to put an optical sight on a revolver.

bbdog has good points as well.

[handgunhuntingafield]

All the things I took for granted and over looked I had to go back over 3 years ago when my wife decided she wanted to hunt with a revolver. She went from zero to taking her first elk with a wheelgun last year.

Dry fire is huge.

Keeping practice short in duration, focused, and precise is also huge in my eyes.

It doesn’t do any good to blast away if it isn’t perfect. Perfect practice leads to gained skills. Once the foundation is laid then you can push to the point of failure and grow more.

[x101airborne]

All comments are appreciated. Thank yall. Like I said that is why I have dropped back to 45 ACP and 22 lr.

100 yards is my absolute limit I wish to attain. No, right now I wont try an open sight shot on a buck at 100 yards but it is my goal one day to be able to. Right now I am concentrating on consistent grip and "trying" to steady the sights. I dont expect this to happen overnight. I am realistic on my expectations and my current ability. If I dont admit to a problem I probably wont be able to solve it.

[bigbore5]

Each session you ace the target in is the one that matters. If your goal is to hunt to one hundred yards you have to have your shots inside the kill zone every shot obviously. You're not going to get there practicing at 100yds. I know I couldn't even though I now kill groundhog at that range no problem.

My preferred target are plain old 3×5 index cards and regular playing cards I get at the dollar store. Well in the kill zone size of a coyote.

When I started, it was hard for me to keep every shot on one at 30ft. So that's where I practiced. Then once I could keep them all there, I went to 35ft. Then 15yds. 20yds. 25yds. Shoot each distance until you don't miss one. Step back every now and then and shoot some closer ones mixed in with the longer shots. If you get tired, take a break.

Don't get stuck on just the serious target either. Shoot some rocks and cans just for fun too. It relaxes the mind and keeps the shooting natural. You can over concentrate on it, which misses game in the field. Shooting is fun. Let it be.

[bigbrowndog]

All comments are appreciated. Thank yall. Like I said that is why I have dropped back to 45 ACP and 22 lr.

If you’re struggling drop the 45acp, whatever platform it is. Just carry 22’s and practice with them until you overcome the issues. Even out to 100, the 22 will do the job for practice. Reset your goals into smaller bits to make them more attainable, and to give yourself somewhere to drop back to if you struggle and have to restart. 4”@25, 8”@50, 12”@75, 16”@100. When those are attained then make it harder, like half the target size. A drill I used in competition practice to start and finish my sessions with was 50 shots on a 6” plate, no misses. If I missed, the count had to be restarted. Sights, Trigger, Follow through, were the focus. I say this because if you start to get sloppy then you’re just cheating yourself. Every bullet, every shot counts, plinking is nOt practice, practice has a goal, plinking is just shooting crap.

Trapr

[bradshaw]

Trey.... tried to stay away.... subject runs deep.... Marksmanship begins like an Egyptian pyramid, at the base. While the COORDINATIONS of MARKSMANSHIP----the technique of making a shot----pertain to all positions, from sandbag rest to standing, the body’s lack of support separates standing from sandbag (or other rest positions such as Creedmoor and Dead Frog) from prone, sitting, and kneeling. in standing the gun never stops moving. More than any other position, standing demands a smooth squeeze & follow through. This makes standing more susceptible to nerve pressure.

Standing, also called Offhand and the other positions rely on the same grip pressure. Two qualities regulate grip pressure: 1) hand strength, and 2) recoil. I would not pretend to equal Ronnie Wells’ hand strength. My relaxed grip pressure doesn’t not equal Ronnie’s relaxed grip pressure. Too much grip pressure induces muscle tremor. Tremor not only throws the sights around, tremor spreads its spasm to the trigger finger. More shots are lost at the trigger than on the sights. Not only that, spasm on the trigger throws shots farther off target the a faded sight picture.

When wounds, injury, or a medical condition induce acute or chronic tremor to arms or hands, this hybrid rifle-pistol stance may help steady the shot.

Hybrid Standing, two hands
* Assume boxer’s stance, quartering toward target.
* Shift lead foot a bit more forward.
* Pistol held at Low Ready, muzzle angled slightly forward.
* Sweep pistol up to target, simultaneously bracing support arm against chest. Elbow anchors arm against chest.
* Gun arm, elbow slightly bent, forms a buttstock.

Depending on one’s anatomy, the support elbow may be close to the sternum. Which means the arm is more to front of the rib cage than beside it.

Advantage----steady.
Disadvantage----shortest Eye Relief of all standing positions.

Squeeze like you’re taking a baby’s pulse. To shoot faster, take the pulse faster.
David Bradshaw

[kevshell]

I was reading through the post wondering if David would comment. There you go.

I won't comment on mechanics as nothing I have to contribute would be anything more or better than what's been mentioned above. What did help me was reactionary targets. Paper is definitely good to get dialed in. I still shoot paper quite a bit. But where I grew up everything was lush and green. All you could do is shoot paper. I envied those in the west where they could see bullet strikes in the dirt. When I joined the one range in NC they had dirt berms. I took small water bottles, skunked beer cans, self healing targets, and clay pigeons for target shooting. They don't allow steel or I would have purchased steel targets. My goal was to connect with the target with the entire cylinder full (as it should be). But it made it fun and you had immediate feedback on strikes. Either you connected or you could see the hit. 4 shots in the exact place to the left (missing) at least said you were doing something consistent other than missing. It's a good day when you can level a 500L offhand (HS6 loads) and pop those little pony water bottles with every round in the cylinder. It's not every time out but it makes you more confident. The 22 and 32 taught me more than any other revolver. And that said, a single action helped me more than any other handgun. It makes you slow down in every aspect.

Shooting shotguns taught me a lot about the mental aspect. My 30th birthday present to myself was a Browning Citori XS 12 ga for sporting clays. My first round at the 5 stand produced a score of 7 out of 25. Holy crap was I feeling like an idiot spending that money on that shotgun. My best score with it to date has been a 82/100 on a course set for the Maryland State sporting clays championship. That day I wasn't thinking at all. I focused on the target all day. In fact the leading edge of the target. There's a different level of focus there where you are allowing your brain to work and you are not getting in the way thinking about the bead, someone watching, your last missed shot, etc., etc. Nothing else. In my opinion overthinking (and less than ideal attitude or outlook) will kill technique, gun capabilities, etc. Whatever you do needs to be a confidence builder. That may seem like the Captain Obvious statement of the day but that's not always the case standing at the range when you're scratching your head, frustrated, etc.

Just my 2 cents.

(And I am still work in progress)

[bigbore5]

I must politely disagree with bigbrowndog. It takes the same skill to hit a 6" rock at one hundred yards as it does to hit a bullseye of the same size. The difference is the mentality.

Soda cans are ground squirrels. Two liter bottles are ground hogs. Rocks are deer lungs. If you can get your mind to recognize that it's just a target the same as the other, you will relax and just do your thing. Being relaxed and natural is what let's me hit the target.

Can I shoot with Mr Bradshaw's precision on a target? Probably not. Can I dust 4 out of 5 ground hogs out to 150yds? Yep. Do it regularly with the 357max. Took me a few years and several thousand rounds of "not practice" shooting bottles and cans,rocks, whatever at field estimated ranges mixed with "real practice" shooting at targets at a known measured distance with time to get a perfect grip and stance using a solid brace or the bench that I have trouble carrying with me as I stalk game.

[45MAN]

TO ME THERE ARE 2 TYPES OF "PLINKLING" AND BOTH INVOLVE CANS, REACTIVE TARGETS, ROCKS, DIRT CLODS, etc., AT VARYING AND ALTERNATING RANGES, 1 IS CASUAL SHOOTING/BLASTING AWAY AND THE OTHER IS WHERE YOU BEAR DOWN ON EVERY SHOT AS IF YOU ARE PRACTICING. I MUST CONFESS TO DOING SOME OF THE FIRST ONCE IN A WHILE BUT MOSTLY DO THE LATTER.

[x101airborne]

Thank you all for commenting. There is a jewel in every post. I will work on stance first, making it natural till I dont think about it. The link provided in an above post had pictures of how to hold the weapon. That was a definite jewel. I grabbed a New Blackhawk and had the weapon slightly over to my thumb, not in the middle. That is my second thing to work on.

While peeving my wife off last night dry firing at a poster on the fridge I remembered a video I found about "pressing" the trigger. A guy was shooting a semi-auto but that doesn't matter. What did matter was what knuckle was really used to press the trigger and sure enough, my battered mitts was using the wrong one. I worked on stance, bring the weapon up, BREATHE, press and lower the weapon. I wasn't even taking one "shot" per minute. I hope I am doing this correctly and praise Bill Ruger for allowing me to dryfire till I am satisfied.

[lwfpdchief]

I am not a great shot , not even above average. Trad archery shooting has helped a lot. Aim small, miss small. Don’t just aim at a target pick a very specific tiny spot. I like the playing card idea. Maybe put a small push pin in the center and try and hit it every time at 25 yards. Not that easy but you will concentrate on shot placement and everything involved to make it happen.

I am proficient enough to hit a target ( deer side vitals) every time with my scoped blackhawk at 50 yards . Put a live animal out in front of me at 50 yards and I’ll find a way to screw it up somehow.