What is your best tip for improving your pistol shooting?

[Questor]

My best tip is to learn to dry fire effectively. In my case it was learning to shoot 10s and then refining and learning how best to dry fire to help me practice shooting 10s.

[Guest]

the best tip i ever got in shooting and other aspects is the 80/20 principal.

identify the weakest link and work on it. this will give the most significant improvement.

[Steve Swartz]

Focus on the specific, discrete BEHAVIORS (things you can control) that are required to reliably execute a proper shot process. Train on impriving those BEHAVIORS directly . . . all else is crap.

Steve Swartz

(Of course, all that presupposes that you already know what these specific, discrete behaviors actually are and how they fit in to the shot process. Chances are you probably have some serious misconceptions in that regard, so training effort will be worse than wasted- you will spend your time and effort reinforcing the WRONG THINGS.)

[Nicole Hamilton]

Focus on the front sight, because sight alignment is way more important than sight picture.

[David Levene]

Sights and trigger, everything else is secondary.

1) Work on keeping the sight alignment correct
2) Work on a smooth trigger release that doesn't mess up the work you did in 1)
3) Start again from 1)

[Houngan]

After you've mastered what David said, be ready to release the shot before entering the aiming area. Huge improvement for me.

H.

[Nev C]

All coaching can be reduced to one sentance: "Don't move the gun while you are pulling the trigger".

Nev C
Australia

[Nev C]

All coaching can be reduced to one sentance: "Don't move the gun while you are pulling the trigger".

Nev C
Australia

[Nicole Hamilton]

All coaching can be reduced to one sentance: "Don't move the gun while you are pulling the trigger".

Sounds like you need a new coach.

[CR10XGuest]

Best Tip(s)?

Dry fire 15 minutes (on a blank target or wall) for every post on the board or mailing list related to shooting.

Dry fire at least 5 shots to every live fire on a target.

Be mentally ready to shoot that shot, and only that shot, before you even get the gun off the bench.

Shot plan = Target, Sights, Trigger, Done.

Cecil Rhodes

[Nev C]

All coaching can be reduced to one sentance: "Don't move the gun while you are pulling the trigger".

Sounds like you need a new coach.

Hi Nicole, just a bit of Aussie humor, but what is wrong with a coach saying " don't move the gun while you are pulling the trigger?

[Fred Mannis]

Dry fire 15 minutes (on a blank target or wall) for every post on the board or mailing list related to shooting.
Cecil Rhodes

You are right. After all this sitting at the keyboard, I went downstairs and spent an hour dry firing.

[Nicole Hamilton]

Hi Nicole, just a bit of Aussie humor, but what is wrong with a coach saying " don't move the gun while you are pulling the trigger?

My apologies. I meant for my reply to sound a little humorous also but I guess that didn't come through very well. But I did have a serious point I was trying to make, which is that I think your first rule should be to focus on the front sight and to watch it through the shot. Try to learn to call the shot by watching what's happening to the sight alignment, first, and sight picture, second, as the gun fires. If you can do that, you will have had to have done a smooth pull on the trigger and you have had to have done it without moving the gun.

But by contrast, if you're not paying attention to the front sight or to the sight alignment, only to the trigger or maybe just to not moving the gun (because you're watching the target), you'll never get a good shot except by accident.

[F. Paul in Denver]

Read the free but invaluable contributions made by Ed Hall at;

http://www.starreloaders.com/edhall/articlesand.html


Then read 'em again.

F. Paul in Denver

[jackh]

[quote="Nicole Hamilton"]......................But I did have a serious point I was trying to make, which is that I think your first rule should be to focus on the front sight and to watch it [i]through[/i] the shot. Try to learn to call the shot by watching what's happening to the sight alignment, first, and sight picture, second, as the gun fires. If you can do that, you will have [i]had[/i] to have done a smooth pull on the trigger and you have [i]had[/i] to have done it without moving the gun.

But by contrast, if you're not paying attention to the front sight or to the sight alignment, only to the trigger or maybe just to not moving the gun (because you're watching the target), you'll never get a good shot except by accident.[/quote]

Excellent description NH.
Keeping your eye on the sight is equal to if not more important a thing to do than the alignment itself. With the eye focused there on the front sight, you read and your mind can adjust/maintain the alignment and assess the triggering. You can't do anything precision about the shot unless your eye is on the sight.

[Elmas]

Nev C wrote:
All coaching can be reduced to one sentance: "Don't move the gun while you are pulling the trigger".

I think we all k n o w that it is impossible to stop the gun moving... Unless of course the coach is addressing a Vise.

[Greg Derr]

"disassociate yourself from the score" This is one thing which many shooters tend to allow themselves to get caught up in, usually with negative results. If you are traing to hit the center-don't get unnerved when you do. If you make an error recognize it and correct it.

[mikeschroeder]

"disassociate yourself from the score"

Watching Bull Durham seems to REALLY show how this works, i.e. the catcher / pitcher interaction. I'd show that scene to every advanced shooting class at least once a year.

Mike
Wichita KS

[CraigE]

there are a couple of other reasons to watch that movie. :-) IMHO
CraigE

PS They may distract from shooting but follow along another interesting thread posted here recently <grin>

[ruig]

"Don't move the gun while you are pulling the trigger".

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Focus on the front sight, because sight alignment is way more important than sight picture

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