Handgun shooting tips.

[Bill Douglas]

I've recently joined a pistol club

Things are going very well, but I'm getting lots of different and conflicting advice on holding the gun, stance etc. I like to stand with my left foot forward, pistol in my righthand inline with my forarm. Elbow slightly bent, left hand cuped around my fingers and trigger guard.

I'm using a hire gun from the club, it's a little Russian made .22 target pistol. Quite nice to shoot actually. A German guy has been tutoring me and lends me his Peter Stahl .45ACP with compensator, that I like too.

Some of the club guys said I should be shooting one handed but the shoots go all over the place, whereas two handed I'm hitting a number of bull's at 25 meters.

What do you guys do?

[HardDrive]

One handed? How silly. Sounds like some wants to pretend they are James Bond....

Grip is a matter of taste, but 2 hands, and smooooth, isolated movement of the finger using the pad of your finger to squeeze the trigger. Don't pull the trigger, squeeze it.

[azasadny]

Take everyone's advice, then decide which stance/grip/technique works best for you. It's a process and it sounds like you're approaching it the right way...

[nostatic]

Originally Posted by Bill Douglas

Some of the club guys said I should be shooting one handed

these are the same guys who say, "you should early apex" when at the track

[Jim Richards]

If you're shooting right handed, I would suggest your right leg be a little bit forward of your left. But I'm kind of a n00b and would defer to the more experienced folks here. BTW, I'm a lefty, shoot left handed but I'm right-eye dominant. I keep my left leg a bit forward, and turn my head a bit to the left, so that I'm using my right eye to aim. I'm probably all wrong, but it seems to work.

[Jeff Higgins]

The only gun I "shoot" one handed is done in the privacy of my own home, when the wife has been gone too long on a trip...

Seriously, other than competetive events where it is required, there is little reason to shoot one handed. It is fun, and challenging, and all of that, but really not very effective.

Ever hear the old "cowboy credo"? Never walk when you can ride. Never ride when you can stand. Never stand when you can sit. Never sit when you can lay down. Shooting a handgun is much the same. Never shoot with one hand when you can use two. Never shoot standing if you can sit. Never shoot offhand (standing or sitting) if there is a rest. Essentially, you want every available advantage in holding the gun steady. Unless it's a sanctioned competition, there is no such thing as "cheating" when it comes to shooting. Do what you need to do to hit.

[Rick Lee]

Try to get a hold of some dummy rounds, snap caps if you must. Mix them in with your range ammo and keep your eyes closed when grabbing a handful of bullets to load your mags. Watch how badly you flinch when you drop the hammer and the gun doesn't go bang. If you are expecting a live round and don't know you have a dummy in the pipe, you'll be amazed. Eliminating that flinch is the key to becoming a handgun marksman. Sometimes you can watch folks around you flinching after they pull the trigger and the slide is locked back and they're out of ammo. When I learned to rid myself of this flinch, my accuracy increased exponentially.

[FOG]

Bill,

I think the Russian single shot .22s can be dry fired, if so practice.

On the one handed shooting, yes it is a good exercise to develop technique. Also work on both Weaver and Isosceles style stances. This will make you a better all-around shot.

Good strong concentration is tiring, more than most believe. It takes regular practice to be able to get more than say 40-50 good accurate shots off in a session w/o your performance degrading. I am not talking about plinking, general blasting, or tactical door kicking style of shooting. Go to the range with a plan, what you are working on, etc.

Buy lots of ammunition that your pistol likes. Buy 10-20K of the same thing, try Wolf and Aguilla for good bulk practice ammunition.

S/F, FOG

[Bill Douglas]

Thanks for the good advice guys.

And yes I do flinch a bit - even though it's a .22. I think this comes from my Dad buying me a .410 when I was about 8. It scared the bejeezus outa me. Rick the pistol I use missfires 5% 10% of the time so I get that automatically

When I'm allowed to buy a pistol after 6 months of club membership (strict rules about handgun use and ownership in New Zealand) I can do lots of dry firing at home and get used to slowly s q u e e z i n g off the shots.

By the way; it's all you guys fault this new hobby. I'd never thought about handguns before

[Mo_Gearhead]

QUOTE: "One handed? How silly. Sounds like some wants to pretend they are James Bond...."
______________

Sounds like someone has never shot "Bullseye" Matches at the competitive level.

One hand ONLY, allowed there.

Balanced stance, knees slightly flexed, extend the gun arm, close your eyes, find your "natural point of aim", open eyes, off slightly? Adjust your stance accordingly.

Watch your breathing.

Trigger control. As the 'sight picture' drifts off ...hold...as it drifts on, start your squeeze again. The gun should surprise you when it goes off.
It not, you are flinching/anticipating.

PRACTICE......

[jyl]

Here's a pretty conventional stance/grip description.

- For a right-handed person. Reverse if lefty.
- Left foot slightly forward. Torso pointed to right of target. Lean very slightly forward.
- Right hand holds pistol grip as high as possible. Pistol barrel and wrist more or less lined up.
- Left hand cups around knuckles of right hand. Left hand pulls back and right hand pushes forward on the pistol grip. Keep thumbs where they don't interfere w/ the slide.
- Hold pistol firmly, about like a firm handshake - not a death grip.
- Line up sights at bottom of bullseye - called a "6 o'clock hold". Depending on sights, you may need to hold higher, a "12 o'clock hold", but start at 6 o'clock.
- Place pad of index finger on trigger - not tip, not joint. Pull smoothly on trigger, while squeezing pistol a bit more firmly. Pull straight back, not off to side.

One-handed shooting is for more formal competitions - bullseye, olympic target, etc. Its also good training anyway.

[BGCarrera32]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Try to get a hold of some dummy rounds, snap caps if you must. Mix them in with your range ammo and keep your eyes closed when grabbing a handful of bullets to load your mags. Watch how badly you flinch when you drop the hammer and the gun doesn't go bang. If you are expecting a live round and don't know you have a dummy in the pipe, you'll be amazed. Eliminating that flinch is the key to becoming a handgun marksman. Sometimes you can watch folks around you flinching after they pull the trigger and the slide is locked back and they're out of ammo. When I learned to rid myself of this flinch, my accuracy increased exponentially.

Rick is dead on. If you have a gun that is o.k. to dry fire and don't have a dummy round , start by placing a spent casing on the top of the gun, near the front sight. Aiming at the target, smoothly press the trigger. If that casing jumps, falls off or flinches you are anticipating the trigger pull. When you fire the gun, think about letting it go off and while this sounds odd, it should almost suprise you a little that it went off.

Skip all the weaver, foot forward, back blah blah to begin with. Start with isoceles: Stand both feet in line together about a foot and a half apart and square off with the target. Get just ever so slightly on the balls of your feet, very slight bend to the knees, bend your torso forward and lean in towards the target, shoulders dropped, arms driving the weapon out to the target, do not drop your head but bring the weapon up into your line of sight.

Here is a very competent shooter (law enforcement guy one of the ones that trained me); notice how his head remains level when drawing from the holster and how the weapon is brought into his line of sight.

http://www.superdave716.com/video/superdave.wmv

[Rick Lee]

Man, that guy has zero flinch. What is that - a 9mm or .40? His hands looks like a vice - all you see is the slide moving.

[Eric Coffey]

Originally Posted by Jim Richards

If you're shooting right handed, I would suggest your right leg be a little bit forward of your left. But I'm kind of a n00b and would defer to the more experienced folks here. BTW, I'm a lefty, shoot left handed but I'm right-eye dominant. I keep my left leg a bit forward, and turn my head a bit to the left, so that I'm using my right eye to aim. I'm probably all wrong, but it seems to work.

Yeah, that's a bit wacky.

Originally Posted by jyl

Here's a pretty conventional stance/grip description.

- For a right-handed person. Reverse if lefty.
- Left foot slightly forward. Torso pointed to right of target. Lean very slightly forward.
- Right hand holds pistol grip as high as possible. Pistol barrel and wrist more or less lined up.
- Left hand cups around knuckles of right hand. Left hand pulls back and right hand pushes forward on the pistol grip. Keep thumbs where they don't interfere w/ the slide.
- Hold pistol firmly, about like a firm handshake - not a death grip.
- Line up sights at bottom of bullseye - called a "6 o'clock hold". Depending on sights, you may need to hold higher, a "12 o'clock hold", but start at 6 o'clock.
- Place pad of index finger on trigger - not tip, not joint. Pull smoothly on trigger, while squeezing pistol a bit more firmly. Pull straight back, not off to side.

One-handed shooting is for more formal competitions - bullseye, olympic target, etc. Its also good training anyway.

SOLID advise right there.

The slight push/pull really helps firm up the "traingle" your arms & torso make. That, and the slightly forward weak-side leg go a long way towards a stable shooting platform. I would only add my personal preferece regarding thumbs, which is keep them both pointed at the target, and keep the strong-hand thumb above the weak-hand thumb.

Happy shooting!

[Jim Richards]

[BGCarrera32]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

Man, that guy has zero flinch. What is that - a 9mm or .40? His hands looks like a vice - all you see is the slide moving.

.40 Glock, you can't really tell in the vid but when it starts out he has 3"x3" Post-It notes on the target at 5 yards, he draws and proceeds to start picking off all the Post-it notes 1 by 1. I have a looooong way to go before I could do that...

[Bill Douglas]

I can't wait to get back to the track, I mean range.

Good advice all round, even Jim thanks guys.

I like the idea of a solid triangle being formed. Dave, the shooter in the wmv file, was compitant for sure.

[Eric Coffey]

Originally Posted by BGCarrera32

.40 Glock, you can't really tell in the vid but when it starts out he has 3"x3" Post-It notes on the target at 5 yards, he draws and proceeds to start picking off all the Post-it notes 1 by 1. I have a looooong way to go before I could do that...

Pretty fluid draw as well. What you can't really see is that he has to deactivate a retention lever with his thumb, before the thumb break/loop can be moved forward, prior to drawing.

[John Rogers]

I use different folks for teaching when it comes to shooting handguns because as you have seen there are as many different ways to do it as there are people. Is there a "wrong" way, well only if you miss what you are shooting at then probably yes there is. If the gun is to be used for home defense some time then figure what the situation might be like and simulate what you would encounter.

As an example if I am at school late at night and my wife, who is not well but a good shot is upstairs in bed when someone breaks in, what should she do? I said pull out the Colt Detective Special in her corner of the bed, then dial 911 and stay in bed. We have a dim light in the hallway so she could see someone in the door way so when they come through she is to warn them and then start shooting. She has practiced shooting laying on her back and can easily hit a man sized target at the distance to the door way. Is this callous, only to the person that has just been shot 6 times hopefully then yes I guess it is.

[on2wheels52]

When I instruct I use 'press' rather than 'squeeze'; difficult to imagine squeezing with one finger.
Jim