I shoot to learn how to shoot without a rest, so I don’t use a rest.
This would never work for me.
On my end there are variables of: flinch, grip, trigger control, breath control, stance, Endurance/fatigue, sight alignment, steadiness and maybe a few more factors.
On the gun end there are a host of factors but in terms of training the only thing that matters is accuracy from a solid rest (inherent accuracy) and repeatability which for my shooting means I can accept a fail to feed every couple of boxes for a target pistol if it’s a target pistol (although my target pistols have also been very reliable) and leading of the barrel is not spoiling my accuracy.
Even with (or especially with) an accurate pistol, precise loads that hit a pistol’s sweet spot are essential. Last trip to the range, some of my loads (32 h&r mag at 25 yards) had an 8” shift in point of aim (group sizes (12 shots) from a rest varied from 8” to 3.25 inches. First iteration of load experiments, I’ll get that group size much smaller yet!
As a kid, we shot .22 pistols and bb pistols in the basement- dads and boys, a sort of neighborhood dart league. The dads would have some drinks, the boys were just happy to get to shoot.
After a long spell away from it, I bought a Baikal competition grade air gun. When my daughter was a baby I couldn’t really leave the house, but I could shoot at my 9 meter air pistol range in the basement, the longest distance I had. I shot at standard 10m targets and kept my targets and tracked my progress. Since I didn’t have 10 meters in my basement, I couldn’t do postal matches- best I could do was try to adjust my scores mathematically for being 10% closer. Best I could figure I was doing fairly well, so I started looking for some competitions.
No luck with local airgun competition but there were several .22 leagues.
I talked to a Bullseye pistol smith. He advised a target grade .22 pistol that he tuned slightly and put An Ultradot dot sights on. Back in that day, Baikal was a hidden jem at half the price of a Model 42 and a quarter the price of a Hamerli. He showed me the crazy small hole my pistol could shoot at 50 yards from his ransom rest mounted on a concrete block the size of a mini fridge. He recommended some books.
I knew that at 50 feet, wherever the hole ended up- that was because of ME. 99% me. Only a quarter inch at 50’ could be due to the gun. If there was a flier- me. A bad group- me. A good group... me!
With that pistol I could shoot from a rest and watch Federal Target Match spray worse than Thunderbolts. I could see Ely shoot better than my CCI SV but not enough for me to justify 5x the cost, even at club matches. That’s not to say that I didn’t refill those Ely boxes with CCI SV to spoof my buddies. I learned later that everyone at the top end had the same prank as I caught my pal shooting Ely out of an old Thunderbolt box!
Since I had match quality gear, and I was shooting at a club at match distance at official targets, I could continue to track my progress.
I dry fired. I didn’t want to learn to dry fire, I wanted to learn trigger control!
I squeezed rubber balls. I didn’t want to learn that, I wanted grip strength.
I modified my grips to get the best natural point I could get- not to become a woodworker.
I experimented with my grip, trigger position, stance, shooting glasses, caffeine... and since I knew what accuracy was the pistols, I knew what was me. I wasn’t practicing shooting, I was practicing how to hold, stand, etc.
Maybe people are not interested in extreme accuracy anymore, but here is a funny story:
One week I forgot to turn off my Ultradot. We had three throw out scores in that league but just for fun I shot with no dot- only my practiced grip, stance, trigger control and a 1” huge “ghost ring”. It was my worst score of the season but still beat more than half the guys that evening.
Later I got a 1911. Same pistol smith, an older used gun that could still do 3” at 50 yards from a ransom rest. I learned a lot about flinching and pushing.
That’s where the fear or anticipation of the big boom results in subconsciously pushing the gun to suppress the recoil before it happens or jerking away knowing it will happen and fliers are always the result.
I could shoot in the low 90s with the .22 and struggled a season to get in to the high 80s with the .45. I KNEW it was me. Every shot was where I put it, I just needed to get better.
If my pistol was shooting four inch groups at 50 feet... I’d never know if it was me or random chance. No learning, just shrugging.
My .45 story is my dot sight rattled loose. .45s have a lot more recoil. Since I was at the range, I tried shooting the 1911 without any sights. Because I knew my proper grip and stance to put me on target, I was able to shoot a lousy score... but hey... I kept them all on the paper and most scoring at 50 feet. The paper is around 8.5 x 11 inches for those non-bullseye guys.
First full season, I took second place in our league. Our High Master pistol smith had to drop out, and Marcus was seriously better than me.. so I got second place.
I attribute that to-
Practice with super accurate air pistol
Having tack driving pistols to start so most practice sessions were about me and my faults, not wondering if it was me or random bad luck. Efficient training.
I shot a lot. I dry fired a lot, worked on strength and grip and trigger control and stance.
My long winded point- if you can’t hold a group from a proper solid rest, you’ll never know if a bad shot was you or random spray from your pistol.
That’s what the phrase “you can’t outshoot your gun” means. If your gun has a 4 inch inherent accuracy, you can’t anticipate random events to compensate.
If it shoots 1/2 inch groups 4 inches high.. just aim 4” low and win. Or tick your back sight down.