Accuracy question

J

Justin62882

Inactive
Just wondering as I'm getting my first revolver for deer hunting should be here this week. and plan to shoot every week, twice a week until this fall. I'm trying to put a 6 shot group inside a 4 inch circle at 25 yards if I can't do that then I probably won't use it this year. It'll be open sights 6 inch barrel. How long did it take you to accurately shoot well enough you trusted yourself to take a deer with or other game? I got 400 rounds of specials to practice with and after those 400 I'm gonna start shooting magnums
 
I shoot alot. Virtually every week but not always the same thing. Sometimes i go months shooting handguns, sometimes i go months shooting rifles. When i am shooting pistols regularly, and the same type of handgun (semi/revolver) , i generally shoot 2-3” off hand at 25 yds. However, when i an away from it for awhile the transition back is usually a couple of range sessions.
My point is, Be mindful, 1 or 2 good days at the range may not be inidicative what what you can/ will do after an interruption. 4” at 25 yds is good, not great but good. How many shot groups you talking and what caliber/gun?
Do you have a good background in shooting, a good understanding of how to shoot iron sights and trigger control?
What size groups are you shooting now?
 
A lot of dry fire at home can significantly improve your range performance if...and it's a big if...you concentrate on the fundamentals: consistent grip, focus solely on the front sight (not the target) during sight alignment, sight picture (sights aligned with hard focus on the front sight, and the sights centered on the desired impact point) & lastly, trigger control (allowing the trigger to break the shot as a surprise, without 'helping' it when the sights are perfectly aligned).

This last is a mental exercise that you can practice by balancing a dime on the front sight while dry firing, then attempting to SA press the trigger to a hammer fall without dropping the dime off the sights. You MUST ACCEPT YOUR WOBBLE area...[that's the figure eight wobble in the sights due to muscle tension etc.] If you allow the trigger to break the shot, as a surprise, while in that wobble area, you will get the accuracy you need to hunt. Years of NRA Bullseye competition that an uninterrupted trigger press once the sights are aligned will give me a surprise break without a flinch...a mental exercise to be sure.

Dry fire will teach you that. There is no such thing as too much dry fire. HTH's Rod
 
6 inch s&w 686 deluxe. I have shot guns for about 21 yeayears. Mostly shotguns, and .22 rifle. Hunting. I have about 400 rounds I've shot total through a handgun. It's a game changer going from that to a handgun. I thought I sucked real bad when I was getting 6 inch groupings at 10 yards my first day and i was used to shooting 50 shots with a 22 at 25 yards and a quarter would cover the hole and sometimes a dime. I'll probably shoot twice a week for the next several months. At least 50 shots a session. Hopefully I can get to where I can shoot a good enough group. I won't risk wounding an animal because of my lack of experience with a firearm.
 
Some, myself included , found that when we went to a 45acp Our 22 scores increased !
That's an excellent proof of how important grip is even for a 22. A firm consistent grip is important .
 
As a long time competitive shooter and Army firearms instructor, I can tell you that the most important factor in accurate handgun shooting is trigger control.
Stance, grip, sight picture and sight alignment are all vital and all can be taught to virtually anyone, but none of that means diddly if you can’t get the shot off while the sights are where they should be.
You can learn the basics through dry-fire. You need a smooth, uninterrupted trigger pull, the ability to call your shots and a consistent follow-through. Tape a 2” black disk to a blank wall. With an empty gun and no ammo in the room, stand 15’ away, get your stance and grip set up, get a good sight alignment/picture at 6:00 on the disk and concentrate on pulling the trigger straight back with no hesitation. When the hammer or striker falls, don’t move. Don’t blink. Where was your front sight in relation to the target? Practice this over and over. Call your shots and work on keeping the sight picture as close to a perfect 6:00 hold as possible.
No one can hold still, so don’t get frustrated when the gun moves. Strive for a “surprise break” and always keep your eyes open. A perfect hold isn’t necessary to a good group. The gun’s going to be moving. That’s to be expected. As you practice, the movement will be less and less.

When you take your gun to the range, put all this into practice. When the gun fires, it’s going to move, but you still need to know where that front sight was, which means you have to keep your eyes open. Try to hold the gun on target after it fires. You can’t, of course, but trying to do it is what I mean by “follow-through”. Call every shot, then check the target to see if you were right.

I shoot in a Thursday night pistol league, shooting my 9mm XD Mod.2 5” Tactical. My load produces a nice flash and I want to see my sights against that flash on every shot. If I don’t see the flash, that means I either blinked or wasn’t paying close enough attention.
My sight alignment/picture is almost never perfect, but it’s good enough that I can keep all my shots well inside the scoring rings.

If you’re going to hunt with your handgun, I strongly recommend that you get some experience in competitive shooting. Don’t worry if you think you’re not good enough. There are some pretty terrible pistol shooters in my league (and even on my team), but no one gives them a hard time. We do the best we can and help each other get better.
The experience of competition will get you used to shooting under pressure, which will help when you’re lining up on that deer.
 
how long did it take you to shoot 4 inch groups at 25 yards?
Click to expand...

For comparison's sake from the NRA rule book:
The NRA 25 yard timed and rapid target is...
x ring=1.69 inches
10 ring=3.36 inches
9 ring=5.54 inches

expert class is 90 to 94.99 and master is 95 to 96.9 percent, so someone shooting 4 inch groups at 25 yards is doing pretty good. Of course slow fire on a 25 yard course would be much smaller.;)

and i was used to shooting 50 shots with a 22 at 25 yards and a quarter would cover the hole and sometimes a dime.
Click to expand...
You must be referring to rifle shooting? Otherwise you would be a National champion class shooter. (see above for the x ring dimensions)
 
Yes rifle shooting I said above I have a .22 rifle. I'm not looking to rapid fire. I'm just trying to get accurate enough to take one clean shot at a deer at 25 or 30 yards tops. But if I can't shoot a group of 6 in a 4 inch circle, to me, that just doesn't seem like smart hunting. Thanks
 
400 rounds will be a good start. I shoot a couple 1,000 rounds per year through revolvers at 15 to 25 yards and still get 1 or 2 flyers at 25 yards even with my best groups. My average group size might be 4" and that's only because I only shoot the most accurate combinations at 25 yards. If a gun and bullet combo won't shoot well at 15 yards I typically won't even try it at 25 yards.

The problem with asking questions like this on the internet is that almost everyone can shoot 2" groups at 25 yards, yet some how every time I go to the range most people have trouble with 2" groups at 5 yards.
 
Post#8 was excellent advice. I used to practice at small squares on a wall before I shot in the monthly falling plate matches. But what really taught me to shoot handguns was using a pump pellet pistol. I used a Crosman model 1377. I shot that gun to the point I just wore out the first one. Bought another and shot it till the seals leaked. I ordered the parts to rebuild it and bought a third one before the parts arrived.

Those didn't have very good triggers like a S&W or my Ruger GP-100. So if you can shoot one and hit your target shooting a centerfire pistol is a piece of cake. Practice is cheap and can be done in your backyard or even inside your house if done safely.

Also buying a good quality 22 will allow you cheaper practice.
 
Any handgun, I don't care how long you've been shooting, will need to be learned. It just takes time on the range to figure out where it needs to lay in your hand and that lay becomes natural. Other than practicing the only other advice I strongly recommend following is that you don't go chasing after the moon. Shoot a few rounds and then take a break and look at how you're doing. Set yourself a limit on the number of shots you're going to take that day and quit when you hit the limit. If you try to reach your goal of 2-4 inch groups in one day, you'll probably just get really disappointed because the longer you shoot the worse you will shoot.

Try to keep in you mind when setting your goals, that when you shoot that deer, it should be one well placed shot at a distance that's within your practiced skills. That means that your first shot with a cold barrel is going to need to be your best shot.
 
I shot a Iver Johnson sealed 8, sitting on my dads lap before I could hold the gun up by myself. I didn't shoot any big bores until I was 12 and then no mags.
I was 14 before I got a SBH 44 mag. I was probably 16 before I was consistent.
If your goal is 6" at 25yds, split the difference and shoot 1/2 distance at target
with plenty surface area to see your misses. Then go out to 25yds and practice.
I have many pistols and revolvers, when I was younger won a lot of matches.
On my best day I couldn't shoot a dime or quarter size group at 25yds. Most
people can't do that with a rifl,
 
Thanks everyone. Much appreciated. I can't wait to get out there this week. I'll probably start at 10 yards with a 6 inch barrel. Once I'm comfortable there I'll keep backing up 5 yards until my goal is reached by november. I also own snap caps I can practice on my down time.i know the first year I got a bow. I shot it every single day i could and it took me a few months to shoot well at 35 yards. I got a crossbow now and that took me about 10 bolts to shoot better than I could with a compound bow lol. Ready to shoot my first revolver. Just waiting on the phone call to pick it up
 
Justin, you don't need snap caps with any centerfire handgun.

The advice from Ratshooter to practice with a good pellet pistol is correct. I've rebuilt my Daisy 717 three times and the seals are starting to go bad again.
 
Yeah, I'll be shooting single action. I'm sure I'll shoot it as a double action at some point but i need to focus on single action for now.
 
Put a red dot on it and the learning curve will increase dramatically. Also, they're a great aid in deer hunting in early morning and late afternoon lighting conditions. My favorite deer handgun is a S&W 686+ (also a 686 and 586) all with 6" barrels. You'll find that putting all your shots in a 4" circle by hunting season with your practice regimen will be very attainable. I've taken over fifty whitetail with the .357mag over the last forty years and other than my Bill Davis custom guns, the 686 is by far the best .357mag handgun I've ever owned.
 
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