Beginner Shooter, 2nd Range Session Groupings

A couple of pointers for new shooters to avoid anticipating the recoil or jerking the trigger. With the handgun unloaded, place a coin on top, near the end of the barrel and squeeze the trigger while keeping the coin balanced and practice, practice, practice. This will help the shooter squeeze, rather than jerk the trigger. Snap caps are great practice for dry firing as well.

Also, watch for signs of fatigue as you are shooting live ammunition, such as the low, left shooting, brass jamming or double feeds, and take a break when you feel that you aren't hitting where you are aiming. I always like to pick up the .22lr handgun for when I start feeling fatigued, this helps me keep practicing good form, mostly due to the lower recoil.
 
diagnosis targets

First, good practice will inevitably result in improvement. Second, you may learn some basic fundamentals by using targets which diagnose the general problems causing you to shoot high, low, left or right. If you Google pistol correction diagnosis targets, you can download targets which tell you what you might be doing wrong if you are a right-hand shooter versus a left-hand shooter.
 
Sorry not to be contrary or argumentative but I do not recommend those corrective targets found on the Internet. They are leftovers from the US Army service manual for one handed bullseye shooting and do not translate to modern combat shooting.
http://pistol-training.com/archives/292

This is a much better target but when I see this reference 99% of the time it is not referring to this target but instead the one above.



If you really want to improve your shooting quickly get some professional training. Practice does not make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect. Simple correction now by a good instructor will eliminate training bad habits which will have to be untrained later. Getting immediate real time feedback on your shooting will help you more than anything any of us can post on the internet. Trust me on how I know this.

The other thing a good trainer will leave you with is good drill which can help you develop good habits. Proper dry firing techniques go a long way to improving live fire but again they have to be done right.
 
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This comment, I found interesting.
Also, watch for signs of fatigue as you are shooting live ammunition, such as the low, left shooting, brass jamming or double feeds, and take a break when you feel that you aren't hitting where you are aiming.
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I took my Wife to the range yesterday. Nearly every shot of hers was low left, or extreme low @ 5yds. For the life of me I couldn't see what she was doing.

She also had several jams from the casing not being ejected. The weapon is a Glock 26 9mm, 3 weeks old. Shooting Blazer Brass. What would create a situation for the jamming?

As for the OP, could a tweaking of the rear sight help?
 
I took my Wife to the range yesterday. Nearly every shot of hers was low left, or extreme low @ 5yds. For the life of me I couldn't see what she was doing.

She also had several jams from the casing not being ejected. The weapon is a Glock 26 9mm, 3 weeks old. Shooting Blazer Brass. What would create a situation for the jamming?

As for the OP, could a tweaking of the rear sight help?
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For starters many people even experienced shooters shoot the Glock platform left. There is something about the grip angle and proper grip pressure. If I had to guess she has improper grip pressure, improper grip or flexing wrist.

If other people do not have any malfunctions it is definitely shooter error.
 
I took my Wife to the range yesterday. Nearly every shot of hers was low left, or extreme low @ 5yds. For the life of me I couldn't see what she was doing
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That's the "Glock flinch". In training hundreds of police officers, striker fired pistols with stacking triggers are the cause of more low shots than I can count. Just before the gun goes off, the trigger "stacks" weight to a point to where she knows it's going to go off and she anticipates the recoil and tries to counter it by pushing forward instead of letting the gun go through it's cycle.

Before you doubt me, load a mag for her and get a dummy in there somewhere in the middle, and watch her when she gets to the dummy............ You will have to pick the mud out of the bore because as it goes click, she will be dropping the muzzle to counter recoil that never shows up.
 
Ouch WVsig

To the OP and WVSig:
If you read the OP, the subject line was that he was a new beginner and this was his second target. If you read my well-intended suggestion, I did not say that any practice makes perfect or take the snobbish approach that perfect practice is the only way to practice. I had a couple of simple suggestions that might help him improve and to hopefully become more familiar with his new toy.
I am relatively new to this forum and have seen many differences of opinion, which make for good healthy conversation and education. I am very pleased to have found this forum. However, telling someone, who is new to this sport and looking for constructive feedback, that the only way to improve is by "perfect practice" (whatever that means) and to seek professional instruction does not seem practical for many, if not most shooters.
Out of the thousands of Forum Members, how many would you venture to guess STARTED OUT by perfect practice and seeking professional instruction? My W.A.G. is that it is a single-digit percentage. I did happen to benefit from some private professional instruction after shooting for a few years (far from perfect practing). I can't say that I developed any terrible habits which needed to be cured, but I do not believe I would have received as much benefit from professional instruction if I was not already familiar with shooting.
I get what you are suggesting and it is not bad advice per se. I just think that there are many ways of improving one's shooting skills, in addition to your suggestions. Obviously, no one is going to argue that if one is not familiar with shooting in general or shooting range edicate, then they should educate themselves in every way which is available and practical. Additionally, once the OP obtains a general familiarity with his gun and wants to take it to the next step of becoming a better shooter, then your advice is well-founded.
To the OP: be safe, have fun, practice (perfectly or not) and congrats on your new hobby.
 
DMY said:
To the OP and WVSig:
If you read the OP, the subject line was that he was a new beginner and this was his second target. If you read my well-intended suggestion, I did not say that any practice makes perfect or take the snobbish approach that perfect practice is the only way to practice. I had a couple of simple suggestions that might help him improve and to hopefully become more familiar with his new toy.

I am relatively new to this forum and have seen many differences of opinion, which make for good healthy conversation and education. I am very pleased to have found this forum. However, telling someone, who is new to this sport and looking for constructive feedback, that the only way to improve is by "perfect practice" (whatever that means) and to seek professional instruction does not seem practical for many, if not most shooters.
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Lets not be so sensitive. I simply corrected the information that you gave. You are not the first persona and certainly will not be the last to reference the flawed tool that is the corrective target.

You are taking my post completely wrong. What I am saying is that posting on the internet "help me improve my groups" will only get you so far. Reading articles looking at videos will not substitute for correct practice. What I see far too often is that people watch these videos and then do not apply them correctly and impede their progress.

If I had to do it all over again I would have gotten more professional pistol instruction much earlier in my shooting life. It would have allowed me to improve faster. If I spent half the $$$ I spent sending rounds down range on instruction I would have been a much better shooter faster. I would most likely be a better shooter today.

DMY said:
Out of the thousands of Forum Members, how many would you venture to guess STARTED OUT by perfect practice and seeking professional instruction? My W.A.G. is that it is a single-digit percentage. I did happen to benefit from some private professional instruction after shooting for a few years (far from perfect practing). I can't say that I developed any terrible habits which needed to be cured, but I do not believe I would have received as much benefit from professional instruction if I was not already familiar with shooting.

I get what you are suggesting and it is not bad advice per se. I just think that there are many ways of improving one's shooting skills, in addition to your suggestions. Obviously, no one is going to argue that if one is not familiar with shooting in general or shooting range edicate, then they should educate themselves in every way which is available and practical. Additionally, once the OP obtains a general familiarity with his gun and wants to take it to the next step of becoming a better shooter, then your advice is well-founded.

To the OP: be safe, have fun, practice (perfectly or not) and congrats on your new hobby.
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See what I have posted above. You are completely missing the point. I think that 99% of most shooters on this forum who have actually gone to professional training will tell you that the earlier you get that training the better and faster your development will be. I am not sure why you are so offended.

Clearly you go hung up on the fact that part of your imperfect practice, was using a target to correct your shooting which did not apply to what you were doing. Again you are not the first and certainly not the last to make this mistake.

Welcome to the forum.
 
See what I have posted above. You are completely missing the point. I think that 99% of most shooters on this forum who have actually gone to professional training will tell you that the earlier you get that training the better and faster your development will be.
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I have trained HUNDREDS of police recruits. I can honestly say, the ones that have little to no handgun experience are better shooters noticeably quicker than "experienced" shooters. The consensus among other instructors and I is that those "new shooters" have few bad habits to break, and are more open minded to being trained. Those "experienced" shooters sometimes have the "I'm already good enough" mindset.

In fact, I spend so much time working on others shooting skills that I attend an NRA Police Handgun/Shotgun Instructor school every other year or so. During those schools, I get to go back to the basics and be bettered by others in my field and work on ME for a change. It's quite refreshing. Then again, I'm not closed minded enough to think that I have nothing to gain by being critiqued.

In fact, read my signature..............
 
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