Grouping.

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Xyas

New member
I was wondering what are some good ways to spread out the bullet group so you're not hitting all in a 1 inch circle. Note: this is concerning self defense shooting and if I had to shoot to defend my life. Should I fire faster? Should I intentionally try to aim at other points on center mass? I'm scared if I fire faster I won't hit beyond my 2nd or 3rd shot.

Any and all tips and pointers are greatly appreciated. Thanks!
 
Move the target back out of contact with the muzzle? :p

Seriosuly, though... it would be interesting to know what distance and speed you're shooting at that you have this problem?
 
Heheh, I just used a 1 inch circle as an example. Really I'm probably around 2 or 3 inches at the ranges I'm talking about but remember...these are short ranges at 7 yards or less, sometimes at 5-10 feet. I'd just like to have more around a 5 or 6 inch spread I'm thinking.
 
Are you wanting to damage more organs? Hit one shot to each of both lungs, the heart, and spleen, the appendix, the kidney, the liver, and the gall bladder? Instead of all your shots to one area? Really, I'd try and put every shot on the CNS (spine, brain) because that's the only way to truly stop any animal. And to that end, shooting a tiny group right in the center of mass is about as good as it gets since that's where you find the spine.
 
If you ever have to shoot someone to defend your life, I don't think that being too accurate is among the things you'll need to be worrying about...
:rolleyes:

Have you done any training under more realistic conditions than standing and popping paper targets? Try it, and see what happens then...
 
My reasoning behind it is this. Yes, I want a CNS shot, but I also want to incapacitate them as soon as possible. I'm a medical professional and the way I think of it is that the same number of shots in a bigger area creates more opportunities to hit an aorta, spinal cord, left ventricle, etc. A person is more likely to bleed out faster if they have more holes through their heart.

The other way I think of it is that if all my shots are hitting the same area...say that person has scoliosis (i know, a big what if but i'm just using it as an example). Say I fire 5 shots into the same 2 inch group, dead center through the sternum straight back. This 2 inch group completely misses the spine due to their disease and now I'm left with say 5 holes in 2 inches that didn't hit anything major.

I guess to put it short and sweet. I'm thinking it as having more holes spread out slightly (5 inch group) has a higher chance of hitting more vitals causing faster incapacitation.

Thoughts, more comments? Once again thanks for the input so far!
 
I'm a medical professional ...A person is more likely to bleed out faster if they have more holes through their heart.
Click to expand...

What kind of medical professional? I seriously doubt you'll be in Swiss cheese mode with a full dump of adrenalin in your system.
 
A person having scoliosis to the degree that you wouldn't hit the spine with a nice group at CM probably isn't going to be a big threat... :D

Plus, with a two inch group, if you're center mass, the likelihood of taking out the aorta or superior/inferior vena cava is pretty friggin high... Just keep squeezing the trigger until the threat is eliminated!
 
I was just concerned with hitting a greater area, that's all. Mentioned the medical profession because of my knowledge of how the heart works, blood pumping stuff like that.

I'll continue trying to hit the smallest groups as possible. I just wasn't sure if it was better to spread groups out a little bit to try to hit more vital organs but I guess not. Thanks for the information!
 
Was reading or watching one of the self defense sites (reading so much it is all a blur now), and the trainer mentioned the zipper method, first into the gut, second into the diaphragm, third into the chest central, 4th into the upper chest or neck, 5 and 6 into the head or something along those lines. I think if I was in a SD situation just going for center of mass would be all I could think about and there would be plenty of natural spread. But if you think your skills are good enough under pressure you might give a try. You can certainly practice it at the range. I'm not sure if the idea is to shoot faster by not bringing the gun all the way back down after each shot or to spread the damage.
 
It does raise another question...how do you train for the adrenaline rush? I've tried doing jumping jacks, and running before firing and while that gives some sort of feeling...it doesn't give that exact feeling of the adrenaline rush. Are there any other ways to train for it?
 
Defensive pistol shooting as taught by Jeff Cooper is a balance of power, speed and accuracy. With the handgun in your hand you have chosen your power; so you are left in a shooting situation to balance speed and accuracy.

Your concern over groups that are small is a real concern in respect to balancing speed and accuracy. If you are shooting groups that are two inches or less; shoot faster. Your groups will open up as you shoot faster. Keep shooting faster as long as you can group under 7 or 8 inches. This group size is valid for any distance on a human threat.

Of course your time between shots (your speed of shooting) will have to be adjusted for distance. Generally speaking, the greater the distance the greater the time to create the same group size.

A shot timer can be a useful tool.
 
Ok...first, if you hit someone with 5 shots of say .380/9mm/.38 you are looking at roughly a 2 in hole (assuming no or very little overlapping). If said hole is cm even if it doesn't hit a single vital organ or blood vessel that person still has a 2 in hole in their chest or abdomin. I'm not a medical professional(but I play one on tv...j/k) but I would think that would be a pretty serious amount of trauma and would probably drop most people pretty quickly.
That being said, I would say that if you are caught in a sd situation that the adrenaline dump that you get would be so intense that you would be all over the place and would not have to worry about your groups being too small but rather they would most likely be too big. Unless you have some seriously hard core military or police training. Remember the reason we train to aim for center mass is because that is the largest area, if it was easy to hit small groups under that kind of stress we would all train to aim for heads or kneecaps. I'm not trying to insult you...just being realistic.
 
Shoot faster. Out to about 7 yards you should be able to fire as fast as you can and stay in a 2-4" group. To shoot to that level your fundamentals (sight alignment, trigger control, follow through) must be excellent as well as your technique (grip). Fist sized groups as fast as you can shoot them are what your looking for. With a gun with a good trigger reset (glock / 1911) you should literally be able to fire 6 or 7 rounds a second into a fist sized group at 5 yards or so.
 
I don't think spreading out the group will be a problem on a moving target. The person hit will move in response to being hit each time. Your odds of putting all the shots into the same wound is just slightly behind the odds of God reaching down and b***h slapping the bad guy for you.

You can always practice the Mozambique drill which is double tap to center of mass and one to the head.
 
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