Gun Accuracy video

Understand this about mechanical accuracy:

Not all guns are equally accurate.

Not all ammunition is equally accurate.

Only testing can determine what a particular gun likes.
 
^^^This^^^

For a plinker, it is okay to say all guns are pretty much equal. hickok45 videos are entertaining and usually fun to watch but they are not going to help a precision shooter too much making equipment decisions. All guns are NOT equally accurate and ammunition must be tailored to the firearm. Winning and losing matches or getting the most out of any gun is in the details.
 
I agree with the idea that the most important thing in PRACTICAL accuracy is the shooter. However, I don't think that is the only thing that matters.

I encountered an example of this in Project Appleseed (if you don't know what this is, Google it). They make a big deal out of the idea that the shooter is the biggest factor in shooting a good score on the target. They totally discount the idea that the gun or ammo is ever at fault. I understand what they are saying and what they are trying to achieve. However, I think it should be pointed out that this isn't always 100% true.

Like most people who attend a Project Appleseed event, I found that I couldn't shoot nearly as well as I thought I could. So, I bought their targets and went out nearly every day for a couple months and shot one of them for score. I was hard on myself; I was critical with how I scored the targets. I paid attention to every detail of my shooting form. After a few weeks, I got markedly better and I realized that some of those poor shots were not my fault. I was shooting Walmart bulk ammo and found out that the ammo I was shooting was not capable of 4 MOA accuracy. I switched to Wolf Match Target and my scores greatly improved. No more uncalled fliers.

Again, I realize that they are trying to impress upon new shooters or people who don't shoot as well as they think they should that the vast majority of the time, it is their fault. Their technique is not good. Their positions are not solid. Their sight picture is not precise enough. BUT, it also is possible that you simply have a gun or ammo or both that are not capable of shooting as good as you are capable of shooting.

People get into discussions about accuracy vs. precision and all that. Whatever the correct term is, your ability to hit a target in large part comes down to three things: the inherent accuracy of the gun, the inherent accuracy of the ammo, and your skill as a shooter. There is no doubt that your skill as a shooter is far more important than anything else. But that doesn't mean that the other two don't matter at all. If you can improve any of those things, your odds of hitting the target go up.

I will even go so far as to predict that if you take an average shooter and give him a super accurate gun loaded with super accurate ammo: he will be able to tell the difference between that and a garden variety mass produced gun with factory mass produced Walmart ammo. I am not saying he will shoot the gun and ammo up to it's fullest potential: but he will shoot better with the better gun and better ammo.

I get what Hickok is saying though. I have laughed at the same kind of stuff for decades. Someone shoots a couple targets in which he sprays bullets all over the targets and then discusses how accurate the gun is. On a similar note, I have been to ranges where someone hangs up target and shoots bullets all over the place, some of them not even hitting the paper: but one shot went right though the center and they exclaim: I shot a bullseye !!!!!!!!!! And the fact that it was just pure random chance never enters their mind.
 
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This year at hunting camp a buddy had a new browning lever action in 7mm mag with a nice nikon scope he was trying to sight in.after 3 boxs and alot of complaining he gave up and said good enough on his 6 inch group.said the rifle was junk and wanted to send it back. So i sat down and put 5 shots in an inch and half. I offerd to buy the junky inaccurate gun for 200$ but he thought maybe he would keep it. The shooter is def a big factor.but i agree the rifle must be quality also. Dale Earnhardt in a kia wouldnt win a race nor would i driving a nascar...tho i would try
 
cornkolb said:
This year at hunting camp a buddy had a new browning lever action in 7mm mag with a nice nikon scope he was trying to sight in.after 3 boxs and alot of complaining he gave up and said good enough on his 6 inch group.said the rifle was junk and wanted to send it back. So i sat down and put 5 shots in an inch and half. I offerd to buy the junky inaccurate gun for 200$ but he thought maybe he would keep it. The shooter is def a big factor.but i agree the rifle must be quality also. Dale Earnhardt in a kia wouldnt win a race nor would i driving a nascar...tho i would try
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Exactly.

The gun can be off as the video states. He mentions that if your a professional shooter, he's probably not talking to you.

I also notice in his videos, that he aims high or low to hit targets. He mentions when he does it. Some guns target area in the sights are different. Know where to hold the sights for target shooting.
 
Green Lantern said:
I also notice in his videos, that he aims high or low to hit targets. He mentions when he does it. Some guns target area in the sights are different. Know where to hold the sights for target shooting.
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That's why they make adjustable sights - so you can change the point of impact to the point of aim.
 
Green Lantern wrote:
The shooter is the main issue in accuracy.
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From what I saw, apart from the concern about proper grip, they were primary interesed in shooting lots of rounds in succession.
 
As I’ve said many times, any moron can have the right grip and stance and line up the sights, but the real keys to handgun accuracy are trigger control, follow-through and calling the shot.
 
Japle said:
As I’ve said many times, any moron can have the right grip and stance and line up the sights, but the real keys to handgun accuracy are trigger control, follow-through and calling the shot.
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I'm new to guns.

Calling the shot?
Is that like Babe Ruth pointing to the fence for a home run?
 
Trigger control: Ensuring that the trigger moves smoothly, straight to the rear so that when the gun fires, it’s a surprise to the shooter. With lots of correct practice, this can be done very quickly.
EXAMPLE: When I’m on the firing line at a Steel Challenge match or any other match where both speed and accuracy are needed, I’m thinking about several things – my foot placement and proper balance, getting a perfect grip on my gun in the holster, a smooth, snappy draw, my grip on the gun and sight alignment – but the main thing I’m concerned with is trigger control. I can screw up any of those other things a little, but if I yank the trigger, I’m gonna miss.

Follow-through: Your goal should be to try to hold the sights on the target without blinking, even after the shot breaks. Understand that you won’t be able to do that with a centerfire handgun, but you must try. The gun’s going to move and your sights are going to leave the target, but if you don’t see where the sights are when the shot breaks, you won’t be able to …..

Call the shot: The instant the shot breaks, you must have an image in your mind of exactly were the sights were in relation to the target. If you don’t know where the sights were, that means you probably closed your eyes, which means you knew when the gun was going to fire, which means your trigger control sucked and you yanked the trigger.

Dry-firing is the best way to acquire these skills. Shooting a high-quality pellet pistol, which has zero recoil and makes almost no noise and is super cheap to shoot is the best way to perfect these skills. I like the Daisy 717, but there are others just as good.
 
Japle said:
Trigger control: Ensuring that the trigger moves smoothly, straight to the rear so that when the gun fires, it’s a surprise to the shooter. With lots of correct practice, this can be done very quickly.
EXAMPLE: When I’m on the firing line at a Steel Challenge match or any other match where both speed and accuracy are needed, I’m thinking about several things – my foot placement and proper balance, getting a perfect grip on my gun in the holster, a smooth, snappy draw, my grip on the gun and sight alignment – but the main thing I’m concerned with is trigger control. I can screw up any of those other things a little, but if I yank the trigger, I’m gonna miss.

Follow-through: Your goal should be to try to hold the sights on the target without blinking, even after the shot breaks. Understand that you won’t be able to do that with a centerfire handgun, but you must try. The gun’s going to move and your sights are going to leave the target, but if you don’t see where the sights are when the shot breaks, you won’t be able to …..

Call the shot: The instant the shot breaks, you must have an image in your mind of exactly were the sights were in relation to the target. If you don’t know where the sights were, that means you probably closed your eyes, which means you knew when the gun was going to fire, which means your trigger control sucked and you yanked the trigger.

Dry-firing is the best way to acquire these skills. Shooting a high-quality pellet pistol, which has zero recoil and makes almost no noise and is super cheap to shoot is the best way to perfect these skills. I like the Daisy 717, but there are others just as good.
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Good info .. Thanks

Call the shot. I follow that. I'm not a competition shooter, but I know I need to see the hit point of the shot, where I was aiming.
 
Here's a way to understand grip uniformity, sight alignment and trigger control and how they work together for a good shot. And since we're all interested in CC, I'll throw in a little info on holsters and Grip Uniformity.

First, any holster you use should allow a firing grip to be attained prior to withdrawing the gun. Strength of grip, finger placement of the lower three fingers, & thumb placement should all be attained before the gun leaves the holster. Otherwise, you'll be fumbling around with those same factors during presentation. Getting them right in the holster and maintaining them throughout the draw/presentation is Grip Uniformity...and it must be as close as humanly possible for each and every shot...or...your groups will open up and you'll have "unknown flyers". A proper Uniform Grip is one that is easily repeatable through practice, is one that results in sights that are almost perfectly aligned when they appear in the shooter's vision, and is one that allows a straight back, smooth trigger press! If you accept/apply a grip that does not do those things, you are practicing for a miss or poor shot! Get a Uniform Grip every time you handle the gun!

2nd: As the gun reaches eye level, the sights must be aligned, and the only way to assure that is to focus on the front sight alone...easy to say...but tough to do. The front sight post should be exactly centered in the rear sight notch, both vertically and horizontally. Again, tough to do, but perfect practice makes perfect sight alignment. Remember Grip Uniformity? A uniform grip that's been perfectly practiced thousands of times, results in muscle memory that will very closely align the sights. In other words, your grip and the feel of the gun in your hand must match. Some fit better than others...in my case a Browning Hi Power fits to a "T", while a Glock 19 does not...and as a result, the Browning comes up with the sights almost perfectly aligned, the Glock needs some refinement to put it mildly.

3rd: Trigger control. Since we've mastered Grip Uniformity and perfect practice has resulted in perfectly aligned sights, the only remaining element is to press the trigger while maintaining perfect sight alignment. A straight though press has been shown to my satisfaction to be the best way to accomplish this vital task. It's a mental challenge...here's why. Since the pistol at arm's length is weaving around in a figure eight movement, and with the sights still aligned, how do we press the trigger without disturbing them and while they are centered on the center of the target...the answer is we don't.

That figure eight movement is called 'wobble area' and cannot be stopped. Long perfect practice will diminish it as strength and muscle conditioning improve, but it's still there even for an Olympic shooter. The key to a good shot at this point is to accept your wobble area, and press the trigger smoothly and as straightly to the rear as possible. Make no attempt to quickly press the trigger when everything looks just perfect! The gun weighs 2 lbs. or so and even the best of triggers is more than that so if you jerk the trigger, the gun's going to move...it's that simple.

Here's an example: Get a Uniform Grip, present your pistol as you normally would, pointed towards a bullseye target with the sights aligned. Remember to FOCUS ON THE FRONT SIGHT, the target should be a blur. Make no attempt to fire the gun, instead just watch the wobble area of your sights...remember to keep them aligned through perfect focus on the front sight: Notice that the wobble area remains inside the black of the bullseye...and coincidentally, it's easy to see that if you smoothly press the trigger at any time during the wobble, with sights aligned, your shot willland in the bullseye. Percentage wise, you can see that the majority of the time, the sights (perfectly aligned) are near the center of the bull. It's merely a matter of pressing the trigger and allowing your wobble area to do the rest.

Our service team pistol coach almost 50 years ago, would have us turn our targets with the scoring rings to the rear...presenting us with a blank piece of paper. We then shot two strings of fire and compared our scores to our averaged practice scores....we all routinely shot better...the groups were tighter. The missing big black bull, that lures the eyes away from the all-important FRONT SIGHT, made the difference. Instead, we FOCUSED ON THE FRONT SIGHT, as he'd been harping during all of our practice sessions. It's a lesson to be remembered.

HTH's...Rod
 
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rodfac said:
The missing big black bull, that lures the eyes away from the all-important FRONT SIGHT, made the difference.
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Yup, and why I recommend against using those popular ShootNC targets - too much temptation to take your eye off the front sight and/or "peek" between shots. Both are accuracy killers. Check your target after you're done shooting (and it should tell you what you already know).
 
A dozen years ago, when I had my eyes done, I asked my eye surgeon to give me “mono-vision” so that I’d be able to use my right (master) eye for reading and shooting and my left eye for distance. My right eye focuses from about 10” to just past front sight distance and my left eye gives me 20/15 distance vision. My brain uses the clearest image without consulting me. Pretty nice setup!
When shooting a pistol, I can see my front sight in focus and also see holes or bullet splashes on the target. This is especially handy when I’m shooting steel challenge.

As to trigger control and the wobble: While it’s true that you can’t completely control that wobble, with lots of experience, you can compress the time of your squeeze and get the gun to fire when the sights are centered on the target and still get a “surprise break”. Part of the learning curve involves developing an indifference to recoil. Since I bought my first .45 in 1971, I’ve fired well in excess of 100,000 rounds of .45ACP ammo. I know shooters who have fired far more than that and tell me they don’t really notice recoil.
When my daughter was in her early 20s, she was a ballerina with a major dance company. She weighed no more than 95 lbs, but loved shooting my LW Commander with full power loads. She was a very good shot and told me she didn’t mind the recoil at all, and in fact thought it was cool. Shooting a .22 was a waste of time for her. She wanted action!
As a firearms instructor in the Army in the ‘70s, I was astonished at the number of big, strong soldiers who were terrified of the 1911. No amount of dry-firing and instruction could cure their flinching. They claimed the 1911 was incredibly inaccurate, even when they saw other soldiers shoot small groups.

In my opinion, there’s a strong genetic component involved. I’ve had students who didn’t seem to notice recoil and others who were afraid of it, just as some shooters love the pressure of shooting in front of a crowd and others get nervous.
 
Japle said:
Part of the learning curve involves developing an indifference to recoil.

In my opinion, there’s a strong genetic component involved. I’ve had students who didn’t seem to notice recoil and others who were afraid of it
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Presumably, you're referring to a flinch.

It's nitpicky, but I don't think one can say it's genetic, since there can be a myriad of reasons why some deal with recoil better than others.

Nitpick aside, fear of recoil is one reason why people flinch, but another common one (and more insidious) is "wanting" to make a good shot or shoot a tight group. When our conscious mind is focused on the goal (a good shot, tight group, others watching, winning a match), it's not on what's really important - the process of executing a good shot. "Wanting" to make a good shot is a sure way to make a bad one. Focus on the process (for every shot) and the goal will take care of itself.
 
A wise old-time bullseye shooter once said, “Shoot every shot the best you can. Every point counts when they add up the aggregate”.
I shoot in a pistol league where we shoot 5 6-shot strings with turning targets against time. Lots of matches are decided on the basis of just one point, so I always keep that man’s advice in mind. So far, I haven’t lost a point, but the winter season is just starting. I might have as many as 8 matches left.
Trigger control. Follow-through. Call the shot. Every damn time.
 
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