Need tips on learning accuracy

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David

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Through this excellent site and bullseyepistol.com I have begun to study techniques for good marksmanship. Question: how does one make the transition with these techniques to personal defense, which is my main interest. Will learning good marksmanship techniques prove valuable in personal defense? What's the same, what's different?

For example: do you use the same breathing techniques? What about stance, grip, etc. Are they essentially the same? Thanks for your input.
 
David, what a can of worms you have opened! ;)

I'm not even sure I know where to start so I'll just throw a few things out at you. Please bear in mind that this topic is hightly subjective to "opinion", hence my comments are indeed my own opinions.

ANYONE can improve their "accuracy", and I use that term loosly, by going to the range and using their firearm's sighting system to hit that little "x" in the center. They can tell themselves, "now I am more accurate!" But are they?

For self defense it will be a rarity that you will have the opportunity to use those nice pretty, glow-in-the-dark sights. You will most likely not have the time. With that in mind, can you reliably and calmly hit a target zone by "instinctive" firing - no sights? I cannot tell you how many shooters at the ranges I go to squint their eyes to line up those sights. They're practically useless. I often suggest to them to NOT use the sights. And behold they are "spraying and praying" rounds all over the place. They would do the same thing if they needed to use their weapon in self defense.

For me, unless I'm shooting at extreme distances for a handgun, I never use the sights. I practice instinctive shooting. In short, in a self defense situation you will perform much the way you practice. If you practice WITH the sights, you will NEED the sights.

Another suggestion is when you do practice, you will improve more rapidly with shorter but more frequent shooting sessions. Don't shoot 400 rounds at one session, once a month. Shoot 100 rounds per session 4 times a month (or whatever interval you decide/afford ;).

As far as breathing, IMO, that will take care of itself. Practice will bring calm and accuracy.

As a small green friend of mine once said, "anger, aggression, fear - the dark side are those..."

Practice, practice, practice (no sights!)

CMOS

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Join GOA, NRA, LEAA and vote.
 
Marksmanship techniques that can be derive from competition for personnal defense. The rapid and timed fire relay of a 2700 match. This relay puts the shooter under pressure because there are 15 or so individuals letting off rounds at the same time. These variables allow you to concentrate on your front sight and target. If you have access to an indoor range, try doing low light drills with 5 to 10 yds targets. FWIW
 
Front sight, press... Front sight, press... repeat as necessary!

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45 ACPGive 'em a new navel!
 
To understand which fundamentals of formal marksmanship apply to combat marksmanship, you must first do a little critical thinking to figure out what really is "fundamental". To do that, start at the target and work backwards. You'll find that the key is having the barrel pointed in the correct direction relative to the target when the bullet leaves the barrel.

Learning how to adjust your stance, breathing, grip, et cetera are all helpful to shooting good scores in a match, but you'll have very little control over those things in a combat situation. What you will have is a lot of stress -- stress that will tend to make you focus on the threat rather than on your marskmanship skills.

The best thing about learning to shoot well at the range is that it builds confidence. Confidence is part of the mindset that gets you through bad situations.
 
Shoot both IPSC/USPSA and IDPA with the gun(s) you carry.

When you practice shoot groups. Start at ten yards. When you can make one hole from a full gun, step backwards two paces and start all over again.

Don't worry about a 'perfect' grip; you may be unable to acquire it in a real confrontation. Ditto stance; you might be sitting, running, prone, etc. in a real-life FUBAR. Concentrate on the basics: front sight, trigger pull.
This is what keeps IPSC valid, less than perfect position/grip but the clock keeps ticking.....

BRASS = breathe, relax, aim, sight, squeeze. It has never changed.

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"All my ammo is factory ammo"
 
Personally, I use point shooting out to about 5 yds, then I start using my sights. Or at least the front one. I try to get a quick glimpse of the front sight on the target. Not really point shooting, but not what I would call aimed, either. I usually don't bother practicing too much past 15 yds. If I am that far away, I will try to escape (run like hell!) .
Practice is the most important thing, as much of this type of shooting is muscle memory. Get your carry gun, and a good holster. Start at 5 yds, draw slowly, and put a hole in the center of the target. Don't worry about speed at first, it will come later. You want to get your muscles used to the movements. As you do this, your speed will naturally increase. Once you think you are pretty good, get a timer, it is very helpful in tracking your progress. Good luck, and be safe.
 
I had this same conversation with one of my "coaches" perhaps 20 some years ago. At the time, my coach was a Grand Master PPC shooter and I was a Master Class PPC shooter. Action Pistol was not even born, nor was IDPA. IPSC was around but no one took it very seriously. However, auto pistols were slowly coming on the scene and with them law enforcement agencies were re-thinking their training. PPC was going great guns (no pun intended) but it was obvious it didn't fully meet defensive training needs.

After a lengthy conversation, my coach kind of summed it up by saying that any kind of quality practice that developed good shooting fundamentals and gave a shooter the opportunity to become familiar with his handgun was worthwhile. However, some types of practice are more worthwhile than others.

After shooting many, many thousands of rounds through a PPC double action revolver, I began shooting the now defunct National Shooter's League course followed by Action Pistol, all with revolvers. Somewhere in between I shot chickens, pigs and rams. Now, some 20 years later I do all of my defensive shooting with an automatic and I am starting into IDPA. I am even thinking of buying a Colt SAA replica to get into "cowboy" shooting.

My point is this, no matter which shooting sport you participate in, develop good shooting skills and always strive for improvement. You will eventually develop a "sweet spot" that you will return to when you draw your handgun and you will be able to fire a shot fast and accurately under almost any conditions without even thinking about it. The more you train and the harder you work, the easier it will be to make the transition from one sport to another and from one handgun to another. This country has many shooters who shoot very well in multiple disciplines and they have achieved the distinction of Master in several shooting sports. The one thing they all have in common is the ability to develop a serious approach to their shooting and the ability to focus their mental game to the task at hand.

Having said all of that, I shot bullseye (indoor gallery) when I started. I achieved Master in one year in rim fire gallery. At the risk of getting flamed, the old one hand on the hip the other doing the work doesn’t cut it in personal defense. The old 2700 shooters do not practice presentation, low ready, covering the target, etc. and the stance is not natural. You will learn sight alignment, trigger control and rhythm. You will also find three gun will help you develop an incredible ability to focus and your mental game will become very fine. I once shot the old NSL course when a freight train went by. When I finished one of the cameramen told me I seemed to not be bothered by the train rumbling by. I was serious when I asked him, “What train”? Still, even though conventional pistol is the game of many serious competitors (as is free pistol)it does little to prepare you for a shootout in front of your ATM machine.

If you are serious about defensive shooting, you are going to have to practice presentation and you will have to go to a two handed grip with a proper stance. Your stance will either be a Weaver (or variant) or an Improved Isosceles. You will also have to learn to get a shot off using less than perfect sight alignment. I would suggest you find someone who can teach you about “flash sight” pictures. You need to learn how much front sight you need to make the shot. This can vary from none (close quarters) to full (beyond 25 yards) to fine (50 yards). You might even opt to do 95 per cent of your training at less than 20 yards. You will also need to learn how to utilize available cover and how to exit the “kill zone”. And you must increase your zone of awareness in order to overcome tunnel vision as you engage multiple targets at unknown distances. Some folks even practice shooting from a chair (as in a car or while eating a meal) and shooting with a flashlight or no artificial light in low light conditions.

I wish you the best with your bullseye shooting and I hope you make 2600 someday. But go buy a holster and some center of mass targets. Hope this helps rather than confuse.
 
WOW AKENY !


I wasnt looking for the answer to davids question, but im sure i would be asking that some day on here. Im going to copy this and save it for the day i need advice.

Fantastic reply !

Thanks

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TIM : )
 
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