What Am I Doing Wrong?

Check to be sure the gun is fitted to your hand properly. A grip that is too fat for your hand can really mess up your ability to grab the pistol in a consistent grip every time and you find that you're readjusting every tiem you draw. If your natural finger reach doesn't put your finger in the right position (see below), you may need a different grip or different pistol altogether. All else being equal (and correct), this by itself could solve your problem.

As you get a grip on the pistol, make sure your grip is tight and firm but not so tight your muscles start to shake. The web of your hand between the thumb and forefinger should get squished up a bit.

Bury that trigger finger into the trigger guard so that the trigger sits behind the first knuckle, not on the fingertip. It's not how you've been taught for target practice but it works very well for SD and SD practice. The tight grip gives you the ability to grab the pistol more consistently every time and reduces the possibility that you'll lose the pistol to an attacker.

Draw up to your chest or even as high as your shoulder (same side of course) and then push the gun out toward your target. Raise it as high as is comfortable for you. While doing so, make sure your other hand comes to the grip as well for a two-handed hold OR be sure you get your other elbow out of the way. You don't want to shoot your own arm in the process!

(Raise your other elbow up past your eyes with your forearm resting on your forehead, palm out, while the gun is still at your chest level. It can be an additional defensive maneuver in close-quarters combat and can prevent your gun from being taken from you.)

All of the above can be adjusted to your needs and ability. Even if you don't do everything as described (hard to describe in writing anyway! :D ) it can give you some ideas about how to adjust your draw and presentation to the target to "fix" your problem.

Always practice slow. You HAVE to develop muscle memory and if you practice fast and get it wrong half the time, you're not building that muscle memory. Better to practice a thousand times slow and get it right EVERY time than to practice one time fast and get it wrong. I had an instructor years ago who said, "For every one mistake you make, you have to get it right 100 times to get rid of that mistake." (BTW, that's true of basketball, martial arts, guitar. . . . Whatever you're learning.)

Let us know how it goes.

--Wag--
 
Brick, my point is, in most self defense situations there is some sort of altercation before things go pear shaped. If you are a trained fighter it is automatic do get into some sort of defensive stance or to position your body as the situation escalates. Unlike most square range competitive drills where you start facing the target with your hands clasped together.

The idea here, or so I thought was to get him doing the BASICS right. Once he masters the BASICS he can move on to the more advanced techniques. Once the foundations of sound marksmanship and point shooting are learned it is very easy to shoot accurately in any position.
 
If you are a trained fighter it is automatic do get into some sort of defensive stance or to position your body as the situation escalates
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That's fine for the firing line, or in classic tv western gun fights, but not in real life SD.

Which I think would involve shooting from lying on your back because you were knocked on your butt at an ATM machine, or setting in a car during a carjacking, or one hand shooting while you trying to push your wife or kids out of the way or behind you.

Wont work when walking around your house at night with a flash light, openning doors, or shooting from cover.

OR setting in you recliner as someone kicks in your front door.

Frankly, I can't think of many SD situations where you can get you good solid
"Defensive Two Handed" stance.

Thinking back on my 20 years in LE and my time with a pistol in combat in SE Asia, I can't think of very few times I could use a good two handed stance. Just don't happen in real life.
 
Well, every one is taking what I am saying out of context.

I was trying to give him (OP) advice for what I thought was beginning marksmanship training.

If you involved in a reactive SD scenario it is what it is, and you missed some danger cues along the way.

That is where GOTX and shooting on the move comes is IF it goes to guns. I just do not think those are what a beginner should focus on. A beginner should master the basics first, thats all I was saying. I totally agree that you are not going to be in ANY stance in a SD situation, I too was an LEO for 32 years.
 
This may have already been mentioned, but I use a thumbs forward grip and index my support hand thumb on the target. The sight picture then is usually spot on.
 
A lot of good advice here. The only thing I have to add:

When you push the gun out toward the target, don't stop it suddenly at the end. It should stop gradually, like an elevator. You can stop quickly, but don't let it bounce at the end.
 
I was trying to give him (OP) advice for what I thought was beginning marksmanship training.
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Except that is not what was asked.

Whenever I train on the range, as I draw my pistol, my goal is to bring the gun up and to have the front sight go directly to the center of the target. However, it seems that no matter how much I practice, when I bring the gun up into the firing position, my front sight first goes off to the left or right, or perhaps a bit too high.
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You need to smooth out your draw and learn how to bring the gun up into your field of vision ON the target.

It is a practice thing.
Start off easy ('indexed' to the target) until the draw is smooth and reliably on the target.

THEN start working on targets that are not nicely positioned (like off to the side).

It takes a lot of practice, and there is no simple way to speed things up.
 
...goal is to bring the gun up and to have the front sight go directly to the center of the target.
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Low-gun skeet shooters practice this as a matter of course.

Do NOT look at the front sight as the gun is coming up. Instead concentrate--and keep concentrating--solely on the target center "spot" and bring the bring the front sight up into the picture. Once there, track target & sight together.

Repeat
Do NOT look down for the gun sight. It will automatically arrive exactly where you are looking. And if you look somewhere else, it will go that somewhere else.

Front sight, Front Sight, …FRONT SIGHT….. forget everything else in a close-mid range defensive scenario. The rear sight alignment is not your priority. The FRONT SIGHT coming into your line-of-sight is your priority. Everything else will automatically take care of itself if your laser focus on the FRONT SIGHT
 
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