What will improve your shooting habits more

Could it be the 9mm you are shooting seems to give more kick then say a Ruger P95 which for me is comfortable. Last time at the range i shot my friend's full size Glock and I thought it had more muzzle flip for sure and seemed to have more felt recoil then my p95. I then shot his Glock .45 ( 21/22 ? ) and I was expecting a real wallop and didn't seem any diff then the Glock 9mm.

Dave
 
@OP, Someone posted this exercise in a thread before, and you might find it useful whatever caliber you choose to go with.

The basic idea of it is to apply pressure to the trigger and let off, and repeat this with increasing pressure until the gun goes bang.

I forget what it was called, hopefully someone knows the name so you can look it up to get the full instructions.

I've found it useful in slowing things down and really focusing on the fundamentals.
 
OP, get a good .22 and a good shooting coach. Practice until you can hit a 4" plate at 25-yards regularly. Then practice with the .22 some more.

It sounds like you're anticipating recoil and generally don't have the fundamentals drilled until they're second nature. It's unfortunately common and takes committed, focused practice and instruction to overcome. Depending on how bad it is, an afternoon with somebody watching you may be enough so you can perfect the details on your own after.
 
I just quickly glanced through so forgive me if this has been addressed already but...

I have found with some of the people that I shoot with, thought that they were having a flinching problem but it turns out they weren't shooting in between breaths.

In the Marines, we would do a lot of dry drills to help work on trigger control, sight alignment/picture, get comfortable in shooting positions, and to get in the habit of squeezing the trigger during the natural respiratory pause. Muscle memory is a huge factor when it comes to accuracy and curing bad habits.

If your dry fire is fine and you still have issues when going live, then shoot from a supported position. Practice trigger control, sight picture/alignment, and breath control while being supported so if you flinch it doesn't make a huge difference. Do that until your comfortable enough that you aren't flinching anymore.
 
Ronbert said:
another trick to try is to slow fire such that you hold the trigger back when it goes off, put the sights back on target, THEN ease the trigger forward to reset. Do several magazines this way. It helps a LOT with followthru
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I think this might help. I think maybe lack of follow through is part of my problem.
 
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concentrate only on the trigger
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Bullseye. The eye controls the trigger finger pressure. It's all about the surprise break. If you can stop anticipating the recoil you can start making progress.

There's a little voice in the back of your head that says its going to hurt. Tell him to shut up and ignore him. If you're listening to the voice then you are not paying attention to your shooting. Your mind should be totally without thought and only paying attention to the front sight. There is nothing else in the world except that front sight. Don't think, just watch.

You have to be able to call your shots. In order to do this, you must be able to look through the shot. Some call this follow through. Even gunsmoke can not stop you from calling the shot if you're paying attention because the bang is before the smoke. If you can't call your shots, then technically speaking, you don't really know where your gun was pointed when you shot.:eek::D

The little voice is a dummy and can easily be tricked. Having both a 22 and a 44 Mag and switching back and forth helped me a lot. Empty your mind and simply pay attention. Anticipating 44 Mag recoil with a 22 in your hand is mighty funny. Anticipating 22 recoil with a 44 Mag in your hand is satisfying and eye opening. It's an A-Ha! moment. Once you see the shot break and you follow through and can call that shot, you realize that (gasp) you lived and not only are ok but hit the bullseye too...then you learn where to take your mind to repeat this...I hope this makes sense to you.
 
Take a class. 1 good class on basic pistol marksmanship that puts you on the right track can save you years of turning money into smoke for no useful purpose.
 
Either way, try this: Use your 9mm, but get rid of the target. Just shoot into the berm. Watch the front sight, but let the round go where it goes (but into the berm, of course). During this, relax and let your mind wrap itself around the idea that you're not "trying" to do anything, and that recoil & muzzle blast won't hurt you.
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Agreed
 
A couple of thoughts...

a. I'd go with double ear plugs / custom molded for the first layer - then the best ear muffs you can get. You want to drown out the noise.

b. A flinch can be "eye related" ...especially if you have vision problems...or if you are not staying 100% focused on the front sight.... you might think you're focused on the front sight ...but you might be shooting ..and looking at target to see where it went ...and back and forth to the target - the front sight - the target - the front sight ...( and It'll cause a big time flinch ).

c. you might be rushing your shots - faster than your ability - if you're doing double taps. Sometimes just slowing down 0.25 of a second will calm things down....you have to find that happy medium - of quick ...but not out of control ( where you're just spraying and praying ..) ...

d. dummy rounds mixed into your gun by a buddy ...might help .../ its a fun drill if nothing else.

e. shorter range sessions ...( less than 2 hours / 6 boxes or whatever ) vs marathon sessions where you might be there for 4 - 6 hrs ...so you're more alert ...are probably better. If I get tired...supervising...teaching or whatever....and then try to shoot, the wheels can come off big time...or it just takes way more for me to focus when I'm tired..vs relaxed.

f. personally --- I tend to flinch less...with guns I shoot the most ...where I'm really dialed in ...the better the trigger - the better..../ like a 1911 with a nice crisp trigger set at 3.5 or 4.0 lbs ....but no creep or slack ...vs some double action, production guns ..with really long trigger pulls ...tend to make me yank a few wild shots...

but I'd look at that stuff first ...especially since you're already doing the dry firing..../ and I don't think a gun in .22 will help much ...but try it anyway ..and evaluate it and see if it helps.
 
Shoot the 22 first.

Shooting a powerful round first can get you into all sorts of issues with aiming and just trying to control the darn thing on recoil.

Always best to start with 22's then work up.

But the most important thing is simply TO SHOOT.

Any kind of target,plinking or hunting shooting will help you train with the handgun.

Honestly,alot of us old folks started on bb guns.

The principles of using open sights and a steady hold got burned into our skulls by using the old American multipumps like Daisy brand air guns and Crosman air rifles.

Now you can get spring air rifles that you can train new shooters on two as well as air soft guns.

The idea is to train well using the sights and a steady,consistent hold.

Once you get that right every time,the rest is simply fun learning as you go.
 
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