It's been a while - The results of time away

[Jofaba]

So my car broke down a few months ago, and about a month ago I got a scooter. But because of the design of such a bike, I felt that my ability to go to the range was legally questionable without a carry permit. The law here is that the gun and ammo have to be separate. You can argue on the definition of "separation", but in the worse case scenario, I'd have a jury doing that for me.

I finally got my carry permit approved by the town of York, Maine. They have slightly different rules and requirements than the STATE of Maine, so the wait was even longer as, after having my state application returned to me unblessed, I had to reapply locally.

Since getting my permit I have renewed my membership at the South Berwick Rod & Gun Association. I can't tell you how great a feeling that was!

Now, to my shooting...

I am fairly new to shooting. A little over a year under my belt, between rifle at 100 yards, shotgun at 50 with slugs, skeet (actually pretty good) and 10-20 yard handgun.

I've had bad days and good days, as I'm sure you all have, but I do take my accuracy very seriously. No handloads yet, so I do give myself a break, but even factory ammo performs better than I am.

First day at the range was VERY disappointing. The second day was even worse. These two trips were a week apart. I was more confident on my second trip which made it all the more depressing.

My third day was more casual, about 2 weeks later, and was in fact, my best out of the three. I went to a friend's house to just have fun. It was there that I discovered how much better I was when really addressing the core issues with my shooting. I used the pad of my finger instead of the curl, and I got a grouping at 5 yards of three holes creating a line (all breaking into each other). I was very pleased. Prior to that I was all over the place, and consistently hitting low left.

Moving to pad from curl affected my wrist more than my finger, I beleive. It took my right hand's tendency to bend inward, to straitening my hand for the shoot, but pulling my hand slightly opposite of it's natural bend. Looking at my grip without a gun in my hands, I see that it moves the line of pressure from the left side of my grip to the center. HUGE IMPROVEMENT. In the movies they make it seem like gun skill comes from mastering sight image. In reality, it's a lot more complex.

Of course, 5 yards isn't that impressive, but it's a start. But... while the grouping was great, I was still not on target.

I was much better before this short hiatus. A break from training (if you want to call it that) seems tremendously destructive. How do you perform after coming back from a stretch of non-shooting, and how destructive do you feel that it can be if you do actually plan on actively carrying daily?

I almost think that it's incredibly dangerous and irresponsible to carry if you aren't shooting at least once every two weeks, at least from my experience.

I won't be carrying this pistol until I feel absolutely comfortable and confident with it. It's like you can't have a deep conversation with someone you just met unless things just click. So far, me and my Baretta haven't clicked yet. I pray that we do soon! And it's slightly depressing knowing that the fault lies in me and not the pistol. I love it, it's just not loving me yet.

[djohn]

I have been shooting 25 yrs and have good days and bad days,I dont know any shooter that doesn't. Practice makes better but never perfect but better.However, there are times I would go every week and have some horriable days.Sometimes I will notice my consentration is off or I am not steady and jittery from one two many cups of coffee or for what ever reason and my site picture would be all over the place.IMO trigger and breathing control are the most important but sometimes I find I am pulling on the trigger instead of squeezing or moving the gun just before I shoot doing everything wrong,it happens and I just correct my self or just chulk it up as a bad day.

[Brian Pfleuger]

Given the distances typical of SD situations, I'd say that training concepts like "stress inoculation" are more important than target practice. I think most people would benefit more from a day or two of force-on-force training than from 10,000 rounds of target practice.

In other words, I wouldn't worry too much about it.

[djohn]

Agree with peetza and different types of shooting.