Marksmanship frustration

[Roland Thunder]

My marksmanship skills were pretty decent until recently when I tokk a few weeks off for vacation. My marksmanship has been dreadful since returning from vacation and I can't figure out what I am doing wrong all of a sudden. My friends at the range are all telling me I am "pushing" the gun outward and downward when I shoot. I even see myself doing it sometime. I keep telling them, "I know what I am doing wrong, but how do I make myself quit doing it". I have had people tell me that I am using too much exertion with my shooting hand. I've had others tell me I'm not gripping the gun tight enough (Massood Ayuub says to grip it as tight as you can) hence the gun is jumping when I shoot. I've had some say to press forward with your shooting hand while pressing backward with your support hand (isometrics). I've had others say this only applies to the Weaver stance. I've had some people says stretch your arms all the way out (Isosceles stance) others say relax your arms a bit. I've tried dry firing and don't seem to have the "dipping" problem when I dry fire only when shooting live rounds.


I'm shooting a Sig 226 9mm, great gun, should be able to shoot it better than I am.

[Skadoosh]

Without looking at your targets from your latest shooting session, maybe this will help you diagnose your issues.



Reverse if shooting left-handed.

[BRE346]

I'm working on that, too.

Just lke you, it doesn't show up while dry-firing at home. So it must be the expectation of a lot of noise and dreading the recoil. So I flinch and push. It takes a while at the range to get past that and concentrate on holding, pulling the trigger and follow-through.

Let us practice and practice as best we can. We will get better.

[Skadoosh]

The P226 in 9mm has very mild recoil. That shouldnt be an issue.

[Clifford L. Hughes]

GrefInAtl:

You might be pulling the trigger instead of releasing it. When you pull a trigger it not only misaligns the sights it causes flinching and the closing of the eyes in anticipation of recoil. A cure for this is dry firing. When I was shooting for a Marine Corps pistol team I praticed developing my grip, my trigger finger placementa, my trigger control my stance and keeping my sights aligned. My firt step was to place a kitchen chair about ten feet from a blank white wall with it back facing me. The back was a simulated firing line bench. Now, place the pistol in your hand and get a firm grip. I tighten my grip until my hand shook and then eased up until my hand was steady. Now place you finger on the trigger and bring the pistol to shooting level. Align the sight on the blank wall and keep you eyes focused on them. Now its time to release the trigger without the sights moving. If you pull the trigger it will be evident when the sights move. Practiice changing your grip and you trigger finger placement until you have found the righe combination. By developing you trigger release the trigger will release unknown to you thus elimating filnch.

One more thing, your eyes can't focus on the sights and the target at the same time. Your eyes must be focused on you pistol's sights and the target a blurr.

Semper Fi.

Gunnery Segeant
Clifford L. Hughes
USMC Retired

[carguychris]

The P226 in 9mm has very mild recoil. That shouldnt be an issue.

True, but it does have a high bore axis and significant muzzle flip. I have a hunch that the OP may be "pushing" in anticipation of the muzzle flip in an unconscious effort to realign the sights quickly.

+1 on Clifford's suggestions. Here's my thoughts: implement what he discusses, but when you return to the range, try to fire very slooowly with steady gradual pressure on the trigger, then concentrate on smoothly returning the trigger forward without realigning the sights until the trigger stroke is complete. Repeat several times, then try to do it a little faster, then a bit faster still, and so on. If you start pushing again, back off to "full slow" and restart. This technique has worked for me in the past.

[10-96]

Just my wild guess here, but it sounds like you really are anticipating the whole sound, recoil, reset thing and trying to overcompensate an attempt to keep things steady as the shot breaks.

Seriously, try this: Next time you're on the line, load up a mag or two, and fire them off slowly while watching the pistol. Of course you'll make sure the pistol is shooting into a safe backdrop, but this helps. It helped me. I think my biggest problem was that I knew what the shot was supposed to look like as it broke, but i never watched the whole process. By watching your pistol in this manner, it reaffirms basically everything you knew all along, and with a satisfied mind- you won't have the subconcious urge to over compensate for anything. On the first mag- focus on the whole of the rear of the sidearm. Next mag- same thing, but release your trigger on a 3-count and never let your finger loose contact with the face of the trigger. If you"ve combined two different subconcious bad habits- this will help isolate them and let you know where the problem is.

[drail]

RELAX. Take a deep breath and slow down your breathing. Align the sights and lightly press the trigger and let the gun fire, don't make the gun fire. You want to press the trigger when the sight alignment is perfect but you don't really want to know exactly when it's going to fire. In other words once you start trigger pressure you know it's going to fire soemwhere between one point in time and another point in time but you should actually be slightly surprised when it fires. Practice dry firing at home every chance you get. Concentrate totally on what the front sight does when the gun fires. Does it move any at all? When you can dry fire on a small point and see no movement of the front sight you're getting it. Watch that front sight closely. It will tell you when you screw up. Shooting is a Zen thing, much like martial arts or archery. Most of all relax. Drain all tension from your hands, arms, and shoulders.

[Therealkoop]

When you pull the trigger, hold it back and dont let go/reset until you are back on target.

When I first started out I would flich after a while. (pushing down/anticipating recoil). Dryfiring helped, but eventually I would start to do it again due to fatigue or whatever. With enough dryfiring and "ghost firing" (pretending to shoot a gun without on in my hands), I dont flinch at all anymore and wont no matter how many rounds I shoot in a session.

Something I make new shooters do when I watch them flinch is just tell them to dryfire thier gun a dozen times. Usually thier frustration leaves and they say "oh damn" the first time they dry fire and see themselves drop the muzzle. After a dozen or so they stop flinching and they can go through a few mags before they do it again, and then I just tell them to slow down and dry fire a dozen more times.

Also, Buy a .22 handgun and just shoot the hell out of it. Getting used to that will make a difference when you switch to a "serious" caliber.

[crankyoldlady]

It is possible to grip too tight.

[FairWarning]

You took off a few weeks and suddenly forgot how to shoot?

[ltc444]

Breathing and Little finger.

Those are the two basic issues I forget when I have had a long layoff.

Simple exercise.

Relax your little finger. Control your breathing so that you a neutral when you are shooting. Then back to basics.

Obtain sight picture. Start your trigger pull and then Sight, sight, sight, discharge, recover sight picture and sight, sight, call your shot and then lower your weapon.

[lawnboy]

This is going to sound like I'm screwing with you, but I'm not. Just make sure the gun is pointed where you want it to shoot when it goes off.

See, I told you it would sound like I'm screwing with you.

But really, all talk of trigger finger placement, grip, stance and breathing is aimed at ensuring that the gun is pointed where you want when it goes off.

If you know you're yanking the trigger, make yourself stop. If you know your sights flinch off target right before discharge, stop doing that.

This sounds simplistic, but clearly you know something about stances, etc. So just get in a stance you like. Aim and fire one really well aimed shot. If you screw it up stop. And then try again to fire one shot perfectly. Then try to do it again. and again and again. You see where I'm going here??

You were happy with your shooting. You know you have it in you. Just slow down and get back there. One shot at a time.

Aaron Rodgers and Tom Brady don't think about their form and footwork when they're throwing TD passes. They just do it really well. But they got that way by the numbers, one step at a time.

There is a reason the USMC makes recruits sit in a circle for a few days dry firing at little black dots painted on a white barrel before they give them live ammo. Practice makes perfect.

[dyl]

Regardless of the caliber, I'd think that upon returning from a peaceful (or hectic) vacation, even 9mm would be perceived by your body as an explosion going off right in front of your face. Which it is.

If all those things mentioned above failed, here is something that helped me. I was flinching when firing 38 special out of a heavy 6 inch revolver meant for .357 magnum. To be sure there really isn't much recoil but it was the muzzle blast, the V shaped flame from the cylinder gap, the light the heat (I am complete...song reference)

I went ahead a shot a cylinder or two of .357's out of it, taking my time aiming and concentrating on trigger pull just like I was with the 38's. When I went back to 38's for the whole rest of the session they seemed like squibs in comparison. It helped my flinch.