Need some advice on pistol shooting

[Tom D]

I shoot AR-15 in the service rifle class at NRA Highpower matches. I also shoot combat rifle ( rack grade M-16 ) on the Wyoming Army National Guard team. The combat matches require all rifle shooters to shoot in a pistol match and all pistol shooters to shoot in a rifle match. The pistol matches are shot with a rack grade Beretta. The matches I shoot in are only 25 meters, but are very fast.

I have never liked to shoot pistol and have never shot it very well. I have committed myself to change that. I bought a Beretta 92F and have been spending more time practicing.

I just want to ask you guys that shoot these fast paced handgun matches to give me some pointers. In service rifle, you focus on the front sight. I have to believe that this is also the case with fast handgun shooting. Am I right? Can you give me some ideas for practice drills. These are point value targets so I do need to hit center, not just the silhouette. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[shortcut]

Tom D,

25 meters may not sound like much to a person who is used to primarily shooting rifles, but some of us who primarily shoot handguns 25 meters is known as PRECISION SHOOTING DISTANCE! That's any distance where a tiny error in sight alignment or trigger press can translate into misses.

You are correct, of course, that your focus needs to be on your front sight. At precision distances your total focus needs to be on the front sight: The top of the front sight needs to be crisp and clear in your vision, aligned with the tops of your rear sight, and centered between them. Your rear sight should look fuzzy, and the target just a blur in the distance.

Keep focusing on the sight while you press the trigger...

Once you get the hits certain at those distances, a method of speeding up the time between shots is to focus even harder on the front sights...How? By not releasing the trigger to let it reset for the next shot until you've acquired the perfect sight picture again. That practice forces you to focus on the front sight even while the gun is in recoil - which often leads to better awareness of how the front sight is moving and better ways to control that movement.

Hope this makes sense, and that you will learn to love your sidearm too!

[HS]

Damn.... I've been doin' it wrong ;) & today I shot a 144/150 rf (S&W 2206) & 142/150 (S&W 19) cf @ 7, 15, 25 metres.
I keep both eyes open & obtain an overall view of the sights & target.
It seems to work for me :D
Practice, practice, practice
As if you already didn't know that ! ;)

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"The Gun from Down Under !"
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