Why is my accuracy decreasing so quickly during a range session?

[svtboy76]

Afternoon, been reading the forums for a long time but haven't had a question worth posting till now. I've been shooting now for about 2 months, an Angus tuned Shadow. Great gun, very happy with it. I've been trying to shoot 100 rounds a week in a single session (seems the most economical way to go to the range and still build my skills). One thing I've noticed is somewhat like when I play darts or pool I'm more accurate at the beginning of the range session than the end (4 inch spread for 18 shots at 25 yards vs. 12 inches + later). This is slow fire, one shot every 10 seconds or so. I don't feel like I'm getting tired, I'm in good shape, I don't see additional movement of the sights later in the session, any ideas? My palms do sweat and I have a towel for that. I'm trying to grip the pistol in the same two handed grip each time I load a new magazine. Thanks for the help, I do love the site, tons of great info!

[Bigpops]

Are you doing the same drills over and over? If so, mix it up and shift your focus. Perhaps your getting a little bored and letting your focus drift??

Edit to add - Try XRe's Practice Deck 1.0. Great for mixing it up, building a good base, without sending a ton of lead down range.

Edited February 26, 2010 by Bigpops

[Dan Hefta]

Congrats on your first post on the forum,

[Duane Thomas]

New shooters tend to become fatigued very quickly. It's not a matter of being in good shape, it's a matter of using muscles you're not used to using.

Having said that, if you're not feeling tired at the end of the session but your accuracy is still going to hell, I'd say it's probably a serious anticipation of recoil and noise issue. Are most of your shots in the latter part of your range session going low? When we fire a handgun, we see a hard bar of metal flip up across our line of sight with every shot. Consciously or subconsciously, we're afraid the gun is going to come back and hit us in the face. Also when we pull the trigger - and this is something a lot of people don't want to admit - especially as a new shooter, a big problem is the noise. Every time we pull the trigger it's like a firecracker goes off about two feet in front of our face. Especially as the range session progresses and fatigue begins to set in, physical reaction to both of these problems can begin to become progressively greater. You begin anticipating the recoil and pulling down on the gun in a subconscious a attempt to stop it from moving toward your face. Also that noise induced violent startle motion - even it you're not aware of it - when the gun fires becomes more pronounced, as well.

The solution, of course, is lots of dry fire. Whatever you do, the vast majority of the time you pull the trigger, will become your habit. Once you have engrained a habit, it can be very hard to train yourself out of it. Flinch most of the time when you fire the gun, you're going to engrain a flinch. Doing most or all of your practice with live ammo, especially as a new shooter, is a guaranteed program toward engraining a flinch. By contrast when you dry fire, you don't flinch. Because the gun's not moving in your hands, it's not making that big, horrible noise. It just sits there and goes click! Do that, thousands upon tens of thousands upon hundreds of thousands of times, then when you go to the range with live ammo, because not flinching has become your habit, guess what? You don't flinch.

[CocoBolo]

+1 on Dry Fire. In the CZ I would recommend using a snap cap, to protect the firing pin. I went thru the same thing when I started, and it applied to dry fire as well seemed like the longer I practiced the worse I got. You will also find times when it just isn't working so you pack it in and do it another time.

Welcome to posting!

[little_kahuna]

+1 To Duane's post. As he mentioned, new(er) shooters aren't accustomed to using shooting-specific muscles, nor are they accustomed to an explosion occurring in front of their face. I think that as a new shooter, live-fire should be to simply verify the skills that he/she has been dry practicing in his/her home. (After reading BEnos' book) get XRe's practice deck, or Steve Anderson's Dryfire Drill book, and dryfire at home. Your ratio of dryfire to livefire as a new shooter could be something like 70% dryfire to 30% livefire. Once you are comfortable with most of the fundamental such as: sight alignment, sight picture, trigger control, grip, stance, etc., then you'll have no problem pulling off consistent accuracy at a relaxed rate.

[BSeevers]

It is fatigue. I see so many new shooters fail at their first Area because of this. They aren't used to a all day ten stage match and may be winning their class in the morning to later have a six Mike afternoon. Work on the stuff mentioned and I have actually broken up my practice into two sessions with a hour break to work on attention span and concerns like that.

Go watch the rifle shooters, ok boring, well go watch the paint dry or even better a "hike" across the range simulates being tired and keeps ya from getting there later in season.

[svtboy76]

Wow, good info. I'm guilty of all of those things . . . I have just been shooting slow fire at the two ranges I go to. I will purchase the practice deck, that's a great idea.

I am still a "jumpy" shooter, reflex with the noise. Wearing earplugs and the electronic hearing protection helps but I can see how I would get more tense the longer I'm at the range. Hopefully more practice will improve that.

Good point on how being tense while shooting is going to potentially alter my shooting behavior. Yes, they are all going low (maybe 5% bad shots go 3-5" low at 25 feet). I'll focus more on dry-firing until I can reduce that tendency . . .

Both ranges I attend seem to have very strict rules "no rapid fire, double tap, one target size, etc". Because of that I feel like there's very little flexibility in what I can do with live ammo at my range and I only use my holster, practice magazine changes, etc at home. I'm assuming if I can join a club in the next few months I'll be shooting with a different type of shooter and perhaps I can practice some of those things . . . thanks for the help!

[benos]

Both ranges I attend seem to have very strict rules "no rapid fire, double tap, one target size, etc". Because of that I feel like there's very little flexibility in what I can do with live ammo at my range and I only use my holster, practice magazine changes, etc at home.

That's one of the reasons I fled Ohio in the mid-70's. At that time, no public ranges would let you shoot more than one shot per second. If you did, you were "dangerous."

Duane pretty much covered it. Lots of dry firing will reduce your range fatigue. Stick with it.

be

[GrumpyOne]

The range I shoot at has a strict "no rapid fire policy", but they don't enforce on the people who they know shoot competition. Only on the new guys that they don't know yet.

[G-ManBart]

+1 to Duane's post.

One thing besides dry fire drills and practice that will help in a major way is to get a .22 and practice with it. It's almost the best of both worlds....maybe it IS the best of both worlds. If I could start every new shooter with dry fire, then an air pistol, then a .22, then .38spl wadcutters and then hand them a 9 or .40 so that they've built up a tolerance/resistance to the anticipation/flinch, they'd all be shooting extremely well. R,