Need Suggestions to improve shooting while moving.

[West Texas Granny]

Any tricks to help me shoot while moving. I'm just so unsteady/tense when shooting on the move.

[mlmiller1]

WTG,

Walk slightly crouched, rolling foot heel down first, short steps. Elbows bent more than normal.

Practice carrying glass of water in your hands in place of pistol. Better you get, fuller you fill the glass.

MLM

[Corey]

Think to yourself to get your legs bent more and your butt lower than you normally would when walking. Dont pick up and put down your feet, but let them roll from heel to toe as you move. Most importantly, practice it. Next time you go to the range, do nothing but shooting while moving drills. forward/backward/left/right. Start out close and then move the target back further or move faster for added difficulty as you progress.

[vluc]

If you have a treadmill at home, an empty gun and a dry fire target and set it to slow!

[ddpenn]

When is the appropriate point in your stride to break the shot. A) when one foot is up or when leading foot touches down?

[abn-rgr]

When is the appropriate point in your stride to break the shot. A) when one foot is up or when leading foot touches down?

There is no good time. if you try to time your shots with where your feet are, you are going to take up to much time.

[MTSCMike]

Creep like a Ninja!

All the advice so far is good. If you have ever taken or seen martial arts movement, that is what you are looking for...low slow and roll heel to toe. I saw a neat drill this weekend. Imagine a 10 foot circle on the ground (or draw one) and set up a target 10 yards from the front edge of the circle. Load your pistol and have some mags on you. Fire on the target while travelling the circle in your best Ninja creep, reloading as necessary. This will force you to go every direction and help you identify which directions give you trouble. If that gets too hard for you then do a square so you are walking straight lines and work up to the circle when you get better.

You will find that moving to the strong side is pretty easy but moving to the weak side requires moving more backward than forward...in other words, your upper body stays almost the same in relationship to the target and your foot and leg movement determines your direction.

Before you fire shots, try it dry and just watch your front sight for smooth movement. If it bobbles you aren't creeping correctly.

[Graham Smith]

Go to Staples and get a cheap led laser pen. Attach it to your slide with rubber bands. Practice moving around while keeping the dot pointed at something.

[West Texas Granny]

Good tips. I will be trying them this weekend. Will get that led laser and practice that at home.

[pjb45]

Don Golembieski once told me the difference between a GM and M was the ability to shoot on the move. That did not seem to be true in the last three Nationals, though.

If you remember how Groucho Marx walked, that is the foundation. Knees bent, the center of gravity lowered (read butt), roll your feet.

One practice drill you might try is to set up some steel targets. I used a 22 in the beginning so I could focus on the sight picture rather than deal with recoil. The cost was cheaper too.

One trick I used in the beginning when I was walking slow, was to only pull the trigger when the foot hit the ground and I had a stable sight picture. So for a while, each step produced a shot. This really helped me with my sight picture and target acquisition. It eventually became when the sight picture was correct, the shot broke regardless of where my feet placed.

Max and Matt also teach a couple different ways of walking. One is to have the feet pointed about 90 degrees from the targets, twist the shoulders and walk straight. The other way, is to face the targets and move the legs in front and back of each other - like a crossover walk.

Sometimes, acquiring a new skill requires some intermediate steps to get to the final solution.

[West Texas Granny]

Will try the cross over walk sans weapon at first. Think I will move the practice session to Monday as it's members only and few are there.

[Tom D.]

In addition to the previous good advice, watch vids (youtube) of top shooters.

[Johnathan]

All of the advise given by all is spot on. Models learn to walk with a glide so they dont disturb a book and then a glass of water on their head. Grief, given they are in high heels, shooting on the move should be easier!. Given everyone has already discussed the "duck walk" to minimize the upper body movement you probably are already on track. The speed or length of stride may be questions you have though? There are no right or wrong answers it's whats works best for you and as you practice (you can practice your "glide" anywhere and you dont need a gun in your hand to do so) your confidence and speed will incraese. Untimately as your skill develops its best to shoot more difficult targets in between strides, when your body is at its "quietest". Shooting in betwen strides takes time to master though so try taking smaller steps to keep the gun level to start with. Some master the small quick step, others prefer longer slower strides. Whether a handgun or longun the skill however is the same. You'll find the gun is less disturbed the shorter your stride becomes because your body movement goes through a smaller arc. So start in slow baby steps at close targets and work up the length of your strides and speed from there. Smoothness is what counts. In other words mimizing any jarring in the sight picture. Remember the objective is to keep your upper body as flat as possible as you move and elimate as much "bounce" as possible, just like the model walking with the glass of water on her head. Efficient movement is the hardest skill to achieve in practical shooting but it comes with time. Just remember that no matter what you do your sights are your ultimate reference point and if you can hold them on target long enough to release the intended shots thats all that matters, so strive to see that sight picture and your body will eventually and very naturally do the rest.

[Norther]

One drill I like is to set up two barrels 6 or 10 feet apart with two steel targets at an easy range. Walk in a figure 8 around the barrels while firing at alternate targets, never stop moving, through several reloads. It's an ammo-eater though I also do it dry-firing around the house, walking around and clicking. Important to practice in all directions, forward/back and sideways.

[benos]

When is the appropriate point in your stride to break the shot. A) when one foot is up or when leading foot touches down?

For B - never - that's the worst time to fire a shot while moving. Shoot all shots while moving with one foot in the air.

Typing the first sentence reminded of a story / lesson from long ago, from Matt Mclaren. Our squad had just finished up a run-n-gun COF. It was a super simple COF - you ran straight down a lane and hosed down the targets on the left and right side, and no target was over about 7 - 10 yards. It was a super crank job. We were chatting about the COF, when Matt began with, "You have to be really careful on this stage..." At that point I remember wondering what he was going to say, because there did not seem to be any reason to be careful about anything on that stage. He finished with, "... because if you fired a shot when your foot touched the ground you could shoot a D."

I remember being fairly blown away by how deeply I took that.

be

[Unregistered]

I need to work on this too, but I found that getting a pair of shoes with a rounded heel edge helps a lot (compared to edgy/squared heels).

[MustangGreg66]

Some good practice techniques here, I'll have to give them a try

[DamonHP]

Any tricks to help me shoot while moving. I'm just so unsteady/tense when shooting on the move.

First, move SLOWLY. You can't walk like you do on the street. You have to walk heel to toe like a ninja; your knees must stay bent and your hips lowered; the hips must remain at the same height relative to the ground throughout the strides. When walking backwards, walk toe to heel. You should be able to stay focused on your front sight and pull the trigger at any point in your stride if you are moving smoothly enough. There is a great video on YouTube from the Arm Marksmanship Unit on this subject. Practice in your house with a safed gun. Good luck.

[KungFuNerd]

Matt Burkett uses a drill where you grip an inverted water bottle and practice moving.

Works well for me.

I load up an airsoft and walk in circles, ovals, X's, Squares while shooting a target.

No recoil of course but a few hundred rounds of that really helped me get used to keeping sight picture while moving

[Whoops!]

I feel a red dot is the best for practicing while moving because it shows you exactly where you're aiming the whole time. Stride timing doesn't substantially effect walking shots in my honest opinion.

Edited November 1, 2011 by Whoops!

[want2race]

I put this in my Top Shot audition vid: Everytime you get up to get a beer (can), pop it open in the kitchen but don't put the pull tab back down. Leave it straight up, now grip the can with both hands and look through the hole in the tab. Now airgun (tap can to pull trigger) back to the couch. You have a FULL can of BEER and an aiming referrence. Walk smooth or spill BEER. Swinging from target to target (you have targets all over your house right?) your transitions must be smooth or you will spill BEER. Once you get back to the couch your movement drill is over, at least for another 12oz.

It's similar to Burkets water bottle except you have an aiming reference and instant feedback (wet hands) if you muck it up.

[dravz]

One drill I like is to set up two barrels 6 or 10 feet apart with two steel targets at an easy range. Walk in a figure 8 around the barrels while firing at alternate targets, never stop moving, through several reloads. It's an ammo-eater though I also do it dry-firing around the house, walking around and clicking. Important to practice in all directions, forward/back and sideways.

This single drill improved my shooting on the move more than any other. Live fire and dry fire.

[Glockdirtyfour]

Would any of you experience shooters would like to share some pointers on how to practice and train to shoot on the move? Any training tips, for this technique I could do at home without live firing?

Thanks.

[Skydiver]

For walking technique: Half filled water bottle. Hold upside down with the bottle cap where your gun grip would be. Practice your heel-toe walking in a square or triangle pattern while focusing on keeping water stable.

Once you've got your movement technique, swap in the gun and work on trigger pull timing. Most recommend not pulling the trigger when the heel lands because of the jarring, but figure out what works best for you.

[Singlestack]

Merged here.