Starting - basic drills for "beginners"

[Paula]

Hello everyone. I am new to this forum so if I ask silly questions please bear with me. I enjoy target shooting and want to advance to competition shooting. To be honest I don't know if I am going to have the time to read through all the posts about competition shooting.

I am most interested in the drills and exercises to get one going. I can hit a little black dot with my Les Bear 1911 at about 21-30 feet but not consistently and my groupings are not great. Forget rapid fire - I'm terrible at it. so with that, any quick tips to help improve?

by the way, I have a Les Bear HW Monolithe. I shoot 230 grade ammo

[Merlin Orr]

Welcome to the Forums, Paula.

I would suggest you spend some time just going through the various threads in the "Shooting" area of the Forums. You will soon get some ideas on a lot of different areas to improve. The more you read the more specific your areas of need become apparent to you. THEN you can ask questions that will really be helpful in your goals as a shooter...

[Paula]

thanks - good advice - I appreciate you taking the time to point me in the right direction

[Hi-Power Jack]

Donna, I used to be target shooter - speed is the problem

for me:(

Best thing I've found to help is the Dot Torture

exercise - look up www.dot torture = great way to

learn to control your trigger more rapidly.

You're not shooting factory .45 ammo are you? That's

much too powerful for IPSC - USPSA. Better to down

load that to a PF of 170 or so - easier to control

rapidly, IMHO.

[Paula]

thanks !! i'll try the Dot Torture and yes I am using factory .45 ammo - i take it that I souldn't be :-( I'll try something less powerful and see how it goes but folks tell me that you are only suppose to shoot 230 in the 1911 so I am getting conflicting information. thoughts?

[mlmiller1]

Im using my phone to surf so I cant tell if you have posted a location but if we know where you are, folks will probly offer to help you in person. If that wont work, I suggest you find & study grip & stance then move to draws & reloads. That will give you some fundamentals. You can build on those skills with more advanced skills as you gain experience.

I have written out a detailed draw lesson that I can send you when you get ready. Just email me through the site.

Im out of town right now but will be home in a couple days.

Mark Miller

[Csiedmond1]

Welcome to the party!!!

[chirpy]

Paula, check out USPSA.org and IDPA.com and use there "Club Finder" threads for club/s near you. Check them out and see if they have a new shooter program. Also check local indoor ranges and the NRA.

Good Luck,

Richard

Edited March 23, 2012 by chirpy

[Hi-Power Jack]

I am using factory .45 ammo - but folks tell me that you are suppose to shoot 230 in the 1911 so I am getting conflicting information.

Paula, it's not the weight of the bullet - doesn't

have to be 230 grain - it can be 200 or 180 grain.

It's the velocity.

If you use a 230 grain bullet, most factory loads are

830 -900 fps. You only "need" 718 fps, so you are

handicapping yourself in the great game we play by

shooting ammo which is way too powerful (recoil).

(I am making the presumption that you have a full

sized - 5" - barrel on your gun:)

There's a big difference in the feel of a 230 grain

bullet at 830 fps, and the same bullet at 730 fps.

For our game, you should reload your ammo down in

power, or find someone near you who can sell you

some IPSC (USPSA) .45 ammo, at 730 fps.

Lot easier for you ...

[Darqnezz]

Newby from Northern Va. Thanks to all the posters for the great tips.

[Jeanjacket]

Honestly PF (Power Factor) may not be much of an issue for you right now. Not that it's not important, but starting out, the more important things are certainly fundamentals.

People new to USPSA range anywhere from experienced shooters to complete newbies. When I started USPSA 5 months ago I was a pretty decent shot with good fundamentals from the get-go with regards to a stationary target.

What I practiced when I started is all the the things that you don't/can't practice standing still at a shooting range. Of course take this all as a suggestion and with a grain of salt.

As a relative newbie, here are the things that I practice/ed on to great effect. I've been told I've improved very quickly for the amount of time I've been shooting and I can attribute that to practice at home. The following list assumes you're already a moderately proficient with your firearm in as far as target shooting (meaning you're already shooting decent groups, can easily get shots on paper at 10 yards or less, etc):

Reloading drills - If you've got several mags and the mag holders, suit up at home. Practice dropping a mag and throwing a new one in (preferably with snap caps or empty!). Practice doing this with mags from each slot of your mag holder so you get used to reaching for the back mags when needed. The idea is to give you the muscle memory of reloading and work on the hand-eye coordination of taking a mag, and quickly and efficiently sliding it into the gun. Once you've got reloading down comfortably, add motion into it. Drop a mag while walking to one side, and while still moving, reload. I'm sure you can think of many different ways to add motion to train this, moving forward, backward, sidestepping, etc.

Drawing drills - Practice drawing from your holster and acquiring a target. Get used to the motion of drawing from various starting positions of competition. (Hands naturally resting at sides, hands above shoulders, hands against a wall, etc). Get used to knowing where your gun is when you reach for it from these different positions. Afterwards, either gun empty or with snap caps, begin with your hammer cocked. Practice your draw, but this time acquire a target to practice getting a good sight picture, then pull the trigger when on sight. It may be wise to get a hold of an IPSC cardboard target to hang somewhere so you have a realistic target at which to aim. Currently I use a website with a flash animation of an IPSC target and a timer that gives the IPSC commands, "shooter ready, standby, BEEP", and just hook that up to my big screen TV and draw to it. I'll post the link if I can.

Target transitions - You'll need to practice aiming from target to target. You can do improvise at home and do this by simply aiming at different things around the house or in a room. I have another flash animation website that will pop up dots all over the screen for you to transition to and aim at. I'll post the link for that as well if I can.

You can then try a mixture of any of those things. Say on the drawing drill... Practice the draw, acquire your sight picture, pull trigger, drop mag, reload, reacquire target. Or say, while moving practice keeping your sights aligned to a target, drop mag, change your movement direction, reload, reacquire target. Anything you think might help... probably will. Getting better quickly at this game IMO is all about repetition to create muscle memory. Working at home without putting a single bullet in the gun, as I'm sure anyone can attest to, is a big big part of improvement and maintaining your skills. I still do all of the above drills because this type of shooting is a perishable skill. Not practicing reloads every once in a while WILL cause you to miss your magwell on a reload at some point, not practicing your draw WILL cause you to grab your gun funny at some point lol etc etc.

If however, you are not a confident target shooter, meaning you still struggle with handgun fundamentals - grip, stance, sight picture, etc, then that's a whole nother ball game of a practice regimen and will certainly have more stress on actually going out and shooting more. You may even wish to find an instructor to polish up those skills. If you're aching to compete though, when you jump in, the desire to improve will take over and you'll learn a lot very quickly. USPSA shooters, in my experience are all very friendly people always ready to help out, so don't be afraid to jump into the game, and don't be afraid to ask questions.

Anyway that's my two cents. Hope that helps.

I don't think I can post links yet but let me try this: www(dot)predatortactical(dot)com/cart.php?m=knowledgebase_detail&id=5

Post into browser and replace (dot) with a... dot lol.

Top one is the target transition drill. Second one is the Drawing drill. hit "start" on the timer to start the dialogue giving you draw commands and the beep.

[RaylanGivens]

Anyway that's my two cents. Hope that helps.

I don't think I can post links yet but let me try this: www(dot)predatortactical(dot)com/cart.php?m=knowledgebase_detail&id=5

Post into browser and replace (dot) with a... dot lol.

Top one is the target transition drill. Second one is the Drawing drill. hit "start" on the timer to start the dialogue giving you draw commands and the beep.

Thank you very much for posting those links!

They are very helpful...