Marksmen: How to Improve?

[doc540]

I seem to have hit a plateau.

If I can drill the center once, I should be able to do it consistently, right?

Below is an example of my consistent groups.

Apart from the obvious, "practice", any tips on improving my shooting at 50yds from a rest?

thnx

[toothguy]

The "Call" to Followthrough
You improve followthrough by becoming aware of what you see, or "remember" seeing, as the bullet is leaving the barrel. This acquired skill is called "calling the shot".

Will yourself to "hold" your attention on the sights until they lift in recoil. Look right at them—ignore the target. You will remember where your sight alignment was on the target without conscious effort. (Think about what that last sentence implies.) If you are actively observing the sights alignment and your eyes remain open DURING the firing of the shot, you should remember the last exact relationship you saw before the sights lifted in recoil. When you compare what you remember with where the shot actually went, you're on the path to successful shooting.

If you do not have intimate knowledge of the Third Fundamental, you must consciously train yourself to remember "the call." After "training to remember," the call will occur simultaneously with the firing of the shot. If you can maintain this state, you will shoot without doubt.

The Problem
The pistol is the most difficult firearm to shoot accurately offhand. The reason for this becomes apparent if we investigate the phenomena of "the hold." The hold has two components. First, let’s call the guns movement in the hands only, "the wobble." The movement of the wobble on the target, originating from our arms, produces the hold. This all to observable visual input distracts us from what is paramount, the aforementioned third fundamental of shooting—releasing the shot without disturbing your established hold on the target. A trick I learned from a silhouette shooter might help: Imagine your pistol is in a machine-rest even though you are holding it offhand. Now imagine the target is moving (in the same pattern/manner as your hold). Now, what can you do to have the best chance of hitting the target?

Knowing this, it’s best to begin by shooting from a bench rest or other supported position. Sandbag your pistol so it’s rock solid. Aim into the backstop (do not use a target, or spot to aim at) and then consciously direct ALL your attention to building the pressure on the trigger until the gun fires the gun fires as a surprise. It can help to use the "one to ten scale," this time use your sights and the trigger as your two components. Become familiar with the feeling of firing the gun with all your attention on your trigger/finger, while simply observing the sights lift in recoil. Then place a target at 25 yds and repeat the above procedure with the following addition: Use this "order" to fire the shot—1) Align your sights in the center of the target. 2) Shift all your attention to your previous feeling of your finger building pressure on the trigger until the shot breaks. During step #2, you are still seeing the sights; however, you are no longer "trying to aim." At this point, your concern is not in trying to shoot a particular spot; you are simply looking with the intention of remembering where the sights were aligned at the moment the shot fires.

Again, begin by shooting into the backstop with no intention of hitting anything in particular. This will allow you to focus all your attention on what is important—"releasing" the shot without disturbing the gun’s hold. Relax your attention into the gun, look at the sights without staring, and then shift all your attention to the feeling of your finger on the trigger. With great determination and purpose, increase pressure on the trigger until the gun fires—"FEEL" the shot off. At the moment the gun lifts, recall the sight alignment—again, this is what you must see. After mastering this, when you put a target behind your sights, you simply recall the last relationship of the "sight picture"(sight alignment plus their relationship to the target) at the instant the gun lifts in recoil.

Only after you’ve mastered "benchrest calling," should you begin shooting offhand.

Now to shoot a "good shot" (one that not only went were you wanted it to but you knew it did AS the shot fired), you must combine the feeling of releasing a perfect shot with the feeling of "willing the gun still" as you build pressure on the trigger. Eventually, with training, this becomes ONE FEELING.

Accurate calling of your shots is the most essential ingredient to successful shooting. Set up an IPSC target a 25 yds. Using 3/4" white tape, tape the target into four quadrants and tape a two-inch "X" or cross in the center of each quadrant. Shooting slow-fire, shoot one shot at each X, offhand. After establishing your hold in each respective quadrant, tell yourself to LOOK RIGHT AT THE SIGHTS ("1 Sights/9 Trigger"), and without "trying to aim the shot," create a perfect release by feeling your finger build pressure on the trigger until the gun fires. Your only goal is to know exactly where the shot hit the target. Just use the "X" to assist in remembering where the sights were when the shot broke—don’t try to hit the X! Check the target and see where each shot landed on the target in relationship to where you thought it went. (It also helps if you know what size group your gun will shoot off the bench at this distance.) Even if it takes forever, keep practicing this until you immediately know, as you fire a shot, where it hit the target. If you have a spotting scope or binoculars, you can look at the target after each shot to get more immediate feedback. Through the relationship of: where you thought the shot went by "reading the sights," and where it actually went—you will learn to know as the shot fires, exactly where it went.

For many years I ended each practice session by shooting slow-fire groups at a nine-inch white paper plate at 25 yards. I’d take all the time I felt I needed to shoot the smallest five shot group possible. I’d shoot five to ten groups each session and keep the smallest group as my "record." This is a great exercise to ingrain all the above.

Imagine how much easier calling the shot would be if you were shooting a scoped pistol. All you would have to remember is where the dot or crosshairs were when the shot broke. With iron sights, you must get this information by "reading" the relationship of sight alignment and sight picture at the moment the shot fires.

To summarize, train to call your shots by accepting your hold, looking only at your sights, and then as the shot fires, remember where the alignment was on the target.

Once reading the sights is firmly ingrained, practice to preserve this most important of all fundamental while increasing your shooting speed. Project your attention into your hands and sights as you shoot. When you master this - it'll be a (w)hole new world.

Brian Enos

[P.E. Kelley]

I seem to have hit a plateau.

If I can drill the center once, I should be able to do it consistently, right? Answer No. The gun and load combination may only be able to achieve 1" or 1.5" or 5" groups. The thinking that "if any one" goes in the center then all should, is not true. We are shooting bullets not lasers. Bullets are "mechanical"and

have an area of dispersion. Heck so do lasers!

Below is an example of my consistent groups.

Apart from the obvious, "practice", any tips on improving my shooting at 50yds from a rest?

thnx

Edited April 26, 2013 by P.E. Kelley

[doc540]

Tguy, is that from a particular BE book?

thanks...great stuff

[P.E. Kelley]

Tguy, is that from a particular BE book?

thanks...great stuff

THE BE book. Beyond Fundamentals. Buy it.

[Steve RA]

In this case, that may be all the gun/ammo combo will do. Have several other people try it and you can get an idea if it's you or the gun/ammo.

[P.E. Kelley]

In this case, that may be all the gun/ammo combo will do. Have several other people try it and you can get an idea if it's you or the gun/ammo.

That was my point…Steve RA is better at getting to the point.

[Steve RA]

Great minds think alike !!!

[toothguy]

Tguy, is that from a particular BE book?

thanks...great stuff

I think that's a pretty good group for a pistol at 50 yrds. It looks like your using a Match Dot (nice scope) so even at the lowest 2 moa setting your dot is going to cover 1'' at 50 yrds. I think most shooters would be happy with that group at that distance.

I was just using this as an opportunity to review something that B.E. wrote that I have read many times. It's in his tips section of his web site, good shooting.

Edited April 26, 2013 by toothguy

[doc540]

Tguy, is that from a particular BE book?

thanks...great stuff

THE BE book. Beyond Fundamentals. Buy it.

I have it and obviously need to re-re-read it again.

[benos]

Tguy, is that from a particular BE book?

thanks...great stuff

It's from the "Words" page in my site:

http://www.brianenos.com/pages/words.html#accuracy

[toothguy]

Tguy, is that from a particular BE book?

thanks...great stuff

THE BE book. Beyond Fundamentals. Buy it.

I have it and obviously need to re-re-read it again.

Page 35 and 201. I have read the book a few times but now I go back to review individual sections when I'm ironing things out.

Edited April 27, 2013 by toothguy