I have no idea what I'm doing

[Eargesplitten]

Hi,

 

I've owned guns for the past 9 years and been shooting BB / pellet guns since I was 4, but I'm really bad with real guns because I don't go shooting nearly enough. Just figured I should get that out of the way. I probably won't post too much because I'm better off being a sponge at this point.

 

I haven't shot any competitions yet, but I would like to get into it if I can find steel challenge around Boulder County, CO or once I get a holster and more magazines so I can run normal action pistol. I'm here just as much for basic technique, though, since my pistol technique is terrible. A great guy gifted me a copy of Ben Stoeger's dry fire training book so that's what I'm doing a lot of right now.

 

Thanks for reading, and the upcoming help I'm sure to get.

[Lastcat]

Take this red pill and you will be a Grand Master in 2 weeks.

 

You are going to start like we all did, in one way or another. We learned what our bad habits and mistakes were and changed. There really isn't just a few things, there are many. How well can you hit a 2" circle at 10 yards?

 

Foremost, is Safety, can't express that enough. Be very careful and get online and watch youtube vids about gun handling and Rules at Matches. At least you took the first step and made a decision to one day get to a Match. Now get out and practice and learn all that you can, stay safe.

[Eargesplitten]

2” at 10 yards? Not well. I think my best 15 shot group with my PPQ was about 5” center to center at 7 yards. 6-7” was my best 10 shot group with my Buckmark at 15 yards, but I haven’t been able to reproduce that. Funny enough that PPQ group was the first time I shout it. The factory test target was a single ragged hole, so I have no excuses.

 

I couldn’t tell shooting off-hand, but resting my elbows and pulling the trigger on my PPQ I can see that I’m definitely moving the sights during the pull still. That’s the biggest thing I have to work on, immediately, although I think working on grip and using the largest back strap will help with that too. At the end of a magazine I notice that my trigger finger has slipped from the pad to the knuckle on the trigger, maybe the biggest backstrap combined with being more careful will help.

[Lastcat]

Hwansik Kim

[Eargesplitten]

Holy cow. Between swapping the bigger backstrap in and focusing on gripping like he was talking about I've gone from significant sight wobble rested to barely any wobble off-hand in less than 20 dry fire reps. I'll have to wait until I can go to the range again to look at the amount I actually need to pull down like he was talking about on there. Also working on locking the wrists like he mentioned. Off-hand is easy, trigger hand less so.

[Hi-Power Jack]

2 hours ago, Eargesplitten said:

  I’m definitely moving the sights during the trigger pull.  

 

A whole lot of dry firing should cure that little problem    

[GrumpyOne]

1 hour ago, Hi-Power Jack said:

 

A whole lot of dry firing should cure that little problem    

Perhaps he should fire the cartridge he got his handle from? That would cure it, I think. 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22_Eargesplitten_Loudenboomer

[Adrenaline]

What I would do is buy 1000 rounds of FMJ, (full metal jacket) ammo. Walmart does it cheap, and go to a range. Outdoor preferably, and shoot it. All of it. Just get acquainted and be safe dont worry too much about the fancy stuff yet. Get comfortable with the pistol.

[Flatland Shooter]

Since the OP is looking at Steel Challenge maybe starting out with 22LR would be a good option.

[Eargesplitten]

16 hours ago, GrumpyOne said:

Perhaps he should fire the cartridge he got his handle from? That would cure it, I think. 

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/.22_Eargesplitten_Loudenboomer

 

Haha, I've had this handle for so long sometimes I even forget what it is.

 

I actually have a .22 already, that's what most of my experience is with. It was an 18th birthday gift from my dad, 5.5" Buckmark, fantastic pistol. I put some white-out on the front sight to make it stand out more, works well. It's currently in pieces because when reassembling it after doing the Heggis Flip the buffer decided to rocket off into the great beyond and I haven't found it yet. Great pistol, though, and of a vintage where the flip seems to work well. I don't have a trigger pull gauge but it definitely reduced it quite a bit when comparing to the PPQ. The PPQ used to be about the same weight although more pre-travel, now the Buckmark is way lighter assuming the slide doesn't add any weight to it (which mechanically it doesn't seem like it should).

 

Am I understanding the grip thing from the Hwansik Kim podcast? Loose on the sides of the grip to avoid uneven pressure, tight on the front an back, flex your forearms to pre-load your tendons? It definitely feels better than the outward elbow rotation I was trying after watching a Mike Seeklander video, but I could be overly rotating and putting too much strain on my elbows when doing that way. I've got decently strong forearms leftover from my weightlifting days as well, so I think I could maintain that. I was getting a lot of side-to-side movement with the PPQ when I took it to the range, so I think I must have been applying a lot of uneven pressure to the grip.

 

He mentioned having the palms together at the back of the grip too, how does that work? Usually my whole strong hand is wrapped around the back, so there wouldn't be any room for that without rotating my weak hand way back from the rotated forward position I tend to have it in. Maybe I'm misunderstanding that part. It seems difficult to apply pressure on the back of the grip with your weak hand.

 

I currently don't have the money to buy more ammo and the nearest outdoor range is about an hour and a half away, so right now I'm just doing a lot of dry fire and reload practice. Doing like I think the podcast was saying has helped keep my sight alignment through the pull, but it's definitely going to take a few hundred / thousand rounds of dry fire to do it naturally, I had always been told to squeeze the grip like you were trying to wring the oil out of it.