Second April Range Report

Went to range again. Then we went to a Happy Hour. Shooting then drinking is much preferred to drinking then shooting.


The first magazine was GREAT. I am very pleased. Loading 5 mags next to a guy shooting a magnum, I thought the flinch factor would be intensified. After enduring the pressure waves while loading, I stopped a moment, took a deep breath and tried to relax. I took to heart the lessons from the last trip: lock the elbow, front sight, be patient. I was rewards with the best group I’ve ever shot. See:




Still low and right, but if I shot that well, with a .45 at 25 feet, EVERY time, I could live with it. I have never shot an entire magazine and had them practically all touching. No fliers either.


The other guys with me, Corky, Chuckles, and Winston Wolfe also had a good initial magazine. It was unreal. Like the planets were aligned.


Then our accuracy fell off for the remaining ammo. Dunno why. Maybe the flinch hit us from our OWN guns, combined with the magnum in the next lane. Odd.


My groups were in the standard place for me. But the good group confirms it is not the gun, it is the shooter. As I suspected, but reinforcement is always a good thing. I had Corky and Chuckles try my pistol as well. Corky’s standard flaw with his own guns is shooting a hair left and he gets the same with mine, and it turns out Chuckles favors just a hair low and right with my 1911, as you can see with the following target test. Corky is top:



I was half considering adjusting the rear sight over to the left to move my worst groups to more of a center. I don’t think that is prudent. Better to fix the shooter than gimp the gun customizing it to shoot true, but by compensating for my poor technique.


Wolfe and Chuckles shoot Ruger and Buckmark .22s respectively, and they let my play with their mag loader. It works nifty! I highly recommend them.

For improvement for next time, I think I might try the revolver with 3 rounds in the cylinder, randomized. To work on flinch. That’s what is making me shoot low, I am pretty sure. Anticipating the recoil I, and many others, push forward at the last moment. I also want to maybe grip just a bit more firmly. Not strangle hard. The purpose of this is to maybe improve the trigger pull with a bit more steady “foundation” and not squeeze my thumb while squeezing the index finger. Patience, as always, is important to work on. Sum: Flinch drill, bit more squeeze, patience, remember to breath. Plus the other stuff from last time.


It is AMAZING how quickly the arms tire when shooting. Not much, but enough to make the grip and stance and aim shaky. Some weights held out at arms length and some long-term living room dry firing may be in order, too.