Friday, March 26, 2010

Range Report

I mentioned I was itchy to get to the range last Friday. I shouldn't have bothered.

I still have the same 'ol problems I always have. Thinking back, though, I think I feel better about more individual shots now than I did at the beginning. And I know when I am doing everything right as the shot goes off and know that that shot I just sent downrange will be placed well enough.

Anyway, like I mentioned, I just brought the .40 Sig 229 SAS DAK and shot at 21-25 feet with Georgia Arms reloaded ammo. (I'll have the new Smith on the next report...)

ALL my handguns make my trigger finger sore. Right at the corner of the fingernail, the corner closest to the ground. It's the recoil, I am almost positive. The frame of the trigger guard is touching it.

I tried to see if my finger wanted to slide across the face of the trigger, ala 'rowing the boat' but didn't notice it even wanting to do that. I did pay attention to my natural finger tip placement. It wants to be on the tip side of that last distal joint.

Why do my hands always seem to grow weak walking into a gun range? It's like I can NOT grip any tighter. A tight grip helps dampen the squeeze effect my shooting hand's no trigger fingers on the grip, and other things, and makes me more accurate. It also helps maintain the grip after explosive recoil so you don't have to re-adjust after every shot. Yet my support hand's 'thumbs forward' thumb always seems to fall out of place at each shot. Dangit!

(Is all this self-criticism minutiae too much Inside-Baseball? It's sort of why I started this blog, as a N00b. Paying attention and trying to self diagnose my numerous flaws. I certainly don't have natural talent, nor enough time money and discipline to turn myself into a world class shooter of any stripe. But I do want to get better. So I hash it out as best I can, here, on the screen. When I started blogging I asked myself "Do you have anything to write about that will last more than a month or two?" and I answered, "Sure! I can write about how dumb and clueless I am. I have 100 years of material for THAT." It's my niche...)

Here's the first target of the session. Counterclockwise starting with the upper right:



Here's the second:
The bad stuff? I don't even know what is going on with the bad shots, at this point. The good stuff is inspired. For me. I just need to make those more frequent.

I developed a NEW flaw. I hope to have quashed it in the crib before it grew up and was able to take me. I was raising the pistol up into position on the target and pressing the trigger. But I hadn't fully arrested the upward movement when the shot went off. The holes are the high ones. DON'T do that. See, it's right there upper right target, upper right corner:



Lots of weird flyers. Too rush rush, me. As usual. Luckily I am less embarrassed by a bullseye in a lower target while aiming at the upper. Mistakes that bad get hidden in the clutter. One not lost in the clutter is that bottom right target. Decent shot. But I wasn't aiming anywhere NEAR that.

And I say mistakes... Even the bad shots, if I was shooting at a bad guy, the worst shot hit's his appendix or liver instead of the middle of his sternum. Not ideal, but better than nothing.

I did NOT visualize that the target was a zombie shuffling toward me. I will have to try that again next time.

10 comments:

Earl said...

Reading your targets is good, but I have added taking videos of my shooting and find my faults quicker - since I shoot alone the digital camera on video works well. There is always room for improvement, but we normally by a better tool for the job before we become a master at using it.

Anonymous said...

My best advice to you would be to stop buying guns, and instead use that money to attend a quality 2 or 3 day class. A good instructor will see things you haven't read about on the internet, plus they might have good drills for you to do on your own time.

You have been struggling with this for as long as I have been reading your blog (which is a while), maybe it is time?

Tanner

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

Put in an email to my Trainer last week. I should call, as he hasn't responded yet...

Arthur said...

Do you own a 22 autoloader?

If not, pick one up.

I bought a 22/45 to practice with. If I pick up a bad habit with my 45's I put them away and start shooting the .22.

I also start the range day with the 22. It helps me get the jitters out without wasting more $$ ammo.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

The problem, Arthur, is my flaws with a .22 are totally different than my flaws with the full power. Even the conversion kit on the 1911 doesn't do the trick

Arthur said...

Ok yeah, you need a trainer then. Or a therapist. Or just way more hand strength.

Usually dropping your support hand means you're shooting too much gun.

NMM1AFan said...

Get yourself a Grip Master exerciser and use it.

Thumbs forward doesn't work for me either, I can't grip strong enough that way.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

The thing is, no one accuses me of having a limp-wristed 5 year old girlie handshake. Quite the opposite.

Mad Saint Jack said...

If recoil is the problem maybe a a good set of gloves would help (shooting gloves or police gloves of even baseball gloves).

Also are you using a magazine loader of some kind?
Last time I was at the range my hands where starting to cramp from loading a whole lot of .22.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

I got a post on gloves coming up, Mad St Jack...

But I do love my loader.

I don't think the recoil is HURTING my hand, it's more of the mental anticipation of the big bang that is flinching me up.