Monday, December 26, 2016

What are my pistol shooting goals?

To be accurate and fast.

Ok, what does that mean?

Accurate?  Cover with a quarter accurate?  Or cover with a playing card?  Everything in the 10 ring?  Everything sorta centered?

Fast?  Fast from draw?  No, can't practice that in most local ranges.  Gonna have to find a place for that eventually.  Fast like "That one, bang!"  Well, yes.   Also second and third shot fast. Control that recoil.  Fast like 2 in that one and 2 in that one and can go one doing 2 in different ones all day.  Fast reload and malfunction clearance?  Well yes.

I tighten up when I try to go fast.  Most people do.  I need to fight against that inclination, because tense makes you miss and be slow.  Relaxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

We're also getting into some really Zen Kung-fu Tao stuff.  "To hit the center of the target you must first let the pistol move all over the target" and "Before you can hold the pistol firmly you must first learn to hold the pistol lightly" and "If you want to shoot faster you are going to have to slow it way way down..."  And the worst part of that confusion?  I understand it. 

5 comments:

Tam said...

My goal is to be able to shoot a clean sub-8 second FAST, cold and on-demand.

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

FAST drill

New Jovian Thunderbolt said...

I'd be ecstatic top do that in sub-- I wanna say 20, but it I am going that slow I may be over thinking it and prone to miss.

Tam said...

It's not a "drill". People who run it over and over again hoping to burn in a lucky super-fast time, or practice it like it's a drill are doing it wrong. It's a test of a certain set of discrete gun-handling skills:

1) Drawing from the holster to a "low-probability" target.
2) Getting a fast follow-up shot on a "low-probability" target.'
3) An emergency reload.
4) Getting from the reload back onto the sights and engaging the target.
5) A fast string of shots against a high-probability target to make sure your grip is good and doesn't come apart under recoil and you can track your sights for multiple shots.

Do it cold at the start of a practice session, or maybe once a week to see how you stand, but to really get better, you need to practice the individual skills.

Old NFO said...

Tam's point is dead on. It's a mix of skills that can be practiced individually, then put together.