"How To Shoot"

Last month (and I haven't been doing a lot of posting lately, so my apologies for letting mold grow on this blog) I wrote an article entitled "Error Analysis and Correction".   The gist of it was that I found a diagram which helped analyze shooting problems based on shot placement, and I thought I might use it in future teaching situations.

This article received a surprising amount of feedback (okay, six comments; that's a lot for me!) and it occurred to me that the amount of interest warranted some expansion.

Many of the comments appropriately addressed shooting skills;  some people have them, some don't.  But almost everyone can learn to shoot well, to some degree.   In competition, we pit people with 'skill' against people with 'talent';  people with experience against people with determination; and people with "dedication" against people with "interest".

Obviously, the people with talent and dedication and experience are going to  beat the rest of us.  We ..." the rest of us" (among whom I obviously count myself) can only measure ourselves against our own group, and hope that the "Good Shooters" will occasionally muck up a stage here and there, so we can look better than we really are.

Our only hope here is that we work harder.  Put this in the category of "Determination", if you will, because frankly, competitive shooting is like any other kind of competition.  If you don't work at it, you will never rise above the "Mediocre Middle"

The folks who commented included a couple of folks who are new to The Sport, and I thought that they were the people who demonstrated the kind of determination which will give them room to grow competitively.

STEVE:

First, Steve asked:

After taking the intro to USPSA safety training class, where can I get additional training to develop a higher level of competency? 

Steve, the Albany Rifle and Pistol Club (ARPC) offers classes in "Basic Handgun:", and I think that's a good place for everyone to start.  Anyone who wants to enter competitive shooting should have those skills and, if he/she does not, that should be the first stop on the road.  Unfortunately, in an effort to encourage new shooters, ARPC doesn't have the mechanism in place to require and confirm a basic degree of shooting skills before new shooters are accepted into the "Introduction to USPSA" class.  During the class, we try to include as much instruction in basic skills as possible, but ultimately as long as students don't seem "unsafe" and do seem to have basic gun-handling skills,  we're going to allow you to enter into competition regardless of your shooting skills.

There are professionals who offer instruction on "How To Shoot", and there are sports (such as "Bullseye Shooting" which rely on accuracy to such a degree that the competitor must improve, or he will ultimately be discouraged.

You know this, and what I just said isn't very helpful.  I can suggest people who will coach you to improve your accuracy, but the best teacher is always experience.  And both private training and experience include a relatively large investment in time and money.

Having said that, here is my personal offer;  I will gladly spend some range time giving you such instruction in shooting skills as I can, limited to "I'm not going to spend my life on this" so that you can improve your shooting.  This will cost you time (weekends are fine, I know you're a working man) and money (ammunition isn't cheap, and you will have to do a LOT of shooting!), and you have to show up at every class.   You already have my personal email address and my phone number;  contact me, and we'll work out a schedule of classes at ARPC.

It's up to you; the offer is on the table.

RANDY:

Randy offered this observation:

Ok I read this several weeks ago and have been thinking about it off and on. First thought was I hope he was not talking about me as the last match it took me 18 rounds to knock down 6 steel target. (I was hitting them but to low, but that is another story.) But it does bring me to my comment. I can hit a 2in traget (sic) 9 out of 10 times at 30 feet. However when I get in a match I have trouble (sometimes) hitting the broad side of a barn. So not all shooting issues are technique some of them are appllying (sic) the technique during a match.

Before I took the intro to USPSA I had completed a NRA class that covered safety and how to shoot. I think everyone should be reauired (sic) to go through something like that.

Randy is absolutely correct.  Shooting Skills should be among the early goal to achieve before entering into a competitive venue.  Unfortunately, not everyone is as prepared to acknowledge that skills are leaned incrementally.

We would VERY much like to have the time to go through all of this during the class, but we just don't have the time.  We can teach you how to shoot safely, and according to the rules.

We can't teach you much about how to be competitive, nor how to combine accuracy and speed (well, that's pretty much the basis of 'competitive', isn't it?)
 

OKAY:  THESE ARE THE BASICS

Here, the steps are:

1. learn to handle a firearm safely
2. learn to shoot a firearm accurately
3. learn to shoot with confidence
4. learn the rules of competition
5. learn to shoot a firearm safely, confidently and accurately within the (time-restricted) limits of competition.

This sequence is subject to some sub-topics.  For example, "gun handling" is not mentioned.  It's imperative that the "New Shooter" is completely familiar with his firearm, including "Stoppage Drills"  (what do you do when your gun jams), how to draw from the holster, how to engage the first target quickly and accurately, etc.  You need to be comfortable and confident that you know where all the 'controls' are;  how to reload quickly and smoothly.

There are other concerns, and the emphasis is always SAFETY .. but competence in handling your firearm is a broad subject and one which not everyone is as comfortable with as he may think before he begins to shoot competitively.

In the Introduction to USPSA classes, we teach: (1) safety; (2) range commands; (3) rules of competition.  Everything else is thrown in as time allows, but we don't pretend to be able to teach EVERYTHING in the very limited time available. We have no choice but to throw the shooter into the deep water, hope for the best and prepare for the worst.  Often, new shooters are "busted" during their very first match because they become so fixated on being competitive that they forget the rules of safety.

So, how are new shooters to learn to shoot accurately, quickly?

There's a very very old joke, about a man who is visiting New York City for the very first time.  He approaches a stranger and asks:  "How do I get to Carnegie Hall?"   The answer is:  "Practice, Practice Practice!"

That's the same answer for Competitive Shooting.  If you would shoot well, you must practice.

Practice gun drills at home.

Practice dry firing, daily .. or nightly, as the case may be. 
Safety considerations: make sure your gun is empty, remove ALL ammunition from the room, point your gun in a 'safe direction' (a brick wall .. any other impenetrable barrier just in case you screwed up that first step), and learn to SQUEEZE the trigger.  Perfectly done, you should be able to balance a coin on the slide and drop the hammer without losing the coin.  ALWAYS have a 'target', such as a spot on the wall (light switch?) as an aiming point so you can see if the muzzle wobbles when you squeeze the trigger.

Practice reloads.
Empty gun, empty magazines.  Dry fire, then grab an EMPTY magazine from your magazine pouch and insert it smoothly into the magazine well.  Squeeze the trigger as in dry firing (always use one exercise to reenforce another) and then reload again.  Use your full equipment belt with magazine carriers and empty magazines in each magazine carrier, so you build the 'muscle memory' which allows to always catch the next magazine on your belt.  If you're shooting Single Stack, and use 10-round magazines .. mix them up so you load a short (7-round or 8-round magazine) one time, and a 10-round magazine the next.  It shouldn't matter which you draw ... the reload should be as quick and as consistent no matter which you are reloading, although the ergonomics are slightly different for the different magazine lengths.

Practice the draw
The draw should always be the same; quick, smooth, effortless ... you shouldn't need to think about it.  The gun clears the holster, raises toward the target (always have an aiming point in every exercise because the goal is to get on the target and break a clean first shot) and if your pistol is single-action you ALWAYS drop the safety after the gun clears the holster and before your sights align on the target.  Of course, your finger is OFF the trigger until you are prepared to engage the target .. even if your sights are not yet quite aligned with the A-zone.

________________________________________________________________

We don't usually teach these things in the "Introduction to USPSA" class.

As any experienced competitive shooter will cheerfully tell you .. after you have gone though the introductory course, you don't know squat.  All you really know is how to act when the RO gives you a Range Command, and  .. oh, by the way?   You know how to screw up.  And how to avoid it.  And why it is considered a "No No" to, for example, keep your finger on the trigger when moving, loading, unloading, clearing a jam. (the very most common way to Screw Up) or to "Break the 180" (the second most common way to Screw Up).

But let's back of from the Safety issue, because we already know about this stuff, don't we?  This article is intended to speak to the New Shooter who already GETS that, but wants to learn how to shoot.

Practice, Practice, Practice. 

Practice until you don't want to shoot anymore.

Which is, incidentally a good indicator that you're not going to learn any more from practicing. 

There are two schools of though about 'over-training'.

• when you're tired of shooting; quit
• when you're tired of training, train for exactly the same number of rounds you used until you got tired, because THIS is where you really can learn something

For myself, I generally set a limit;  shoot 200 rounds (more or less), and then go home and think about what you've learned.

But before you quit, do something 'fun'.   Set up the "El Presidente" stage and shoot it for time.

In a word ...

"Practice, Practice, Practice ...."