Congratulations on doing so well at All Army. I do have a quick questions if you have a moment.
I’m shooting pistol and really trying to get my groups to less than 4 inches at 25 yards. I’m not there yet but improving. I still tend to shoot low and to the left. Right now I am shooting 3 inch groups at 15 yards but all are 1 inch low and 1 inch to the left.
What dry fire drill is best to help correct? Wall drill? The errors are reducing and I’m making progress.
Thanks and I enjoy your blog. It encourages me to always measure my shoots and work to improve.
– Steve Valadez
Shooting low and left is commonly the direction misdirected shots go, indicated a reaction (flinch) to the shot, especially for right-handed shooters. It’s been said shooter skill is measured in the quality of the bad shots. For the Expert/Master Bullseye competitor, this misdirection yields a nine (maybe an eight) at 25 yards. A more novice shooter is throwing them into the ground in front of full size silhouettes at 10-15 yards.
I’m assuming you’re shooting some type of typical, service/carry pistol. An ability to shoot three inch groups at 15 yards indicates there aren’t many flaws with fundamentals. Having such a group off center by an inch needs a sight adjustment. A service pistol from the factory will likely hit within 1-1.5 inches of point of aim or better at 10 yards.
For dry practice, wall drills are great. I’d also use scaled dry targets across the room to differentiate focus on sights vs. downrange. You’re at a level where there are no more easy fixes. It’s a matter of further refining what you’re already doing. Pay close attention to what your sights are doing as you shoot and get more particular about perfecting everything. Trust me, I’m still working on this myself!
George Harris
Feb 25, 2014 @ 07:56:30
John,
Without knowing any more than what is written, I would say squeezing the whole hand along with moving the trigger would be the likely problem. Flinching usually throws the shots further out of the group and will preclude the groups that he is getting. Group size, if the groups are round is visual. Hard focus and follow through on the sights shrink groups dramatically. The Wall Drill done correctly will make this happen.
Best,
George Harris
President, CEO International Firearms Consultants LLC
P.O. Box 720 Kingston, N.H. 03848
603 498-1730 (c)
603 642-7291 (o)
ifcllc.us
growthstrategypartners.com
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Anonymous
Feb 25, 2014 @ 14:44:18
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Hubert Townsend
Feb 25, 2014 @ 15:48:58
Your don’t know if the low and left is your sights off or a subtle flinch. shoot the pistol off a sandbag, sitting, so you have it absolutely still and have a good trigger press/focus/sight alignment. If low and left then adjust the sights. if dead on , then your problem is now obvious. I recommend shooting a .22 until hitting center, then moving up in caliber. When shooting off the sandbag ensure you have same grip and grip pressures as when standing as a change in grip will effect shot placement downrange.
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Paul Mazan
Feb 26, 2014 @ 09:17:35
I would recommend ball and dummy drill. Mix an unknown number of dummies with your practice ammo and load your magazines or cylinder without looking at the ammo. Better yet have someone else load for you. As you fire a string it will become obvious what is happening when the gun goes click instead of bang, provided you are watching your front sight. If the gun goes click and you don’t know where the front sight was when it happened your not watching the sight. In this case when the hammer or striker falls on a dummy round you should see the front sight dip low and right. Dry fire until you can squeeze off the shot without disturbing the sight and try again. If the sight does not move when the shot breaks you need a sight adjustment. The secret of getting this to work is never knowing when or how many dummies are in a given loading.
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