It's not always gun's fault

[figment]

put a laser on the weapon and aim at the 25 yard downrange target. See how steady that dot is? In my case after a morning of drinking starbucks black-eyes it looks like I'm chasing an angry bee.

[Breadfan]

Originally Posted by figment

put a laser on the weapon and aim at the 25 yard downrange target. See how steady that dot is? In my case after a morning of drinking starbucks black-eyes it looks like I'm chasing an angry bee.

Good point! Same thing with the rifle scopes. The bigger the zoom the more you realize how unsteady your hand ie. aiming is.

[XDPACKER]

Originally Posted by Breadfan

Those are some great groups! Was it rapid fire or precision shooting?
And what caliber is that? Holes seem to be bigger then 9mm but I may be wrong.

It was percision shooting. I wish I could do that with rapid fire!
Mine is a XD40 sub-compact.

[Bill in San Jose]

Why would I shoot low left from a limp wrist when I pick up a S&W 36 and put 5/5 in the black at the same range? My wrist and finger are identical.

[BOFH]

Originally Posted by figment

put a laser on the weapon and aim at the 25 yard downrange target. See how steady that dot is? In my case after a morning of drinking starbucks black-eyes it looks like I'm chasing an angry bee.

No doubt. I always try to limit my caffeine intake prior to a trip to the range...at high doses it really makes me shoot crappy. One Redbull prior to the range is about my limit or else my accuracy really drops...very noticeable when shooting with a laser or a reddot.

[rgeliske]

Originally Posted by agalindo

The strange thing was I shoot a S&W m59 9mm, Ruger .44 mag, Charter Arms .38 right on target, but I would shoot my XD low and right. I just needed to get used to the different feel of the gun, the grip, trigger, recoil. It was my first polymer gun. I knew it was me just thought is was interesting that changing guns would cause that.

Revolvers shoot and recoil very different from a semi-auto, many people complain about semi-auto not shooting correctly without realizing the geometry is totally different. If you familiar with a revolver there is a learning curve to shooting a semi-auto. Another thing is the design of the revolver grip come from the old single action guns. It allows the gun to rock back presenting the hammer to the thumb to cock the hammer for the next shot. The semi-auto is designed to reduce the rocking motion and create more of a push. With a revolver the pivot point is around the trigger while the semi-auto pivots around the web between your thumb and forefinger. Semi-auto shooters seem to have less trouble transitioning to a revolver than the other way around.

There you go some other useless information.

[Breadfan]

Not to open new thread, was at the range today. Another precision fire session. This time 14 out of 25 ended up in black from 25m distance. Here are some pictures:

The range





And the end result:





Closeup:



App. 60% accuracy but I'm still happy (not that I have too high criteria though ).

[missmyJeep]

I am also hitting low and left. What did the 5 of you that are hitting the black now do to correct this problem?

[romans3.22]

I have the same problem shooting my XD45 and it's kinda frusterating. I thought my shots would be better with the new XD9sc I bought but nope same problem low left, low left, and low left. I've heard snap caps help but I haven't used them. People say dry firing helps too but for me it's just not the same knowing I have no ammo and shooting. Practice, practice, practice is what I hear but it's getting expensive to shoot.

[Breadfan]

Originally Posted by missmyJeep

I am also hitting low and left. What did the 5 of you that are hitting the black now do to correct this problem?

In my case (and I had the low left problem for a -long- time), it's all about trigger-pull technique. The most common mistake when shooting is the so called "twitch" at the exact moment of firing.

If you're a righthander (like I am), your trigger finger will move in such fashion that it will 'pull' the rest of your hand (and gun with it) to the left which will cause your groups to go left. As for rounds shooting low, well, that's I guess the problem we all have and it's part of the 'twiching' problem.

To put it in the most simple terms: triggerpull is all about your mental discipline, nothing else.

As for the snapcaps, they do help you master the technique and they're useful to some extent, BUT the real problem is when we know we have a live round in the chamber and at that specific moment, we can't help but to anticipate the big BANG! which makes us nervous and we pull the trigger too fast, nothing like we did at home while dry firing.

I remmember the last time I went to the range and fired the first shot, my gun actually discharged before I wanted it to and it took me by surprise (because before that I was practicing with snapcaps nice and easy) and from that moment on, I just couldn't find that final trigger limit because of that fear of sudden bang!

But what I did, I just focused on pulling the trigger at the first stage (the first resistance you get when you start the pull) and focusing on keeping my wrist steady while pulling the trigger. Basically, make the trigger finger the ONLY part of your arm moving during the discharge and you WILL hit the middle of the target.

The low/high problem is also caused by the hand going up or down at the exact moment of discharge, something we're not aware of when we shoot.

That's pretty much it.