FatMatt1981 said:
how far away from the target is good for practice?
20-25ft or 20-25yrds
It depends on what you are practicing for. Here's my opinion on self defense practice.
SD shoots are for the most part very close. About arms length or so. Therefore you should be most proficient at these distances, although it may not require the majority of your practice time.
I practice shooting from retention, which means with one hand only, and with the pistol held in close to my side just above the holster. Be sure to keep your support side hand clear! A good technique when drawing your gun is to put your other hand over your navel until the gun is out in front of your body, then bring your support hand up to the gun from behind so as not to put your hand in front of the muzzle. Sorry if this is review for you, but it is the basis of the next part. If shooting from retention, keep the support side hand over your navel, or better would be to place it over the center of your chest. The idea is that if the BG shoots you mid chest you will have your arm/hand there to slow down or even deflect the bullet away from your vitals.
Anyhow, when shooting from retention you are not aiming with the sights, you are merely pointing the gun and "shooting from the hip" to loosely describe it. It's quicker to get off the first shot when shooting from retention and you are keeping your gun away from the bad guy so he cannot take it from you.
The next distance would be the 15-30 foot range roughly. This is where you are cornered and have to shoot your way out of a potentially lethal situation.
Next, I like to practice some longer shots, in the 50-75 foot range. Although very unlikely, it is possible especially in the outdoors to have to make a shot at such a distance.
Just for fun I occasionally shoot some 100
yard shots. Although extremely unlikely to have to make such a shot, it is nice to know that it can be done. About the only scenario I can think of is a sniper while camping/hiking, but anything is possible these days.
When shooting for defensive purposes, good enough is good enough. At Front Sight they teach hand sized groupings, meaning a grouping that you can cover with your hand, or about 4 to 6 inches in diameter. It is a tradeoff of speed vs precision at any distance. At closer distances you can achieve the hand sized grouping with high speed, but at further distances you will have to take more time to carefully aim and squeeze off the shot. Therefore it is important to practice at different distances to learn what kind of speed you can use.
In a real life shooting you will not shoot as well as you do when practicing. You will probably only be half as accurate under threat, so the hand sized groupings will open up but will still be theoretically good enough to hit the vital zones.
Practicing for self defense is different than practicing for precision target competitions and requires a different approach. Try to think of all the possible defensive scenarios and then set up practice sessions for them. Practice shooting from kneeling behind a barricade to simulate shooting from behind a desk in the bank or at the office. Shoot while seated in a chair to simulate a car jacking. Shoot one handed while moving. Mix it up so that you are comfortable shooting good enough at a variety of distances in a variety of situations.