HANDGUNNING MISTAKES

A few years ago, on a sunny long weekend, I took a couple of young fellows to the local outdoor shooting range. The objective was to teach them about handguns through a balance of shooting and coaching. As expected, we shared the firing line with other shooters. This made for an unexpected teaching opportunity, because after I showed them how to do something properly, they could sneak a glance to their left and see it done the wrong way. What we witnessed was nothing unusual; new shooters with the wrong guns and apparently no training. It's not much harder to coach a line of four shooters, so I gently offered assistance to these line-mates. I was politely declined, making another great teaching point for my young friends.

Within the firearm trinity of rifle, handgun and shotgun, I think the handgun is the most difficult to master. So, it's not surprising that many handgun shooters have difficulty reaching the skill level they'd like. Like any gun, the only way to get really good with a handgun is to spend time and ammo practicing the right technique. And since most handgun games measure speed as well accuracy, true handgun skill requires a dose of each. Of course, speed is relatively easy; it's speed with accuracy that's tough. So, I'm going to focus on accuracy here, mainly because I'm old school enough to believe the adage, "First you get good, then you get fast." With that in mind, here's what I see as the four most common mistakes new handgun shooters make in their attempt to shoot well.

Stance

Handguns are typically shot from a standing position, making a strong stable stance the place to begin. If a house starts with a rotten foundation, it's not worth building, and the same goes for a handgun shooter. You can establish that solid foundation by spreading your feet approximately shoulder width apart and putting your strong side foot slightly further        back than your other foot. Plant your feet and then imagine someone giving you a firm push from front, back, left and right. If you can maintain your stance without repositioning your feet, you have a stable platform on which to build.

Above your feet, the rest of your body should be in a relaxed, upright position with arms extended and forming an isosceles triangle. Lean forward slightly, putting a little more weight on the weak side foot. Do your best to avoid leaning backwards to compensate for the weight of the gun being held out front.

A correct stance not only makes you stable, but also helps your semi-auto pistol function better. I once corrected a petite young lady whose Beretta 92 was constantly jamming. Law enforcement trainers had taught her to keep her feet parallel to the firing line. That worked okay for most beefy cops, but she was so slim that she couldn't provide enough recoil resistance for the gun to function properly. When I showed her how to position her right foot further to the rear and lean into the gun, the Beretta functioned perfectly.

Grip

Grip is next and for our basic level here, we’ll only discuss shooting with two hands. A good grip is simple to put together and the pictures attached to this article explain one better than my words can. Just seat the gun firmly in your strong hand, ensuring a comfortable reach to the trigger. The fingers of your support hand should overlay those of the primary hand, pressing up tightly against the bottom of the trigger guard. The thumb of that hand will lie alongside the other thumb and like it, point at the target. This grip works with both semi-auto's and revolvers.

If you want to see examples of the wrong way to hold a handgun, there are plenty on television. Using the support hand to hold the wrist of the shooting hand is a popular one, as is the 'cup and saucer' method, where the support hand forms a cup and the shooting hand and the handgun butt are placed inside it. And, of course, the gangsta' sideways hold is always good for a laugh.

Grip can't be discussed without considering the huge difference in hand size among shooters, especially as it effects trigger reach. Some people have stubby fingers—I once coached a fellow whose trigger finger had been shortened by a bite from an African lion—while others, like me, have long digits. Whatever size hands you have, I think the most important part of the grip is the part that touches the trigger. If you can't reach the trigger comfortably and can't change the gun's grip size or get a different gun, then the handgun must be rotated in the hand to give a comfortable and controllable trigger reach.

Hand strength also becomes a factor here. I've coached shooters who did not have the hand strength to pull the trigger on a double-action revolver. What do you do then? Any grip that works, is the answer. On double-action guns with long trigger pulls, sometimes the only thing that works is shifting the grip so much that the trigger falls on the second joint. I've even resorted to specifying two fingers on the trigger. Fortunately, these are rare exceptions.

Sight Alignment

After a stable stance and a strong grip, step three is aligning the sights. There are two keys here; the first is to realize your eye can only focus on one item at a time. And since you are aligning a rear sight, front sight and target, only one of those will be in focus. The second key is to fight your natural inclination to focus on the target; shooting accurately requires a complete focus on the front sight. When done properly the rear sight and the target both look fuzzy. This front-sight-focus is necessary because of a handgun’s short sight radius, where the slightest misalignment will result in a wide shot. Focusing on the front sight keeps that alignment true. I know this is counter-intuitive, but for accurate shooting there is no alternative.

Focusing naturally on the front sight, is one of those things that requires a lot of repetition and there is no better way to get it than by dry firing. To do this safely and effectively, just make sure your gun is unloaded and there is no live ammo anywhere within reach. Stick a target on a convenient wall and after establishing a stable stance and a solid grip, align the sights and drop the hammer. You won't hurt any quality centre-fire pistol by dry firing, but rimfires are another matter. As a rule they shouldn't be dry-fired because of potential firing pin contact with the edge of the chamber. Some high-end target .22's have a button or lever that can be engaged to allow for safe dry firing.

In many ways, dry firing is even better than live firing, because there is no recoil to mask what you're doing wrong. If you're watching the sights—as you should be—any imperfections in stance, grip or trigger control will be immediately evident when the gun goes click. One old trick you may want to try is to balance a dime on the front sight of your handgun and then execute a dry-fired shot. The dime shouldn't move when the hammer falls.

Trigger Control

Trigger control is our last concern and delivers the shot we’re working toward. Similar to shooting a rifle, the objective is to release the trigger without disturbing sight alignment. Your stance and grip go a long way toward achieving that goal, but proper trigger technique is still required. And because a handgun is held less rigidly than a rifle, trigger control is even more essential. Therefore, your trigger pull needs to be a steady, even press and not a quick, sudden pull. If you pull the trigger in response to a mental “Now!” your shot will miss. At a beginner's level, an accurate shot should be a surprise. Once you've done a few hundred thousand repetitions, your subconscious will take over and deliver the shot for you, but until then there is only hard work and mental discipline.

If your shots start going low, you can bet that trigger control is to blame. There's a natural tendency to push back against recoil and in so doing dip the muzzle of a handgun. We call it flinch, and it's probably the number one problem new shooters have. And they have no idea they're doing it, because the movement is masked by the gun's recoil. The best drill I know of to unlearn this habit and master trigger control uses dummy ammunition. Mixing dummy rounds in with live ammo and paying attention to what the front sight does when the gun unexpectedly goes click instead of boom, is an educational experience all handgunners need to do regularly.

If you shoot a revolver, you can load a few dummy cartridges into a cylinder of live ones; then after giving the cylinder a spin a la Russian roulette, you won't know what's coming up next. Similarly, having a friend load your magazines with an occasional dummy round works with semi-autos. And with semi's you can practice failure-to-fire clearance drills at the same time. Another drill is to have a buddy reach over your shoulder and press the trigger for you, while you're focusing on that front sight and aligning the gun. If better groups develop than when you shoot alone, it's obvious that trigger control is the problem.

Whether you shoot competitively or are a solitary shooter, it's extremely difficult to coach and correct yourself.  I always suggest finding some professional level handgun training and spending the money to take a class or two. It's well worth the dollars involved and will yield a substantial improvement in your shooting.

But what level of skill should you be striving for? Here's a standard you can test yourself against. Using letter-size cardstock as a target, a beginner should quickly learn to keep all his shots on the paper at five meters. When they form a tight cluster, move back to fifteen metres and try again. You should be able to keep ten consecutive shots on that 8.5X11" paper. If you can do the same thing at twenty-five metres you're a good shot with a handgun. When you can do it at fifty meters you’re a excellent shot. And when you can do it at fifty metres, in less than ten seconds, you should move to the USA and turn pro. Good Luck!

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