We started going to the range in the academy and was looking for ways to improve myself and my accuracy while at home since the time on the range is limited. I usually have trouble with the single hand shooting and 15 yard shooting any help would be greatly appreciated thank you. Stay safe.
Any shooting tips would definitely be appreciated.
r/AskLE
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Google dry fire drills.
Ben Stoeger has a lot of great videos on shooting pistols proficiently.
Throw in some snap caps, recognize your trigger control deficiencies.
Dry fire like crazy. After 22 years in the military I had bad habits and was shockingly bad on the range. Worked on my grip, asked my department for help after hours, and the academy actually loaned us some dry fire magazines for the G17. Was a huge help, I never became one of those people shooting a 240-250 but I passed. With that said, our range was not one of the ones with an instructor barking at you, they were really helpful and chill unless you violated a rule. Also, make sure you figure out your eye dominance. I was right handed but left eye dominant which I had no idea was even a thing. Wasn’t a problem with an M4 and an eye closed but caused me issues with the G17 and both eyes open. Got a lot of great tips from the instructors to help me overcome it, tiny adjustments that made a big difference
I was a horrible shot while in Army MP school and almost washed out because of it. An instructor kept me after range time and would hand me a pistol. I didn’t know whether it was loaded or not. He would either load one round or put in an empty magazine. Then he watched me pull the trigger. The times I was given an empty weapon it was obvious I was anticipating the shot and would jerk the trigger. He said he was gonna boot me in the ass every time I did that and he did. He told me to focus on slowly squeezing the trigger. After about a half hour I finally got the hang of it and since I already knew about a proper grip and sight picture, I started hitting the bullseye regularly. That man kept me on my life trajectory and I am forever grateful.
I’ve posted this story a couple other times on this sub, in case it sounds familiar.
Edit: after my tour was up I was hired by a large police department and was one of only four who qualified as a Master Shooter, which requires a score of 470 out of 500.
I had a hard time with my trigger press in the academy. What helped me was balancing a penny on the front sight and pulling the trigger over and over. If your trigger press is good then the penny won’t fall.
Take a dime, lay it on top of your slide and practice dry firing one handed till it doesn’t fall off the slide when you press the trigger.
Then do it about 500 more times.
Dry fire drills are great training. To simplify your stance and grip along with trigger pull are just as important. Position your feet just like you are going to fist fight, sink your hips just a touch and lean forward into the gun. Grip with your support hand as hard as you can, get as much of your support hand on the gun as possible and grip til it hurts. Lastly flex both your elbows up. Now practice dry fire if that front site is moving you are not gripping hard enough. For trigger press put a rubber band on your support wrist, when your sitting around watching TV, studying, in class whatever, slide your trigger finger into the rubber band to wear your trigger should be on the index finger and work it back and forth. Hopefully you will never ever have to use your smoke wagon in anger, but if you do you win!
I purchased a Mantis system. It taught me to not tighten my grip when taking my time for precision shooting. Helped quite a bit. Dry fire like crazy when you are chilling on the couch or whatever. Oh, keep both eyes open. Always.
Equal height equal light. I’ll never forget it. Oh and good stance, grip, and lots of dry fire.
Doesn’t seem like anyone asked the questions, so how are you having trouble?
Is it accuracy or time? What distance is the one-hand at? At 15 are you shooting one or both eyes open? Is there a pattern to your misses? Are you having a hard time acquiring your sights/dot? Is your draw slow? Is this even from the draw?
There are hundreds of variables to consider, and the best advice is to ask your academy range staff for extra help because they can actually see what’s going on.
Don’t anticipate the shot.
Wherever you’re pointing when the gun fires, that’s where it’s gonna hit. No amount of “gun play” is going to change the direction of the bullet after it has been fired. That round is traveling so fast that by the time you hear the gunshot, the bullet has already left the barrel.
(Speed of sound is 1125fps. Most 9mm rounds are 1.1-1.3k fps. Majority of duty handguns have a barrel length of 4.5″. The distance of a handgun in an outstretched arm to the shooter’s ears is a little over 2 feet)
Keep your sight on target and slowly press the trigger until the gun fires. The round going off should actually surprise you.
Better to ask your instructors – they can see you and your target
Leave it alone and memorize firearm safety rules.
When you meet your weapons training team,
Let them mold you to perfection.
I had similar issues with single handed shooting. Instructor noticed I wasn’t using the appropriate eye (left eye for left hand and right for right). He also gave me a tip to put my other hand across my chest and squeeze that hand as my finger squeezed the trigger. Never had issues after that.
https://preview.redd.it/l4xhvd3ulbue1.jpeg?width=998&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0925dad8e47469bab24a84d5431e59109033bc67
Something like this.
https://preview.redd.it/3q59fg75pbue1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dd97fc5533ae06a1d73f01c606c0ab0b3538090b
This isnt perfect and I wouldnt take it as scripture but it’s a pretty good tool that I use when I’m instructing.
Works best when you can look at a target with a lot of rounds through it to see patterns. For example I shot like 50 rounds from the 25 last week, they were all mostly trending to the center left (im a right handed shooter) so I deduced it was too little trigger finger, I fixed it then started to shoot better.
Just because you dont think you struggle at 7-10 yrds it does effect your 15 yrd problem. If you improve your 5-7 yrd groupings then your 15 will be better. Anything slight at 7 yrds is amplified at 15 and 25.
These are just personal things that helped me (not saying they’re right for everyone). I do a lot of dry firing but what helped me tighten up my shooting was A) squinting (or, at longer distances closing) my non dominant eye. For whatever reason, my sight picture was way off with both eyes open. B) pressing the trigger closer to the bone of my first knuckle (as opposed to the pad of the finger). But once you find what works for you, dry fire a lot – I find that I need to do it even when I’m at the range a lot. And this goes without saying but make sure you clear your weapon thoroughly, don’t have any ammo in the room, and have a safe backdrop when you dry fire.
stop slamming the damn trigger.