Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Handgun Marksman




I was at the shooting range with a friend of mine last week working on his handgun marksmanship. The problem was he was shooting the S&W DA 9mm and couldn't hit the target. I told him to squeeze the trigger at about the point of the break of the shear, he jurks the gun down and the bullet hits below the target. One week later we went back to the shooting range and he had mounted a laser on the pistol, which was sighted in just fine, but he did the exact same thing and missed the target.


My friend asked for some advise and we went to work on the basics. Here are the 5 suggestions that I gave him. These are great for you know about handgun marksmanship. My suggestions are as follows:

1.) Grip
You need to be able to hold the pistol as high as possible on the grip for more leverage on the trigger. This will help with the trigger pull on double action pistols because of the amount of strength needed to pull the trigger.

2.) Stance
You need to use a stance that makes you feel comfortable (feet shoulder width apart). Usally your weak foot is placed forward and the stronger foot set back of the weak leg.

3.) Aiming
You need to concentrate on the front sights and align with the rear sights. With the top of both sights even, put the sights where you want the impact of the bullet.

4.) Trigger Control
You need to be able to press or squeeze the trigger the same way every time. You need to remember to keep the sights aligned on the target.

5.) Follow -up
You need to hold sight alignment until the bullet leaves the barrel . After the shot you need to get sight alignment as quick as possible.

My friend did better after our session, but he still needs lots of practice. As with may things, you need to practice, practice, practice all of these guidelines in order to be a great handgun marksman.

Here is a quick video of some guy at a shooting range: