Shooting Tip: Slow The Heck Down!
As I’ve helped quite a few people learn to shoot by this point in my life, I’ve noticed certain patterns emerging. Certain attitudes in life seem to consistently translate to a certain type of shooting. Certain flaws in technique pop up over and over again. One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen new and even moderately experienced shooters make over and over again is rushing their shots.
Now don’t get me wrong. When push comes to shove and you’ve got Robber McCriminalpants kicking in your front door, speed will be of great importance. When you’re trying to improve your technique, however, speed can destroy your chances of hitting anything.
Maybe speed isn’t the right word here. It’s not so much speed itself but rushing to the point that you forego your fundamentals. Things like not making sure you have a good sight picture before you start your trigger pull. That can lead to not aiming where you think you should be. Also, pulling the trigger instead of squeezing the trigger. That can translate to shooting up to a foot below where you were aiming!
Another jerking the trigger byproduct seems to be flinching. Maybe it’s just me, but it seems like every person I’ve worked with that was jerking trigger was also anticipating that recoil which lead to that flinch that pushed the barrel of the gun downward. You can usually tell when that’s happening because, right after the person shoots they say “Did I even hit the paper?!”
Even when you tell someone they’re flinching, they’ll usually deny it. They’re not scared of the recoil so why would they flinch? A great way to test for flinching, or to at least illustrate it, is to randomly load a dummy round of two into a magazine. Make sure it’s at least 2 rounds down. Don’t let the shooter know which one it is and have them shoot just like normal. When they come to that dummy round, they will react like it was a normal cartridge. I, and everyone I’ve tried it with, has been surprised by just how far they dip that barrel down in anticipation of the shot.
Regardless of the symptoms, my advice is always “slow down your trigger pull”. Put the pad of your finger on the trigger and just squeeze it as slowly as you can stand. The gun going off should startle you. Sometimes it helps to say “squeeze squeeze squeeze” over and over again while you’re squeezing the trigger to help keep you focused on the pull and not the incoming bang.
Extensive dry fire practice can come in handy here as well. Getting that muscle memory of a nice, smooth trigger pull can do wonders for when you actually go to the range. Pro shooters spend hours and hours a day shooting an empty gun at a wall or laser target. They try to make sure they do it the same way every time. I fully believe that proper dry fire practice is very important for all shooters in order to enforce the fundamentals.
There’s a reason why they’re called “fundamentals”. They’re the core of good shooting. Fundamentals first! You can always speed up later.
P.S. for my more pedantic readers: safety is a fundamental.
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