Shooting accurately

[loki04]

Gentlemen,

Most of my experience is in shooting rifles and shotguns, which are a bit different from pistols in aiming. I have a army colt, and would like to shoot pistols better. My groups at 25 yards with the colt are not something that I have seen with a rifle before. specifically, the groups tend to be strung out above the bull, with a slight spread as they get higher. essentially, I am shooting in a cone defined by about 11 to 1 o'clock. I shoot one-handed; what could be causing this?

thanks,
Loki

 

[cynthialee]

The way I tend to shoot black powder pistols is that I try and find the load that gets me in the neigborhood of my target. Then I use that load every time. After a number of shots I tend to figure out were it is shooting and I adjust my aim. If it shoots high, drop the muzzel a hair. If it is shooting to the right, modify the aim a hair to the left. Enough rounds through it and you can just guess the bullets into the target it seems.
Aso try a two handed grip, it is much steadier.

 

[crockett]

First shoot off a rest to determine the gun is fine. I haven't heard about a string going up but it would have to do with any hand gun shooting- not just cap and ball.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

Stance, breathing, a number of things. Just trying to hold on the target for a series of six shots in a row can cause stress and trembling in your rotator cuff and trapezius muscles. Once they start to fatigue and quiver, accuracy goes to heck.

Some target shooters claim the steadiest aim is between 4 and 10 seconds. After that aim goes to heck.
Trying to hold steady with arm extended, aim and slowly pull the trigger is something that improves with conditioning. Many shooters have a tight grasp on the grip and then have trouble trying to slowly squeeze the trigger, even though they can do it with a rifle, that extra hard grip detracts from accuracy.

Practice, practice practice. with a rifle, the main stress of the weight is on the left arm (if right handed) and you right arm is not accustomed to holding weight at arms length and shoulder level.

Actual range shooting conditions the grip to be firm, yet not white knuckle hand cramping tight. With a rifle, your right hand was fairly relaxed. Not so with a pistol. Your hand muscles and nerves need to be able to grasp the grip, yet independently permit your trigger finger to apply firm steady squeeze.

Your stance should be with your (if right handed) your right side to the target, your feet about shoulder distance apart. heels just slightly closer together and a line drawn across your toe tops should go to the target. Many right hand shooters put their left hand in their back pocket or on the hip. It tends to keep you from twisting your body too much.

If you have a 5 to 7 pound dumb bell available practice raising it and holding it shoulder high at arms length to build up the shoulder. Hold it for about 20 secs and lower then up again. Maybe 24 times per day. ( one of the best pistol target shots I met, worked in a factory drilling holes in 15 lb bronze castings. He lifted the pieces to the drill press with his right hand, used the left on the press control and then lifted the piece back off with the right. 50 weeks a yr, 5 days a week 8 hrs per day)

Shoot one shot and then lower the gun, wait a moment for the next shot, then raise it again.

Sorry for meandering. Hope this helps.

 

[Flash Pan Dan]

Take it from a guy who came to handguns late in life after shooting long guns competitively, with not to little success, all of his life.

1. TRIGGER CONTROL
2. TRIGGER CONTROL
3. TRIGGER CONTROL
4. everything else

I thought I knew about trigger control until I started to compete with handguns. Once I worked on learning this factor all other things involved in shooting handguns fell into place. I could narrow down my loads, sighting errors became less critical, I grew two inches taller and my teeth got brighter :rotf: . But seriously, trigger control is the one overriding factor in all handgun shooting. Darn it, I fell of my soapbox :wink: !

 

[crockett]

If all the shots in my group go left I figured I was wrapping my finger around the trigger. If I switch to a heavier bullet all the shots may go high (I know- it doesn't seem to make sense)- but on a string of shots- one higher than the next??? Maybe the grips are somehow slipping on the hand from recoil? I don't know.

 

[Zonie]

As your finding, shooting a pistol accurately is more difficult than shooting long arms.

Slight errors that don't effect rifle shooting much show up all too easily with a pistol.

A right handed shooter who's pistol shots are hitting above the point of aim often indicates the shooter is "pushing" or "heeling" the grip in anticipation of the shot.

Here is a link which shows some shooting errors common to pistol shooting:
http://www.firearmstalk.com/forums/f55/proper-sight-picture-target-mistakes-4871/

Sighting errors are also easy to make so my recommendations for pistol shooting are:

Maintain a firm but not overly firm (tight) grip on the gun.
Some people get a death grip on a pistol but that is unnecessary. The recoil is not going to cause the gun to slip or jump out of the shooters hand.

Keep your aiming eye on the front sight and its alignment with the rear sight.
The target will look fuzzy but only by watching the sights can the shooter know where the gun is actually aimed.

The sights will never align and hold exactly on the center of the target. It is humanly impossible to hold the gun that steady.

Some are really bothered by this but a good shooter will watch as the target moves but keep his concentration only on the center of the target.

Squeeze the trigger slowly and smoothly.
Some people jerk or slap the pistol. Any sudden movement of a finger or the hand will result in a missed shot.
This jerking of the trigger is often a result of trying to get the gun to fire as the sights are passing by the center of the bullseye. It always results in a poor shot.

Do not try to anticipate when the shot will happen. Just let the gun do its thing.

It's easy to unconsciously stiffen up or to push against the recoil of the gun. This will always ruin the shot.

It's equally easy to forget to follow thru after the shot.
Following thru is important because your senses cannot really determine where the bullet is and any movement while it is still in the barrel will result in a poor shot.

When I used to shoot in competition I would position my body relative to the target.
Then making sure the pistol was held so it felt like an extension of my arm I would begin to raise the pistol towards the target while taking in a deep breath.
As the gun was being aligned with the target I would let out about half of my breath as my eye focused on the front sight.

With the pistol aligned with the target I would concentrate only on the sight and its alignment with the point on the target I wanted to hit. (I did not like the 6:00 o'clock hold).

As the sight aligned I would begin to tighten my trigger finger, still with all of my concentration on the front sight and the target.

I really never knew when the gun would fire but as it did I continued to hold my arm in alignment with the target even though the gun was recoiling.

Only after the gun had finished recoiling and had started back down towards the target would I relax my arm and allow the gun to point down below the target.

Others may use a different method and as long as it's working for them that's fine and dandy but my method worked for me. (Until my eyes started going bad).

 

[Darkgael]

As the sight aligned I would begin to tighten my trigger finger, still with all of my concentration on the front sight and the target.

+1.
Concentration on the front sight is a subtle skill as it is very easy to allow focus to drift to the target, especially as the shot breaks. That can/will cost you at least a scoring ring or two.
Pete

 

[Geraldo]

Handgun shooting is all about sight picture and trigger control, but keep in mind that single action revolvers have a long hammer drop. You can do a lot wrong between feeling the sear release and the gun going off.

 

[loki04]

Gentlemen,

Many thanks for the information and advice.

So what would be a good way to practice dry firing the army colt, since that would be a way to work on both trigger control and consistency of grip?

A rubber cover for the nipples perhaps? or something similar to avoid the problems of dry firing?

Thanks for the help,
Loki

 

[Billnpatti]

You first must answer the question of how much of what you are seeing on the target is you and how much is the gun. To do this, you need to shoot off a rest. A good sandbag rest is usually the best and be sure the bench is rock steady. Once you have the gun under complete control, you will be able to tell how much of the spread is due to the gun and how much is just you. Once this is answered, you can decide if you want to keep the gun or trade it off and get a better one.

 

[VTdeerhunter]

I have started working with my 3 boys (all accomplished long gun hunters and shooters) to hone their hand gun skills...when we started they couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if they were inside and all the doors were closed

I don't shoot in competition, but I do shoot a lot and have been called a pretty good hand gun shot by those I run with....I like to squirrel hunt with the handgun and had a streak of 17 in a row without a miss...got cocky and started bragging, then missed the next 5 in a row :slap:

Anyway, for what its worth I'll share my technique with you, works for me and is helping the boys out with their own hand gun shooting as well...

I always shoot two handed (got 2 of them might just as well put them both to work)...Rather than try and hold the sight rock steady on the target (sometime you can and sometimes you can't, it bounces around like a cat on top of the wood stove) I line up the rear sight with my target and have the front sight below it...I push out towards the target with my right hand (I'm right handed btw) and pull back hard with my left hand...this seems to really hold the gun steady for me...

As I start to slowly raise up the front sight I also start to put pressure on the trigger, as it passes over my target I finish the pull....

I should mention that I am very fussy on how my triggers pull, both distance and pressure, and spend many, many hours working on them to fit my shooting style. I like mine right about 3 lbs. for my hand guns.

Good luck, there is a lot of great advice on this forum, I would suggest you try them all out....but work to find the technique that works for you and how you shoot....practice, practice, practice...

 

[crockett]

Dry firing a percussion? A handgun to some extent is a handgun so if you have a modern pistol maybe practice on that. A rubber cap on the nipple would probably jam against the recoil shield. Maybe buy some cheap nipples just for dry firing and let them get beaten up.

 

[Zonie]

If a percussion Cap & Ball pistol is set up right, the hammer will never hit the nipple when it falls.

Unfortunately, most Cap & Ball pistols aren't set up right because their nipples are too tall. This results in the hammer hitting them if it is "dry fired".

If dry firing was the goal, one solution would be to remove the nipples from the cylinder, reinstall the cylinder into the gun and have at it.

The hammer should stop on the frame so this should not put any unnecessary strain on it or on the frame.
As with all things, they will wear out eventually so dry firing the gun thousands of times may result in a broken spring or cylinder hand.

 

[cynthialee]

Anouther one of those simple fix's that leave me wondering why didn't I think of that...

 

[junkman_01]

I always shoot two handed (got 2 of them might just as well put them both to work)

They are called HAND guns, not HANDS guns! :youcrazy:

 

[rafterob]

Only the hand that touches the pistol counts! Anyway, I'm tickled pink. I just (almost) got a bullseye with my Remmy. 1/2" low, but that's the closest I've ever hit. I'm usually lucky to hit black at 25 yards. I am going to pretend its because of practice and not just a fluke :grin: