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Now here is an interesting thing. I'm new to Bullseye shooting. Been shooting less than a month and ONLY on Tuesdays for a couple hours. Yesterday I was all over the place! Talk about one step backwards.....so my "mentor" says to me "Shoot 10 shots at the back (blank side) of the target". So I flip the target and he says "now just try and get them in the middle of the paper". I PUT 6 SHOTS IN THE X-RING! had two that got away from me (that I called) and two just outside of the group of six! What is up with that. I've never shot a group like that.....looked like bench rest shooting. So what am I doing when I can see the black......chasing the bullseye?

glad your 'mentor' wasn't at our range...
folks would have just gone back behind the target to fire!!
-- jes-kidding... (I hope)...

congrats. I'm sure there's some explanation besides
astrology, biorythms and global-warming...

-- toy

That shows that you are snapping at the bullseye. Your coach could load a dummy round in your magazine, and you would be able to see the flinch when the gun doesn't fire.

You are snapping off the shot when everything looks right. Not a good way to get a good score. Let the gun wobble around and squeeze off the shot. You should not know when the gun is going to go off. You get the good groups when you don't anticipate the shot.

Dry firing should help you to learn to squeeze off the shot. Remember, if you are wobbling around the target, you are spending more time in the center than anywhere else. Squeeze the trigger, let the gun wobble and discharge when it wants to. Most shots will be x's.

wlambert

You are chasing the bouncing ball! As Wlambert said, just hold close and concentrate on your squeeze, the rest will fall into place as your hold steadies.

Your mentor just used an old trick of having you shoot at a blank background. That builds confidence in demonstrating that you can hold the pistol well enough to put them all in the center. Plus your pistol is capable of holding the X ring too. Once you realize where the problem lies than its easy to correct it.

R,
Bullseye

Yeah....that's what I figured. I have some dummy rounds coming in and I will mix one in with my 5 shot strings from time to time just to see what I'm doing.

Working on my grip as well. Just read about Brian Zins's grip and I think I might like that grip. I don't have big hands and I think his grip might work well for me. BTW....his grip puts your trigger finger centered over that first joint.....not on the pad of the finger and not just up against the edge of the first joint. This forces the MSH to shift further out (or towards your thumb) more than the standard grip. It felt solid for me.....I'll give it a shot since I'm not set on one yet anyway. I'm also going to toy with his "focus on the target and not on the dot" technique. This does not apply to iron sights but he does do that when shooting dots. Again.....I'm not set on anything yet...so I'll try it. Hard to argue with eight national titles......but I am aware of the fact that what works for him might not work for me.

Red dot shooting is a lot different than shooting with iron sights. Focusing on the target instead of the dot does two things; keeps you from getting frustrated as the dot wiggles around on the target, and allows the shooter to concentrate more on the trigger's break.

The trigger break is where most shooters go off task. No matter how steady the hold, if you don't work the trigger properly everything goes out the window in the last few milliseconds before detonation.

R,
Bullseye

I have also found I shoot best when I really don't care about the target or even perfect sight alignment but instead strive for a perfect trigger pull. Somehow when you get that right the rounds just find their way to the 10 ring on their own.

With a dot sight try looking at a point on the scope itself as an experiment. Tear a tiny piece of masking tape and place on the rear edge of the scope. Then look hard at that as you see the sight picture periferally in the scope. I get a real good sense of the gun and trigger doing this. And the shots are still good.

I believe the "Zins" grip is primarily for the standard type grips on 1911 guns and regular Ruger, High Standard. I even am trying it with my M9. If you make your hand like a sock puppet and twist the backstrap into the deepest crease, you will find the grip.

I'd say I'm shooting a modified Zin's at this point. I'm getting better trigger control with my finger in just to the first joint, not centered over it. That being said I still need a lot of work on rapid fire trigger control. My trigger is very crisp and it is very difficult to pre-load, especially under rapid fire conditions.

Went out for some practice yesterday and shot an unofficial 269. First time I've even broken 250 and one point from an Expert round And that was with a very poor 84 on rapid fire

I put 15 straight into the black on slow fire practice and went on to put 32 of 35 into the black. Took me 35 total shots to record 10 in the 10 ring on a slow fire target. Don't know if that's good or bad, but next time I will try and beat it. I've been shooting for about a month now.

Keep grouping on your blank target back. Leave the first one in place and paste the next ones right on top. At the end see your overall group.
Keep your eye on the sight.

Hardball wrote:Keep grouping on your blank target back. Leave the first one in place and paste the next ones right on top. At the end see your overall group.
Keep your eye on the sight.

Yeah I've been doing some blank target work as well but I must admit that I've been doing better since I started focusing on the target and not the dot. I would only attempt that when shooting a red dot......but it does seems to work better for me.