Alright, I just got back from the range. That was a good time. When I got there the staff was helpful. While the range doesn’t offer any courses at the location I was at, they do at their other location (which will be close to my new house when I finally move there). The guy looked at the Browning .22 to start and then thought I’d like the Ruger 22/45 better.
At first I had the target out at about 15-20 yards. I was happy when the first shot hit the target even if it didn’t score. After the first box of ammo I started with the target at about 7-10 yards and was quite pleased with results. Even though I had lots of hits in the 7,8 and 9 ring I had only a couple in the X ring and nothing in the bullseye. I really concentrated on the last 10 rounds of the 3rd box of ammo. I grouped 4 of them right around the X.
In general, my shots were lower and to the left of what I wanted. I’m certain the way I am looking at the sights is the problem. Do you close one eye or not? Does the top ‘line’ of the front site indicate the point of impact when the front and rear sights are aligned? Does that even make sense? I
When I was done, the guy looked at my targets and said that I was grouping them, which is good and a little instruction would probably go a long way. All in all, I enjoyed it and will most certainly be going back. When I move to my new house I’ll take the course at the other store.
The good news is that yes, you are grouping.
The bad news is that you are “anticipating.” You are probably a righty. I’m a lefty and I’m low to the right. Here’s what happens. You’re standing on the line, steady breathing. And you begin to pull the trigger. Now at this moment, you are either wondering 1) Why the hell hasn’t this thing gone off? in which case you pull the trigger faster to make it fire and you jerk your hand in the process. Or 2) You are nervous about the noise/recoil/hot brass, and you pull the trigger quicker than you should and the nose of the gun goes down and to the right.
My advice is to let the gun surprise you as someone said. Just be willing to take all the time in the world and see how your shots match up. I think that this and not the sights will make a big difference.
See if you can find some .22LR snap caps, dummy rounds. You can use them as a good method for detecting flinch or trigger jerking. Have someone load a magazine with live rounds and a dummy round at random. Bang-bang-bang-click. What is supposed to happen is nothing, no movement of the gun whatsoever when you pull the trigger. You may see movement. It can be jerking with the trigger finger or sometimes even pushing forward in anticpation of recoil. See if you can get some instruction. A good coach can spot any bad habits you may not be aware of. Sounds like you are having fun so keep at it.
I just went to the range with some chums this morning. Bob was having fun with his Uzi and Carl Gustav submachineguns but I was trying out a new CZ-452 varmint model rifle in .17M2 . If I had this rifle when I was ten years old the would have been no prairie dogs left in Montana north of the Missouri. Even with the somewhat gritty and heavy factory trigger I had little problem getting five shot groups at 50m that could be covered by a dime. This gun is a keeper.
Thanks, adam yax, for starting this thread. I’m also a newby who’ll going to the range for the first time on Friday (and Sat and Sun ;)).
My 10 days wait are up Tuesday afternoon, and I’ll spend most of the next three nights familiarizing myself with the mechanics of my new Ruger MkII, which has the textured grips mentioned above by Padeye. I handled the smooth grips on another gun but didn’t like them.
Most of the guys on this thread are all too familiar with my incessant questions from those two other threads.
Keep both eyes open. Focus your point of vision on the front sight not on the target. Have the top edge of the front sight aligned with the top edges of the rear sights and have the front sight evenly centered between the two rear sights. Take a deep breath and let it half out. Squeeze the trigger.
Trigger squeese is pretty abstract until you do it. It means squeezing the trigger relative to the gun so that nothing else moves but your index finger and the trigger. This isn’t so easy as all your fingers are flexed by tendond that go through the inside of your upper arm. Don’t have a death grip on the gun. Most of the time my strong hand is only gripping with my two middle fingers. Little finger and thumb are relaxed. Index finger only touched the trigger in the middle of the meaty part of the tip, not at the joint to the next bone. Practice makes perfect and that includes dry fire practice.
Take extreme caution if you choose to do dry fire practice. Never allow ammunition in the same area, preferably not even in the same room. Constantly check the chamber. Even if it seems redundant it keeps you in the habit. Aim in a direction that cannot possibly put anyone at risk were you to actually be firing a live round. Never forget the fundimentals of safety. Remeber it takes only one fuck up to end a life and there are no do-overs.
Conventional wisdom is that rimfire guns cannot be dry fired without damage. The firing pin is located over the edge of the chamber rather than the center of the chamber opening. A correctly fitted firing pin should not be able to touch the metal around the chamber but if it does dry firing will cause damage. Some folks hold that damage can still be caused elsewhere as there is nothing else to absorb the energy of the hammer when the firing pin hits the travel stop. Some manufactures explicitly state in the manual if a gun is safe to dry fire but not ever yone thinks that is good enough. If you are worried about this you can get plastic dummy rounds to use for practice. I dry fire my rimfire guns though not a hole lot and I have not observed any damage to chambers or peening of the firing pin. YMMV so get some other opinoins and make your own choices. I do most of my dry fire practice with centerfires without snap caps. The only ones I don’t are my Uberti SAA clone which doesn’t have a floating firing pin so I use snap caps and my cap and ball revolvers which will be damaged by dry firing as the hammer peens the nipples and they cut a circle into the hammer face.
Most people teach isocolese these days. Stand facing the target square with feet shoulder width apart. Strong hand (the one you are shooting with) holds the gun, weak hand wraps around the frontstrap. Push slightly with strong hand while weak pulls slightly. This tention helps you stay steady. Do not wrap the thumb of your weak hand around the back as the slide/bolt will hit it when you fire. Your arms to the gun and legs to the ground each form an isocolese triangle, a very stable shape. Resist the urge to lean back to balance the weight of the gun. I think it’s less stable plus it looks dorky. You don’t need to be in an FBI crouch, lean forward at the hips just slightly. Your muscles need to do a bit more work but I think this is what makes it a better position. Your arms will be sore after your first shooting session so practice with something heavy to get ready if you want.
I like Weaver sometimes but a lot of people consider it old fashioned. Stand at a 45° to the target with strong side away from target and weak side nearest. Feet slightly apart. Same kind of push pull as iscocoles but strong arm is straight while weak is bent.
Don’t worry about wobble. If you wait until you are steady on target you’ll wear yourself out and wobble will get worse. If you are doing everything else right and if wobble isn’t really severe it won’t matter. Squeeze the trigger by increasing pressure until the gun suprised you by going off but don’t make it last a minute, do it deliberately.
I understand the concept of ‘soft hands’. I’m sure I was gripping pretty tight for the first few shots, but I did try to keep in mind ‘not too tight, not too loose’.
Should I stay with a .22 or can I try something else, next time I go?
The soles of your feet should be parallel to the ground, beyond that do what is comfortable for you. Seriously, the whole point is to find a comfortable and stable position and not everyone’s feet will be at the exact same angle. If you are in a comfortable position and you are shooting well it’s the right position.
If you think you’re ready to try a larger gun then go for it. If you want to gradually ease yourself into bigger calibers I’d go with any of the full size 9mm pistols or a .357/38 revolver with .38 special ammunition.
Go at your own pace and you’ll learn to shoot well more quckly. Not everyone progresses at the same pace. One of the worst things do do is try something big and develop a flinch as that is a hard habit to break. Remember that you have nothing to prove to anyone, including yourself. You’ve probably heard a lot of us say stuff like “real men shoot .45 ACP 1911s, fire make food good, drag woman by hair to cave,” and other such bullshit. The only reason we don’t think .45 has a lot of recoil is that we’re used to it and learned to ignore it. I can guarantee that every one of us cavemen though we had a bucking bronc in our hands the first time we fired a .45 even if we don’t admit it.
I have a pet theory about new shooters, that women often do better because they aren’t trying to show anyone how macho they are and they have not learned to shoot by watching Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson, etc. etc. Seriously, we took some new shooters from work out since they wanted to fire handguns before returning to Europe. One male novice, one male who had been in the german military, one female novice. Guess who did the best? The guys had “groups” that looked like shotgunpattens. Andrea neatly drilled the center out of each target. She asked to try my 1911 and she thought it kicked like a sonofabitch but amazingly she didn’t have any flinch when she went back to the .22.
I suggest this test to see if you are ready for something bigger. Can you watch the gun the entire time when you are firing? Sounds like a silly question but can you watch the front sight as you fire, the gun rocks upward in recoil and as you return to target or did you blink? Chances are you may be doing it already and if so it’s something you need to work on before moving to a more powerful gun.
Even with the somewhat gritty and heavy factory trigger I had little problem getting five shot groups at 50m that could be covered by a dime. This gun is a keeper.