Calling my shots

An interesting topic that deserves much discussion and even more thought!

There are many issues with and great benefit from correctly calling the shot.  But what does it mean when you called it correctly?  One of the first things to cover is "How do you know you called it correctly?".

Recently I have been calling say for example I think that went low right.

I'm sure you probably meant that you did see the sight alignment (open sights front and rear or dot with relation to the AREA of AIM, leave the POINT alone, ignore it, do not be tempted to shoot at a POINT.)  But if you are "thinking" that's where it went then the first benefit is that it's telling you that you are not seeing the sight alignment as well as you should.  


Calling the shot is about seeing the alignment of the gun relative to an imaginary line that runs from the bore of the pistol to the center of the AREA of AIM.  Is the top of the front sight perfectly flush with top of the rear sight?  Is the front sight perfectly centered in the notch with NO difference in the width of white on either side.  Did you see the absolute top edge or center of the front sight so well you can see that bit of dust hanging there as the wobble centered around your AREA of AIM (Center of black or an equal sized area of white below the black for sub-six hold)?  Alternatively, for dots, using the dot reference, did you actually see the very center of the dot or were you looking at it dancing in the tube?  Or did you actually see the target so clearly that you can see the X and the dot moving towards it (the center of your AREA of AIM in this case).

The beginning benefit of actually calling the shot is really learning how to see what (and ALL) you need to see for an acceptable shot.  If you are "aiming" for a mythical "point of aim" (which I would, tongue in cheek, dare one to find exactly with a compass and ruler) then you are probably distracting yourself from keeping the gun aligned.  And if you are distracted from that, then it is very hard to see how the trigger pressure, grip pressure, body posture, stance, etc. are causing the gun (front sight location in the notch) to angle away from that imaginary line.  And that tiny, tiny amount of angle has geometrically more impact (pun intended) on the location of the bullet impact point that all the wobble around in your acceptable AREA of AIM.  

Its not where you see the front sight on the target, its where you see the front sight in the notch or the actual movement of the dot in the tube (which is why its harder to learn to keep the gun aligned with the dot) that is important to calling the shot.  (I generally recommend starting with open sights if all possible since its a little easier to see what we are doing to the gun alignment as we have two references on the gun (front and rear sight).  With the dot, when helping new shooters, I've had to resort to telling them to keep the dot centered in the tube since they try to snatch off the shot as the dot bounces over the target area and they can't tell their wobble area from what they are doing to the gun alignment.)  

Maybe that's why for the OP and most of the rest of us - 

although sometimes it is still a surprise

So, we need to begin to separate what we "think we saw" based on repetition of events and train to actually see what's going on.  Then the real benefit begins when we can start finding "cause and effect".  Example: Front sight starts to move right in the notch as the trigger process finishes.  Seems to be that operating the trigger causes the gun to twist off slightly unless the grip pressure is different to compensate. So now I've multiplied my issues due to only one change.  

But, if we can see the front sight begin to move to one side in the notch as the trigger process is developing, then we can find something to work on. (Answer: Dang, I don't have my trigger finger in the same position so need consistent finger position to get the trigger to move straight to the rear without any undue side pressure. Need to restart shot process and keep the potential 10 points in the gun.)

For the OP:  If the wobble is drifting off low right, then you should go though a check list of your shot process.  How it is moving low right can give you some idea of where to start. Just drifting, then check stance.  If moving consistently, but only at the end, check for consistent grip pressure.  If it seems to just jump to the low right, then trigger or grip.  Etc., Etc. If you can see how its changing, that can lead you to finding your inconsistencies.  

Anyway, for me it goes back to calling the shot means I am seeing what the gun is doing.  And everything that determines where the bullet lands happens at the gun, so we need to be seeing what we are doing to the gun.  And that last instant sight picture (calling the shot) that we see of the sights / dot with respect to our area of aim is the last part of seeing what we did to the gun.

CR

Well said.

CR hit a homer again.

I like what Cecil posted (as usual) and it made me think of what I need to keep working on.

1) sight alignment - can I hold the same alignment while executing the shot release
2) overall stillness of the gun - no matter the sight alignment, if I'm moving the entire arm/gun assembly (not "wobble") it is going to be one of those "I think it was a..."  I know I was moving when the call is on the opposite side of the target
3) observational discipline - can I watch the sight alignment all the way through execution or does my mind wander to a different aspect of the shot execution?  I find that my attention sometimes goes to trigger execution and then I've lost the "slow motion" observation of the sights

I think it is impossible to work on all three at the same time, "work on calling your shots".    When all three are good, then I know where the shot went (relative to the pistol's zero).

Thank you Cecil!

Leaving aside semantics for me my Point of Aim is equal to yours Area of Aim.  I'm not at the level where I can distinguish between pointing at X from pointing at entire center area.  

I also discounted any issues with ammo and equipment in my post (not sure how it got duplicated, sorry!).  

This is very important tread for me, and I appreciate OP bringing it up and all who commented.  I've been practicing a lot with air pistol lately.  Iron sights work for my vision much better at 10m distance versus 25/50Y.  Will be evaluating my shot process based on this tread, and especially on your, Cecil, comments.

AP

Again, calling your shot is only used for verifying that you have built the shot process properly and that your equipment is performing properly.  Rather than trying to shoot a 10 every shot and wind up disapointed consider "area of hold" instead.  Shooting logs are set up to record every shot fired in a 10 shot string so you can find your area of hold.  If you see that the hold is the width of the 8 ring any shot inside that ring is a success and any shot outside is an error.  Review what happened to cause the error; bad trigger pull, not having a solid wrist, body weave, postural tremor, etc. and work on reducing the diameter of your hold.  
     Wobble is a general term used for the combination of 2 types of movement: natural body weave which usually originates in the legs and ankles, and postural tremor which everyone has to a certain extent but increases with age.  This tremor is a 5 to 10 hertz shaking totally observable in your sights and is unrelated to weave. The trick is to time the increase in trigger pressure at the point where the shot breaks when both movements are lowest.  This is accomplished by dry firing.  Keith Sanderson dry fires hundreds of times for every live round fired. Air pistol is a perfect substitute.  I suspect that if you can shoot good airgun you can shoot good anything. 38 special is the same, the velocity is so slow that you have time to do all kinds of bad things in follow through resulting in putting the bullet completely sideways through the paper.

Thanks for the comments and other perspectives.  I try to read everything that everyone posts in the Fundamentals section.  I continue to learn from everyone's comments.

As for semantics about "Point of Aim", I was not trying to pick any post apart in any way whatsoever. I do understand that most accomplished shooters are really using the Area of Aim, and just say Point of Aim.    

But after many discussions and working with a lot of new shooters, I have come to the conclusion that a lot of shooters just taking up the sport, those working on basic marksmanship skills and others coming from scope type / precision rifle shooting really struggle with the concept of how utterly and massively important Sight Alignment is compared to the Point of Aim concept for handgun shooting.   

Shooters really struggle with "how can I hit the target if I don't pick out a spot to aim at like a rifle scope".  They really seem to try to take the "Point" idea to the extreme (or at least normal for rifle / supported shooting). They tend to forget the sight radius is so short with a handgun, the position is basically unsupported so the gun is always moving some and that the distances are so short (even 50 yards) that the overwhelming factor is the actual alignment of the handgun versus trying to hold on some specific point.  

And then they really get tied up in knots when they have to operate the trigger while all this is going on.  So now we get to help train people out of that massive jerk on the trigger when they try to get the shot off "right there and then" because the sights seemed to stop for a millisecond on some point.   

Any, that why I try (as often as possible) to get the nomenclature changed to "Area of Aim" for handgun shooting.  So, I do apologize if my comment seemed "over the top" in any way. But I do try to continue to beat this subject to death when I can! 

CR

CR10X wrote:Any, that why I try (as often as possible) to get the nomenclature changed to "Area of Aim" for handgun shooting.  So, I do apologize if my comment seemed "over the top" in any way. But I do try to continue to beat this subject to death when I can! 

CR

And it's always an excellent reminder to pay a bit more attention to the process and keeping a smooth trigger press.

Thanks!

Tierney wrote: not having a solid wrist

I'm interested to get more information / suggestions on the subject of "solid wrist".  In my youth one of the sports I participated in was ping pong.  In this sport mobility of wrist is second to mobility of the legs.  I remember exercises to increase mobility of the wrist, such as touching area above the wrist with end of the thumb.  It was long ago, and I can no longer even come close to that.  However wrist is the first thing that responds to recoil once shot is broken.  Not an issue in SF, but huge issue in RF/TF.  And unfortunately dry fire is useless in wrist specific training for obvious reasons.

AP

Even in rifle shooting it truly is an “area of aim” not a point.  Significantly smaller perhaps, but still an area.

Wobbley, I agree.  Just a choice of words since the new pistol shooters are dealing with a much larger area than for rifle.  Like Lones said, "shoot the first 10 you see.".  I try to apply that to pistol every chance I get.

CR

Thanks for all the good information.

David