My hands shake!

First topic message reminder :

Hello all,

I am new at Bullseye shooting, I just started shooting monthly at my local gun club.  Though mostly the same as the official NRA Bullseye comp, we generally only use one gun throughout the comp.  I am just a beginner and I am using a Ruger 22/45 Lite with a TRS-25 red dot.  Eventually I plan on expanding and going further in the sport.

I am an experience pistol shooter and consider myself to be a "decent shot", but I have noticed a problem.  When I "practice" at home, I aim my pistol at a refrigerator magnet and practice hold, sight picture, breathing, stance, etc.  I am steady as a rock.

When I go to the range and practice, my hands shakes so much that my red dot looks like a red line over the target.  This has happened to me twice now.  Besides being at the range, there is no difference in what I do at home.  

Any suggestions?  Thanks!

No, I didn't realize that, but I do find that the harder I try, the worse I end up doing.  I score much better in the rapid and timed fire rounds.

First when I was shaking during practice I would turn a target over and shoot 10 rounds at the center of the blank repair center concentrating on trigger control. This should establish what you are capable of shooting on that day. Your goal would then be to fire the same size group on a slow fire target.
 Also when shaky take a few deep breathes and see if that helps.
 Also try static stretching all the muscles in your body. Start with your feet,then legs and all the way to your neck. The more you think about shaking the more you will do it.
 Visualize the dot in the center of the target before the shot. The more you see something happening in your mind the more likely you will be able to accomplish it.

I have had the same problem.
However recently I have reduced my amount of of caffeine and increased dry fire practice and have noticed a big difference in my hold!

I never believed the "hype" of not drinking caffeine before shooting... Til last week. I had two coffees and went shooting. My hand was shaking so bad I ended up giving up on bullseye practice and instead enjoyed some two handed shooting. They say that smoking adds too the shakes too.

Are the shakes constant?  Or are they different within each of "holding", "sighting", or "triggering"?

Didn't see this in this thread yet.  I've had some air pistol sessions where my arm is shaking and stopped and warmed up better and stretched my shoulder and neck and the shaking was dramatically reduced.  Also it seems when doing my hold with grip and arm that there is some value for gripping/holding stronger and allowing the muscle effort to slacken a tiny bit and the subtle relaxation decreases shaking. Then there is also the idea of using your skeleton and finding the places in your stance and hold where the joints are settling into a stable valley. e.g. natural point of aim.  

Another thing I've noticed with my stance and hold is stability added by some torsion slight force. For example my stance gets more stable if I do some mild twist towards the target and think about rotating my wrist a little bit counter clockwise.  In the case of the stance, I think it's like being able to lean on the tendons more than being in a more neutral position where there is no tendon tension.  In the case of the arm, it feels like the "thinking" about having some twist is activating the muscles in the scapula and forearm to form a better closed chain of muscular tension. I broke my knee and a key thing I learned in PT was when my instructor asked me to twist my knees outwards when doing squats. My ligaments were loose and when in a neutral position my knee was unstable, but with some twist, the long strong ligaments along the outside of your leg come into the picture. Think about the guy wires on a tower. The twisting feeling takes up the slack and engages the muscles in the hip.

Shoot faster, make sure you have a nice trigger that helps. Holding more than 10 seconds will deteriorate the quality of the shot. 

Breath control helps too.

Nine years later!
Is the O.P still shaking???

sixftunda wrote:........To help your hand and wrist strength I strongly recommend going to Gunny's website and buying a Powerball. They are cheap and you can use them anywhere.  I don't use mine as much as I could but for the price it is good exercise that specifically targets muscles you use to shoot. Just do not drop it!.......

What is this, where would I buy one, and how much do they cost?

https://powerballs.rpmpower.com/store/

I have found this to be excellent for strengthening the shoulder muscles: https://www.amazon.com/Bodyblade-50864-Classic-Kit/dp/B0065PTC80/ref=asc_df_B0065PTC80/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=167134995961&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=16160611413762248837&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9016277&hvtargid=pla-307401337417&th=1

No impingement exercises or weights. Used it in PT when rehabbing a bad shoulder, and decided to buy one.

Power balls will help rehab a bad elbow also.
Stan

Bullseye10X wrote:Hello all,

I am new at Bullseye shooting, I just started shooting monthly at my local gun club.  Though mostly the same as the official NRA Bullseye comp, we generally only use one gun throughout the comp.  I am just a beginner and I am using a Ruger 22/45 Lite with a TRS-25 red dot.  Eventually I plan on expanding and going further in the sport.

I am an experience pistol shooter and consider myself to be a "decent shot", but I have noticed a problem.  When I "practice" at home, I aim my pistol at a refrigerator magnet and practice hold, sight picture, breathing, stance, etc.  I am steady as a rock.

When I go to the range and practice, my hands shakes so much that my red dot looks like a red line over the target.  This has happened to me twice now.  Besides being at the range, there is no difference in what I do at home.  

Any suggestions?  Thanks!

Practice, relax, practice, relax, relax, relax. You are shaking because you are not used to holding the gun for a long time, and you usually shake more if you are trying too hard, and you start to tense up. If you just breath easy, and relax, you should be steadier...  RELAX, and don't forget to breath easy. Just takes a lot of practice.

Also.... don't try to hold perfectly still on a givin point... you will never do it. If you can get to a nice even woble around and in your target, SQUEEZE the trigger and let it surprise you when it goes off, you would be surprised how often you will hit it. That is what works for me.

Too much caffiene will also not help you.

I used to think caffeine was an issue for me, and I would guess excess caffeine would be. I actually found sugar was more an issue so I do not drink soda or eat sweet treats before a match. I moderate my caffeine, but I need some of it to get going in the morning.

Then of course you have Andy Moody, one of the folks who trained Brian Zins early on, who can slug down coffee, smoke a cigarette and then shoot all X's.....

Seeing posts I wrote years ago sometimes I think "Did I write that?"