More shaky at the beginning of the night while live firing?

by Telewreck Mon Jan 25, 2016 2:06 pm

Hello,
Typically I dry fire at home for 20-25 minutes a day at a blank wall and at a reduced target. I feel my hold is getting much better to the point where it looks like I have roughly an 8 ring hold with a slow wobble. Throughout the dry fire practice and from day to day my hold seems solid allowing me to not have much issues focusing on a smooth trigger pull on my new trigger. BUT, when I get to live fire all of a sudden the dot starts oscillating fast frequently out of the black and I catch myself jerking the trigger and ending up with a flier. Is this just nerves of live fire? Any advice or excersizes to get rid of that extra wobble?

Corey

by STEVE SAMELAK Mon Jan 25, 2016 2:30 pm

1- dry fire more
2- air pistol
3- no better practice than match shooting

20% percent is concentration...another 90% is between the ears

by weber1b Mon Jan 25, 2016 3:51 pm

I find that dry fire and practice seem to go better than the live match shooting. Match jitters can be a real factor even on a small level. The only way to overcome that is to increase both dry fire and shoot as many matches as you can afford from a time and ammo standpoint. Plus matches are a lot more fun.

by Rob9mmshooter Mon Jan 25, 2016 7:27 pm

I find that what can work for me sometimes is to tell myself I am dry firing and just do everything the same as I would dry firing. Do worry/think about the score just the execution of the dry fire process. May work for you may not!

by Rob9mmshooter Mon Jan 25, 2016 9:46 pm

OOPS!! Sorry in that last post it should read. "Do not worry/think about the score etc."

by kjanracing Thu Jan 28, 2016 7:24 am

JUST RELAX DAMMITTTTT! there, did that help?

by Rob9mmshooter Thu Jan 28, 2016 8:14 am

This may be the harder thing to do while you are imagining that you are dry firing and pulling the trigger without regard to the wobbles. Then just keep pulling the trigger until the gun fires. More often than not it will be a good shot. If you try to grab the shot when you think the wobble is in the right place it will be a really bad shot 90% of the time. Not easy to do when the dot is moving all over the place but it works and may help build your confidence and reduce the shakes. I used to do that too in spades.

by **Rob Kovach** Thu Jan 28, 2016 6:00 pm

Lot's of old threads about the shakes in the archives here.

Write your shot process.
Follow only what you have written. (don't forget the breathing part of the process)
Do 2 second 2 shot drills on your Bullseye app to cement the process.

by Telewreck Wed Feb 03, 2016 12:09 pm

I think my problem was/is nerves. I'm trying to work through the marine workbook and I think I get myself jacked up focusing on not-failing. I am reading lannys book and instead of focusing on "not failing" I am focusing on the process of making one good shot at a time. My last range visit went much smoother. My dot during live fire had the same wobble as it does during dry fire. I finished the first stage with the blank targets and went to stage 2. Twice I got 15 straight in the black but then I got shaky and instead of aborting the shot I tried to snatch a shot in the black and ended up with one in the white. After 40 shots at stage 2 I switched to the 45 (I use a Nelson conversion) and that went great! I am still getting used to the KC roll trigger but when I apply a smooth steady trigger pull my flinch due to recoil is totally gone. I used 4 shots to sight in the 45 then put the next 6 shots in the black with 5 of them being 10's on a t/r target.

I have more dry fire work with focusing on a smooth steady trigger, but I am starting to like the roll trigger more and more. We will see what the next range visit brings...

Corey

by Colt711 Sun Feb 14, 2016 9:44 pm

Remember when your nerves take over your system calls for increased adrenaline. This heightened sensory condition causes increased visual acuity which allows you too see the movement better. Remember, or remind yourself of this and concentrate just on the dot (or front sight) and keep applying pressure to the trigger.

One of the AMU contributers to Gil Hebard's "Pistol Treasury" said beleive in the fundamentals and apply them, they won't desert you!!

Good Shooting!

Ron Habegger

by Jack H Mon Feb 15, 2016 8:51 pm

Here's an old article I found. Don't know it's source.

INCIDENTALLY, and before anyone gets any wrong ideas about it, Harry Reeves is not responsible for this primer of pistol instruction. This is revised from a training manual written long before I ever guessed that Harry and I would both be writing for the same magazine; and now that I do know it, I could sort of wish I'd kept my trap shut about pistols! But I'm in it now, and too scared to run. Maybe Harry will tell you, later, the real scoop on pistol mastery. But I'll bet he'll agree that what I'm telling you won't hurt you, even if it's not all in line with his thinking.

In May, I talked at length about how to take hold of the gun. I concluded with the comment that there would always be more than enough movement when you point a handgun at a target, and that there were ways to reduce it.

Note that the word is "reduce", not "eliminate". Nobody ever lived who could hold a handgun rigidly still on point of aim -and that is a good thing to remember. Knowing that you can't eliminate movement may help you to ignore it. And ignore it you must. You can, with practice and correct methods, reduce gun movement to a minimum-and, believe it or not, the movement you can't eliminate won't keep you from scoring possibles.

When you first point a handgun at something you want to hit, the gun will wander all over the target. The first thing that will occur to you is, "I'll never be able to hit the blasted thing, never!" Forget it. Every person who ever tried to aim a handgun had the same problem. They solved it; so can you.

Your second thought will almost certainly be, "Hah! Next time that black spot floats by, I'll nail it! If it's going to insist on being a moving target, I'll wing-shoot it!"

Forget that, too. The only way you can catch that bullseye on the fly is to yank' the trigger, and that's the worst thing you can do. Concentrate on your sights, not on the target. Using proper square- notched rear and square topped front blade target sights, you want the top of that front blade exactly level with the top of the rear sight notch; and you want the front blade exactly centered in the rear sight notch. Direct your whole mind to the effort to make that sight picture perfect and keep it so. Concentrate on it so hard that nothing else can enter your mind. Focus your eyes on the sights. Somewhere out in front of that sight picture, you will be visually (dimly) aware of that silly, won't-stand-still bullseye, but don't let it distract you. You're going to hit it, provided you do exactly two things right.

The two things you must do right are keep that sight picture perfect, and pull the trigger straight back without moving the gun. "Without moving the gun" means "without disturbing the sight alignment." That sight alignment is all-important.

At this point, you don't believe what I've told you. You don't believe that you can ignore the way your gun wavers over the target, and still hit the bullseye. It's hard to accept something you don't believe, so let's see if I can explain it so you will believe it.

Let's say, just for example, that you're aiming at a 5" bullseye. You're "in the black" if your bullet cuts anywhere inside or on the edge of that circle. This means that your gun can swing a full five inches left to right or top to bottom without carrying your shot out of the black, provided you maintain that perfect sight picture that keeps the gun barrel pointed straight at the target. It's exactly as if you were shooting down a stove- pipe five inches in diameter. Keep the bullet inside the pipe, and it's in the black. Okay so far?

The bullet will stay inside the pipe as long as the sights are kept in alignment. Any normal person can hold a gun so that it doesn't swing as much as five inches! If you need convincing, have somebody hold a five inch crochet hoop (or a section of stovepipe!) in front of you. Stick the gun muzzle inside. See what I mean? So you've got it made.

You have-so long as you keep those sights aligned. But let that front sight waver off-center in the rear sight notch even a fraction-or get too high by a fraction, or too low-and your bullet will tear right out of that imaginary stove pipe and off into the wild blue yonder! So long as you keep the sights in alignment, the bullet goes down the pipe. Lose that sight alignment, and you'll miss the whole darned target!

The second thing mentioned above, trigger pull, is just a corollary to the rule about maintaining sight alignment. The trigger finger must pull straight back on the trigger. It must do so without causing pressures against the gun that will spoil sight alignment.

Start putting pressure on the trigger as soon as the gun is pointed at the target. (Forget the bullseye; concentrate on the sight picture.) Keep on exerting pressure, a little more and a little more-until the gun fires. If you give the trigger a spasmodic yank in an attempt to set the shot off just when the bullseye looks right to you, you'll yank the gun, ruin the sight alignment, miss. If you obey instructions, you'll hit-if not the dead-center bullseye, at least close enough to it so you'll see that you can do it.

Steady is the word for trigger pull. As you become expert, you will learn to add trigger pressure when the sight picture registers on the bullseye, stop pulling when the bullseye floats away from you-pull again when the picture looks right. But that's for later. The rule for the beginner is, "Keep adding trigger pressure, regardless of the bullseye, as long as you're pointing at the target."

If your arm tires from holding the gun at point too long, release all trigger pressure, rest, and start over. Trigger pull will be slow, at first, and your muscles will tire quickly. With practice, you can make your pull faster, and your arm muscles will strengthen to permit longer holding steadier holding too, though there'll always be movement. You'll "See experts fire so fast you'll swear they are yanking the trigger, but they're not. If they're hitting, their trigger pull is fast-smooth, where

yours is slow-smooth.

Stance? A lot has been written about stance, what's right and what's wrong; yet if you see a dozen Masters on a firing line, like as not you'll see a dozen different stances. Don't stand facing the target; with your feet in line your body will sway more than need be, and sway in this position will cause your shots to spread high and low. Don't stand at right angles to the target, feet in line, shoulders in line with the line of aim. This position, too, lets your body sway, spreads your shots from left to right.

Take a stance 45° off the line of bullet flight, feet parallel and comfortably apart (where they feel best to you). Shut your eyes, and swing your hand up as if to aim at the target. Look down your arm. If you're pointing too far to the right, move your left foot back a little; if you're too far to the left, move the left foot forward a little. Find the position that lets you point at the target without having to muscle your arm to one side or the other. That's your position, so far as your feet are concerned.

Hold your body erect but relaxed, comfortable, no strain. Keep your head up, neck straight. Bring the gun to your eye level, don't twist your neck to meet the gun.

What to do with the non- shooting hand? Who cares, so long as it isn't moving (to disturb sight alignment), and isn't causing muscle strain or body imbalance. Let it hang straight down at your side; stuff it in your pants pocket; forget it. You're not posing for a picture; this is serious business!

You say, "Shucks, I didn't know pistol shooting was so easy?'" Brother, I have news for you: it isn't easy. Simple, maybe, but not easy. You'll tear up a lot of targets (some with bullets, and some because you're so damn disgusted) before you shoot top scores with a pistol. It takes practice … and practice.

But who's complaining? Practicing with a pistol is the most fun there is, else why do it?

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