Help, all of a sudden my shooting sucks

[Howard]

Some background. I'm just about 58 and never touched a handgun until I was just about eligible to qualify as a senior for USPSA and IDPA. I recently moved up to B class in Production and Sharpshooter in SSP. I really hit a wall there as I was doing well in spite of myself. My big issue was slow follow up shots. So after talking to a bunch of friends and master level shooters I figured out that part of the problem was that my grip really was too loose and my sights never tracked back to the original location. With that in mind I got some grip strengthening toys and have been working with them and making a concerted effort to really squeeze the grips. The problem is my accuracy has gone to hell as I think the tight grip is messing up my trigger pull. If I try to go fast, ie .20-.25 splits my shots are all over the place. If I go slow, like .50 splits with the tight grip I am doing fine as seen below where I fired off 10 shots at ten yards into a fairly tight group. So, what must I concentrate on the get my splits back to where they should be with this tight grip?????


https://pistol-forum.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=8430&stc=1

[benq]

I have a similar issue. To try to correct it: I am practicing more front sight focus during recoil; reevaluating my grip both placement and applied pressure ; lastly trigger pull.

It has helped. At recent local matches, I found myself placing just below top local shooters some of whom won their division in Utah and Texas State IDPA matches.

For me, my fundamentals degraded. I went back to basics and made minor changes to my shooting. I admit to losing mental focus during dry and live fire practice over the past three months.


Hope this helps.

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[Josh Runkle]

I don't have this problem now, but had something similar about 5 years ago.

I would accidentally change my grip between live fire and dry fire. In live fire I was gripping just a little harder, as I was focusing on recoil management. In dry fire, I was focusing on a straight press to the rear, and my grip would unconsciously loosen a bit.

When my grip was looser, I could isolate my trigger finger. When I tightened my grip, I couldn't isolate my trigger finger in quite the same way. I fixed this by merging my dry fire and live fire into the same practice sessions for about a month, so that I would focus on gripping with a consistent strength, while I re-trained my brain and trigger finger. I stopped dry firing at home during that period, and then spent more time at the range doing dry fire between every drill.

I don't know if your problem is the same as mine was, but I hope it can help.