Nephrology
01-15-2012, 02:19 PM
So, I am, relative to many posters here, a fairly novice handgun shooter. I did the shotgun sports quite a bit in my adolescent years and had a good amount of time on rifles and shotguns and other "farm boy" stuff that I would get into with my family in North Carolina but never had much chance to shoot pistols, particularly as my parents (who are dyed on the wool 90s Democrats... I'd rather not think about it too hard) were very against it.
I started shooting handguns about 3 years ago and take it as a relatively serious pursuit. I only own 2 longarms, a 870 Wingmaster and a Marlin Model 60, just to have, really. Otherwise I focus all of my effort on shooting my 3 9mm glocks well.
However due to a deficit of free time, quality instruction, and focused practice, my skills leave a lot to be desired. My last 2 outings since moving across the country to Connecticut involved lots of teaching newbies what the front sight was and was not fully focused when I was able to put rounds downrange myself. Lots of low and left shots, you probably recognize the syndrome. I've tried all the possible trigger combos/grip force adaptor/ you name it but realized that none of them would correct a deficit in the fundamentals of marksmanship.
That is until yesterday. The day before I snagged a Ruger MkIII 22/45 for 200 bucks as I was tired of blowing 9mm downrange and hitting jack-all. I figured I may as well get a real dedicated .22 pistol and use it to work on my fundamentals, which were clearly lacking. The only modifications I made were to black out the rear sight dots and to use a paint marker to color the front sight dot red, to more-or-less match the Ameriglo Hackathorn setup I have on all of my glocks. So yesterday I hit the range with my sister and a friend and made a point of shooting at LEAST 30 rounds of .22 before moving on to 9mm. I made sure to focus on the consistency of the grip and the trigger pull.
and what do you know? My groups tighted up INSTANTLY. With slow and controlled trigger manipulation I was able to put 5 rounds of 9mm into a 3" group at ~10 yards. After those 5 rounds, I went back to the Ruger and would do 3-4 magazines of .22 before doing 5 deliberate rounds through my G17. Night and day. I also noticed that when I was messing up with my glocks and pulling the shots left, upon moving to the .22 I would be doing the same thing. adjusting my grip with the .22 and focusing on trigger control would bring me back to center. I could actually feel my poor little neurons stretching and making new connections. Learning was occurring. By the end of the day I managed to hit a coffee can at ~90 yards with my little Glock 26. Long range accuracy was my biggest frustration with Glock pistols, and even if I couldn't repeat that shot on command, knowing that I am at least physically capable of doing so is a big confidence booster.
So, again, I may not be the most high speed low drag individual on this forum, and nor would I ever say that I have now mastered my pistols, but I have made definite, real, tangible progress thanks to focused practice with the Ruger MkIII. It will come with me next weekend when I hit the range to work on my fundamentals some more, and hopefully every trip thereafter.
http://i.imgur.com/RU2vT.jpg
I started shooting handguns about 3 years ago and take it as a relatively serious pursuit. I only own 2 longarms, a 870 Wingmaster and a Marlin Model 60, just to have, really. Otherwise I focus all of my effort on shooting my 3 9mm glocks well.
However due to a deficit of free time, quality instruction, and focused practice, my skills leave a lot to be desired. My last 2 outings since moving across the country to Connecticut involved lots of teaching newbies what the front sight was and was not fully focused when I was able to put rounds downrange myself. Lots of low and left shots, you probably recognize the syndrome. I've tried all the possible trigger combos/grip force adaptor/ you name it but realized that none of them would correct a deficit in the fundamentals of marksmanship.
That is until yesterday. The day before I snagged a Ruger MkIII 22/45 for 200 bucks as I was tired of blowing 9mm downrange and hitting jack-all. I figured I may as well get a real dedicated .22 pistol and use it to work on my fundamentals, which were clearly lacking. The only modifications I made were to black out the rear sight dots and to use a paint marker to color the front sight dot red, to more-or-less match the Ameriglo Hackathorn setup I have on all of my glocks. So yesterday I hit the range with my sister and a friend and made a point of shooting at LEAST 30 rounds of .22 before moving on to 9mm. I made sure to focus on the consistency of the grip and the trigger pull.
and what do you know? My groups tighted up INSTANTLY. With slow and controlled trigger manipulation I was able to put 5 rounds of 9mm into a 3" group at ~10 yards. After those 5 rounds, I went back to the Ruger and would do 3-4 magazines of .22 before doing 5 deliberate rounds through my G17. Night and day. I also noticed that when I was messing up with my glocks and pulling the shots left, upon moving to the .22 I would be doing the same thing. adjusting my grip with the .22 and focusing on trigger control would bring me back to center. I could actually feel my poor little neurons stretching and making new connections. Learning was occurring. By the end of the day I managed to hit a coffee can at ~90 yards with my little Glock 26. Long range accuracy was my biggest frustration with Glock pistols, and even if I couldn't repeat that shot on command, knowing that I am at least physically capable of doing so is a big confidence booster.
So, again, I may not be the most high speed low drag individual on this forum, and nor would I ever say that I have now mastered my pistols, but I have made definite, real, tangible progress thanks to focused practice with the Ruger MkIII. It will come with me next weekend when I hit the range to work on my fundamentals some more, and hopefully every trip thereafter.
http://i.imgur.com/RU2vT.jpg