25 Yards and Natural Point of Aim

[SC_Dave]

This is a recent B8. Freestyle at 25 no time. Shot with my carry ammo. Federal 124 HST in my G19.3. As you can see I need more work at 25. I called one of the flyers.

I completed a 2 day carbine class at Valor Ridge with Reid Henrichs last March. When shooting prone I learned what Natural Point of Aim was.

NPA was mentioned in another thread but I didn't want to derail it. Could someone explain for me NPA for free style pistol and how to achieve it?

I will also accept any other suggestions for improvement at 25.

Thanks, SCD

https://i.imgur.com/jQDiQ22.jpg?1

[Wendell]

I was taught it shooting pistol, one-handed (i.e.: strong-hand only). The idea, as I understand it, is to minimize the (unnecessary) muscular stress of holding in an 'unnatural' position.

Standing on the line, with the firearm in your strong hand, it's muzzle rested on the range table in front of us, head turned and looking at the wall on our support side (i.e.: the right-handed shooter is looking at the left wall). Get your breathing under control, then - while looking at the wall - close your eyes and, with your eyes closed, raise the pistol to point at the target. When pointed at the target, open your eyes. The muzzle will be (either) left, center, or right of the target. Take note, visually, where the muzzle landed, then lower the muzzle to a resting place on the range table. If necessary, adjust your feet (in the direction that the muzzle needed to move). Get your breathing under control, look at the wall again, then close your eyes and, with your eyes closed, raise the pistol to point at the target. When pointed at the target, open your eyes. The muzzle will be (either) left, center, or right of the target. Take note, visually, where the muzzle landed, then lower the muzzle to a resting place on the range table. If necessary, adjust your feet (in the direction that the muzzle needed to move). When you open your eyes to see the the muzzle already pointing right in the center of the target, you've found your 'natural point of aim'.

[ASH556]

NPOA essentially means bringing the sights to your eye rather than your eye to the sights. With a rifle, in involves positioning of the buttstock in your shoulder and cheekweld primarily. With a pistol fired standing freestyle, it involves stance, grip, and head position. Rather than trying to spell out every detail of that on the internet (because things are very easy to lose in translation and misinterpret without actually standing next to you and watching), I’ll say that relaxed and no tension aren’t really the right words. There is still tension involved in those things because you are using muscles to try and keep things still. The biggest thing that matters is that the forces are balanced or neutral, with the grip mattering a great deal. Creating grip neutrality was the single greatest improvement in my 25yd shooting. Your sights should remain undisturbed whether gripping with full pressure or little pressure. Otherwise, as your muscles and concentration fatigue through the string of fire, you will have randomly errant shots.

There’s a lot of discussion about this with target pics to back it up in the 25yd Freestyle Revisited thread. (https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?12244-Freestyle-shooting-at-25-yds-revisited&p=464589&viewfull=1#post464589)

Hope this helps.

P.s. this also assumes correct consistency in sight alignment and trigger control.

[voodoo_man]

The way I was taught and has yielded best results.

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?18977-Finding-Natural-POA&p=399853&viewfull=1#post399853