I had a frustrating day shooting today. I found myself pulling shots off target with great frequency. Typically downward. I was not frustrated by the flinch so much as I was frustrated by my lack of ability to read the sights and "call the miss."
According to my sight picture and how I felt my trigger press went, I was frequently astounded at how far off the the intended target I hit. To my mind, many times I had a good sight picture that I did not disrupt during the trigger press. I would recover the shot, continuing to look at the sights and only then check the target. Sometimes I nailed it, but often it was a miss and I could not tell the difference between the two based on what I saw through the sights. That is frustrating because I can't learn when I can't get the feedback to know when things go awry.
I even had one target I could not check due to it being 25 yards so there was no temptation to lift the eyes prematurely to check it. I missed half the shots off paper and I would not have called a single one off the paper.
What the heck is going on? I guess I have several questions for the more experienced:
1. Is there a trick to learning to call the shot?
2. How much time does it take to learn round count and dry fire wise?
And finally and this is an unlikely long shot I think:
3. Is it possible to mess up sight alignment after the trigger releases but before the bullet leaves the barrel during the lock time?
Thank you for any replies.