I get stressed out when I shoot and it affects my marksmanship

[psalms144.1]

If I had a dime for every time I'd heard "this ammo shoots low" when we move to the 25 yard line, I could have retired a long time ago. What I tell everyone, and demonstrate, is when TRYING to make a very precise hit, many people have a tendency to try to control the EXACT microsecond that the shot breaks. We all have a natural wobble zone, which doesn't get better with age. When shooting at 25, people have a tendency to try to FORCE the shot to break when everything looks just right. This almost always leads to mashing the trigger, and a resultant nose dive of the front sight.

I suffer from this myself, especially when I've shot a particularly pretty group out to the 15 yard line. What I try to do is NOT worry about the perfect sight PICTURE, and focus on the sight ALIGNMENT while making a conscious decision to press the trigger smoothly to the rear once I start the press. I don't stage the trigger, I don't muscle my stance and grip to try to hold completely still, I just hold an adequate sight picture, and press the trigger. The shot breaks when it breaks - my "wobble zone" isn't so large that my sight picture is so out of whack that I'll get a miss, UNLESS I commit a random act of violence on my trigger.

+10,000 to shooting DOT Torture.

[David S.]

.............. nm

[HCM]

What I tell everyone, and demonstrate, is when TRYING to make a very precise hit, many people have a tendency to try to control the EXACT microsecond that the shot breaks. We all have a natural wobble zone, which doesn't get better with age. When shooting at 25, people have a tendency to try to FORCE the shot to break when everything looks just right. This almost always leads to mashing the trigger, and a resultant nose dive of the front sight

Same here. I usually refer to this process as “The Kodak Moment.”

[David S.]

[RevolverRob]

I actually submit you're having a mental block, because of high personal standards mixed with anxiety.

You've mentioned a couple of times, and I think this weighs heavily on you, that your shooting and your standards are driven currently, because of your decision to carry a firearm in church as part of the protective duties to your fellow churchgoers.

When you don't shoot well, you are getting inside your own head, because you want to be successful with every press of the trigger (e.g., "perfect practice"), because of the stakes you have built into your head with your responsibilities. Unconsciously, you are adept and capable. Consciously, you are adept, capable, and aware of that. So when you make a mistake, you tend to paralyze with it as opposed to accepting it. After all, you are not supposed to make mistakes, you're working to protect yourself and the lives of others...right? That could well be a big mental roadblock, if I've ever heard one.

How do you get over that kind of roadblock? Carefully.

I mean that seriously. I actually don't think, "more training and more shooting" is the solution, because I suspect your block is a little more complex.

First, I'll remind you that though the risks are high the probabilities are very low, chances are, you'll never need your handgun inside your church, ever. Second, I'll remind you that statistics show, drawing and engaging an active shooter reduces causalities by a significant portion. Even if you don't score decisive fight ending hits against the attacker, doing something saves lives. Third, I'd encourage you to talk with your fellow members about these protective duties and assignments and any anxieties you may have about them.

Then, after those things - I'd remind you - the reason we miss in practice, is to learn how not to miss in the real world. And right now you are learning to struggle with standards that are too high at certain times. We can fix this in a few ways, but the easiest is to break something down to its fundamental components and practice each of them exclusive of one another. This allows us to build the confidence and return to the points where we lost confidence more easily.

Right now what you describe as "panic" is a red flag to me. The flag I see says, "We can't fix someone that thinks everything is broken." - You have to tell us (really yourself) specifically where the wheels are coming off on this. What causes you to panic, when, where, what time, and what circumstances? You give us some of that, you concentrate on slow, sighted, fire, and start pushing shots low and left, and then "panic". That's usually when I yell, "STOP!" and you stop, and we back it up and break it down.

Are you trying to force a perfect shot, it doesn't hit, so you keep forcing it and making it worse? If so, here's an easy solution.

Stop.

Next time you drop a shot and then drop another, stop. Just stop shooting. Put the gun in the holster. See? Cycle broken. Patience is what you need next. To restart, we're not going to go right back to trying that aimed, slow-fire, instead, you're going to just draw the gun out of the holster and index the sights. Do it 10-times in a row. Feeling better? Okay, draw, see the sights, press the trigger - repeat it outloud if you have to. See the shot, it'll go where you want and bam, you're back in business.

See? We solved that problem. Stop the thought by stopping the action and resetting. Stop the panic by stopping the action and resetting.

[Clusterfrack]

Here’s a drill I designed that may help:

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ss-Inoculation

[Joe in PNG]

Go have fun. Find somewhere you can just shoot cans & similar with a .22lr revolver, or something like that.
Don't keep score, just blast away.

[Eric_L]

There is a book called “Choke”. Has to do with......choking under pressure. How to not over focus. Lots of anecdotes. It is a good read. I am not saying that is what you are doing. It it has come up in this thread so I put it out there.

[DueSpada]

"I've noticed lately that when I go to the range I do fine if I simply draw and fire but if I take my time and make sure of my grip and my stance and focus on my sight alignment and try to make shot on center I (for lack of a better word) panic and start pulling to the left. The more I panic the worse it gets and the worse it gets the more I panic. I think it's what people call "Buck Fever".

How do I overcome it."

Maybe give the shot sequence and all the other details a rest for a bit. You answered yourself in the first sentence.
Simply draw and fire.

[AKDoug]

Anxiety and stress is so common their are instructors who are known for teaching how to overcome it. Brian Enos was one of the first prominent shooters talking about the mental game.

I took a Steve Anderson class a few years ago and he had his own instruction along with some stuff from Enos and Lanny Basham; olympic shooter, author speaker, etc. who wrote With Winning in Mind.

Check the book out.

Lanny Bassham changed my life... well my marksmanship life. But I apply his methods to other areas of my life. His books are excellent.