It all started a number of months back when I posted that I was looking for budget-friendly ideas for an “Open P365” for Sig Sauer Academy’s P365 EDC Championship. I’ve dabbled in local competition for the past ten or so years but never seriously trained. My erratic scores are usually a result of me going much too fast for my skill level, with the result being way too many C zone and D zone hits.
JCN was quick to offer me guidance, messaging me details of why he selected the specific components he did for his own Open P365 project. Every component was backed by data and/or video, with reasons as to why he chose that particular modification. As the conversation progressed he offered to coach me up for the competition remotely, as we live a few thousand miles apart.
Where to start? By determining where I needed to improve most.
“What are you issued?”
“Glock 17, Gen4”
“Ok great, we’ll practice with that and most of your improvements will transfer over to the smaller gun.”
“Well, there’s an issue…”
With the standard Glock trigger in the full-size frame, I *very* consistently hit left. To the point I pushed my rear sight all the way to the right, which gave me acceptable police qual groupings out to 15 yards. I have two Glock 17s where I’ve pushed the sights to the right, as well as my previously issued Glock 22.
The shooting left issue largely goes away when I shoot Glock 19s…or revolvers, or Sigs, or Berettas, etc., etc. It’s been an issue I’ve had since I started shooting 18 years ago, and I had just resigned myself to not shooting full-sized Glocks well. But as I’m “stuck” with the Glock 17, JCN and I agreed we would work on this, first and foremost.
So I was embarrassed to admit what I needed to work on was the most basic of shooting skills, trigger control.
So began a daily ten-minute regimen of dry fire. Nothing sexy or flashy, just basic trigger practice. Perfect trigger press. Work the slide. Repeat. For weeks. I would send videos and pics of my grip, trigger control and would receive personalized feedback on ways I could improve.
So after about a month I hit the range. My 10 yard groups were tight, tighter than I’d ever expect to see from a Glock 17. But they were still hitting left. Not as far left as I usually would shoot, but left nonetheless.
Over the years, my learned bad habits had me flagging my thumbs high - great for when you shoot a bunch of different guns without focusing on skill development with any one frame. One grip would work with Berettas, 1911’s, Sigs, etc. I would also put as little trigger finger pad on the trigger face as possible.
So JCN taught me some things that have changed my Glock shooting forever:
-Rotate your right hand slightly counter-clockwise. -Put more finger into the trigger.
-Curl your right thumb up and press it into the frame.
-Rotate your trigger finger “down” to minimize dragging on the frame and to isolate movement.
-Dry fire that until it feels natural.
So I did. A lot. And with a few more range sessions, this happened-
10 yards, with rear sight still drifted right.
Same range session, 10 yards, with rear sight centered. I called the flier.
Over the summer I’ve gone from having relatively low confidence in my ability to make precise hits with my duty gun, to now knowing I can drop rounds into a 2” target at 10 yards, on demand, thanks to JCN’s extremely helpful and generous coaching.
(and the Open P365 project was awesome in its absurdity)