I have been practicing dry firing and moving straight forward. I am bending my knees and stepping heel to toe.
When is the best time to pull the trigger? Just before my heel hits the ground?
Any other pointers will be appreciated as my sights are moving all over the place.
Thanks,
Randy
Passing on tips from Larry Vickers, Ken Hackathorn, and Pat McNamara.
- Press the trigger when you have an acceptable sight picture, not a perfect one. You'd be surprised at how much misalignment you can tolerate and still get solid hits.
- You'll never shoot tiny groups on the move, but if you're getting acceptable hits, then you're doing the right thing. The spread of your hand is about right.
- If you're a right handed shooter, then keep both hands on the gun when move forward, back, or left-to-right. Shoot with just your right hand when you have to move right-to-left. Left-handed shooters should reverse that.
- Practice this every time you go to the range if you can.
Max distance for shooting on the move is about 15m. Closer is better. Once you try this at 3-5m, you start to get a feel for how desperate a situation must be to use this technique. Don't assume that you should shoot on the move just because you can. It can slow you down enough to turn you from a threat into a target. One school of thought says you should either be shooting or moving. You can shoot better if you're not moving and you can move faster if you're not shooting.
The main thing is to just shoot it and see what works best for you.
Okie John
“The reliability of the 30-06 on most of the world’s non-dangerous game is so well established as to be beyond intelligent dispute.” Finn Aagaard
"Don't fuck with it" seems to prevent the vast majority of reported issues." BehindBlueI's
Sights will be moving if you are moving. Relax your shoulders a little.
We drilled our students on shooting on the move with blue guns in the gym, then dry runs on the range before live fire. We did runs in from 18 to 3 yards with targets called primarily within 5 to 12 yards.
What I found works for me is to kind of put my knees together, drop my butt a bit and move using primarily my lower legs, not much thigh movement. You can air it out this way more than you might expect.
I also found that simply walking works for me. As I was writing this, I got my dryfire glock with reset trigger and laser insert from the safe and did a couple runs down the length of the downstairs TV room (about 24 feet) on a 1/4 scale USPSA target. Dots on the target with shots starting at about 20 foot out. FWIW to me that equates to head shots.
The reality is that shooting on the move is not going to get precision hits at range.
Going in reverse is really the only time I paid much attention to heel-toe and then it was drag toe back roll onto heel, drag toe back roll on to heel. The purpose been to find any obstacles, although if doing it at speed that technique only serves to give you more warning you're going down.
Adding nothing to the conversation since 2015....
Are you shooting a dot or irons?Originally Posted by randyflycaster
Walk like Groucho.
At one point I was doing enough shooting on the move that I was really good at it...going forward. In reverse, like @okie john says, I was a slow moving target that was shooting pretty well. Moving side to side was bad. To the right was better than moving left, where I just sucked. Aside from sucking, it also exposed all the openings in my body armor. I made peace with the idea that I would most likely be shooting while moving forward.
My observations are that it's more difficult for people who normally walk like a duck (toes pointed outboard). The closer your gait is to cross country skiing, the easier it will be.
"Gunfighting is a thinking man's game. So we might want to bring thinking back into it."-MDFA
Beware of my temper, and the dog that I've found...
Both, but more with irons,
Randy
Something to start with, is to decide if your goal in a particular scenario is to prioritize the shooting or the moving. The more you prioritize the movement, the harder the shooting will be. The more you prioritize the shooting, the slower your movement will be -- like the "IDPA shuffle," where the shooter appears to be moving while shooting but is essentially stationary.
If we are talking competition, I decide how many targets/points are available. If you can take an easier single target, and keep the flow going, it might be worth giving up some points. If you have a four target, 40 point array, it is usually worth getting a solid shooting position so you can harvest as many points as possible.
Ben Stoeger says target focus is essential for shooting on the move, and if you aren't target focused, it is hardly worth it.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
When the front sight/dot tells you to. Embrace the wobble, you will figure out how much you can get away with and start to become comfortable taking accurate shots.
Lowering your stance, knee bends, and tightening your core can all be good things, personally I never remember to do that stuff
Don't worry about your feet, splitting your focus in not going to help
Use the dot gun and just walk around with the gun aimed at something. Observe what the dot does. Don't pull the trigger just watch the dot. See when it moves most and when it's most stable. It will be least stable when your foot plants but it's something you need to observe. The dot is a cheat code training tool compared to irons.
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