[ThorsHammer]

Originally Posted by Gojubrian

Good job and thanks for the report!

My advice is to put some snap caps randomly in your magazine with the live rounds. This will give away your flinches like it does mine. I don't know how to correct flinches, but the first step is acknowledging you have a problem...

Great advice! Where's the best place to pick up some snap caps? Local gun store? Wal-mart?

[ThorsHammer]

Originally Posted by utf59

Two quick questions you can ask yourself that may indicate whether you are anticipating recoil (flinching):

1) Did everyone else shoot low with your pistol?
2) Did you shoot low with every pistol?

1) Not that I could tell, Matt was shooting fairly center with the gun.
2) I think that I shot low with every gun, including the .45. Ah, we're on to something!

[FCross7]

Originally Posted by ThorsHammer

Great advice! Where's the best place to pick up some snap caps? Local gun store? Wal-mart?

My Wal-Mart doesn't have them, but they don't have much shooting stuff at all, and depending on the size of the gun store they may have them. I do know for sure that Bass Pro Shop has them.

-Fred

[skullcrusher]

Great thread going on. Each suggestion is good for help, but I am gonna ask about your stance and sight alignment.

[Gojubrian]

Originally Posted by ThorsHammer

Great advice! Where's the best place to pick up some snap caps? Local gun store? Wal-mart?

Most gun shops carry them. About $15 for a five pack.

[ThorsHammer]

Originally Posted by skullcrusher

Great thread going on. Each suggestion is good for help, but I am gonna ask about your stance and sight alignment.

Sight alignment? Do you mind explaining that a bit? I am still quite new to most of these terms since I started shooting a few weeks ago.

As for my stance, I stand with legs comfortably apart, left foot slightly in front of the right, left foot forward, right foot angling out at about 45 degrees, similar to a some martial arts ready stances. It just felt natural to me to stand that way, probably because I used to do Kung-Fu for a while.

[skullcrusher]

How are you lining up the front sight with the back sight? Are you keeping your head up and bringing the weapon to the height of your eyes, or are you dropping your head a little? Are you placing the front sight on the center, or just below center?

[utf59]

Sight alignment can refer to the way the shooter views the sights in relation to each other (usually referred to as "sight picture"), or the way the shooter views the sight picture in relation to the target (usually referred to as "sight alignment").

I believe your gun uses the three-dot sights — two on the rear sight, one on the front. The correct sight picture would be formed by aligning the dots so they look like this: • • •

Then the sight alignment is formed by putting the bullseye on top of the center dot. Some people put a lot of bullseye above the center dot, others put the center dot directly over the bullseye. Personally, I say do whatever makes the bullets hit the middle.

You probably knew that stuff already, but you might be surprised how some people align their sights. I've heard of folks making a pyramid out of three-dot sights.

If you want to get some good information, I highly recommend The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery by Massad Ayoob. Rather than taking a my-way-or-highway approach, he discusses the pros and cons of different grips, stances, etc. You can find it at a lot of bookstores or at Amazon.com. The 6th edition is the most current; they use a different author for each edition.

Happy shooting!

[ThorsHammer]

Originally Posted by skullcrusher

How are you lining up the front sight with the back sight? Are you keeping your head up and bringing the weapon to the height of your eyes, or are you dropping your head a little? Are you placing the front sight on the center, or just below center?

I align the front dot in between the rear two dots while focusing on the front sight so that both the rear sight and the target are a little blurred, and I guess I aim with about half of the circle/center of the target above the sights, the rest covered by them.

I think my sight alignment is fine from what you guys are saying here, so I am probably flinching slightly when firing, thus hitting low. Could I be gripping the gun too tightly, maybe?

[ThorsHammer]

Originally Posted by utf59

Sight alignment can refer to the way the shooter views the sights in relation to each other (usually referred to as "sight picture"), or the way the shooter views the sight picture in relation to the target (usually referred to as "sight alignment").

I believe your gun uses the three-dot sights — two on the rear sight, one on the front. The correct sight picture would be formed by aligning the dots so they look like this: • • •

Then the sight alignment is formed by putting the bullseye on top of the center dot. Some people put a lot of bullseye above the center dot, others put the center dot directly over the bullseye. Personally, I say do whatever makes the bullets hit the middle.

You probably knew that stuff already, but you might be surprised how some people align their sights. I've heard of folks making a pyramid out of three-dot sights.

If you want to get some good information, I highly recommend The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery by Massad Ayoob. Rather than taking a my-way-or-highway approach, he discusses the pros and cons of different grips, stances, etc. You can find it at a lot of bookstores or at Amazon.com. The 6th edition is the most current; they use a different author for each edition.

Happy shooting!

Great stuff! Thanks for the clarification between sight alignment and sight picture, didn't know that! I already knew some of the essentials on aiming right, mostly from reading some of the articles here, and of course I throw in a pinch of common sense.

I will definitely check out The Gun Digest Book of Combat Handgunnery. Sounds like a good addition to my library.