Improving speed, vs accuracy.

[eighteenninetytwo]

So I've got to the point now where pretty much every shoot at 7 yards in now in the Black. It took time as a good percentage of my shots were often low initially - straight, but low. Anyway after lots of dry firing I got to the level of accuracy to start improving in other ways. So I took the advice of a couple of people here and started with two blacks aiming from one to the other. I found that as soon as I started doing that my shots started going low again. seems like this is somethign whihc has a definite cause, and then presumably can be fixed with practice, anyone care to start?

[SuperSet]

Are you shooting Competition yet? That will help.

[eighteenninetytwo]

Not a hope in hell. eyes aren't good enough.

[j1133s]

So I've got to the point now where pretty much every shoot at 7 yards in now in the Black. It took time as a good percentage of my shots were often low initially - straight, but low. Anyway after lots of dry firing I got to the level of accuracy to start improving in other ways. So I took the advice of a couple of people here and started with two blacks aiming from one to the other. I found that as soon as I started doing that my shots started going low again. seems like this is somethign whihc has a definite cause, and then presumably can be fixed with practice, anyone care to start?

Ok, I think the advise you were given was not very good for you. What you need to do at your situation is move the target back to say 10/15 yards and repeat what you are able to do at 7 yards.

Also, "black" is different for different targets. E.g. NRA 2700 25yard standard target has different sized black than its 50 yard target. I can print a target out on my printer with whatever black size I want.

The key is to improve your accuracy right now.

[asgalindez]

What's your location? It might help for someone to watch you shoot to see exactly what you're doing. I can't troubleshoot what a person is doing wrong without seeing them do it.

[Mute]

It's hard to give an accurate diagnosis without actually seeing you shoot, but generally, if you're consistently shooting low (assuming you've properly sighted in your gun) the cause is usually from pushing forward on the gun in anticipation of the recoil or you're breaking your wrist downward.

[eighteenninetytwo]

Thank you. I am consistently getting shots in the black but they are always low between the x and the outer ring. This is a sighting thing and I am changing out the front sight for a lower one to remedy this. That should put my group centered around the X. The flyers I get in groups are invariable significantly lower and I'm pretty certain this is when I'm anticicipating recoil. One time the slide didn't lock back when empty and I did have a forward / down flinch as I pulled the trigger I noticed. I'll keep on with dry firing practice and also move to a furthe rtarget. Is there any significant drop in 9mm ammo from 7 to 15 yards? if so would I be best to sight in so I'm slightly high at 7 and on the X at 15?

[dagger10k]

If anything, the bullet will probably hit higher at 15 yards than 7. There certainly is not going to be any drop in that distance, unless you adjust your sights so that the bore is pointing downwards. I would not suggest that.

I agree that you should be working on your accuracy. At this point, just work on trigger control. Don't try to go too fast yet. Just squeeze the trigger slowly and deliberately so that the sights are held where you want the bullet to go until the gun fires. If you do that, you will always hit where you want. It's simple, but not easy.

Good luck!

[lawaia]

To work on that recoil anticipation, mix some dummy rounds into your magazines so that you don't know if the gun will fire or not. Also, lots of dry firing will help with being smooth.

Before changing your sights, you may want to have another "experienced" shooter fire your gun & verify the problem. No sense in fixing something that doesn't need fixing.

Also, 9mm shoots pretty flat. You should not see any significant "drop" between 7 yards and 15 yards.

[9mmepiphany]

you really won't see much drop pass 25 yards either

the easy thing to do would be to have someone, who's a better shot, try shooting your gun

a better thing to do would be to get some formal instruction to figure out what you are doing when you are shooting.

as i tell my students, if you're not flinching when you're dry firing, there really isn't a logical reason to flinch with ammo in the gun. there are a lot of reasons that folks flich which don't show up when they dry fire...but you need someone experienced enough to introduce the correction

[lawaia]

Not a hope in hell. eyes aren't good enough.

I read a story in the IDPA magazine a couple months ago about a competitor that was legally blind. Just goes to show that almost anyone can shoot IDPA. It's a ton of fun, and you will learn a LOT!