How to improve accuracy?

[91 whiskey 209]

So I have a xd40 and not very experienced with handguns. This is my first. I trained with only rifles in the military. Is the sight picture different or something because I have no consistency. I've probably shot about 200 rounds thru it in about 8 months. I obviously hit the target but my groups are about 5" at about 20 feet with 2 or 3 stragglers in a 10 round magazine. Is this normal for a novice? U can't adjust sights on a handgun can u?

[Fjold]

Absolutely normal for a novice and even if you just don't shoot pistols for awhile.

Even fixed sites can be moved in their dovetails for sideway adjustments. You just won't be able to adjust for vertical problems without changing out the sights.

[swifty]

... I have no consistency.

Pay a lot of attention to the sight alignment and sight picture. Be as consistent as possible with both the amount of force used to hold the pistol and smoothness of trigger pull. Use smaller rather than larger targets.

You already have consistency pegged as the issue, practice along those lines.

Don't worry about where the group is centered, worry about the group size. Once the groups are a respectable size, then sight adjustments can be made.

[Ubermcoupe]

...Is this normal for a novice?

Short answer is yes. Keep at it with practice, work on keeping sights aligned and consistency. 200rds is only the beginning, shoot often to get the feel. It is a controlled explosion in your hands so keep @ it

[corvetteguy]

One of the best ways to get better to to take a class. Get some professional instruction and build the proper fundamentals and then worry about adjusting your sights. Most people try to use equipment to fix a training issue.

David

[RollingCode3]

So I have a xd40 and not very experienced with handguns. This is my first. I trained with only rifles in the military. Is the sight picture different or something because I have no consistency. I've probably shot about 200 rounds thru it in about 8 months. I obviously hit the target but my groups are about 5" at about 20 feet with 2 or 3 stragglers in a 10 round magazine. Is this normal for a novice? U can't adjust sights on a handgun can u?

200 rounds in 8 months? You need to shoot more.

[fifthward]

Breathe
Pull straight back
Be surprised by the break

[fullrearview]

Buy a rifle!!!

J/K

Practice.

[ChaneRZ]

practice and the grip!

[9mmepiphany]

The best way to learn to shoot correctly is to get some professional instruction so you'll be practicing the correct technique and not build bad habits.

It has been my experience that most folks don't really have a problem seeing or aligning the sights. But at the same time I've never had a student who understood their grip enough to self correct and very few who understood trigger control. Those two things will shrink your groups from 5-7" down to 2" in a couple of hours of instruction.

Common errors that new shooters make is:
1. not having complete contact between the grip and your hands
2. squeezing the grip, with your other fingers, while you press the trigger
3. trying to snap the trigger back as they see the sights perfectly aligned
4 paying too much attention to where the bullets are striking the target...chasing your shots

[appagohm]

nothing 2k rounds won't fix ^^

[nrakid88]

I just went out, and at 10 yards, put five rounds through my 9mm glock in like 2", maybe 3". I am 23, so I haven't had a handgun long, and have only about a thousand and a half center fire handgun rounds experience. Except, i went and bought a .22 conversion for my glock. So I have fired about 2 thousand through that, and 500 through another pistol I had.

I have literally gone to the range, fired .22 pistol for 4 hours, and swapped to 9mm every hour for a few minutes.

You get to work on your grip, sight alignment, breathing, trigger pull, and your own bodies intrinsic differences, for CHEAP.

My advice is get a .22 pistol, or a conversion for your pistol.

Lately my problem has been not setting up, and pulling the trigger with my pad instead of my joint, throwing my shots to the left (or right?).

[nrakid88]

nothing 2k rounds won't fix ^^

He is right.

But 2k rounds of .22 is a lot cheaper than 2k of 40.

[Anchors]

I took a pistol class and what improved me the most were these simple tips:

-Exhale and hold it before you start your trigger press, it makes it easier to keep your body alignment as still as possible.
-Press straight back on the trigger as slowly, but smoothly as possible.
-After each shot, keep the trigger depressed for two seconds afterward (this really helped, for some reason).
-Don't move/adjust your body/alignment/sights/grip in between shots! Don't lower your gun to "check" the target in between shots!! (These helped me the most. I was doing this and it was really messing me up). Try to keep very still even between shots and keep your sight picture constant through the whole process.

I'm still not a great shot, but it helped A LOT.
This was just from an NRA basic pistol course, by the way (even though I had already done a lot of shooting, I took it to get my AZ CWP).
You might consider taking a slightly more advanced class as most of it was just gun safety stuff. If I could afford it, I would definitely take shooting lessons.

[Slicendice]

I took a pistol class and what improved me the most were these simple tips:

-Exhale and hold it before you start your trigger press, it makes it easier to keep your body alignment as still as possible.
-Press straight back on the trigger as slowly, but smoothly as possible.
-After each shot, keep the trigger depressed for two seconds afterward (this really helped, for some reason).
-Don't move/adjust your body/alignment/sights/grip in between shots! Don't lower your gun to "check" the target in between shots!! (These helped me the most. I was doing this and it was really messing me up). Try to keep very still even between shots and keep your sight picture constant through the whole process.

Thanks for the tips! I recently purchased my first handgun (sig 2022 9mm.. love it!) and am still working on getting my feel for shooting. Hoping to get to the range soon.