Stay on Target
Carrying concealed responsibly means taking the time to
practice and shooting as frequently as you can to keep you aim accurate. Frequent practice will ensure that if the
time comes and you need to use your handgun to defend yourself or your family
that you will be able to hit the target that you are aiming at in
self-defense. But practicing alone is
not enough. Poor practice, where you are
not consistently hitting the target and have a poor grouping of shots will not
help you in an emergency situation. You
need to tune your aim and fix any problems with your shooting to practice
correctly. With a simple exercise you
can assess your shooting and make any corrections.
The first step to assess your aim is to go to a safe
range and set up a target at 10 yards.
Make sure you are wearing ear and eye protection and following safe
shooting practices then fire five shots at the target from a standing position. Retrieve the target and then assess the grouping. Ideally there should be one large hole in the
center of the target where all five shots are right on target but this is not
what most casual shooters will see.
The location of the shots will give insight on your
shooting habits so look at where the shots hit the target. If you see that some shots hit to the right
but on the same horizontal plane as the other shots it could mean that you
jerked the trigger for this shot. To fix this problem practice a smooth trigger
pull keeping your aim on the target.
If you see shots that fell diagonally to the right of
your target then you are causing this with your support hand and doing what is
called ‘heeling’ which is anticipating the recoil of the shot. To correct this problem you need to relax
your support hand when firing so that it does not send your shot off target. If you see shots to the left of the group
then this could mean you are pulling too hard with your support hand and need
to keep you hand steady when firing.
Finally, when you look at your grouping and you see shots
that hit above or below your target on a straight line then this could be a
result of improper breathing when you are shooting. Controlling your breathing is an important
part of accurate shooting. When you are
new to shooting or when you only fire a gun infrequently you can develop the
bad habit of holding your breath when pulling the trigger. The inhalation prior to holding your breath
is what pulls the shot off target. When
you are shooting you must control your breathing and keep it steady and regular
so that it does not cause your shot to go off target.
This short exercise gives a wealth of information and
helps to keep your shooting accurate and on target.
