As much as we all enjoy going to the range and honing our skills with handguns, do you find yourself wondering why some of your shots are not where you thought they should? If so, are you doing correct target analysis? Do you know how to analyze your shot placement?
I want to give you some tips on how to analyze your shot placement and improve your skills. While you may be able to analyze most of your issues, sometimes you will need another set of competent and knowledgeable eyes to pick up on some of the more subtle things you may be doing without knowing it.
As I have mentioned in previous articles, the two most important fundamentals of marksmanship are sight alignment and trigger control. Trigger control, in my opinion, is the most difficult to master. This is why we all should know how to analyze our targets.
This is a chart that shows common shooting errors while shooting. This chart is designed for a right handed shooter. A left handed shooter would simply reverse the diagnosis shown on this chart. While the chart shows the most common reasons a shooter would have shot placements in these areas, it is sometimes difficult to relate this to the shooter. The chart is not an automatic solution to shooting errors. There are shooter induced actions that can be misinterpreted and then frustration can set in when attempting to correct the issue. A qualified and competent instructor can see things that others with less experience cannot and provide you with more insight to reduce shooter error.
To correctly analyze shot placement, the shooter must repeat the same action to achieve the same result. Once the perceived error has been analyzed, you must correct the action. This is where a knowledgeable and competent instructor can be of great value. The chart shows that a shot to the right of center would be caused by a couple of different reasons. This could also be caused by too much pressure with the support hand with a two-handed grip. There is another reason I can think of and have seen that could cause this to happen also. I will keep that secret for now.
Trying to correct shooting errors that you are not aware of can prove to be difficult. Frequently, a shooter will not be aware of the actions that cause shots to be inaccurate. I encourage everyone to take the time to instill a good dry fire routine into your week. This will enable you to concentrate on one or two things at a time and then go to the range to ensure you are applying the fundamentals correctly. I cannot overstate the importance a dry fire practice, done correctly!
I hope this helps some of you with your ability to improve your skills. Please take the time to text, call or email me with any concerns you may have or to provide input for upcoming articles.
If you have the desire to improve your skills with any of your weapons, contact me to arrange a training session.
