Bullets have an arc to their path. You will have to learn to adjust to that fact of physics also. I suggest you start sending many more bullets downrange from all distances.
I believe that learning at longer distances will help you shoot better up close. I really like to take my 1911's to the rifle range and plink at 50-75 yards.

yep with you steve,,,


but the question comes even though he maybe shooting say sight #1 his groupings are still all over except the last target better grouping. really think its how he's gripping the gun

WTF?

I'm lining up for #2. So that means my rounds are landing very high and to the left. Which means I'm anticipating recoil, which doesn't surprise me.

I've also noticed that when it recoils, it's recoiling up and to the left, almost rolling over, like the ejecting shell is pushing the pistol. Which it's obviously not. This is what said I have grip issues.

I bought a case of ammo. I've shot 250 of them. I should have bought 3 or 4.

All this talk of sights is interesting . . . but my advice is to ignore it. Pick a particular sight picture and stick to it, and work on your dry firing and trigger pull.

As you get better, your groups will get tighter. When you have a tight group, and you feel like you're not jerking the trigger, and shooting from a rest gives you similar results to shooting offhand . . . THEN think about the sights and whether you need to adjust your sight picture or move the sights.

Until you get to that point, the sights are just a distraction.

because that's how manufacturers sight their guns in. sigs are based off combat sights in 3, you own 1 so you should know

comes to it too how are you shooting with your eyes..

one open, both open?

This is a definitive resource for shooting pistols


Also, check out Ron Avery. Great teacher.
60 Seconds to Success with Ron Avery
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRXXsQAcuV3gGyETdgOaWHQnajFebZ7Zm

Sight image 1 is exactly how I was taught to shoot in the military. Have always shot that way since.

Got silver E`s on both my pistol and rifle ribbons, so something must be working.

Yeah, I've had a lot of people tell me that the 6 o'clock hold works. What I just can't wrap my head around is that the distance between the top of the sight and the center of the target is an unknown -- right?

If I draw a 1" bullseye on a page, do you aim at the bottom of that circle? What if I draw a 6" bullseye . . . still aim at the bottom? Clearly there's a BIG difference there.

I understand that maybe the 6 o'clock hold works fine for combat shooting, where it's nice to see the whole target about the sights -- but for precision work, I simply don't see ANY way that it would work consistently.

In addition to agreeing with Steve and Mike on the hand placement (Mike also mentioned a principle that I believe in and that is pulling towards your body with non-dominant hand and pushing out with dominant hand with equal pressure). Make sure you are using your dominant eye, typically right for right hand dominant and left for left hand dominant. Don't put your booger hook (trigger finger) all the way into the trigger, but just use the pad of your finger so you can ascertain the tactile position of the trigger. Last of all (this trick has improved the marksmanship of almost everyone I've taught), practice squeezing the trigger ever so slowly. Squeeze the trigger so slow it takes you what will seem like forever to have the round go off. This slow trigger pull will allow the detonation of the round to surpise you and help you to maintain your sight picture without jerking. Try it and you will see a marked improvement.

Do not adjust your sights yet. Let someone with better experience and marksmanship shoot the gun first and see how they do. The center of point vs. 6 O'clock (my preferred and military taught) sight picture really don't mean anything at this point and won't mean anything until you get a consistent shot group so I wouldn't even open that can of worms yet. The precise/exact sight picture can and will differ from one person to the next so you will discover what works best for you when you discover what sight picture puts holes in your bullseye. The key for now is to tighten up those shot groups with some of the principles outlined above.

I see two related topics going in this thread:
- Grip technique (primary topic). This relates primarily to how well a shooter can safely draw from holster, present to target, control recoil and generate rapid follow-up shots
- Trigger control. This directly affects accuracy and your ability to shoot tight groups in slow fire or reasonably trade-off accuracy for speed

The best video on grip technique that I've seen on YouTube has a great step-by-step breakdown by Shannon Smith:


On trigger control this is the trick to shooting consistently small groups in practice in slow fire and something many 'combat' shooters neglect. The whole thing is to be able to cycle the trigger through the entire range of motion through the break while altering the alignment of the sights as little as possible.

I concur with Steve. Watch the videos and form a good, basic grip then spend your time focusing on trigger control dry fire practice. Once you can cycle that trigger slowly without disturbing the sight picture, then add challenge in the form of increased target distance or pick up the pace/speed.

In practice at the range, there is a trade-off between speed and accuracy but it's hard to pick up speed while maintaining reasonable accuracy if your slow-fire group sizes are already large to start with. The dry fire trigger control/sight alignment practice will help with that.

A good method is place one of the smallest orange target dots on a far wall in your house then use that for dry fire aim point while dry fire practicing your trigger control.

I also find two focal points that help tremendously are having a hard front sight focus (for slow-fire, small group shooting) and also selecting a very small point on the target for aiming purposes (i.e. Aim Small, Miss Small). If you are trying to align your front sight on an entire A-zone or black circle on your target, then that will be too large of a target and also result in large groups. On the standard black circle targets, I like to place a small orange target dot right on the x ring and aim directly at that.

Have fun and be safe. Oh if you are new to dry-fire practice, PLEASE form the following habit: live ammo should NEVER be in the same room that you are doing dry fire work. You don't even want the possibility that a live round could wind up in the mix.

Hi Snozz on your trigger control in the first post it sounds like you may be having some flinching on follow-up shots. Happens to everyone.
Here's a great live fire drill for the range that will help you starting to get this under control. This would be a great live fire addition to your dry fire practice. I wouldn't recommend starting at 40 yards though Just pick your typical shooting distance you normally use at the range to start.

I have seen the shannon smith vid before, it's very good