How To Improve Your Pistol Target Shooting

If you enjoy firearms, you probably like to target shoot. Perhaps you even have a concealed carry permit and wear stylish clothes that conceal your carry piece.

Being a proficient pistol target shooter takes practice, and you can improve your skills with your concealed carry gun by following some of our shooting tips: 

Stay Still

Wasted motions are the enemy of accurate target shooting. This means you should move into your shooting stance with as little wasted motion as possible. As you line up your pistol on the target and prepare to fire, focus on only moving your trigger finger just enough to fire the round. Jerking the trigger will make you miss. 

This doesn’t mean you should only use the tip of the finger; it’s essential to use enough of the finger, so you have the strength to pull the trigger without pulling the shot one way or another. 

All it takes is an extra movement here and there to make you inaccurate with your pistol shooting. 

Please remember that the distance from your rear to front sight on a pistol may be only four to six inches. Therefore, all it takes is a slight error to send the projectile inches away from your intended target. 

Remember To Dry Fire

Did someone teach you that you’ll damage your gun if you dry fire it? This isn’t usually true, but you should refer to your gun’s manual to see if a dummy round is needed. Either way, you can improve your pistol shooting without using ammunition. 

One of the problems that new shooters have when target shooting is anticipating recoil. Flinching will cause you to miss badly with every shot. That’s ok – dry firing your gun will teach you how to pull the trigger without flinching. 

It also helps the new shooter to have excellent hearing protection for target shooting. This protects your hearing, of course, and reduces the chances that you will flinch when you fire. 

Review Your Stance

Hold your pistol and observe what your stance looks like when you’re ready to fire. Some people stand with one foot behind the other foot. However, you will lack balance from side to side, and your shot will probably pull left or right. 

But if you have a square stance, you will probably rock forward or backward when you pull the trigger – also, no good! 

To achieve the ideal firing position with your pistol, think about how a boxer stands against an opponent. The perfect shooting stance is where the pelvis is 45 degrees with the right or left leg to the rear, depending on whether you’re left or right-handed. 

This stance offers the ideal balance when you fire your weapon, and it’s less likely that you’ll have an errant shot. 

Check Your Grip

The grip is vital if you want to hit the target in pistol shooting. If you have an improper grip, recoil will wreck your aim, and your trigger pull will be wrong, too. 

To shoot your pistol accurately, you need a high, firm grip. Put the supporting hand under the gun, and grip it as firmly as you can with your shooting hand. 

You know that you’re gripping too hard if your firing hand starts to tremor. Having the correct grip will return your sights to the target fast so you can follow up with another shot. 

Anyone who has spent time firing handguns knows that it takes time and effort to master them. But if you practice the tips above and spend quality time at the range, you will eventually become proficient with your carry piece. 

And if you need help, the NRA has several pistol shooting classes available in cities across the country.