Shooting is a perishable skill. New guns shoot differently. You go through ammo faster with 17-round mags than with 7-round mags.
I have decided that I will be using my Sig P365-XMacro as my competition gun. According to my math, this means I need to be able to hit a 10″ round target at 65 ft.
Miggy was telling us a recent zinger. Mrs. Miggy asked him why he could hit steel at 40 yards with his Sig P365-RS but couldn’t hit the hamper with his socks at five feet.
Now 40 yards is 120 ft., and with a shorter barrel than what’s on my XMacro and with smaller grips. I should be able to hit steel at 60 ft consistently, right?
Wrong.
As far as I can tell, I’m pulling low and left consistently. Time for more practice with the dry fire system. Remove ammo from the room. Set up the Mantis; make sure the pistol is safe. Rack, holster. Draw, take sight, press trigger. Make sure the pretty little dot is where it is supposed to be.
For what I took to be 8″ steel, maybe 6″ at around 15-20 yards, I was aiming at the right edge slightly above center to consistently knock plates over.
I did notice that I wasn’t centering the front sight correctly at times. I also noticed that when I had the pad of my finger flat on the trigger, I did better. And finally, when I was carefully pressing the trigger, making sure not to jerk, things went better.
Printing on paper showed low left, which I was able to correct to center center, but only by changing my point of aim.
I believe that my old results were a result of correcting point of aim, not in correcting my shooting.
The problem with that is that the point of aim changes depending on distance. What works at 30 ft will not work at 60 ft and I’m not that good at judging distance, yet.
Sunday is Gunday for us as well.
My wife and I shoot almost every Sunday, at least 5 6-round magazines each, at 10 yards or more with our EDC firearm. We are also fortunate that we can shoot in our backyard here in Texas, and not having to travel to a range.
1) To stay in practice. Making sure we can hit the target repeatedly.
I shoot semi-competitively because the LAST thing I ever want, should I have to draw my firearm, in defense of myself or others, is a round going down range addressed “To Whom This May Concern”.
By semi-comprtativly, I mean that when I shoot in a formal competition, but due to my age, 74+, I shoot against my last scores, not against the rest of the competitors. My goal is to shoot an entire competition with 100% hits, with the lowest possible round count, not necessarily the quickest time, but the most accurate that I can be.
2) Why only 6 rounds in a 17-round magazine?
A tip I picked up when I was privileged to take a course given by Massad Ayoob.
A) It gets you the muscle memory of changing magazines without thinking about it.
The actual number 6 came from revolver days. So even if you are shooting a revolver, the work still applies.
B) If you load 17 rounds, you WILL shoot all 17 rounds before you reload – how expensive is ammo these days?
Practice often. Practice with your EDC firearm. Practice with the normal clothing you wear EDC.
Practice with ammo from the same manufacturer, the same grain weight as your EDC ammo, so the recoil is approximately the same as your EDC ammo. Shoot your EDC ammo once a year to rotate it, and so you are carrying fresh ammo.
Be careful, Stay safe, Trust few