Evaluating your shooting skills

Firearm Training
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First of all, there are many steps to properly shooting your gun. There is the sight picture and sight alignment, and a proper grip and finger pull. Then there is dominant eye and focus both eyes open. There is proper stance and proper draw from a holster. Then there is stress shooting!
How do you begin to evaluate what you may be doing wrong?
Is it by the fact you actually hit the paper on the target?
How do you evaluate your shooting?
Is it by how tight of pattern you have on the target?

Throughout this community there are many discussions about shooting techniques and shooting drills. what each subject does is isolate that particular task and helps to improve. Having the proper stance. Having the proper grip. Having the proper sight picture and sight alignment.

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Which eye is your dominant eye?

Here’s a fast and easy way to be sure. Pick out an object about 10 feet or more away. With BOTH EYES OPEN bring up your dominant hand and point your index finger toward the object and keep it there. Then just alternate opening and closing each eye separately while looking at the object. Your dominant eye will see your finger pointing directly at the object, and the non-dominant eye will see your finger pointing to the side of the object. Easy, Peezy.

Okay let’s get to evaluation of your shooting skills.

If you are taking your time and your focus is on accuracy with every round counting the goal is to shoot through the same hole again and again leaving the smallest hole possible.
Then when you are done ask yourself

  1. What do I see?
  2. How did I do?
  3. If one round was off, What went wrong?
  4. Can you fix it?
  5. How do you fix it?

If you are running and shooting like you are at a shooting competition it becomes a different evaluation on the aspect of you have just added many more steps to your shooting. The idea scenario is to hit the A rings on the targets as fast as possible without missing.

You have to ask your questions.

  1. What did I see?
  2. What went wrong?
  3. How can I fix it?
  4. What did I learn?

What does your target tell you that you are doing?
Did you shoot to the left? or right?
Did you shoot high? or low?

Guns are made to shoot straight, so if you miss it is on you.

There are the questions but is your evaluations helping you improve?

There are tools or equipment that will help you trouble shoot your skills.
There is the Mantis X, LasR App, Sirt training pistols, Laser dot trainer,

MantisX is a gun training system that takes a data-driven approach to helping you achieve shooting mastery with no ammo required. Unlike some dry fire trainers, MANTISX works while attached to ANY firearm (pistol, rifle, or shotgun). By analyzing every shot and generating actionable data, MANTISX helps you improve your accuracy quickly.

LASR is a revolutionary new product that turns dry fire into a fun and engaging way to train. Using your smartphone, tablet, or computer, LASR turns dry fire into an interactive experience that will help you improve your shooting skills quickly and easily.

Sirt Pistol training is Safe, effective, and innovative, the Shot Indicating Resetting Trigger (SIRT) Training Pistol was developed by shooters for shooters, to complement, not replace, live fire training. The SIRT Training Pistol brings together a host of patent pending technologies critical to improving shooting accuracy while addressing issues of cost and liability.

These tools will show you what you are doing wrong. No matter how good the shot looks it will show you your movements while you are shooting. The more familiar you get with these pieces of equipment the more you will be able to feel what is going on.
With practice and training you will improve and become a better shooter.
Just do not waste your time going to the range and putting holes in paper without analyzing your skills and improving. When you look at a target ask questions. With questions have some answers. This is why the basics in shooting are so important.

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One measurement for basic handgun skills is the FBI qualification course of fire.

It requires multiple distances and some single hand fire all with the added stress of having to beat a timer. Though the times allowed are pretty generous and aside from kneeling there is no movement required.

I haven’t tried the Air Marshal qualification test yet but it sounds a little more challenging.

Repeating those tests over time can show whether or not your skills are heading in the right direction.

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Maybe I’m just a simple guy, I evaluate my shooting skills by seeing what I hit. Leaning on a bench I want to be really tight. Draw turn, drop to one knee with the light out and the target is closing on me I’m good with hitting the paper. Each set I look at the paper, see where the shots hit and try to move them back to where I would like them to be, not necessarily a Bullseye Every Time but close enough to be effective in a self defense situation.

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Every year I do the FBI qualification course. I do this to see what my improvements are and what I need to work on.

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Another on I do is the torture dot drills. That will show you real quick at what you need to work on.

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So you had seen something you did not like. What was off? What did you change? Was it your aim? Was it your grip? How did you fix it?

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Since you mentioned it…

Seems that in the last year or so I’m consistently dropping an inch or so low and drifting 1-2 inches to the left, Fixed by aiming an inch high and slightly right, when I remember. So I guess the answer is I haven’t really fixed it I just, let’s say, adjust for it.

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Assuming you are right handed that is a pretty common result caused by too much or too little finger on the trigger, improper trigger pull or sympathetically squeezing the other fingers on the grip when you squeeze the trigger finger.

Being left handed I sometimes have the same issue except mine go low and right. Usually adjusting where I place the pad of my finger on the trigger fixes this problem for me. But the optimal placement for me is a little different on different pistols depending on how far of a reach it is to the trigger and how far the trigger needs to be pulled back.

I can also sometimes get this same issue when I am running my pistol a little too fast and start jerking the trigger instead of pulling it smoothly.

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I have and maintain a basic set of requirements. Would I as a human being even of larger proportions be able to withstand and continue the fight bearing the shots I have made on my target?

If my answer is yes. I must do better as a “shooter”.

I strive to say no. I cannot continue fighting beyond the shots inflicted.

Ask yourself,what is YOUR threshold?

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I personally hate self-evaluation… I may feel good…even great… but what does it mean…if my Instructor says I suck… :grimacing:

For me the best evaluation is a feedback from other shooters (mostly Instructors).
When I know I won’t get feedback during the training, I’m checking if I’m able to match with Instructor’s skills. If not, I know what is my goal and new achievement.
I always work on single thing and push myself to find the limit.
Once I think I’m OK… I’m waiting for feedback.

That’s my way to evaluate my shooting skills.

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There comes a point where affirmation from others is irrelevant. At some point it is on you.

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I have read of more than a few cases where attackers have continued to fight for significant amounts of time after receiving lethal wounds that did eventually kill them. Even after being shot or stabbed in the heart there is enough oxygen still in the system to continue the fight for many more seconds.

If attacked I am not going to spend any time asking myself if the shot I just took should have ended the fight or not. I doubt in most cases I could even be sure if my shot hit let alone exactly where it did. It’s not like the range where I can hear the ring of steel or clearly see the holes in the paper.

I hope to never find out for sure what my threshold is in a real self defense incident. But I train with the intent that I will not stop fighting to defend myself or my family until my body ceases to be able to take any action at all. My personal record by the way is still being able to make it home after 25 minutes without a pulse. Though I had a lot of help getting back in that case:)

I am going to assume any threat attacking me has the same intent and willpower to continue the fight as I intend to. My plan and training revolve around continuing to apply whatever force I have to until they show beyond a reasonable doubt that they are no longer a threat or until I can get away. I don’t assume that the skills needed to put a couple of good center mass, or even CNS, hits on a static target will be good enough to end a self defense situations I may find myself in.

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If the feedback comes from better shooters it’s always more valuable than your personal thinking…

It’s important that you feel comfortable doing something, but you must know you are doing it correctly. Usually if something is too comfortable it means it’s not done quite correctly or you can push yourself to do it better.
But to be sure you do this correctly, you need a valid feedback, otherwise you are at the beginning of the cycle I just described.

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I’m going to get my MantisX out and try that out. Thanks for the Analysis and recommendations.

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Using a SIRT pistol has helped me to identify several flaws in my technique but I would be very interested to see what Mantis X and or a trained instructor can find. It has been too long since I have been to an in person training.

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I had been using SIRT and LASR and thought all was good.
Each time I attended in person class the Instructor found some flaws in my techniques.

These days I use only unloaded carry or range firearms for dry fire, then validate everything in person training.
Sometimes I use the camera for dry fire to see or find mistakes and also ask my buddies to video record me during life fire. This is a great evidence for me to find what I’m doing right or wrong.

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Has anybody made changes to their grip based on what direction the front sight moves during recoil (both going up and coming back down)? What adjustments are made if the front sight doesn’t go straight up and then straight down again?

I just took my required training for carry permit renewal and about half the class was there for two days, while I was only required to be there the 2nd day (new permit vs renewal). We started off at the range, running some drills, and the two day students showed up with lines drawn on their thumbs and some insights that they were given the previous day on what to correct in their grip if the front sight goes up on a diagonal or if it moves around randomly, etc. When I asked about it, he asked me what my front sight was doing during recoil, and unfortunately, it wasn’t moving much, but straight up and down (full size, steel frame 1911 in 9mm, so not much recoil). So he told me not to change anything, but didn’t seem interested in providing additional info about what he covered the previous day.

Does anybody have guidelines on subtle changes to your grip depending on what the front sight does during recoil & recovery?

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The Mantis - X will show you what your movement is when you shoot. It is very detailed to the fact even if you hit the X it will still show any movement you made to get that shot.

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Try adjusting position and pressure of your support hand and see what changes. I find if I concentrate on support hand pressure my accuracy improves.

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If your front sight goes straight up and constantly comes back to exactly the same spot after each shot - there is nothing to be changed in your grip.
The point of the solid grip, sometimes called “master grip” is not to fight against recoil and muzzle flip, but make the muzzle coming back to same position every time you press the trigger.

Grip adjustments are required if:

  • your shots land unpredictably all over the target
  • you see that front sight or dot doesn’t come back to the same spot
  • you correct your fingers each time you press the trigger
  • you feel the grip loosing up after few shots

If front sight or dot goes diagonal - it might be indicator of bad trigger press or lack of trigger finger isolation, not a grip issue.

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