I’ve recently began practicing point shooting in earnest, primarily using my Walther PPK/S.22 because the sights are almost useless anyway. FWIW, a carry a VP9 or p364xl, both with Holosun green dots.
Most point shooting practice is at three to five yards, double or triple taps from low ready, mostly strong hand only using targets that rotate to face me one or two seconds. I’m usually able to keep my rounds on 8.5x11 paper but my groups are more like it was shot with a 12-gauge.
Any expert point shooter advice on developing the skill? I understand we’re not talking about bullseye marksmanship here. Just looking for some tips.
The big point on point shooting is “proprioception” or knowing where your body is at any point in time. When it comes to point shooting you MUST have a NPA (Natural Point of Aim) that allows you to point your pistol with the same effectiveness as when you point your finger. This primarily comes down to grip and ergonomics. You must hold the pistol in such a manner as it will point as if you are pointing your finger (index). Change your grip or change your grips to make this a reality.
The next bit is foot placement and stance. In the beginning having a clear idea of where to put your feet so that you end up pointing straight ahead every time you plant your feet is paramount. Once you have this figured out as well as the grip you will literally be able to hit targets effectively out to 15’ BLINDFOLDED.
As you become more proficient the placement of your feet and the weapon you are using becomes less important to a certain degree. The term is “mylenation” or “muscle memory” for us common folk. Mylenation is what happens when the nerve impulses no longer have to travel down the normal neural pathway through each nerve. The impulse travels down the myelin sheath which is MUCH faster and much more precise. As with building any muscle memory, slow precise movements will build it faster than random jerky movements and LOTS of repetition of those precise moves.
To save on point shooting practice use SIRT or laser cartridge any laser target which gives feedback.
It takes time, but first you have to find your NPA and teach your body to use the same motion to be very close within your NPA every time you press out. Just simple press out from compressed ready and break the shot. If needed, make corrections to your posture and repeat.
This part may take few days, but this is only beginning. Once you think you found NPA, go and verify it with closed eyes. First do the whole pressout process. If you hit 2" target from 10 feet - you are good to try this with real ammo at the range. If you still got misses - repeat the drill, but open your eyes before breaking the shot, correct pistol position, close eyes again and take a shoot.
If you make this great, extend the distance to 15 feet and repeat whole process.
Good luck ! …
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or forget about these tips and “watch a lot of old cowboy movies”
As you come up from low ready you should be “pointing” with both thumbs and your trigger finger, which drops to the trigger when you are fully extended. The previous comments on NPA are spot on. Dry fire and laser training will help a lot.
One of the biggest reasons I love my M&Ps is because they all have a natural point of aim. I shoot well with them at self defense range, just point and shoot with both eyes opened.
My father and i have practiced point shooting for years. We go for a walk in the forest with a 22 revolver and randomly pick a pinecone at any reasonable distance and draw and shoot. Before i get scolded, we make sure of rocks or any other ricochet hazards near and beyond the target before we draw. But it does help with ever changing shot angles and distances.
I think this part is important, and easy to overlook. When the point people focus on is to shoot fast, it’s easy to forget that there is a second point to the enterprise — consistently accurate. I think that with relaxed repetition of consistent accuracy*, faster just happens. Once the groove becomes established, quicker becomes easy — eventually “what am I waiting for?” has developed into a quick accurate shot.
Natural point of aim. Practice, Practice, Practice. I have done this since around 1984 and the SIRT gun is a good way to practice. I also practice multiple targets. @Craig6 and @Jerzees covered it well.
All of my weapons have on demand lasers on them,Rifles and pistols,my piotols have the lasers sighted out to 50 yards and where it lights up is where the round hits,and with the advent of body armor I aim at head,throat and groin for the take down,and I pratice with laser targets both timed reactions and the just center targets and regular to silhouette paper,and my rifles are at 200 yds
I have found that point and shoot is basically the same as auto crossing. Look at where you want to go and your brain will get you there…keep your eye on the target basically. I find this to be true when pouring oil into my motor without a funnel. If you look at the fill port on the motor instead of looking at the oil coming out of the bottle, you’ll get the oil in the port without spilling. For awhile I fooled a friend of mine who would always ask me to pour the oil because he would make a mess. The challenge was NOT using a funnel. When I told him what I do, he no longer asked me…try it, you’ll like it…just like Mikey!
Question is, are you practicing to be a gun fighter or a target shooter or a little of both?
Craig6 and Jerzy are correct. The point shooting technique I taught over three decades was based in part off that taught by Major Eric A. Sykes and Col. William E. Fairbairn of SOE and Camp X fame and Col. Rex Applegate of OSS fame of WW2 era. This method was taught to the SOE, OSS, Jedburgh teams and others. It IS effective, it DOES work.
These men used the base position that you would likely be in if you were startled by a loud noise, similar to a crouched wrestlers stance.
This is effective out to 25 meters ish with a handgun, further with a rifle. It is another skill set to put in your gray matter.
See ‘Shooting To Live’ and ‘Kill or Get Killed’ for further. These books were written in a no non-sense, no Political Correctness so beware!
In this world of bigger, better, stronger, faster it eventually circles back to how it used to be done way back when, albiet under a new name, five times the price, repackaged - and if you add SEAL, Delta, Green Beret, Force Recon, tectical… you can double that price!
@GeneC , Welcome to the Community.
Because of today’s “bigger, better, stronger, faster” people like us have to slow everything down and show others that most of the magic have been already discovered and developed last Century.
I like old, good methods. Sometimes they just need a little tweaking and adjustments, but the whole idea remains the same.
I do pretty well with point shooting, better most days then lining up sights, concentrating on grip, trigger tension, body position, push pull with grip… I end my time at the range with point shooting. It seems like it’s a more realistic skill to know considering the rule of 3’s.
It feels natural and both eyes open.
It does sound like a middle ground between the two would be worth some work as well. Focus on the front trigger, and on a smooth trigger press that doesn’t disrupt the front sight, but do not concentrate on or consciously think about (any more consciously than when point shooting) your grip, or lining up the sights (just look at the front post only), or body position, or push pull grip…simplify to front sight + press. Those two are the real keys.
This is how I practice a lot of my shooting in the 5 to 12ish yard range. Just see the sight come onto the target and pull the trigger. I find it to be barely slower than pure point shooting. It also significantly reduces my group size and number of fliers on follow up shots. As soon as I see the front sight drop back from the recoil I know I can instantly pull the trigger again.
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