Many of us here are getting a little long in the tooth the hands aren’t what they were, education of our trigger finger maybe slipping, the eyes aren’t quite as sharp, and general strength is reduced. If you’re like me you’re not going to stop shooting but we have to realize our limits.
For me I now use a Green Dot on my EDC if over 10 yards. Under 10 yd and I can point shoot center Mass without a problem. The optic even assist me in racking the slide with arthritic hands and elbows my trigger finger is not as educated as it once was and I have to rely now more on my past training to feel the trigger break without jerking or pulling.
Back issues are a problem for me also. So I limit my range time to once a week and usually a hundred rounds of 9 mm doing double and triple tap drills since I can’t draw from my holster at my range. I do have contact that I go to from time to time with a range that does allow me to holster draw outdoors and sometimes still take classes there. After my hundred rounds of 9 mm I usually put in another 50 to 100 rounds of 45 ACP out of my Kimber. By this time I have to realize I’m hurting in the back and sit down.
Getting old doesn’t mean we have to stop but maybe we make allowances, relying more on our past training, and give ourselves permission to accept and work around physical limits. Running through an obstacle course May no longer be in our cards but that doesn’t mean we can’t get the job done with our brains.
My friend and I discuss this often. We jokingly say how the mighty have fallen. The truth is the sins of our past are catching up, and it hurts. I like the red/green dots, they help. Thankfully I haven’t lost hand strength but I will say shooting use to be more fun. My friend was having a problem with shaking. I suggested holding his gun at a slight angle and it helped him. It’s almost like punching the gun out with two hands. Just a thought. For awhile I practiced with a blowback air soft, that helped too. Good luck. Like I say, as long as the green is under my feet, I’m good. No roots no worms.
Going in for cataract surgery Wednesday. My green dot is more of a green blob but at least I can still get on target faster and more actually than with irons.
Eye’s, that’s it, My Eyes. My glasses are good for long range but I can’t see the iron sights, take the glasses off and the sights come into focus but the target is a rectangular blob
The VA said I had cataracks in both eyes and i had black spots when I looked and the spots were in the center of the eyes,but didnt have the VA mess with meyes,there is a product called CAN-C that are eye drops and you put 2 drops in each eye 2x a day and with in a month the spots were gone ,and the VA couldn’t beleive it,but that did work for me,in fact i dont ant prescriptions any longer,am on all naturals and haven’t felt better at 78
LMÀO. This reminds me of a shirt that I have that I don’t really wear when carrying but I love the quote. It’s why we support the second amendment and why Us older folks can be dangerous!
It coule have been the sights on the pistol, me being right handed left eye dominant, or somthing else, but i was struggling with the irons on my Mark 4 pistol, so i put a handgun scope on it.
I always thought I was left-eye dominant - and maybe still am - but after having cataract surgery on my right eye yesterday I’m seeing well enough to go without glasses all day today. Left eye will be done in a couple weeks.
Anyway, I figured I was left eye dominant because I have always been able to easily close my right eye but not the left. I was a newspaper photographer for over 30 years and always used my left eye and continue to do so using a green dot optic on all my pistols even though I’m right handed.
It’ll be interesting to see if that changes when I have my other eye done. Anyone else have that experience?
At this point… many decades after the point where I considered myself to to have developed competent skill, I am merely trying to keep the rust off. I train every 3 months or so and sometimes a little longer. I didnt shoot for 24 months when covid first launched, no biggie. If someone wants to ask if shooting skills are perishable, I would have to say yes ( with an asterisk). Perhaps to a notable degree if you are trying to maintain a skill like shooting a jelly bean off a golf tea at 100 yards but probably not so notable if you are simply talking about self defense at relatively close range. I consider the whole "perishable thing to be a little dramatic for the sake of drama.
I once ran a carbine course after something like 7 years of not shooting an AR system rifle. I had no problems during the course. Was I as good as I once was many years prior?.. prolly not but I noticed no deficiencies.
I dont say any of that to suggest that people should not train. I am a huge proponent of training… but- the sky probably aint falling (imo) if you happen to slack off a little on regular training.
I think the more important issue is that a person actually develop some skill to begin with, not so much that they are constantly on the training field.
