Biting the Silver Bullet-14
By Sanjay Soni
Managing Director of Hughes Precision Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd
Accuracy is what all shooters chase and strive for when selecting their weapon platform.
Accuracy is simply being able to hit the target consistently, intentionally, and repeatedly. If you can’t hit the target, you are not accurate.
Let us see how to improve accuracy while firing with a handgun.
Handguns are a challenge to master. A rifle has an anchor at the shoulder, the grip, the forearm and maybe a rest or bipod. Handguns are hanging at the end of extended arms with open sights weaving over the target and a whole bunch of noise, muzzle flash and movement, the moment the hammer drops. Mastering all the moving variables is the challenge of handgun accuracy.
The common theme to accurate handgun shooting is trigger control. There are other shooting fundamentals we’ll dive into, but unless the trigger squeeze is trained and mastered, the developing handgun shooter will struggle to reach his or her accuracy potential with their chosen firearm.
What is Handgun Accuracy?
Webster defines accuracy as “precise, error-free, well-aimed, on-target.” Sounds like he wrote that definition while watching a shooting match. Quite simply, handgun accuracy means hitting the intended target with each shot. It’s something the shooter can repeat and can do at close range as well as extended ranges.
Why is accuracy with our handgun important? Because if we can’t hit our intended target every time we aim at it, we are not taking full advantage of the handgun we have chosen to carry or hunt with. Not hitting the target in a defensive situation may be the difference between life and death. It may be the difference in being able to stop a threat in an active shooter scenario.
Regardless of the situation, being able to hit your target intentionally and repeatedly is critical.
Besides, when you go to the range and you’re not putting together great groups or you’re not hitting the spot-on single shot drills, it’s no fun. So, let’s learn how to be accurate with the gun we choose to carry.
The Challenge of Mastering the Handgun
Being good with a handgun is hard work. If you go to the range and watch folks, you’ll find that very few are consistently good with a handgun. You’ll see them “chase” their group around the target, change point of aim to get a round in the bullseye or shoot only at extremely close ranges for fear of not being able to hit their target at extended ranges.
The handgun is a wonderful tool, but it comes with some shortfalls that take work on the shooter’s part to overcome.
Short Sight Radius: Even with a full-size handgun the distance from the rear sight to the front sight is often only five or six inches. This means that even the slightest error in sight alignment will send the bullet away from the intended target. As the range increases, the distance the bullet misses the target increases as well.
Unstable Platform
Handguns are most often fired from a standing position. Couple that with the fact that our handgun is way out at the end of our extended arms. There is no bone-on-bone support like we have when shooting a rifle. The longer we hold the gun out in an extended position, the more unstable we become. Add to that the importance of grip tension, and we have created for ourselves a bunch of variables that make it very difficult to be accurate.
Trigger Control
Consider that a full-size Sig P220 weighs 30.4oz. Now, the first shot with P220 is double action. The trigger pull on that first shot is roughly 7.7 pounds. The subsequent single action trigger pull is about 4.1 pounds. That means the trigger pull is four times the weight of the gun for the first shot. Your challenge – exert enough pressure on the trigger to fire the gun while not moving the sights from perfect alignment with the target. We’ll revisit trigger control numerous times in the drills below.
The Dreaded Flinch
A lot happens when we fire a handgun, especially a semi-automatic. First, we have significant muzzle blast because of the short barrel. This comes in the form of muzzle flash and noise.
Next, we have the recoil. Simple physics dictates that the gun moves back and up. It pounds the palms and the web between the thumb and forefinger. The slide moves to the rear and ejects the empty case which flies to the side in our peripheral vision.
With all of this going on at the end of our arms, right in front of our face, the natural tendency is to flinch or anticipate what is about to happen. Most likely we’ll see our shots going low and left for right-handed shooters (and vice versa for lefties).
With all of this going on at the end of our arms, right in front of our face, the natural tendency is to flinch or anticipate what is about to happen. Most likely we’ll see our shots going low and left for right-handed shooters (and vice versa for lefties).
As you can see, the challenges are substantial, but we can overcome them.
Handgun Shooting Basics
To shoot a handgun accurately, there are a lot of things that have to be done properly in order to get those shots to hit the sighted target. First, we’ll take a look at some basic mechanics to ensure the drills we work on later will help us improve.
Stance
Most of our shooting is done from a standing position. The standing position gives us the ability to absorb recoil and to pivot and move to engage multiple targets.
A good stance begins with the shooter facing the target and in a ‘boxer’ stance. That is, with the strong side foot back a bit and the knees slightly bent. The shooter should be leaning forward just a bit at the hips. With the forward lean and the knees flexed just a bit you’re able to absorb recoil and get quickly back on the target.
Grip
Ever wonder how you should hold a handgun for maximum accuracy? A consistent grip is critical with a handgun. We cannot stop recoil, but if our grip is correct, we can get the sights back on target very quickly without having to completely reset our grip and arm position with every shot.
With a semiautomatic handgun our strong hand grips the gun as high as possible. We want as much coverage of the grip as we can with our hand and fingers. Our thumb is going to rest along the side of the slide and will naturally point toward our target.
Our support hand will then move forward so the thumb is parallel to the ground and pointing forward. The meaty part of our hand contacts the grip between the fingertips and palm of the strong hand and wraps around the front of the grip over our strong hand fingers.
Now we squeeze, HARD! The support hand will generally provide about 60-70% of the grip squeeze, while the strong hand provides about 30-40% of the grip squeeze. We can now push the gun straight out toward our target and begin the next step.
Sight Alignment
Here we are going to focus as much as possible on the front sight.
After lining up target with both sights, practice getting focus from target to front sight.
It is physically impossible to see the target, front sight and rear sight in focus simultaneously. If one is in focus, the other two will be fuzzy. The sights on most handguns will consist of either a squared or round- ed-top front sight, occasionally with a dot on it. The rear sight on most defensive handguns will be a square notch. Some will have a white outline, some will have a dot on each side of the notch.
The proper sight alignment will have the front sight centered in the rear notch with the same amount of light showing on both sides of the front sight. The top of the front sight and the top of the rear sight should be aligned so they are leveled or, if your sights have dots, all the dots are lined up horizontally.
Sight Picture
Once you have proper sight alignment, we are going to align our sights to our target. In other words, “where do you place the sights in relation to the target?” What is the sight picture? Do you place your front sight in the middle of the target, at the bottom of the target, at the top to cover-up the entire target, or where?
The answer – it really depends.
Different handguns come from the factory with a sight picture manufactured into the gun; this is also called the hold. There are three common holds;
-Combat Hold
-Center Hold
-Six O’Clock Hold
Guns which are sighted in for a combat hold typically require the shooter to place the front sight over where you intend to make an impact. Your point of aim will be right over your point of impact. Handguns manufactured with a center hold usually require the front sight to be aligned at the center of the bottom of the bulls eye. Other handguns have a six o’clock hold where the front sight is placed at the bottom of the bullseye.
Your sight picture will really depend on your handgun manufacturer. Some are designed for a center hold, others for a six-o’clock hold, still others will be sighted in for a sub-six-o’clock hold, and even others with a dead-on Hold, etc. It can get confusing and become a problem to deal with your various guns and their manufactured sight pictures.
Breathing
Our breathing and heartbeat play a big role in our shooting accuracy. If you have ever watched position of rifle shooters, you will notice they have a heavy leather jacket and a heavy glove on their support hand. All that padding is to muffle and quiet the effect of their beating hearts on their sight alignment and ultimately the shot they take.
For example. you have a handgun extended at the end of your arms with no support. If you align your sights on a target and just breath, you will see that with each inhale and exhale your gun rises and falls as your chest expands and contracts.
When shooting slowly for maximum accuracy and precision, you ideally want to breathe normally as you bring your sights into final alignment. Inhale normally. Exhale normally. If you try to hold your breath you begin to shake and then rush to get the shot off.
Ideally, your shot will break right at the bottom of your exhale.
It’s crucial that as the number of shots in a string increases or we engage multiple targets and add movement to our shooting to keep breathing. We also need to breathe so we are consistently oxygenat- ing our eyes so our vision stays sharp and our front sight focus is as crisp as possible.
Trigger Squeeze/Press
Ask any handgun instructor what the most critical component of handgun accuracy is, and you’re going to hear something about trigger squeeze. No matter what we do prior to sending our shot downrange, if our trigger squeeze is not perfect every time, our shots will not go where we want them to go. Our trigger finger has to move straight back with as little pressure to the sides of the trigger as possible. If our grip is correct and we have a firm hold on the gun, we should be imparting as little side-to-side and
up-and-down pressure as possible on the grip as our trigger finger starts coming back.
In general, you want to use the center of the pad between your fingertip and first knuckle joint to press the trigger. Too far out on the tip and you tend to push the trigger away. Too far into the crease and you tend to curl the trigger toward your hand. Both result in misses and inconsistent shots. However, please note that your finger placement on your trigger may differ from others as everyone has a different sized hand, and guns vary in size, too.
Trigger Reset
As part of the follow-through process and preparing for the next shot, we have the trigger reset.
The reset on most semiautomatic handguns will be a much shorter distance than releasing the trigger all the way to the forward-most position. The reset can be felt as you release the trigger forward after you take your shot. It’s important to move the trigger finger straight forward and keep the sights aligned on the target as the trigger moves forward.
With practice, you’ll be able to move your trigger finger forward just to the reset, and then begin your squeeze for the next shot. This means less movement of the trigger finger and less likelihood of the trigger squeeze moving the sights out of alignment.
Follow-Through/ Calling the Shot
You’ve sent your round downrange. But your shot process is not yet over. Don’t just release your trigger and set up for your next shot.
Think about the shot you just made. Keep the trigger depressed and see where your sights naturally settle after recoil. Are they lined up on the target? Did you have to reset your grip?
At the moment of the shot going off, could you tell an observer where the bullet would impact on the target?
All of these things are a part of your proper follow through. As your speed increases, these things begin to happen very quickly, but they all have to happen, or accuracy begins to diminish.
In the next article, we will study some drills that you can practice to improve your handgun shooting accuracy.
Sanjay Soni is the Managing Director of Hughes Precision Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd., India’s first small caliber manufacturer in the private sector. An MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, he has been involved with the ammunition industry in India and abroad since the last 8 years.
