鉄砲道 — teppoudo

Accuracy is simply a combination of sight picture and trigger control.

Since no one can hold a gun perfectly motionless, all guns will move when held unsupported.

The area the front sight describes on the target as it moves is called the wobble zone. More experienced shooters may have a smaller wobble zone, however all shooters will have a wobble zone.

Most people have ability to shoot a group significantly smaller than their wobble zone.

Most new shooters (including me initially) tend to use a technique commonly referred to as the “now” impulse where they yank at the trigger at the instant the sights appear to be aligned on the target. This generally causes issues with the third fundamental.

In order to address the “now” impulse Randy Lee taught me the following technique that has served me well.

Fact: The gun will wobble across the target.

Assumption: You have a good sight alignment (Please refer to the post on sight alignment vs. sight picture) for details.

The key to this technique is to not attempt to control this wobble – Let the gun move.

• As the sight picture starts to look acceptable, add a little bit of pressure to the trigger.
• When the natural movement of the gun makes the sight picture un-acceptable, keep the pressure on the trigger where it is. Do not remove the pressure from the trigger.
• When the sight picture looks acceptable again, increase the pressure slightly and repeat the process until the gun fires

The discharge of the gun should come as a complete surprise.

It generally takes me 4-5 oscillations before the gun fires.

Hope this works for you as well.

Update (April 21, 2007): I just read an article by Dave Sayler that provides a clear explanation for why this works. This explanation of the conscious mind living in the recent past, ties in well with what Bruce Gray talks about in his article Dry Fire Secrets of the Pros.

What you need is trigger control at speed, an immediate, smooth and subconscious controlled release of the shot upon the appearance of the correct, acceptable sight picture on your target.

This is what makes dryfire with visualization so critical. I thought it was a speed thing. As is always the case with Bruce, there is a ton lurking below the surface of what he says.