Since mechanics are a component of technique and technique is dependent on context, the holding the trigger to the rear for 3 seconds (as described by bullseye shooters at my local club), wasn’t going to work well in the context of IPSC. It would certainly hurt my split times

What was essentially being described by the bullseye folks was a means of execution of the third fundamental, i.e., discharging the shot without disturbing the alignment. I’m assuming that the technique described was for the benefit of new shooters who hadn’t developed the ability to call the shot.

Looking beyond mechanics, followthrough is essentially what you do during the time between the hammer drop and the time that the bullet leaves the barrel. The point is to do nothing that would disturb the alignment until the bullet has left the barrel.

The bullet leaving the barrel is indicated by the sights lifting in recoil allowing you to call the shot. Followthrough is a process of visual patience that facilitates calling the shot.

In his article Shot Call and Followthrough, David Tubb describes followthrough as simply a technical process supporting the call of the shot.

Taken by itself, though, followthrough is probably most simply defined as holding on to a shot long enough to call it accurately. It is primarily a visual confirmation process in this function. Part of the technical value (specifically, value to the technique) of calling shots is its help in developing followthrough. Good followthrough is also a certain amount physical, and that sense is maintaining the shooting position and hold through recoil.

Followthrough is improved by being aware of what you see during the firing of the shot. In retrospect, the post on Mastering Fundamental #3 is essentially talking about followthrough.

Followthrough is a visual process that holds your attention and is independent of mechanics.

It was one of the first videos I watched when I started shooting a pistol and I found it extremely useful.

Unfortunately I don’t know the original source of this video and can’t provide a reference. If you know the original source, please leave me a comment and I’ll update this post.

You can also download it here as 7.37mg rm file.

Unfortunately I don’t know the original source of this video and can’t provide a reference.

If you know the original source, please leave me a comment and I’ll update this post.

You can also download it here as 3.53mg mpg file.

It’s important to understand the difference between Sight Alignment and Sight Picture since it is critical to understanding the post below.

The greatest obstacle in shooting a pistol accurately offhand is produced by the movement of the gun in the hand (wobble) combined with the movement of the wobble on the target (hold). These all too observable visual inputs distract us from what is important, the aforementioned third fundamental of shooting – releasing the shot without disturbing the gun’s hold.

This can help: imagine your pistol is in a machine-rest even though you are holding it offhand. Now imagine the target is moving (in the same pattern/manner as your hold). Now, ask yourself – what can you do?

Knowing this, it’s best to begin by shooting from a bench rest, or other supported position. Bag your pistol so that it’s rock solid. Aim into the backstop and then direct ALL your attention to building the pressure on the trigger until the gun fires. After you become comfortable with the feeling of firing the gun with all your attention on the trigger while simply watching the sights lift in recoil, place a target at 25 yards and repeat the above procedure with the following addition: Use this “order” to fire the shot:

1. Align your sights in the center of the target.
2. Shift all your attention to your previous feeling of your finger building pressure on the trigger until the shot breaks.

During #2, you are still looking at the sights; however, you are looking in a detached manner. Which means: Your concern is not in trying to shoot a particular spot; you are simply looking with the intention of remembering where the sights were aligned at the moment the shot fires.

Only after you’ve mastered “bench rest calling,” begin shooting offhand. Again, begin by shooting into the backstop with no intention of hitting anything in particular. This will allow you to focus all your attention on what is important – “releasing” the shot without disturbing the gun’s hold. Relax your attention into the gun, look at the sights without staring, and then shift all your attention to the previously mastered feeling of your finger on the trigger; with great determination and purpose, increase pressure on the trigger until the gun fires – “FEEL” the shot off. At the moment the gun lifts, recall the sight alignment, again, this is what you must see and remember. After mastering this, when you put a target behind your sights, you simply recall the “sight picture” – (sight alignment plus their relationship to the target).

Now to shoot a “good shot” (one that actually goes where you intended it), you must combine the feeling of releasing a perfect shot with the feeling of “willing the gun still” as you build pressure on the trigger. Eventually, with training, this becomes ONE FEELING.

The following text is extracted from a post on Calling the Shot, but it applies here

Once reading the sights is firmly ingrained, practice to preserve this most important of all fundamental while increasing your shooting speed by projecting your attention into your sights as you shoot. When you master this, everything else will vanish – even “you.”

Since Brian tends to choose his words very carefully, the choice of the words “into your sights” as opposed to “onto your sights” is an interesting one. Brian’s response in another post provides the subtle difference.

I am suggesting a different meaning when I said into vs onto. Into implies a “deeper” level of attention in which the “self” (the self in this case meaning – “someone” seeing “something”) dissolves, and only awareness remains.

This Zen approach to shooting reminded me of the following Quote:

When you do something, you should burn yourself completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.

— Shunryu Suzuki Roshi

The removal of self from the equation removes or should remove ego from the equation. The removal of ego leads to the removal of conscious impulse to “control” what is happening.

First, we should clearly establish what we’d like to happen (in our mind before we shoot). Then, once the activity begins, it’s usually beneficial to turn our attention to simply witnessing what is actually happening, thereby allowing our body to manifest the training it has undergone.

Trying or thinking of any kind impedes awareness. When one is, the other isn’t.

The post is talking about 2 distinct states of mind that need to be developed and you should only be in 1 state at a given time. Being an “observer” as opposed to a “tryer” during the execution of a high speed activity is more conducive to success. Wow!

This post covers a technique I’ve used to teach myself to shoot with both eyes open.

Essentially what needs to be done is to have your eyes aligned with the target and the eyes focussed on the front sight.

Please make sure that your firearm is clear of all ammunition, you have no ammunition in the room and you have a safe back stop. If you have any concerns at all, please do not attempt anything you see here.

The steps I followed were as follows:

• Look at a small target with your gun outside your field of vision. A tennis ball works well. The distance isn’t really important and you want to train at varying distances anyway.
• Make sure that you can see the tennis ball clearly.
• Bring the gun up into your field of vision.
• Since your eyes are still aligned with the target, you will see a blurry double image of the gun and the sights.
• Now slowly shift your focus back to the front sight so that you can see it clearly, while keeping the eyes aligned with the target.
• If you notice the target start to double, your eye alignment is changing with your focus. Stop, lower the gun out of the field of vision and start again.
• In the end you should see a double image of the gun, with the front sight crystal clear and a single image of the target which will be blurry.
• When you get tired stop.
• Repeat as necessary

Your index will easily solve the problem of the double image of the gun. With some practice it’s really not an issue. I used the exercises described on pages 170 & 171 of Practical Shooting – Beyond Fundamentals by Brian Enos to solve the problem.

Once you feel comfortable with a static target, suspend the tennis ball or a pop can on a string and practice with a .22. The moving target will really reinforce your training. I learned the moving target drill from a Steve Anderson post on Brian Enos’ forum.

This takes a while (it took me 4 months or so, practicing a few hours week.), but it does work. Stay with it.

I don’t wear corrective glasses and am not sure how they’d interact with this technique. However I believe that the principal is sound.

Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

FEAR NOT, THE DOUBLE ACTION SHOT!
By Ernest Langdon

The traditional double action pistol, long feared by the competitive shooter, is quickly becoming a force to be reckoned with in some types of competitive pistol shooting. With the growing popularity of IDPA and the new Production Class in IPSC, the double action pistol is becoming a popular option for competitive shooters around the globe.

But, there has long been a stigma associated with the double action pistol. It has seen very little action in mainstream competition. When you ask shooters why they don’t shoot a double action in competition there are two main reasons that come up. First, it is too hard or too slow to shoot a double action first shot. Second, they don’t like having two different trigger pulls. Lets focus on the first reason for now, the dreaded double action first shot.

To develop speed and accuracy with the double action trigger we need to start with accuracy. The speed will mean nothing if you don’t hit the target. Start by shooting groups in double action only. Your group size and the location of the groups should be the same as your single action groups; that’s the goal anyway. Some shooters will find that with proper technique they can shoot a tighter group in double action than in single action.

The key to double action accuracy is keeping the trigger moving. Don’t try and stage the trigger to the point right before the hammer drops. This is a bad habit and will cause what is often called “Now Syndrome!!”. This is when the shooter stages or preps the trigger to the point right before it is going to break, then cleans up the sight picture so it is perfect and tries to make the shot break “NOW”. The “Now Syndrome” almost always causes the sights and the shot to move off the intended target. Keep the sights in your “aiming area” and keep the trigger moving. (Obviously, if the sights move way off or out of your aiming area, stop pulling the trigger.) Try and think of the trigger pull as a “trigger stroke”, and pull through with one smooth stroke of the trigger.

At first, shoot at a close target that is fairly large, maybe seven or ten yards and try for a group. As your groups get smaller, move the target back. Don’t be afraid to shoot groups at fifty yards or more. It can’t hurt.

Once you’re confident with your ability to make an accurate double action shot, pick up the pace. Start working on the time it takes to “pull through” the double action trigger stroke. Remember, speed means nothing if you miss the target.

The next step is to start working back to the holster. That’s right, work back to the holster, not from the holster. The next thing to work on is the presentation of the pistol to the target. Start from what is normally called the ready position. This is the point in the draw there the hands come together, just off center to the strong side at the upper part of your abdomen. At this point the pistol should be pointed at the target and the trigger finger is still off the trigger. From this point forward is where you start to gain speed with the double action first shot. From this ready position, every effort should be made to drive the pistol directly to the target. Imagine there is a laser coming out of the barrel and try and put that laser on the target and keep it there until that first shot breaks. (If you have a laser available it can be a great training tool).

As the pistol starts to move forward you should be able to pick up the position of the muzzle in your peripheral vision. As soon as you can see that the muzzle is on target, start pulling the trigger. This is where the speed of the first shot comes from. As the pistol goes out, the trigger comes back. Now it becomes a timing issue. As the pistol goes forward and comes up to your line of sight, you are trying to pull the trigger so that the hammer falls just as you clean up the sight picture. The last one to two inches of the presentation the sights should be almost perfect so if the shot breaks a little early you’re still going to hit the target. This is really no different than what most top shooters do with a single action pistol. They prep the trigger on the way out to the target and try and break the shot just as they clean up the sight picture.

With practice you will find that you can be very aggressive on close targets. Because you can have a lot of deviation in your sight alignment on close targets, you can break the shot very early in the draw stroke with all the accuracy that you need.

Once you feel comfortable with working from the ready position you can start working from the holster. Just like the double action trigger pull, think of the draw as a smooth stroke. Now all you have to do is combine the “draw stroke” with the “trigger stroke” and you will be nailing sub one-second draws in no time.

Once you master the double action first shot you will find you can shoot the traditional double action pistol with a great deal of speed and accuracy. It’s up to you, so get out there and start shooting.

A pdf version of the quoted article is available here.

This is essentially the process where the brain takes the distinct images from each eye and combines them into an image that is more than the sum of the parts since it is a 3D image which allows the perception of depth.

There is much debate on shooting with one eye vs. shooting with both eyes open. The existence of stereo vision makes shooting with both eyes open for many people (including me) very difficult.

The proponents of shooting with both eyes open cite various benefits for doing so. Taking the “tactical” reasons out of the equation, there are still a number of reasons presented, some of which are summarized below.

Stereo vision is needed for depth perception, which becomes important when shooting moving targets, especially 360 swingers that need to be rotated. With only one eye open, it becomes hard to figure out whether the paddle is coming towards you or moving away.

Eye fatigue is often sighted as a reason with the claim being that vision deteriorate faster when only one eye is open.

Another reason raised relates to not going against our natural tendency. We tend to do everything with two eyes open, so trying to shoot with only one eye open would not be natural. Even though it’s not strictly about vision the quote below seems to make some sense in this context.

If by nature you do things quickly, or slowly, you’re going to swing the golf club basically the same way. forcing yourself to an opposite extreme is rarely going to work because its too contrary to your basic instincts or impulses– especially when your under competitive pressure.

— Jack Nicklaus

Given all the benefits cited, I thought it would be a good idea to at least attempt to teach myself to use both eyes while shooting. I wanted to do it the “natural” way, i.e., no tape on the glasses or turning my head to odd angles etc.

The main issue I ran into was related to stereo vision and how the brain combined the images from both eyes.

The framing test is a good illustration of the issue I ran into.

The image below (obtained from a thread the Glock Talk) shows the double images produced because of parallax.

Sometimes the two targets had a big overlap between them and appeared as a blob.

If there is a strong dominance in one eye, that eye will take over and produce a better defined image and the image from the non-dominant eye will appear very faint and can be easily ignored. You can confirm this by squinting (not completely closing) one of your eyes and trying the above test.

In my case, my dominance is not strong, hence I see an image very close to the one above.

Now I know that I need to shoot the target on the right since it’s the one being picked up with my right eye and I need to use the sights on the left since they are the ones being picked up with my right eye.

This was not an acceptable solution since if nothing else it is a big safety issue. I don’t want any ambiguity in what I’m shooting at. Another issue comes up in target arrays with multiple overlapping targets. Essentially it’s a mess.

In order for this to work at all for me, I needed to see only one target downrange, not a real target and a ghost target.

I didn’t really care that I saw two sets of sights, since my body index made it very easy for my brain to pick up the correct set of sights as the gun came into view. In order to teach myself that, I used the exercises described on pages 170 & 171 of Practical Shooting – Beyond Fundamentals by Brian Enos.

Now if I look for it, I can still see the image of the sights seen by my left eye appear to the right of the set that I’m using, but if I don’t explicitly look for them, they don’t distract me at all and aren’t there for all practical purposes.

When thinking about the ghost target problem I realized the following. When I focused on the target, I saw only one target. As I moved my focus back to the front sight, the target would get blurry as expected and the ghost target would separate from the real target and move to the left. The interesting thing was that there was a slight lag between the time I had the front sight in clear focus (with the target blurry) and the time when the ghost target appeared.

This time interval was extremely short, but it was there.

This indicated that the brain was making a decision at some point after I had my clear focus on the front sight to show me both images. Before the two images appeared, the single image was aligned with the sights and my right eye.

If I could stop the brain from proceeding with the creation of the ghost image, my problem would be solved. Incidentally the only reason I am calling it a ghost target is that it’s not the one I want to shoot at. It’s simply the image from my left eye and nothing more. It has no special significance

Since I already knew what I wanted to see, and I could visualize it, I consciously tried to slow down the creation of the second image of the target. It took a while, but it started to work. Eventually the second image disappeared completely.

Initially this process seemed to be linked to distance from the target, e.g., I could do it with a target at 10 yards, but a 20 yard target was problematic. After working on it for a bit, distance is no longer an issue. I suspect distance was initially a factor since I was attempting to use depth of field of solve the problem, instead of convincing my brain to image correctly.

Now I see two sets of sights (with one set really easy to ignore) and one target regardless of where I focus. If I switch my focus to the target, I have full depth perception.

When I switch focus back to the front sight, the target stays put. Finally

All in all this process took me 4 months with a ton of dry practice. I suspect I would be able to do it a lot faster now since I know what I need to do.

I have not noticed any impact on any other activities.

I’m not yet sure if there are any significant advantages to shooting with both eyes open, however I can confidently say that I’ve noticed no disadvantages for me in the context of IPSC competition and intend to continue shooting this way.

Incidentally eye dominance didn’t seem to matter. I am cross dominant and haven’t had any issues after training myself through visualization.

Update (April 22, 2007): Please refer to the post on eye alignment and eye focus for further an attempt at an explanation for how I managed to stop the brain from creating the ghost image of the target.

Update (April 23, 2007): I’ve added a post describing the training method I used to learn how to shoot with both eyes open.

Update (May 10, 2007): Added the image of the pistol sights above to clarify the post.

In the practical shooting world breathing is not discussed in much detail. The most I’ve heard is people recommending that you just breathe.

Over the course of shooting matches I had noticed that my vision got blurry during long courses of fire and I had a hard time focusing on the front sight. I initially attributed this to eye fatigue, however was not able to replicate the situation during my training sessions.

Recently during a match I discovered that when I arrive at a shooting position, I tend to stop breathing while I am at the position engaging targets. In positions where I have to engage ~6 or more targets, my vision gets blurry since I am literally “passing out” from lack of oxygen.

I’m not really passing out, but apparently I am managing to starve my brain of enough oxygen in that short period that it is having an immediate and tangible effect on my vision.

The short answer is that I need to breathe.

The long answer, which I have yet to figure out is how to time my breathing at a purely subconscious level to gross events in the shooting continuum.

I’ve seen everything from the “death grip” proposed by some people to discussions around a softer grip.

It is important to note that the amount of absolute grip pressure has very little to do with neutrality. Neutrality can be impacted by the proportion of  pressure exerted based on the capability of the person, e.g., you will have much more control if you are exerting 50% of the pressure you are capable of exerting, compared to if you’re exerting 90% pressure.

The typical analogy used for the softer style takes the form of “hold the pistol, as tightly as you would hold a hammer”. The objective being the removal of tension from the body while shooting. Just as you can’t swing a hammer effectively while tense, shooting at speed requires you not to be tense.

My personal shooting style evolved from a very firm grip to a softer grip, however as my shooting sessions got longer I noticed a tendency for a clench reflex to develop and a loss of fine trigger control skill.

While listening to an episode of Practical Shooting Radio hosted by Matt Burkett, I heard Matt discussing his workout routine where he makes sure he does not use his trigger finger as part of his grip while lifting weights. In fact he goes as far as to flex the finger in a trigger motion independent of the rest of his hand as he does his workout.

This intrigued me a lot since it seemed to indicate that the discussion of grip pressure had at it’s core a motive for trigger finger isolation. The grip pressure by itself didn’t mean much as long as there wasn’t tension in the rest of the body and the trigger control was not compromised.

As an experiment, for 2 weeks I did 30 pull ups (spread out over the day) without using my trigger finger as part of the grip. Additionally I tried to move the trigger finger in a relaxed fashion independent of the rest of the grip while performing the pull up.

After 2 weeks I had the opportunity to have an extended range session. The good news is as follows:

• Even during an extended range session my clench reflex did not come back and I maintained good trigger control right to the end
• My weak hand trigger control got significantly better
• I no longer had to track grip pressure in my conscious mind while shooting. Since it did not affect my trigger control, or make my body tense in any way, I didn’t need to worry about it

This is kind of interesting for me and I’d like to analyze it further since it seems to be a cross over between the hard and soft styles of shooting.

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.