Top Tips for Shooting Pistol Targets

The top 20 pistol targets sharpshooters join forces to share their helpful pistol shooting tips. These tips are ideal for shooters that are practicing with metal shooting targets, want to practice their steel targets shooting techniques to improve accuracy or simply want to learn home safety.

“When you try to fire the dummy round [thinking it’s a live round], you’ll see the muzzle dip slightly [or more]. That’s the flinch, or anticipate if you prefer.” – Tom Gresham

“At 4 yards, the shooter doesn’t kid himself about whether or not human error was involved.” – Massad Ayoob

“The secret is accepting that movement I see in the sights, holding them as close as I can to my aiming mark and being smooth on the trigger like I am dragging my finger through thick peanut butter.” – Julie Golob

“Being fast in getting the gun out of the holster and making hit is important. Why? For competition every tenth of a second counts.” – Bryce M. Townsley

“After you’ve got your sights alighted, slowly squeeze the trigger. If your squeeze is slow and smooth then the coin will stay on.” – Chris Cheng

“Each trigger being different requires the shooter to really pay attention to how he [or she] is controlling it.” – Pete Burlingam

“The overall drill enforces the concept of fire control. As a shooting drill it makes me more controlled and [an] effective shooter.” – Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster

“Timing and precision are critical skills and the Rangemaster Bullseye course was designed to help achieve them.” – Tom Givens

“I turn my target around and shoot at a blank face. This helps to take away the distraction of the ... center and just shoot my hold and trigger control.” – Brian Zins

“The hardest part of shooting is controlling your subconscious mind to pick the right speed/accuracy for the distance and level of complexity of the shot.” – John McPhee

“By offsetting the timing of the shot-to-shot process, this drill allows you to focus on follow-through, reset, and shot-to-shot recovery.” – Michael Janich

“The shot process is very complex and there’s not really a simple answer to this due to the several stages of the process.” – Ian Morris

“When you focus on the sound of your voice, you’re not focused – or you’re less focused – on the anticipation of the recoil.” – Teresa Ovalle

“You draw the pistol. Build your grip up. And then fire at a reasonable pace at tight targets. I also like the goal of never missing a dot across multiple strings.” – Ben Stoeger

“The fundamentals of marksmanship are best learned shooting groups from a bench rest, at a distance of 25 to 50 yards.” – Brian Enos

“The target size is reduced as the shooter learns to control the movement of the gun and when to break the shot during that movement.” – Grand Cunningham

“My advice on improving shooting and accuracy are dry fire exercises.” – Helmut Brokamp

“The learning comes, not when the gun goes ‘bang,’ but when it goes ‘click.’ When the gun goes ‘click,’ the barrel shot not move.” – Les Hall

“Accuracy is knowing your trigger, where the break is, where the reset is, all while managing recoil.” – Monte A. Jessee

“Your job is to activate the trigger without disturbing the sights off the particular target you wish to engage.” – Max Michael, Jr.

References:

• http://blog.topspecus.com/pistol-shooting-tips/