TargetTalk

when holding a pistol for olympic style games, should the shooter have his/her arm locked and wrist locked or should it be a relaxed hold? should you stand facing the target dead on or should you stand facing the left with the head tilted to the right? (in the case of a right hand shooter).

forgive the silly questions but i am really new to the whole pistol thing (well not really, but seeing as how these targets are much smaller than a b27 it is really hard to get thing into the 10 ring )

Bubba , stance and grip are somewhat individual . As far as stance goes , start with feet a shoulder width apart prolly 45 degrees with respect to target , check natural point of aim . ( basically , pick up your pistol , bench it , close your eyes - bring it up and see where the sights bear in relation to the target )right and left correction can de achieved by slight foot shuffling . Relax , breath deeply and repeat .

As far as grip goes there are a lot of schools of thought , some old .45 shooters use a white knuckled grip ( with good results ) , most would advocate a firm grip . As a jumping off point , place the pistol in your left hand , open your right hand - place pistol firmly in your right hand . Your groups will give an indication of what you are doing right or wrong .

Check out some of the articles on this site , Nygord's notes , and Target Shooting Canada , TSC has a good article on pistol group error analysis . As a sweeping generalization , you want to avoid the following - excessive trigger finger/wood contact , excessive little finger pressure , and excessive thumb pressure.

TSC has some good items to download , the U.S. Army AMU manual is a tressure .

Sorry about giving you all the homework , but its the best way to learn .

Chris

One very helpful thing I learned was to focus my attention on relaxing my thumb, and putting pressure only on the front-center and back-center of the grip. My stability during the release immediately improved.

H.

bubba_zenetti wrote: forgive the silly questions but i am really new to the whole pistol thing (well not really, but seeing as how these targets are much smaller than a b27 it is really hard to get thing into the 10 ring )

Keeping them in the 10 ring on a 10 M AP target is really not any more difficult than keeping them all in the x-ring of a B27 at 50 yds in a PPC match. Somewhat different techniques, but all leading in the same direction: sharp focus on the front sight held in perfect alignment, grip and trigger process that does not move the sight, and a mental state that accepts the hold and lets the gun fire. And -- there is no time pressure!

Take a look at the articles that Chris mentioned, experiment to find the technique that works best for you, and enjoy.

Fred

thanks for all the tips and pointers to articles guys. i will be doing a lot of reading and practice now :)

To agree with Fred, it's a far, far better shot where the sights don't move during release and is an 8, than one where the sights wobble and it's a 10. Your brain and muscles will eventually work the sights into the 10, but the no-alignment-change release is what matters in practice.

H.