Define Your Mission

When I have the opportunity to guide a student towards their first gun purchase I start by asking them what is the reason for the purchase. Why do they need a gun? I’m not asking them to justify why they want to buy a gun, I’m asking them to tell me what is the mission for the gun. Are they looking for gun to carry concealed, for home defense or strictly for sport. There really isn’t one gun that will accomplish all those missions well. There are a few that can do a good job, but they also may not be the best starting point for a first gun. Here is a harsh reality for many new gun owners, you will probably buy the wrong gun. You may do some research, talk to some knowledgeable sources and even try before you buy and still end up with the wrong gun.

It’s Always the Indian

To be honest, which gun your purchase won’t really affect the outcome as much as the training you invest in with said gun. Without the training it is nothing more than a good luck charm. Without training you will lack the insight into what really works for you, what you truly need. The other harsh reality is most who invest into training learn the original gun purchase may not be the best for their newly developed skills. As you train more, you learn more. You learn more about what you need. Can a nice gun help with the learning process, of course. It is not a requirement, it is only an enhancement.

Buy Cheap, Buy Twice

When the shooter invests in their training, they will by proxy see improvements in their skill. It wasn’t the platform as much as the hard work they put into learning. The first gun purchase becomes a stepping stone towards what will probably be many purchases. The problem becomes avoiding buyer’s remorse and realizing you don’t have to keep working with something that is suboptimal. You can find it a new legal home through a variety of methods. Don’t feel compelled to sale the ship into the rocks for the sake of staying on the ship. It’s okay to acknowledge a poor choice, don’t beat yourself up about it because you didn’t know then what you know now.

Out of the Box

As a first time gun buyer, don’t feel like you have go hog wild to update, improve or enhance your new purchase. Learn how to use it, develop skill with it and if you discover the new gun works for you then great. The flip side is there will come a point of diminishing returns. A point where you will drop more money into equipment with the expectation it will improve your skill. Yes, there is some truth to this notion. However, I caution you on using this as an excuse not to train or improve your skill. You may see some skill improvements, but do those improvements come at the sacrifice of other skill deterioration. At some point, you will find a gun you can perform well with under a variety of conditions. It is reliable, durable and accurate enough for you and your skill level plus the mission at hand.

I rarely see someone out shoot a gun out of the box. Don’t look to the gun as the source of the problems, look at your skills or lack there of and do something about them.

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The One Absolute

I am not sure what desired outcome it is they are looking to achieve. I’m also not sure how they know they can expect said desired income. What I do know is the bullet doesn’t lie. You can be sure of that as well as it being the gun’s fault. No matter the make or model, if it is a modern defensive handgun it is more accurate than you. The first step in knowing you have a problem is acknowledging you have a problem.

Corrective Strategies

The best thing you can do improve your marksmanship capacity is to learn how to properly use your sights. I don’t care what type you have, understanding how they work is both the simplest and most challenging task you will face. Because performance standards are an integral part of our DNA it is easy to observe this facet. Aiming at smaller targets at closer ranges and larger targets at further ranges gives us a good idea of the student’s abilities on the subject. It has also also helped perfect our corrective strategies since we usually see results quickly.

High Hits???

Iron sights are not complicated, though it would seem some manufactures enjoy complicating the un-complicated. The front sight, usually a post typically in the shape of rectangle resting on its short side is aligned so it is equally spaced for both windage and elevation. We don’t typically see windage issues as a result of not understanding how sights work. However, we see problems with elevation frequently and the most popular error is to be high or impacting 12:00 of your intended point of aim.

Kentucky Windage is Not the Solution

Some will try to solve this issue by adjusting their point of aim. They will aim lower in order to adjust the bullet’s path to the target. This is a huge mistake and does nothing to help the student. Instead you have to ensure the student understand the object of their focus is the very top of the front sight post. Not too hard you say. I would agree, but with the addition of brilliant aiming tools it has created some problems.

Don’t Look into the Light

It is hard not to stare at this brilliant aiming tools. Some glow in the dark, others reflect light and some are just designed to attract your vision. The good news is they are doing their job. The bad news is many don’t move beyond this initial understanding. These brilliant aiming references should quickly draw your attention to the post as part of your pre-sight picture. Then you transition your focus to the top of the front sight post as part your sight picture. While many have heard “equal height”, few understand this is referencing the front sight post and not the brilliant aiming reference. When done correctly, it will allow give you true point of aim/point of impact. When done incorrectly it will produce misses at the 12:00 position. I took for granted the complexity for many students on how to use their iron sights. It allowed me to see the error in my ways quite literally and made me a better instructor as a result.

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Trust the arrow

When I’m working with beginner students who claim their sights are off, I will do a quick visual inspection. I’m looking to see anything grossly out of place. I have seen loose, missing and visibly misaligned sights so I need to eliminate those from the possible culprits. After they have been eliminated it invariably points to the shooter and mistakes they are unaware of causing their rounds to miss the target. I know it is frustrating, imagine if you had solid skills and yet still see something off. It is beyond frustrating at that point, but there is still a process you need to perform before you can conclude it is a mechanical and not technical error.

Consistency equals accuracy 

After you do a quick inspection, the next thing consideration is shooter errors. There are so many it is hard to expect the average shooter to process them all. However, the key to this type of process is consistency. If you are consistently hitting in the same spot as you move through this type of diagnostic work you greatly increase the possibility of the issue being mechanical. The hard part is many of these techniques are not practiced enough by the average shooter to generate the accuracy needed to be objective, but that is for another time. 

Safety is free

When conducting slow fire drills off hand you can go through the litany of shooter errors and their associated remedies. Many times with a good instructor you can at the very least identify the problem, the easy part. The hard part is working to correct the problem, something we call corrective strategies. As you progress through these diagnostics safety concerns will surface. Some may not have the skill level, familiarity or safe practices so make sure you exercise all these drills with safety in mind. I will identify an issue by shooting at 25 yards versus an 8” target then once I hone in on the culprit I will do a lot of the corrective strategies at the 10 yard line versus a 3” target. 

Trust the process

Once at the 10 yard line, perform the same course of fire using your strong hand only. A lot of times a common culprit is the weak hand overpowering the strong hand and pulling the gun to the weak side. Shooting a course of fire strong hand only will remove the weak hand entirely. If the group shifted to center you know it was your weak hand. If it is still off target in the same location move on to the next stage. This stage is shooting the course of fire from their weak side using both hands. Typically folks will be challenged with this portion of the drill and you have to recognize your shot group will more than likely expand. Look for the mean of your group and whether it is still consistently off target in the same location. If so, the last diagnostic to perform is weak hand only. Shoot the same course of fire with only your weak hand and if at this point you have seen your shot group consistently in the same location that is about as definitive as I need to make the choice to adjust my sights. 

Moving sights, wham!

Recently I took possession of a new pistol and I struggled with the shot group not being on target. I worked to create hyper focus on the fundamentals and while it helped to shrink my group size, the location remained the same. As I processed through this diagnostic work I continued to see shots impacting in the same location. I try to set the example so rather than assuming it was my sights I went through this process and I’m glad I did as I got definitive proof the sights were off. Granted when I performed my visual inspection I saw nothing awry, but that was to the naked eye. My gunsmith pushed the sights ever so minimally and wham; now they groups are printing where I want them. 

I’m still getting use to this new pistol, but I am relieved I could apply some troubleshooting to my groups in order to make the choice to adjust my sights, something you should not do recklessly. 

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