# There is more to practice then just throwing lead down range...



## Lisa (Apr 20, 2009)

I am a firm believer in this statement.  To become a better shooter one must do a lot more then throw lead down range.  I always start all my training session by finding my natural point of aim and work from there.  I do a lot of dry firing both with my eyes open and closed followed by some live fire exercises using both my competition targets and other targets such as simple black dots, a target turned backwards or cutting a small whole out of the target and shooting at it, trying to avoid hitting the sides.  Also for fun I shoot at metal silhouettes cut into the shape of some farm animals. 

While all of these are great, I was wondering if anyone had any other tips or exercises to help stop the monotony of practice, please share with me your secrets and fun times


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## grydth (Apr 20, 2009)

One has to wonder how many martial artists of all types just do the equivalent of "throwing lead down range"........ never thinking through the moves or what they are doing, never looking for ways to improve...... just wondering why they never seem to get any better.


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## Deaf Smith (Apr 20, 2009)

Practice to be skillful at anything tends to follow the same path.

Slow to fast, near to far, large targets to small ones. Everything done is done from the leather (as in drawing, and learing to draw correctly.)

Once you have the basics down, and I INSIST you have those down first, there are several ways to improve.

First when you get to the range do alot of gun handling with the gun empty. Draws, pivots, one handed and two handed 'stances', etc... to get warmed up. Check technique here to make sure it's still good technique as for gun handling. You can even do speed loads, tac-loads, shifting your weapon from your strong hand to your weak. Their is alot you can do with an empty gun! And everything from the leather guys. Concealed to if you carry the gun that way.

Live fire drills.

1. Speed load drills. Place one round in each of your mags. Draw, fire a good shot and as the gun goes into slide lock, speed load, then fire again, speed load, fire again till you run out of loaded mags. Do this several times and each time you get a slide lock, FIRST grab the spare mag and bring it up to the gun before dropping the spent mag. You will find that faster and easier to coordinate than trying to do both at once.

2. Hip shoot/sighted fire transitions. With the target close up, draw and fire one shot from the belt level (and I do mean the belt level, rotate the gun just as it clears the holster and fire) then quickly bring the weapon up to eye level while getting a very good two handed hold and fire one round for the head. Repeat till you have it down.

3. Target transistions. Draw and fire one shot, say 7 yards, just as you fire the shot, shift your eyes to the next target. Your gun will follow your eyes. Fire a second shot just as the sights come onto the target. Repeat this many times, sometimes from left to right, and others from right to left. And even up/down and down/up.

4. Weak handed drawing. Using an EMPTY gun, learn to do a rollover. That is reach over with your weak hand, grab the butt of the gun, bring it to your chest and roll it over so you can grab the grip with your weak hand. Make sure you keep your strong arm away from the muzzle (and anything else for that matter. Once you become profiicient, load a round and do it SLOW. KYFFOTFT (as you should always do anyway.)

5. One handed reloading. Again, first with an empty gun. There are several ways to reload one handed (strong or weak.) You can put the gun in your belt, or kneel and put it in the crook of your leg, off side armpit, between the knees, etc... Practice them till you really understand it. You can even do it with your eyes closed simulating darkness. Once you are proficient, then use a live magazine and practice more. Make sure the gun does not point at you or anyone else.

There are lot more. Barricades, prone shooting, shooting while moving, moving targets, using a timer to see how fast you are at any of the above things, and much more!

Yes you can make the range time very interesting and increase your skills ten fold.

Deaf


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## jetboatdeath (Apr 21, 2009)

Here is one that will make you re-think your shooting abilitys,

Before shooting, run, do pushups, situps whatever gets the heart going at a pace close to a panic situation. Then go to the line and shoot. You will be suprised how much a little heart beat and some heavy breathing can have such a huge effect on your point of aim... 
After all all shooting situations are not going to be under "range" conditions... try it you will learn alot...


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## teekin (Apr 21, 2009)

I'm still working on reading my wind flags correctly to keep my groups as tight as possible plus all the other silly stuff. The relaxed squeeze with no jerk or recoil upon fire, nice tight but soft control, relax my hands, breath and on it goes. 
 I really like the bolt action rifles.
lori


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