Quote Originally Posted by Brick View Post
I'm not sure what you're talking about here re: a shooting rest. But forget it anyhow.

I was hoping to avoid typing all this but I will anyhow. A newbie's arc of motion might sweep from one side of the target to the other while an experienced shooters arc covers just the 9 ring. And you cannot stop the arc simply because you can't stop your heart and all the little electrical impulses that flash through your body and set up muscle tremors. Here's how you reduce the arc of motion your pistol goes through as you aim.

Get into a comfortable firing position, grasp your pistol, close your eyes and raise the pistol to firing position and let it settle in. Now open your eyes and observe. If your pistol is not pointed at your target, shift your feet as needed to align you correctly and try again as a test. Don't twist your body to get on target! Congrats you have just achieved your natural point of aim

Next, lower your arm, regrasp your pistol, close your eyes again and raise your pistol to firing position once more. Now open your eyes and observe the alignment of your sights. Is the front sight centered (left & right) in the rear notch? If no, loosen your grip slightly and twist the pistol as needed to make the correction, then try again to check. Once you have the sights centered, congrats, you have just achieved your natural grip!

Now with both natural point of aim and natural grip when you fire a shot and recover from recoil your pistol will return naturally to the target. Practice these things and you will learn them such that you'll naturally fall into the correct position to engage a target and your hand will naturally grasp your pistol in its' natural grip even when drawing from a holster.

But there's more. Your grip should be very firm, squeeze with only your forefinger and ring finger, do not apply pressure with your pinky or thumb, they just go along for the ride. Pressure should be straight to rear, your index finger is reserved for the trigger and use just the first 1/3 of the tip. Squeeze the trigger straight to the rear when you're ready to fire the shot. When you get your grip sqeeze the pistol until your arm starts to tremble, then relax the grip until the trembling stops. That's the correct amount of pressure.

Now it's time to talk about area aiming, as long as your sights are aligned and you don't jerk, push or pull the shot, you'll hit where the front sight was when the shot breaks, so as long as the front sight is on your target within the area you want to hit keep your trigger squeeze going until the shot breaks and you'll get a good hit.

Last is your eyes. Right hand shooter left eye dominant. Right? Use a piece of scotch tape or a blinder on your left eye (really on your shooting glass lens) and let the right eye and your brain train to do the work of aiming and shooting, but keep both eyes open under the glasses.

Go to www.bullseyepistol.com and read the USAMTU Pistol Marksmanship Manual.
Thanks!! Printing this to take with me the next time. It all makes perfect sense (although, I can picture myself doing all this and somehow being bass-ackwards just because that's my luck).

Thankyou for taking the time to answer and type all that.
Thankyou to everyone else! This site is always full of helpful info/great folks!