I recently got my ccw permit and I am new to pistol shooting. What is a good distance to start off for practice target shooting. I shot my new G19 over the weekend and was less than impressed with my skills :no:. Let me add that my target was about 50 feet away, 10" in dia...too far?
You need to learn to shoot the pistol first. Don't worry about carrying it right now.
Move the targets in to about 12 FEET. Folks argue about shooting this close but there's reason to the madness. The farther away the target is, the more mistakes are amplified. What may move bullet impact 1 inch at 12 feet could put it off the paper at 25 yards. If you don't know what you are doing wrong, you can't fix it. It also builds confidence in the new shooter because they can SEE the results of very shot. Completely missing the target confuses and frustrates because you don't know what you did wrong.
Shoot slow, deliberate groups concentrating on proper form (stance, foot placement,...), grip and trigger press. Focus on doing EVERYTHING the exact same way every time you shoot a round. Make sure you are HITTING the target the same place consistently. When you consistently keep every round in a group the size of the bottom of a Coke can, move the target back 3 feet and repeat the process. Keep moving the targets back when you're groups reach a certain size. If they start to grow, move it back closer. When you get out to about 20 yards, start the process over shooting one handed. when you get one hand shooting down, start over working with your off hand. By the time you are done, you'll be able to hit what you are aiming at with either hand and that's a very good skill to have in a self defense situation.
Once you have learned to shoot straight and you have the basics down (master grip, trigger press, ...) THEN you can work on getting self defense related stuff like drawing and firing and multi-shot rapid fire. If you are snatching, milking or otherwise screwing up your trigger pull, you aren't going to hit where you need to in a self defense situation. Also, if you don't get the same master grip every time you draw the gun, you won't hit the same place and your sights won't be aligned the same way when you point the gun. Get the gun sitting in your hand exactly how you need it to for the sights to be aligned. Hold that grip and holster. Once holstered, slowly undo each finger 1 by one and pay attention to how they feel when they are on the gun. I look for certain tactile points like how the middle joint of my middle finger feels when it is placed properly, how my wrist is angled, where my thumb falls on the gun, ... to learn how to get the right grip on the gun in the holster. Then practice drawing with your eyes closed. Draw, present the gun at eye or chin level and sights should be roughly aligned and fully visible when you open your eyes.
They are called 'fundamentals' for a reason. Getting the basics right makes it easier to learn the more complicated stuff like rapid fire and instinctive or point shooting. Poor trigger control or a misaligned, inconsistent grip on the gun will change the point of impact and if you don't hit what you need to, you are not only just making noise and wasting powder and shot but you are also sending real bullets down range that have to go someplace. I'd practice the draw by drawing and shooting 1 shot onto the target and holstering. When your first shot hits where you want it to EVERY time, go to shooting 2 rounds and reholstering. Once you can get multiple rounds on target quickly, go to multiple targets and progress the same way (draw, 1 shot on 1 target, 1 shot on the next target, holster). Focus on the FRONT SIGHT during rapid fire strings. Align the sights for the first shot and pull the trigger again when the front sight falls back onto where you want the bullet to go. The same holds true for multiple target strings. Your eyes move to the next target, then the gun. When the front sight hit the middle of the target (where you should be focusing your eyes), mash the trigger. Hold your aimng point a little low of dead center. Most folks miss high on multiple target strings, so aim a few inches or a hand's breadth low of dead center.
A good dry fire technique for improving trigger control is to take a coin and place it on the barrel flat of a revolver or top of the slide of an UNLOADED and verified that it's unloaded gun. Find a point on a wall, aim at it (look at the FRONT SIGHT, not the coin!!!) and press the trigger. If you do it right, the coin doesn't fall or move. If you screw it up, the coin falls, so do it over a bed so you don't have to hunt all over the floor for the coin. Do it in short sessions (10 minutes or so) multiple times a day and your muscle memory will pick it up in no time. I used this technique to learn how to shoot revolvers DA only several years ago and it helped tremendously.
