smores
Creepy-Ass Cracker
For he knows how to use it... isn't that how the old adage goes?
Alright well today I went to the NRA range with my dad and my brother. My brother hasn't shot any firearms for about 5 years since I took him to the range with me when I was a member at the IWLA Rockville Chapter. Here was the mini arsenal we brought:
S&W Mod. 19 (dad's)
SIG P226 (9x19mm, W. German - dad's)
Colt Combat Commander (.45 ACP - mine)
Glock 19 (mine)
My SBR AR-15 and YHM QD Phantom 7.62
So I ran my brother through the handling of each gun and we started shooting. My brother started posting some pretty good groups! He probably got about 3" at 7 yards, centered on the red center of the half-size B27 target we were shooting. The first shot he fired was SA, the rest DA, pretty impressive for someone who doesn't shoot often at all. He did pretty well with the SIG and decently with my 1911. My dad was doing ok, but I was very impressed with my little brother.
Then we got to the Glock and I threw the target out to 15 yards, and set up some rapid fire strings with 2 topped off G17 mags that had old carry ammo I wanted to dispose of. I blasted a mag as fast as I could get my sight picture back after recoil, reloaded and blasted another mag. Saw my group was stringing low left. I knew I was either jerking or squeezing too hard... I wanted to blame it on the brand new Mechanix gloves (for handling the hot suppressor) I was testing out... so I did lol. But I also knew and explained I hadn't shot paper for a long time. I haven't shot at a paper target like that for probably 6 months or more... Now I shoot pistols and shotguns 5 days a week, but normally for function testing and I'm watching the gun cycle typically, shooting one handed, rapidly, not caring about the marksmanship fundamentals at all... Now I do target some guns for accuracy but I always take my time on that and I have no problems.
Now back to the range trip today, my brother picked up the Glock and posted a pretty bad group so I didn't feel too bad. I took it as a chance to congratulate him on his good groups earlier, and demonstrate that shooting pistols with different grips/controls is difficult to do well consistently. I have long been an advocate of the idea that you can only really shoot one pistol platform well, simply because once you get used to one manual of arms/ergonomics/controls, it's hard to re-train to another pistol and be just as good. Now at my best I could post 4-5" groups at 15 yards as fast as I could shoot (never used a shot timer, but I was decently quick I think). I'm obviously out of practice, and will slow it down some when I start hitting the range more.
So back to the original title of the thread.... how many of you guys consider yourselves truly proficient shooters, and to what degree? Any Grand Master USPSA/Master IDPA shooters here? Champion bullseye target shooters? Practical/LE/Military pistol shooters? Are you good with most pistols and only excellent with one? Or is it possible to be a true pistoleer in every sense of the word with several pistols of varying designs/ergonomics?
Sorry for the rambling thread... just putting a few points out there to ponder.
Alright well today I went to the NRA range with my dad and my brother. My brother hasn't shot any firearms for about 5 years since I took him to the range with me when I was a member at the IWLA Rockville Chapter. Here was the mini arsenal we brought:
S&W Mod. 19 (dad's)
SIG P226 (9x19mm, W. German - dad's)
Colt Combat Commander (.45 ACP - mine)
Glock 19 (mine)
My SBR AR-15 and YHM QD Phantom 7.62
So I ran my brother through the handling of each gun and we started shooting. My brother started posting some pretty good groups! He probably got about 3" at 7 yards, centered on the red center of the half-size B27 target we were shooting. The first shot he fired was SA, the rest DA, pretty impressive for someone who doesn't shoot often at all. He did pretty well with the SIG and decently with my 1911. My dad was doing ok, but I was very impressed with my little brother.
Then we got to the Glock and I threw the target out to 15 yards, and set up some rapid fire strings with 2 topped off G17 mags that had old carry ammo I wanted to dispose of. I blasted a mag as fast as I could get my sight picture back after recoil, reloaded and blasted another mag. Saw my group was stringing low left. I knew I was either jerking or squeezing too hard... I wanted to blame it on the brand new Mechanix gloves (for handling the hot suppressor) I was testing out... so I did lol. But I also knew and explained I hadn't shot paper for a long time. I haven't shot at a paper target like that for probably 6 months or more... Now I shoot pistols and shotguns 5 days a week, but normally for function testing and I'm watching the gun cycle typically, shooting one handed, rapidly, not caring about the marksmanship fundamentals at all... Now I do target some guns for accuracy but I always take my time on that and I have no problems.
Now back to the range trip today, my brother picked up the Glock and posted a pretty bad group so I didn't feel too bad. I took it as a chance to congratulate him on his good groups earlier, and demonstrate that shooting pistols with different grips/controls is difficult to do well consistently. I have long been an advocate of the idea that you can only really shoot one pistol platform well, simply because once you get used to one manual of arms/ergonomics/controls, it's hard to re-train to another pistol and be just as good. Now at my best I could post 4-5" groups at 15 yards as fast as I could shoot (never used a shot timer, but I was decently quick I think). I'm obviously out of practice, and will slow it down some when I start hitting the range more.
So back to the original title of the thread.... how many of you guys consider yourselves truly proficient shooters, and to what degree? Any Grand Master USPSA/Master IDPA shooters here? Champion bullseye target shooters? Practical/LE/Military pistol shooters? Are you good with most pistols and only excellent with one? Or is it possible to be a true pistoleer in every sense of the word with several pistols of varying designs/ergonomics?
Sorry for the rambling thread... just putting a few points out there to ponder.