Good Marksmanship Comes Easy When You Can Shoot in Your Living Room

I got back to shooting today, and I got pleasing results.

A while back, I bought a Smith & Wesson SW22 pistol for target practice. Apart from dealing with noise and recoil, there is nothing you can learn from a .45 ACP that you can’t learn from shooting cheap .22 rounds.

My first effort was not good. I think I posted a target photo here. Today things got somewhat better.

I was concerned because I was using Remington Golden Bullets, which are ridiculed all over the web. My hope was that even bad ammunition would group well at 7 yards. Today I got confirmation. I don’t know how well Golden Bullets will shoot at longer distances, because distance exposes ammunition problems, but at 7 yards, I see no reason to spend more money. It appears that if I were really shooting well, I would be keeping most rounds in an area the size of a half dollar, and until I learn otherwise, I believe that will suffice. My guess is that I could not shoot better than that right now with a perfect gun and perfect ammunition.

Here is today’s target. I shot 40 rounds at the center of it, and then I shot 10 rounds below. The first group is okay, with a few serious flyers. The second group is much better, with only one real flyer.

I felt wobbly today. The front sight seemed to dance a lot. I think that may have something to do with lifting weights not long before I shot. Anyway, I did not feel good at all, but things worked out all the same.

While I was shooting the first group, I noticed problems with my technique, and I cleaned them up to some extent. I assume this is why the second group is so much better.

Large groups are always worse than small ones, but my first 10 shots at the center of the target were not as good as the 10 shots I aimed lower down.

It appears that my shots group around points about 1/2″ high and maybe 3/8″ to the right of the point of aim. I am always reluctant to fool with pistol sights, because if you have a technique issue that consistently pulls you in a certain direction, you may end up adjusting the sights to match your bad technique instead of improving. I think I’ve shot this pistol enough to conclude that my sights need a little nudge.

This is pretty cool. I can shoot 90 seconds from my back door, there are no inexperienced maniacs around me who could shoot me at any minute, there are no rude range officers puffing their chests and generally being tactical, I can do rapid fire or anything else I want, and I don’t have to wait and do nothing while the line is safe.

Take that, Miami. In your face. Or cada or whatever. In su cada, baby!

If I start thinking the ammunition is limiting me, I’ll have to experiment and see what the gun likes better. I hope that happens, because if it does, it means I have more potential than I thought.

It would be REALLY neat to get a bucket of cheap rounds and practice shooting without the sights, like the Navy SEALS. My neighbors would hate me, I guess. I would go through a hundred rounds per session. But according to Richard Marcinko, the king of bad boy SEALS, it’s a great way to practice. If you can shoot a perp without aiming, you will be way WAY faster than the criminals you have to ventilate.

It’s a very reasonable aspiration. It works. I used to practice that kind of shooting with a CO2 pistol, but I let it go because the pistol shot to one side. You get what you pay for. Now I can do it with a real gun.

I hope I can put targets better than this one up in May. That would be neat.