10 Shooting Tips From Expert Sharpshooters

Here are 10 tips from 10 expert sharpshooters.

1. My go-to drill is dry fire with a coin placed on the front sight. After you’ve got your sights aligned, slowly squeeze the trigger. If your squeeze is slow and smooth, then the coin will stay on.

If it falls off, then keep trying until you can consistently squeeze the trigger and keep the coin on the sight. This is a great exercise if you see your shots dropping low – often a symptom of jerking the trigger. – Chris Cheng

2. For pure accuracy: a focus drill at close range, such as 4-5 yards. Object: every bullet in the same hole. Done at close range because a hit three inches out at 25 yards could be attributed to the gun or the ammo, but at 4 yards, the shooter doesn’t kid himself about whether or not human error was involved. – Massad Ayoob

Massad Ayoob has been the handgun editor of GUNS magazine and law enforcement editor of American Handgunner since the 1970s

3. Each trigger being different requires the shooter to really pay attention to how he is controlling it. When they go back to shooting their pistol exclusively, improvements are immediately evident

The drill is designed to confront suspects wearing body armor. Two rounds to the chest, one to the head.

The first part (two to the chest) emphasizes stance, sight alignment and trigger control. The two rounds to the chest area engage and then disable the suspects physical response to the shock, making the combination more effective.

The third round comes after an assessment that the first two did not work (thus probability of body armor). The third round emphasizes sight alignment and trigger control. The overall drill enforces the concept of fire control. As a shooting drill it makes me a more controlled and effective shooter. – Lieutenant Raymond E. Foster

4. For this course, we use bullseye targets. It has been a standard NRA bullseye pistol competition target for decades. It is scored as printed. The course is divided into five stages, fired at 25, 15, 7 and 5 yards, in five round strings.

Since all strings are five rounds each, you can even use this with a five-shot revolver. All strings begin with the pistol loaded, in both hands, at the low ready. Use a shot timer, or have a shooting partner time you with a stop-watch.

After completing a 25-year career in law enforcement and specialized security work, Tom Givens opened his own pistol range in Memphis, TN in 1996.

5. As a “bullseye” shooter my go to drill to improve accuracy is something that I do at the beginning of every outdoor shooting season with iron sights and dots. Something I also teach to students. I turn my target around and shoot at a blank face. This helps to take away the distraction of the black center and just shoot my hold and trigger control. I don’t worry about where the group is without a black center, once the target is up I can adjust if needed.

Brian Zins is a former United States Marine Corps military police officer and Gunnery Sergeant. He is also a competitive shooter known for his proficiency with the M1911 pistol with which he holds various records at the NRA and other events.

6. My go to drill is the “walk in walk out”. This focuses on speed, accuracy and your ability to control your shots. The hardest part of shooting is controlling your subconscious mind to pick the right speed/accuracy for the distance and level of complexity of the shot. This drill is changing tempo and multiple shots which will test your grip. It’s enough shots per yard line to see if your stance solid or needs improvement. Goal is to shoot as fast as possible. The better technique and fundamentals you have the easier this will become.

It’s 40 rounds total and or 400 points total. I use golf scores and count only the amount of points dropped. Usually anything less than a perfect score and you need improvement. Practice doesn’t make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

It’s 5 rounds per yard line. Target is a standard B8 bullseye target.

• • • Start at 3 yards/meters and shoot 5 rounds.

    • 2 steps back and shoot at 5 yards/meters.

    • 2 more steps back and shoot at 7 yards/meters.

    • Then 3 steps back and shoot at 10 yards/meters.

    • Shoot one more string of 5 rounds at 10 yards/meters.

    • 3 steps up to 7. 2 steps to 5 then 2 steps to 3. Remember 5 rounds per yard line.

So get out there and start training. Oh yeah I forgot, if you shoot a perfect score go faster until you don’t, slacker. There is no such thing as good enough to save yours or your families lives. Just saying.

Sergeant Major (ret) John McPhee served a distinguished career in U.S. Army Special Operations for over 20 years, retiring in 2011.

7. My favorite accuracy drill is the “Reset Drill,” which teaches you to really feel trigger reset and maintain your follow-through for shot-to-shot recovery.

Take aim at a precise aiming point on the target and using all elements of proper marksmanship, fire a single round; however, don’t immediately release the trigger to reset it. Instead, hold it down, re-establish your sight picture and then slowly release the trigger until it resets. When it does, immediately squeeze it again to fire another shot. Again, hold the trigger down, sight, release, and immediately squeeze again–without disturbing your sight picture on reset. By offsetting the timing of the shot-to-shot process, this drill allows you to focus on follow-through, reset, and shot-to-shot recovery. When you resume your normal shooing cadence and timing, you should be pleasantly surprised with your accuracy.

My favorite accuracy drill is the “Reset Drill,” – Michael Janich

Michael Janich has been studying and teaching self-defense and the martial arts for more than 35 years. He served nine years in the U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command and is a well-respected author.

8. We don’t really have a drill but rather a shot process which is almost the same for all of the squad. We follow the technique as closely as possible and train it in. Training doesn’t make perfect but it makes permanent, so training perfect technique is the key.

The shot process is very complex and there’s not really a simple answer to this due to the several stages of the process. The shot process can be broken down into its basics of stance, balance, arm raise, lower onto target while increasing pressure on the trigger until you’re within the target area then squeeze the trigger till the shot is released, during this you maintain concentration on the for-site and maintaining controlled breath.

Replicating this as closely for each shot. – Ian Morris

9. PPL is honored to be a part of this article, but I still think I have plenty of room to grow before I am considered an ‘expert’.

With that said, I do have a technique that I like to offer our shooters who are having trouble with anticipation. I suggest that they choose a rhythmic word to say out loud as they pull the trigger. The word could be something short and repetitive, such as pull, pull, pull, pull until the trigger is pulled firmly to the rear.

Other people choose a word like squeeze and say the word until the end of the trigger pull, such as squuuuuueeeze. Either way, the technique has proven itself useful over and again because by saying the word out loud, the shooter focuses on the sound of her voice rather than the impending sound or recoil.

Teresa Ovalle, Founder of Pistol Packing Ladies

10. So often people have a handgun accuracy drill that entirely removes the speed component from the equation. I like “The Dots” because you are required to fire 6 shots in 5 seconds while starting holstered.

You draw the pistol, build your grip up, and then fire at a reasonable pace at tight targets. I also like the goal of never missing a dot across multiple strings. This helps the shooter build consistency and discipline. I use versions of this drill in every class I teach.

Ben Stoeger likes to shoot stuff. He’s been a competitive shooter since 2005.

Even if one of these helps you improve your shot it was worth the read!

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