In an earlier missive, I threw my shooting quandary open to the tender mercies of the Armed Intelligentsia. I was as accurate as ever with my Kahr but pushing rounds shot with a Glock 19 Gen 4 I’d rented noticeably to the left. I figured the problem was the carpenter rather than the tool, but was surprised since the Glock had a lighter trigger and is softer-shooting than the CW9. To my fevered brain, that should make a gun easier to shoot accurately. Shows you what I know…
As I’d hoped and expected, the advice I got from the AI faithful was very helpful. Most people blamed my p-poor performance to familiarity with the new gun compared to my trusty Kahr and suggested slowing down and focusing on fundamentals. So back to the range I went yesterday for more schutzenglocken.
I brought along 100 rounds range ammo and concentrated on slowing down and emphasizing a few basic fundamentals, trigger finger position, smooth pull and proper grip. I also brought another gun to plink away with between Glock mags. Here’s what my first 15 from 21 feet looked like (forgive the phone-quality pics):
Uh, yeah. I swear that wasn’t buckshot from my Mossy. I chalked this up to having six different things running through my noggin at the same time. Not a good formula for accurate shooting.
So I simplified things a little. I have a tendency to let my trigger finger slip toward the knuckle rather than keeping the fat part of the pad on it. That was probably a cotributing factor above. I also tried to maintain a smooth front to back pull and, as everything you read tells you, let the gun “surprise” you when it goes off.
This was the third mag. Better. Still left, but better. So I kept it up and by the end I was a little more centered, if not exactly drilling a single hole.
Moral of the story: the GastonGun is simply a different heater than I’ve been used to shooting and I need to burn more ammo to get proficient. Still, it’s a little weird in that I’ve never had this much trouble picking up a new gun and being accurate with it before. I do love shooting it, though, and will be accurate with it. The other moral: the Armed Intelligentsia know their guns from a hole in the ground. No shock there.
“Still, it’s a little weird in that I’ve never had this much trouble picking up a new gun and being accurate with it before.”
All those guns have been teaching you bad muscle memory, which you must overcome to shoot the Glock well.
For some of us, the Glock was our first gun, and we have trouble picking anything else up and being accurate with them right out of the box 😉
I remember reading the last post, and my first couple shoot outs with the Gen 4 17 were pulling left in the exact same way, and maybe a little bit low. I chalked it up to being my first handgun, and getting used to the trigger.
All in all, practice makes perfect I suppose, no matter the gun.
Bad habits can develop with a familiar firearm, too.
For whatever reason, I started “diving into” my 1911. (recoil anticipation)
Anyway, like you, Dan, I went back to the fundamentals. Going back to the fundamentals appears to have cleared up the problem, though I won’t really know until I get in some more range time.
It’s ironic, Dan, that the more different guns I shoot for reviews etc., the less I shoot my EDC (there are only so many available hours in the week) and the better I get with my EDC. I guess its because shooting unfamiliar firearms forces me to go back to the fundamentals time after time after time.
I’m betting that once you get this Glock nailed down, you’ll be better with your Kahr.
Nice work!
Only perfect practice makes perfect.
use your support hand more
Yep. grip is very important.
(Flame preemption… note grip = your action of gripping the pistol. not the physical freaking grip on the pistol “fitting your hand”… whatever that means.)
-D