Best Shooting Tips For Beginners - 7 Tips That Help Your Progress

Best Shooting Tips For Beginners - 7 Tips That Help Your Progress

While Hollywood may make it seem simple, shooting a handgun like a pro requires technique, balance, as well as practice. When it comes to shooting a handgun, even an experienced long gun shooter would have to learn different skills to shoot accurately and with precision. 

Indeed, shooting a gun can be an exciting experience that may culminate in a lifelong hobby. No doubts, firing a gun is not an uphill task, but becoming proficient with your timing, speed and accuracy will take devoting quality time to achieve. 

It doesn’t matter if you are using your gun for self-defense, competition shooting, or hunting, accuracy is highly required in firing a gun. And, the good news is that this post details techniques and methods that would help you improve yourself continually to become a better and skillful shooter. Keep reading to learn more.

Tip #1: Start by Choosing the Right Gun and Ammunition

Handguns are available in different varieties with a virtually vast array of ammunition options. Another important factor is to consider a hand-size, body, as well as what you want to be doing with the handgun. For instance, if you want to practice target shooting, purchasing a .357 magnum won’t be needful for such practice at the gun range. The best move is to speak with experienced firearm shooters or dealers about your shooting needs. Choosing and getting familiar with a handgun of your choice is a major step in learning to become a seasoned shooter. 

Tip #2: Use the Proper Safety Gears to Protect Your Eyes and Ears

You need protection against gunshots’ noise and you can achieve this with earplugs and headphone-style ear protection. For your eyes, you should go for safety goggles that will shield your eyes from flying shells, lead particles, and hot gasses that a semi-automatic handgun emits. 
​
You should still put on your safety goggles, it doesn’t matter if you are already having a pair of glasses on. Your regular eye-glasses won’t offer the perfect protection that the safety goggles would offer to your eyes while practicing shooting. ​

Tip #3: Keep Your Breathing in Check

When practicing to become a better shooter, you also need to regulate your breathing. Your unchecked breathing moves both your gun and your body up and down. Consequently, this will impact where your shot lands. One of the great ways to keep your breathing in check is to engage your natural respiratory pause. The simple technique is to inhale and exhale, then pull the trigger while holding your breath. While you need to steady and hold your breath, avoid doing it for too long so that the sight picture won’t get blurred. Also, when you have to fire more than one shot in quick succession, it is better to take shorter breaths. This will help you use your natural respiratory pause when you fire your gun. The respiratory muscles go into a more relaxed mode in the course of the pause so that you can easily stay on target. ​

Tip #4: Follow through after Pulling the Trigger

In essence, make sure you steady your gun while the bullet leaves the barrel. A great way to enhance your follow-through skill is to ensure your eye does not leave the target while the shot lasts. Keep your head still after pulling the trigger. The pressure should remain on the trigger after you have released the bullet. Do not let your finger bounce forward so that your gun’s point of aim will remain intact. If your gun is a fully-automatic rifle, the trigger should not remain pulled. Indeed, a good follow-through skill will help you identify the landing spots of your shots. Consequently, it’s easier to adjust your aim more accurately for the next rounds of shots. ​

Tip #5: Engage the Proper Grip to Hold the Gun Firmly

To accomplish a proper grip, get your dominant hand to rest high on your gun’s back-strap while using the other hand to cover the gun’s bottom portion and placing your strong hand’s thumb over the non-dominant thumb. Make sure both thumbs are pointing towards your target. Keep your trigger finger resting on the trigger guard’s side and remain in that position until you fire the bullet. Don’t hold the slide lock or the top of the gun to avoid sustaining grave injuries to your hands. Ultimately, using the correct grip to hold your gun is a great way to reduce recoil effects. ​

Tip #6: Become a Master of the Prone Position

Wondering what the prone position is? It’s simply aiming your shot while lying on your stomach. If you are using a rifle, the prone position is the most accurate as well as a natural position to master – much more effective than the standing position as well as other firing positions. If you wish to make meaningful progress with your long-range accuracy as a beginner, you should practice the prone position until it becomes second nature to you. Thereafter, you can move on to more difficult shooting positions. The right practice is to pick your gun from the ground while standing and not to stand up with the rifle. So, place the rifle on the ground first, then stand up and take the gun in your standing position. ​

Tip #7: Master Trigger Control

You should also practice to becoming a better trigger controller. For this to happen, you should learn to place the pad of the index finger directly at the center of the gun’s trigger. Press your finger steadily in a backward motion when you fire. Before you attain resistance, some level of slack should take place on the trigger. As soon as you fire a shot, do not take the next shot yet until your trigger moves forward and resets. Only your trigger finger should provide the pressure. Do not tighten your grip on the hand to pull the trigger. Finally, to become a better shooter, you should learn to adopt a proper stance. In essence, when you stand, your dominant foot should be positioned behind the 
non-dominant foot – the distance between the two should be a hip-length. You should bend your trunk slightly forward, then prevent kickback by balancing on your feet’s balls. Ensure your shoulders stay in front of the hips.

By Jay Chambers

Get hands on experience at Kodiaks Firearm Training