[cfec2008]

I have a gen 3 19, changed to xs big dot sights three weeks ago. Since then I have been going to the range with a work buddy and have trouble hitting a 6 to 7.5 inch plate while racing him. We shoot against each other for bragging rights at work. Sometimes I notice my self flinching low, and man does it really piss me off. I'm not afraid of a 9mm, so I can't understand why in the world I do it. I can eat up a 12 inch plate all day long even while transitioning to other 12 inch plates.
Maybe I should have stayed with my three dot trijicons for this type of shooting??? How do I get rid of flinching? I dry fire quiet a bit. ALSO, is it possible to pull your shots off target by gripping to hard with the support hand, which is my left hand?? AND one more thing...I almost always dunk my head low to meet my sights kinda like people on tv do sometimes. I guess my brain says to do that since that is what I have seen..Is that a bad thing for me to do? Should I leave my head where it normally is and raise my gun up higher to meet my eyes?

Thank you for your help. My goal is to be able to knock these 7 inch plates down without having to make up shots in a fair amount of time, while using proper form and technique. I want to progressivly get better. I dont expect to be lightning fast now, but want to get there eventually. Thanks again.

 

[TxGlock9]

It has absolutely NOTHING to do with the sights. All of the things that you stated definitely could be a factor, but I doubt it is the culprit. The problem is your flinching. The brain will naturally tell you to compensate for the recoil no matter what gun you shoot. Thus, dipping the muzzle end of the pistol downwards when you pull the trigger. The solution to this is to practice the **** out of it. Muscle memory will naturally occur, thus helping prevent flinching.

Try this. Buy some snap caps and have your friend randomly load your glock with live and dummy rounds. So that you have no idea when the dummy round is chambered. This will tell you if you are still flinching.

A bit of advice. Don't try to compensate for the recoil so much. Sounds like you are death gripping it because you're in a heighten mode of anxiety/excitement (call it what you want) since you know you are racing your friend. Let the pistol take it's toll during recoil. Not to say you should limpwrist. I doubt you will as long as you don't let the gun jump out of your hand, so to speak.

Good luck. Remember slow is fast. Once you get comfortable from that level, move up. Let the friend have his cake for now. You'll get better soon enough.

 

[jadickson]

I found a YouTube channel called Shooting Coach. Lots of good stuff that helped me a lot. Here ya go:

http://www.youtube.com/user/shootingcoach

 

[Aquagear]

The dry firing is a good way to start, concentrate on the front sight not moving, and slow down. Get your accuracy up first and then build up your speed, when you go for speed first accuracy will suffer. Practice and dry firing to get proper rigger control is the most important. Above all be safe and enjoy.

 

[cfec2008]

I really do appreciate the replies. I will take all I can get. Open minded to anything. I like where one person put slow is fast. I Dont think Im death gripping, but I may be. Ive tried gripping it a little lighter. Hope to get a lot of information here. Thank you

 

[Giggity-Giggity]

Is there a way your work buddy can video tape you shooting? It's always good to see yourself on video and see what you're doing wrong.

I've been shooting for 6+ years and the flinching never goes away. But slowly and surely I'm overcoming the flinch with constant dry firing.

 

[C0untZer0]

Are you able to keep a completely steady sight picture when you dry fire?

One way to start isolating what is going on is to dry fire from bench, dry fire right handed and dry fire left handed.

There are a lot of things that could be going wrong, gripping too hard or pushing to hard with you right hand, pulling somehow with your left hand, too much finger on the trigger.

I would start by dry firing it one handed on a bench bag - or rolled up towel.

Take away all the components of your normal grip to the point where you're dry firing it with only you thumb and trigger finger. Add in all the components of your normal grip and see what happens.

 

[cfec2008]

Is there a way your work buddy can video tape you shooting? It's always good to see yourself on video and see what you're doing wrong.

I've been shooting for 6+ years and the flinching never goes away. But slowly and surely I'm overcoming the flinch with constant dry firing.

Thanks. video idea sounds good. Hes up to date with the latest and greatest gadgets so im sure he has a nice camera.

 

[cfec2008]

Are you able to keep a completely steady sight picture when you dry fire?

One way to start isolating what is going on is to dry fire from bench, dry fire right handed and dry fire left handed.

There are a lot of things that could be going wrong, gripping too hard or pushing to hard with you right hand, pulling somehow with your left hand, too much finger on the trigger.

I would start by dry firing it one handed on a bench bag - or rolled up towel.

Take away all the components of your normal grip to the point where you're dry firing it with only you thumb and trigger finger. Add in all the components of your normal grip and see what happens.

I think that I might be pulling with my left hand some. I am beginning to put only the tip of my finger on the trigger, and trying to pull straight back. I will do your dryfire drills and I HOPE that I can find something to correct. Thank you

 

[ADK_40GLKr]

After a year and a half and about 2000 USB & WWB, I've started getting my groups in the center of the target. They're still pretty big groups though. What's worked for me:
-I think of it as gradually tightening as I press the trigger with the pad of my finger.
-I try to do so slowly and let the shot SURPRISE me.
-I "ride the reset". -- only release the trigger to the first click after the shot
- after gripping high and firm with my right hand, I do the same with my left. I find the heel of my left thumb digs into that RTF grip, my left fingers grasp my right ones tightly and my left thumb rides under my right thumb, with both pointing toward the target.
-it's a FIRM grip, but not a death grip
-and I, too, lean forward pushing the gun out toward the target. (I don't know how correct this is, but it seems to cut down a lot on my wobble)

I can get pretty close to COM at 15 yards, and I'm starting to get my shots on paper with an 8.5 x14" sheet.

Lately my drills start at 5 yards, then work out to 7, 15 & 25. ( 2 to 6 rounds each, depending on time and ammo supply.)

 

[cfec2008]

While sitting here on the couch dryfiring, I noticed the the 19 jumps just a little when the striker falls. as in when the gun would fire if a round was in the chamber. I dont know if theres anything I can do about that or not?

 

[sgtlmj]

Accurately. Take a class or two.

 

[TxGlock9]

While sitting here on the couch dryfiring, I noticed the the 19 jumps just a little when the striker falls. as in when the gun would fire if a round was in the chamber. I dont know if theres anything I can do about that or not?

A slight jump is fine. That's normal during dryfire. Of course we want to keep that to a minimal regardless. What you don't realize is the actual flinch during real fire. You can't replicate that unless you do what I said to do with the snapcaps and live rounds mix on your next range visit. Put it this way, it's easy NOT to flinch when dry firing.

 

[LibertyPatriot]

A smoother trigger helps too.
Relax just before you pull the trigger. Tension in your arms and shoulders reflect in your grip and trigger finger.


Via OHub for iPhone
Thanks GT!

 

[ron59]

It has absolutely NOTHING to do with the sights. [Edited for brevity...]

You said a lot of good things I totally agree with. Some great advice actually. The one thing I might disagree with is the statement above.

The XS Big Dot sights are notoriously "inaccurate" for distance shooting or small target shooting. They are for gross target acquisition, not tight accuracy. You will not find any (will maybe a few, and they probably suck) action shooters such as IDPA/USPSA using them.

XS Big Dots are great for self defense at 7 yards (the often stated standard for self defense situtations) for hitting COM. The OP didn't state the distance, but for 6" plates at 10-11 yards, at speed? Not the optimal sights.

cfec2008 - you have to decide what is more important to you. A "self defense specific sight" that's not good for much else (the big dots)... or a set of 3 dot night sights that might do good in both situations (what you had originally). *OR*... get a gamer gun and have two guns... one to race your buddy with, and one for SD. Note: by "gamer gun", I'm talking a G17 or G34 with some competition style sights like the Warren/Sevignys, not necessarily some race gun with optics or anything.

I have gamer guns with trigger jobs and competition sights (G17 I've been using and a G34 I'm picking up soon, ordered through GSSF), and a G26 for SD that is totally stock.

 

[Billy10mm]

You said a lot of good things I totally agree with. Some great advice actually. The one thing I might disagree with is the statement above.

The XS Big Dot sights are notoriously "inaccurate" for distance shooting or small target shooting. They are for gross target acquisition, not tight accuracy. You will not find any (will maybe a few, and they probably suck) action shooters such as IDPA/USPSA using them.

XS Big Dots are great for self defense at 7 yards (the often stated standard for self defense situtations) for hitting COM. The OP didn't state the distance, but for 6" plates at 10-11 yards, at speed? Not the optimal sights.

cfec2008 - you have to decide what is more important to you. A "self defense specific sight" that's not good for much else (the big dots)... or a set of 3 dot night sights that might do good in both situations (what you had originally). *OR*... get a gamer gun and have two guns... one to race your buddy with, and one for SD. Note: by "gamer gun", I'm talking a G17 or G34 with some competition style sights like the Warren/Sevignys, not necessarily some race gun with optics or anything.

I have gamer guns with trigger jobs and competition sights (G17 I've been using and a G34 I'm picking up soon, ordered through GSSF), and a G26 for SD that is totally stock.

I respectfully disagree. I've got an XS big-dot front sight on my 10mm 1911. 6" plates at 50 yards are a cake walk, 10 out of 10. If I miss one, I pulled it and it was clearly my fault, not the gun or the sights. I've shot at 12" targets at 200 yards with these sights and register more hits than misses. I will caveat that statement by pointing out that for precision work I tend to use the night-sight portion of the sights (smaller dots in the center of the larger white dot area), but the point is that these sights are up to the task.

 

[ck1]

First things first I'd say work on making sure your grip is correct and dialed in, here's a good vid that will show you what a good glock grip looks like: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBmN7mpVZWE

Then it's mostly trigger-control, trigger-control, trigger-control...

As an aside, FWIW, I hate Big Dot sights with a passion and think they're about as gimmicky as it gets and actually may do more to hurt good accuracy and instill bad habits than help (especially since the rear sight is more or less useless). IMO, just about all the distances the Big Dots are useful for (0-10 yards or so) a guy can hit COM just based off good index with no sights at all.

 

[ron59]

I respectfully disagree. I've got an XS big-dot front sight on my 10mm 1911. 6" plates at 50 yards are a cake walk, 10 out of 10. If I miss one, I pulled it and it was clearly my fault, not the gun or the sights. I've shot at 12" targets at 200 yards with these sights and register more hits than misses. I will caveat that statement by pointing out that for precision work I tend to use the night-sight portion of the sights (smaller dots in the center of the larger white dot area), but the point is that these sights are up to the task.

Thank you for your politeness. First, I will say that I've never actually SHOT with XS big dots, so it might sound as I'm talking out my butt... right? However, I have seen the sight picture, and that is a HUGE dot with a wide V.

I considered them at one time a few years back and did some research. Do this Google search:

xs big dot sights competition shooting

You will find folks almost exclusively saying they aren't that accurate at distance, not good for competition, etc. etc.

I mean... I don't see how you can even superimpose those sights over a 12" plate at 200 yards with them. That's the same thing other people discuss as well, at nowhere near those distances??


OP... if you still have your original sights... maybe you can do some tests. Do some runs with the Big Dots, and then your 3-dot trijicons, maybe report back the results. I'd be curious. I don't want to be spreading unfounded comments about something, only repeating what appears to be a predominant opinion.

 

[Berto]

The first thing is to get good grip and trigger fundamentals. You have to be able to properly index the weapon and break the trigger without 'pushing' your shots.
Until then, sights are a non-issue as whatever sight picture you have is disrupted when you break the shot.

 

[blueorb]

I respectfully disagree. I've got an XS big-dot front sight on my 10mm 1911. 6" plates at 50 yards are a cake walk, 10 out of 10. If I miss one, I pulled it and it was clearly my fault, not the gun or the sights. I've shot at 12" targets at 200 yards with these sights and register more hits than misses. I will caveat that statement by pointing out that for precision work I tend to use the night-sight portion of the sights (smaller dots in the center of the larger white dot area), but the point is that these sights are up to the task.

Bull****. Post an unedited video of you doing it.