A 'Handgunner's Diagnostic Target' for the New Age!

I have penned a few articles covering the Basics of Marksmanship, the Importance of Zero and selecting a grip that works for you, regardless of what’s popular at any given moment. I’ve covered the accuracy we should expect from a service pistol and our rightful expectations that such an implement should require no ‘Break In’. I hammer this stuff out because deep in my heart, I genuinely believe that an armed and proficient American populace enhances not only its own security- but the security of the nation as well.

To gain that proficiency, there are absolutes:

• If If you aren't zeroed, you ain't hitting anything. 
• If you aren't using a proper sight picture, expect the same result.
• A firm, consistent grip and solid shooting stance are required to maintain 1 & 2, and
• You can still screw it all up by yanking the trigger! 

Of course all this requires work, commitment and some genuine effort on the shooter's part. Oddly, this don't sit well with many contemporary shooters. These poor souls jump on the internet, post tales of their accuracy woes- and they want to hear anything except basic marksmanship principles.

Some of the advice they’re getting makes me scratch my head, too. One good Samaritan replied that poor accuracy (at maybe ten yards) could be cured by taking awhile “to let the gun ‘break-in’ and naturally find its own impact point.” I guess that gun was just wishing the shots around and then one day, as if by magic, it starts cooperating? Silly me.  All these years, I believed you had to confirm zero, align the sights correctly on the target and then press the trigger straight back without disturbing them.

Another favorite bit of 'expert advice' is to post a ‘Shooter Error Correction Chart’. These are useful in diagnosing problems with one-hand, precision shooting at 25 and 50 yards; but in my experience they are irrelevant for two-hand shooting at any distance. And of course, we don’t have a clue if subject pistol is zeroed- or the errant shooter is using a proper sight picture, grip or trigger technique. 

But nobody wants to hear that. Today, shooters want a graph, chart or webpage to solve all their marksmanship deficiencies in 5 seconds or less. So in keeping with the times, I offer the following:

 

PDF of Target

Feel free to print it, share it or shoot it. Judging from what I read in the Idiotnet- it certainly can't hurt. 

The Far-Reaching Effects of the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting

Splitting wood is hard work by any standard, but it clears the mind. Unfortunately it does not clear it of concern over current events. The senseless shooting of AZ Representative  Gabrielle Giffords, along with her staff and well-wishers, has shocked our national conscience. Decent people are dead and gravely wounded- all at the hands of an idiot whose likely motive was nothing more complex than 'attention for himself'.

I'm afraid gun owners and freedom lovers are in for some perilous times. I expect this event will precipitate a multi-pronged assault on what’s left of our freedom, on these fronts:

1. Freedom of Speech: The Sheriff of Pima County—who blames ‘television and talk radio for a decline in America’ that led to this shooting—has started the media ball rolling. Expect any anti-Obama rhetoric to instantly become ‘hate speech’ with a stigma of murder and mayhem attached to it. And while legislation contrary to the first Amendment is likely to fail- keep in mind than an Obama appointee runs the FCC and that regulatory fiat is only limited by the public’s willingness, and financial ability, to sue for injunction.

Never mind that fact that Ms. Giffords  is a conservative Democrat—more conservative than many RINO Republicans—and never mind that the jackwad who shot her has no known ties to conservative groups. It won’t matter. Conservatives are already getting blamed for this crime. The same bleaters who tell us we should forget the WTC attacks will insist that we remember the Giffords shooting forever, all in the name of ‘stamping out acrimony in politics’. They want no clear defining lines between liberals and conservatives- and this gives them an emotional vehicle to promote their agenda.

2. A new ‘Assault Weapons’ Bill: Expect a new AWB, dead-certain to include ‘extended (hi-cap) magazines’ to be introduced in short order. We’ll see if our newly-elected conservatives in the house have the will, and cohesiveness, to stop it.

3. NICS Background Checks: There are limits to what the Administration can do to stop or delay firearm sales, via the NICS check, under Brady-Lautenberg. But again, an Obama appointee runs the FBI, which oversees NICS, and that ‘regulatory fiat’ monster will rear its head here as well. Once it does, you can expect long delays when buying a firearm from a dealer.

Elections have consequences, people- and we’re about to get an unpleasant reminder of that fact.