Handgun hunting practice and accuracy.

[Clayman77]

I recently purchased an sig p220 hunter in 10mm . 2017 model . I put a Trijicon SRO on it and I’ve been practicing at 15 ,20 ,30,40 yards with my chosen hunting round underwood 200 grain xtp. I try and shoot 50 rounds every week. So far I’m happy with results , I’m good up to 20 . 30 yards I’m spread out . Not comfortable there yet . I plan on putting in the time and putting lots of rounds down range . I’m proficient with my Glock 19x and 22 revolver I shoot a lot . The larger calibers I own I can hit a man size target to 50 yards pretty easy . I’m not a one hole shooter . I’m just looking to be accurate with this weapon before I hunt . I’d like to be able to hit 4 inch plate at 40 everytime . That’s my goal . I’d love any pointers or practice tips that you fine people have . I’m on the mountains of WNC im hoping to harvest a bear and a deer this year from a treestand with this pistol . Thanks .

 

[Steve300xcw]

Trigger time. Both dry fire and with ammo.

I find shooting at different things/ranges really helps. Go chase golf balls around a rock pit, or digger squirrels in a clear cut, etc etc. Stuff like that seemed to really help not only get a guy dialed in. But also shows you your limitations pretty quick.

 

[HandgunHTR]

Trigger time. Both dry fire and with ammo.

This.

I have been hunting with handguns for 25+ years now. Single shots, revolvers, and semi-autos. One thing I see quite often is that guys who want to hunt with a semi-auto practice with it like it is a personal defense handgun. By that I mean, load up a mag, step up to the line, and shoot the entire mag in fairly rapid succession.

Practice with it just like you would practice with a bolt action rifle. Load 3-5 rounds. Step up to the line. Address the target, breath, slowly squeeze the trigger. Engage the safety and set the gun back down on the bench. Give yourself 15-30 seconds for your arms to rest, pick the gun up, address the target, breath, and pull the trigger, engage the safety and set it down again. Repeat until the magazine is empty. Doing this will help you to walk through the shot process, just like with a rifle. Focus on the shot process first, then worry about your groups.
Additionally, this will also help to get rid of recoil fatigue. The 10mm has a pretty good recoil impulse, especially with 200 grain bullets. Shooting multiple rounds in rapid succession will cause recoil anticipation pretty quickly.

Overall, that is one of the reasons why single shots are great hunting handguns. There is a process to loading and firing it, similar to a rifle.

 

[Clayman77]

That’s good stuff I appreciate that. This is also my first handgun with a dot . It took some getting used to . I keep finding myself wanting to change my grip . Mostly just pointer finger on front of trigger guard . I’m back and forth on that . I can’t tell a difference on accuracy . It feels better on the trigger guard with steadiness offhand .

 

[Steve300xcw]

I have guns that I hook the trigger guard on and some that, that doesnt work for me. Really seems to depend on the shape of the gun

 

[HandgunHTR]

That’s good stuff I appreciate that. This is also my first handgun with a dot . It took some getting used to . I keep finding myself wanting to change my grip . Mostly just pointer finger on front of trigger guard . I’m back and forth on that . I can’t tell a difference on accuracy . It feels better on the trigger guard with steadiness offhand .

Something else you can try since you plan on treestand hunting with it is get a monopod (like this one: https://www.basspro.com/shop/en/van...3S-vqBnPMiDzwEG-1EsaAqitEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds) and use your off-hand to steady the pod and shoot the pistol one handed. You will probably end up being a bit more steady and you don't have to worry about that pesky non-shooting hand changing your grip up.

 

[AmmoTex]

Deliberate practice from field positions.
Once you’re sighted in, try to emulate hunting conditions as much as possible.
Don’t get discouraged and know your limitations.
Handgun Hunting is a blast!!

 

[signing off]

X2 to building some handgun skills for hunting.
I've added an SRO also and hope to keep ahead of aging eyes with it.

 

[Clayman77]

I got one of those rubber shoot and seal targets , throw it out about 15 yards just shoot it one bullet in the mag at a time . I’m doing way better . I’m hitting a 3 inch target at 30 every time . Slow fire , one bullet at a time and reload . It’s helped just going thru all the motions . Dry fire for 5 minutes or so at the target before I load up. That’s just the way I been doing it . I’m aiming for a 3 inch plate at 40 every time . I’ll get there I think . Thanks for all the input from you folks I appreciate it .

 

[100percent]

I shoot a couple of Ruger 44’s. What does NOT work for me is a monopod stick! I am not sure if it is the sitting on a bowling ball pivot effect or what but, night and day accuracy plummet versus a bag or bipod/shooting sticks.

 

[RockAndSage]

I got one of those rubber shoot and seal targets , throw it out about 15 yards just shoot it one bullet in the mag at a time . I’m doing way better . I’m hitting a 3 inch target at 30 every time . Slow fire , one bullet at a time and reload . It’s helped just going thru all the motions . Dry fire for 5 minutes or so at the target before I load up. That’s just the way I been doing it . I’m aiming for a 3 inch plate at 40 every time . I’ll get there I think . Thanks for all the input from you folks I appreciate it .

Precision handgunning is its own animal. What everyone said above is absolutely solid. Here are some additional pointers I can offer:

1) Trigger control is everything - and nothing shows how crap your trigger press is, better than a Red Dot. If you cannot squeeze/press/pull that trigger without the dot moving, your trigger control is crap. It really is that stark, and that simple. You won't fully realize how crap it is, until you figure out how to pull the trigger without the dot moving before, during, or after the trigger break. It shouldn't move at all.

2) Nothing will teach you how to squeeze a handgun's trigger better than a crap trigger - heavy double-action pulls on your Sig 10mm...do this a lot. Once you can pull that DA trigger consistently without moving that red dot, you're ready for that nice single-action pull.

3) Rifle trigger mastery is different from pistol trigger mastery - because your hands have to be very heavily engaged at every step of the presentation, aiming, firing, and recoil control/recovery. Isolating your trigger finger from every other muscle in your hand, which are all also firing when controlling that handgun while shooting, is more of a challenge than most people appreciate. You just do not have a rifleman's option of relaxing that hand and touching as little of the gun as possible. Totally different requirements for the mastery of a very different weapon.

4) With red dots especially, focus on the target, not the dot - focus on the target, and squeeze when the dot gets there.

5) Move onto the target in a straight line - it is impossible to hold your sights/dot on one spot. The human body is just not engineered for this. However, it is relatively easy to learn how to move those sights in a straight line onto the target, with quite a bit of precision. I personally prefer to come up in a straight vertical line from the bottom of the target, and time the trigger for when my dot hits the exact tiny part of the target I'm aiming for. This is one of the great secrets of extreme precision handgunning in the field.

6) Lock your joints - people subconsciously or intentionally try to fine-tune their aim with their wrists, elbows and shoulders. This is bad. You actually want coarser muscle movement from the hips/torso. By removing that subconcious, rapid ability to "fine tune" the aim at the last second before firing, you get much more accurate. When presenting the gun, you want your hands, wrists, elbows, and shoulders to be frozen solid, with the exception of your trigger finger and moving the gun up in that vertical line onto the target with upward rotation of those shoulder joints, as you lift your locked arms. Any variant of lateral movement is done via hips/torso. I've also found that the final 10% of vertical movement onto my target is best done via the torso, with my shoulders also locked solid. You don't necessarily have to have the elbows "locked out" and fully extended, but you do want them frozen. I've found that some bend helps in managing recoil. Overall, this creates not just an extremely solid platform, it's also surprisingly swift on moving targets, and helps you get a line on them - instead of coming up from below, you get onto them by coming up from behind them, matching the direction of their movement, squeeze when the dot is on target, and keep moving with it as part of your follow-through. Very recently, I heard a world champion trap and skeet shooter essentially say this same thing - he locks his entire upper body except his trigger finger, and moves from the hips.

7) Refining trigger-finger positioning - I took a big leap in my handgun precision when I threw out the idea, from rifle shooting, that my trigger finger should be completely free from touching any part of the gun, and that the trigger finger should be perfectly perpendicular to the trigger at a 90-degree angle. Through the relatively crap triggers of striker-fired guns and the clarity of what was happening with the trigger press through the magic of watching that red dot jump around "after" the trigger break, I realized this was absolutely not working as well as I thought it had been. Especially with striker-fired and double-action guns, the press to the wall of trigger-break, then the break, then the free-fall slap of the trigger against the frame after, along with all the wonky stuff that happens to your hand muscles and joints when going through that, just creates far more movement of the gun than most people realize - including before the bullet leaves the muzzle. Vastly more than I had realized. It took a long time to figure all of this out. I cut my teeth on high-performance 1911s, and this escaped me entirely until I transitioned over to striker-fired guns, and just started experimenting in trying to figure out what was causing the red dot to move so much when the trigger broke. I had to re-tool my trigger finger mechanics entirely, and now press the rearward most joint against the frame as solid as I can, and ride the frame with the middle joint during the entire length of the trigger press - horrific mechanics for rifle shooting, yet it cut my groups sizes in half, or better. I essentially use the frame to...further isolate and make rigid even more joints.

8) Trigger Direction - Press the trigger straight back to your nose. It's extremely easy with handguns to not realize you're putting a little pressure on the trigger left, right, or downwards. This most definitely will send the bullet more in that direction. But if you try to press that trigger directly back to the tip of your nose, it's almost a perfect alignment with the bore axis, with no left, right, up, or down biasing. The nose as a reference point seems easier to feel than anything else I've tried aligning to. Strangely, I've also found that with most guns, it also creates a very specific audible signature when you press the trigger perfectly straight backwards - it's a sound that the trigger just doesn't make if you're putting any other directional bias on the trigger.

9) Hand Press - How you grip the gun matters immensely, and theories have changed over the years, coming in and out of vogue. For combat handguns, including this extreme precision field shooting, I've found that I get the most accuracy and controllability by simultaneously pressing the heels of my hands together while also trying to rotate the bottoms (pinkie edge) of my hands outward, somewhat chicken-winging the elbows up a bit. This is all while keeping a firm wrap with the fingers, the weak-hand's thumb pressing in against the frame, and the index-finger's main knuckle and rearward-most finger bone pressing in against the frame as well. You want your support-hand's fingers wrapped deeply around your strong-hand's fingers, locking them down underneath with your support-hand's fingers, palm, and palm-heel. You're not "muscling" the gun, and certainly not to the point of muscle tremors - it's more about applying firm pressure in the right directions to lock the gun in place. The deeper you can get your grip with your strong hand, and the further you can get your fingers around the front of the grip, the better. This grip/hand-press works extremely well for me with semi-autos and TC Contenders/Encores, but I have zero idea how I'd begin trying to modify it for revolvers.

10) A note on grip size - Touch the tip of your thumb to tip of your middle finger, making a circle with all your fingers, and then look in that hole...that's the optimal size of your handgun's grip for your unique hand. The closer you can match the two, the more control you'll have over your handgun. The vast majority of handgun grips are way too big for optimal control for most people. Dudes with giant hands have a real advantage here. It's about geometry and leverage, more than strength, though - the more of your strong-hand's finger length that you can get wrapped around the front of the grip and onto to the other side of the grip, the more powerful and solid your grip will be - especially when you are locking those fingers down underneath your support hand. This is my single biggest criticism of modern handgun design - the grip designs are just way, way too bulky, even with some of the interchangeable backstrap options out there.


Good luck with your handgunning - I've just shared 30 years worth of accumulated and learned knowledge, hopefully you'll be able to pull a couple of nuggets out that can help. That 10mm with the SRO would be a pretty sweet setup to hunt with.

 

[AmmoTex]

I shoot a couple of Ruger 44’s. What does NOT work for me is a monopod stick! I am not sure if it is the sitting on a bowling ball pivot effect or what but, night and day accuracy plummet versus a bag or bipod/shooting sticks.

Yeah, the monopod makes it difficult!!
I love the Wiser Precision Quick Clips on my trekking poles or the Cole TAC Bitty Bag..either one makes a solid shooting platform!
You can check out Handgun Hunters Competition on Instagram or Facebook and see some great examples of field positions!