What I learned about shooting from a bagpiper.

[NavyChief]

(But should've known - and been practicing - all along anyway.)

Most days at lunch I drive up to a little park no one in the area seems to know about to "get away from it all" and spend some quiet time reading. Well, most don't know about it. There is a fellow that goes there to practice his 'pipes. (For those that don't know, bagpipes don't really have an "indoor voice.") So sometimes I get to enjoy a book and some music. Not too long ago we had a conversation. I learned he's been playing 50 years. Fifty years! ...since he was 7 seven years old. So you would think he's into pretty advanced pieces of music, eh? Well, perhaps he is. But here's the thing. I normally am only there when he's getting warmed up. And what does he do? ...rip right into a heart-breaking rendition of Amazing Grace? Nope. He does scales. Yep. do-re-mi and all that.

And that's when I had my epiphany. "Good grief," thinks I to myself, "if this guy, with fifty years of experience starts each session with the basics, what the heck makes me think marching up to the line, drawing and shooting is such a great training regimen?"

Last night I started off my range session with a hundred .22s out of the Huntsman working on stance, trigger press, sight alignment - and doing it sloooowly. Can you guess what my results were when I finally did transition to the G19 and a box of 50? Yep. This is my new routine.

[bakes]

Cool Thanks. Great reminder.

Mastery of the basics and building a strong foundation is critical.

[cabelas]

I would have expected you to include proper breathing techniques in your list since you had the epiphany from a bagpipe player. Those folks have some wind power in the ol' lungs.

You are so right about starting up a session properly. This spring, I had to completely rehab my Ruger MarkII after the extractor cracked. At first I thought {deleted-sabalo}, but then I stopped and realized just how many 10's of thousands of rounds that little piece of metal has extracted over the past 20 years. This pistol always makes the trip to the range regardless of what else is in the box.

[NavyChief]

I would have expected you to include proper breathing techniques in your list since you had the epiphany from a bagpipe player.

The list was not meant to be all inclusive - simply "for examples" of the basics. But I do think, for shooting at normal self defense ranges (say, 7-15 yards), the three I listed would be far more important than breath control.

BTW, I've been working on trying to "unlearn" my decades-old modified Weaver stance and replace it with the current recommended isosceles stance for a couple years now. Sadly, between my work schedule and my wallet, if I'm able to sling a few hundred rounds down range in a year I'm doing good. I'm pretty sure this new routine is going to help - a lot.

[CCIman]

Unfortunately what most people (not YOU, of course) think of as basics are self taught and way off mark, or learned from books and TV. The common (male) misconception is that gun handling is innate, and just comes with practice and range time, and most shooters just perpetuate bad habits and old myths and beliefs.

You don't learn kung fu from watching Bruce Lee movies. 3 years ago, I discovered what I did not know after 20 years of gun ownership with just one weekend at a formal (SW Ohio) tactical defensive training facility.

Quite interesting (and shocking to all the 20 guys present that weekend) was that the all around best shooters that weekend were a couple of young girls who had just started shooting months before, and did not even own their own handguns. Because??-- they were "blank slates" and willing to learn, and did not come with egos, or baggage of bad habits. Plus they were good looking and had young eyes, both of which made them easy to instruct, and able to see the targets in mixed lighting.

Fortunately, their position on the range was right next to me, which of course made their performance that much more impressive

[Glock23]

Excellent post Chief! It makes two great points, practice is crucial, and a .22 is a great round for that. And that doesn't go for just pistol work, attending an Appleseed helped me with that concept.

[Flexmoney]

I have a little saying that I like to use...When all else fails, execute the fundamentals.

[Flexmoney]

BTW, I've been working on trying to "unlearn" my decades-old modified Weaver stance and replace it with the current recommended isosceles stance for a couple years now. Sadly, between my work schedule and my wallet, if I'm able to sling a few hundred rounds down range in a year I'm doing good. I'm pretty sure this new routine is going to help - a lot.

I have a buddy, here in central Ohio, that literally wrote the book on dryfire. It doesn't cost any ammo, nor range time.

His website is acting weird, but you can find him here too: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showforum=95" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[carmen fovozzo]

"Good grief, I thinks I'll try that from now on "...concentrate more on the basics......Thanks Chief....

[Atilla]

Can only build on the foundation. If its weak or weakening, it needs reinforcement. I was shooting bad at the beginning of a pistol class last month, til an instructor reminded me with a 'front sight front sight'. Which also reminded me of breathing, follow through, reset. The basics are.......basic.