View From The Porch: Boomsticks: One million dollars for free.

Sunday, May 06, 2007

Boomsticks: One million dollars for free.

There are things in this video that I have incorporated in my shooting in the last three years that have made me a jillion times better with a pistol than I was before. Go see.

13 comments:

Jeffro said...: Thanks, Tam. That is different than what I do, and it will change.; 10:11 PM, May 06, 2007
Anonymous said...: I met Todd Jarrett at the NRA show this year. He is a true gentleman and a pretty good teacher.; 10:43 PM, May 06, 2007
MauserMedic said...: I'll be trying that out this summer. Good post!; 10:43 PM, May 06, 2007
Anonymous said...: That's excellent. I've used some but not all of these techniques, and I can see the results he's getting with them.

Well, proper techniques AND a lot of practice.

ColtCCO; 11:00 PM, May 06, 2007
Bonnie said...: Linked.

I shot a gun for the first time about 2.5 years ago, and watching that video made me realize all the things I was doing wrong. I look forward to trying again this summer. :-); 10:29 AM, May 07, 2007
Brandon said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 10:57 AM, May 07, 2007
Brandon said...: I'll be damned! I just tried out some of what he was teaching in the video, and I can already tell that the pistol is much more solid in my grip. Front sight movement is much easier to prevent while pressing the trigger, even with a Kel-Tec and its mile-long trigger pull.

Time to go to the range and try this stuff out. I've always considered myself an acceptable shooter, but haven't been as consistent as I'd like. I should invest in some training soon. Weaver or isosceles? Crush grip or firm? Thumbs up or down? Questions, questions....; 10:58 AM, May 07, 2007
Anonymous said...: At the risk of inciting the usual, boring religious war, I'm going to make a couple of contrarian points.

First, Todd Jarrett is a brazillion times more talented than I am and I will never be a fraction as good a competition shooter. His advice on getting as much hand as possible on the gun, and the necessity of maintaining a good sight picture is very good.

However. What he's doing in the video works very well on targets that aren't shooting back, are arranged in neat lines in a narrow zone in front of you, don't move, don't require you to move, and don't try to take your gun away.

His trigger advice doesn't apply to guns that aren't 1911s (yes, some of us shoot them!).

I'm not going to say that one style of shooting is automatically superior to another. It really depends on what you're trying to accomplish. The real answer is to try them both at the range and see what works!; 11:27 AM, May 07, 2007
Tam said...: He is giving advice on shooting, not fighting (of which shooting is only a part.)

Interestingly, Miculek gives the same trigger advice for guns that are decidedly un 1911-like.; 12:01 PM, May 07, 2007
Jonathan said...: good video.; 2:37 PM, May 07, 2007
Brandon said...: To be specific in regards to my earlier comment, I found two items of particular interest that I want to try. The first was simply to square up to the target, rather than use the Weaver-style thing I've always done. Secondly, with the thumbs-high grip, the pistol seems to be more laterally stable while pressing the trigger. These two things in combination seem to make maintaining target/sight alignment a little easier for me. However, this is very different from how I've shot in the past, so some experimentation and practice are definitely in order.; 3:34 PM, May 07, 2007
Anonymous said...: I'm going to try his advice with a G30 and a P220. Maybe I'll remember to let you know how it works.; 5:21 PM, May 07, 2007
Anonymous said...: It has been my experience, and observation, that his recommended "high thumbs" grip (ie: thumb on top of safety), only works with a very meaty or fleshy hand. The video shows him to have this.
Lacking this, it leaves the shooter with two possible bad effects when shooting a 1911 type. Well, three, actually.
One: You may not depress the grip safety, leaving you with a non-functional gun.
Two: If you are not depressing the grip safety, but have disabled it, the gun is not being held firmly, which allows it to move during recoil. This means you are constantly realigning the gun during a shooting string. Makes you slow, inconsistent, and your hand gets chewed up by the shifting gun.
Three: Under stress, you may impede the slide with your thumb, possibly causing a malfunction.
The 1911 was NOT designed to be held this way. BTW, if you are a lefty, it is a REALLY bad idea.; 3:42 AM, May 08, 2007