As mentioned in another thread, a couple of things happened recently that have me considering rethinking what I carry.
The first thing was shooting my carry gun (Officer size SIG 1911 .45) in a competition and getting smoked. Granted, I was shooting my bone stock gun against a CZ Orange running an optic, Comp, etc...but felt like I should have been able to make it respectable. I didn't.
The 2nd thing was when I was shooting with my 13 year old son last weekend, he decided he wanted to try shooting my carry gun. He'd never shot anything bigger than 9mm in my Dan Wesson Guardian. 2 rounds fired. First hit the 8" steel at 25'. 2nd went who knows where, but the recoil really bothered him and he was done shooting it.
So my concerns are:
1- I can't honestly say I carry the gun I shoot best. I know I can't carry a competition level gun, but I do shoot the DW better. It's got a bigger profile and isn't as easy to conceal though.
2-I don't choose what to carry based on how someone else shoots my gun, but the thought crossed my mind... We'd talked about a situation when we're out somewhere, things happen. I become incapacitated and I'm unable to defend my kid or myself. He knows how I carry and how the gun functions and would ideally give himself a chance at least. But he can't shoot this gun.
Overthinking? Worth considering? Complete overhaul needed?
You
likely need to learn recoil management, which means you
likely need to learn to actually shoot. My guess is that your gun is not the problem and your training is the actual problem.
This could only be confirmed on the range spending time with you analyzing what you are doing. Given that I cannot see what you are doing, I'm going to guess and give you some assignments so you can discover your own path.
You can try Paul Sharp's "Recoil Mitigation" material. However, while I highly recommend his material, there is no substitute for experience. You should consider attending a variety defensive shooting courses from different trainers. I took a wide variety of courses and got many different perspectives on shooting.
Shooting with a coach means you have someone evaluating what you are doing during a string of fire. I cannot emphasize this enough. Even just shooting with a friend will be helpful to you. However, a professional will notice those tiny details that make all the difference in your shooting.
Always remember that mastering the fundamentals means you can master shooting. Flawed fundamentals will hold you back and turn into bad habits. ALWAYS GO INTO CLASS LOOKING AT THE FUNDAMENTALS THE TRAINER IS TEACHING OTHERS. Not only will you pick up some tips, you will start learning how to teach others. This will help your development over time.
You'll learn so much more in one 8-10 hour block than a series of one hour sessions. Nothing like a bunch of bloody fingers and botched magazine changes with a Browning High Power to convince me to switch to a Glock.
My recommendations are to take your primary gun:
1) Try Paul Sharp's material (appended below). Watch the video with at least one friend. Go to the range with this person. One acts as teacher, the other student. Then switch. Take 200 rounds and give it enough time (at least 2 hours) to make sure you get it.
2) Attend any two day defensive pistol course. Local is good since it reduces costs, but obviously some of the big name schools are really good.
3) Attend a longer course within six months, including:
Rogers Shooting School
https://rogersshootingschool.com/
Rangemaster
https://rangemaster.com/
Thunder Ranch
Gunsite Academy
Mas Ayoob MAG-40
4) Create/beg/borrow/steal a dry fire regimen that includes drawing the gun and includes metrics. You can use Mantis X for this. Commit to 15 minutes of dry fire per day.
5) Attend any sort of competition that includes pistols.
6) Finally...read some books.
"Guns, Bullets and Gunfights" by Jim Cirillo
"No Second Place Winner" by William Jordan
"Practical Shooting" by Brian Enos
Any other interesting book
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Paul Sharp's "Recoil Mitigation"
Training points:
Mitigating muzzle rise from the wrist (Videos 1-4):
1) Lock wrist on each hand that is touching the gun
2) Hard pinky finger pressure
3) Push thumb(s) forward hard
4) Proper grip: High in the tang, high under the trigger guard. Forward thumb on support hand. Check by placing trigger finger and support hand thumb on frame. They should be equal on the frame (point up to check).
Test by attempting to bend the wrist upward. Instructor places finger on wrist tendon to verify (Video 5). The shooter will tighten up and prevent as much movement as possible.
Mitigating side to side muzzle movement (Videos 6-7):
1) Tighten the elbow of each hand on the gun
2) Tighten the shoulder of each hand on the gun
Test by attempting to move the gun in a circle.
Mitigating gun push backwards (Videos 8-13) :
1) Use hard push-pull. Some people think push-pull doesn’t work in a fight so an alternative is to bring your elbows down a bit to pinch your palms together.
2) Push from the primary hand shoulder.
3) If support hand is on the gun, pull back into the primary hand.
4) Nose over toes. Stance is aggressive and nose should be over or slightly past the forward toe. There are no stances in a fight, but this is the optimal case.
Instructor tests by pressing with continuous pressure against the shooter's hand. Their head should not move very much. The instructor should watch for head movement by comparing to a static item in the background. Properly done, the shooter's head will barely move during recoil. Watch the shooter's toes. They should not rise.
Video 14 is a summary of training points.
The only addendum I have is that you can pinch your palms together a bit to tighten your groups up at speed.
