Question: I have guns and ammunition tested over and over on a machine rest and proved to be excellent. Yet, when I fire the pistol off-hand, many of the bullets strike the target somewhere different from where the electronic red dot appeared on the target just before the gun fired. Can you explain why this happens?

Answer: There could be several answers to this question. I will try to comment on the two most common ones. One explanation applies to all pistol shooters but is not well known. The other applies to most, if not all shooters at times.

The second happens because most of us cause some level of unwanted pistol movement as we go through the process of firing a careful shot. This is lack of trigger control. I will not explain this further since it is a simple concept written about in all training materials. (However, it is very hard to achieve with every shot.)

I will try to explain the other phenomenon that applies to all pistol shooters. I suspect that the very top shooters understand this either scientifically or intuitively.

What you see is not what you get… Rather , what you see is what you got!
With the help of my good friend Tillman Eddy, inventor of the famous ClearsighT®, I will try to explain what I am talking about.
Many of us try very hard to move the front sight or dot to the center of our aiming area and only then apply enough pressure to make the gun fire. Even if we do that with perfect trigger control we will have to be lucky if the bullet strikes the center!

You might ask, "Why is that?"

No mortal can hold a pistol perfectly still. Some people are more trained and coordinated to approach that goal than the rest of us. The gun is still moving a little or a lot as the gun fires. But we cannot see the target picture at the exact time the gun fires!

You say, "But I can call my shots!"

I say, "Yes, you can call where it went after the fact." The dot or sight will appear to stop for an instant as the shot breaks. We see this picture in our mind a fraction of a second after it has happened.

In Mr. Eddy's own words he provides the scientific explanation of the points I am trying to make:

Our consciousness of the surroundings does not live in the present, rather in
the near-historical past. For instance: The "seeing process" is described briefly.

Light strikes the rods and cones in the back of the eye and a chemical reaction
occurs. The nerve impulses from that chemical reaction are transmitted to the
optical nerve, also by a series of chemical reactions in the nerve cells. The
impulses then arrive in the cortex that allows interpretation in our "mind"
(whatever that is). One notes that these biochemical reactions take a finite and
actually rather long time.

Demonstrable audio reaction time is two to three tenths of a second and (is)
faster than visual reaction time.

In bullseye as well as other shooting disciplines, this concept is extremely important.
Quite simply, one living in the past can not have an effect on the present.
The present is represented by the "real" (time) sight picture. what we "see"
is historical.

Since the above is true, once the sight alignment and aiming area have been
achieved and positive trigger pressure begins, ego and judgment must cease!
One ceases to be a "doer" and becomes an "observer". The only decision the
conscious mind can make is to stop the shot from firing. Mr. Eddy notes that
we all have decided to stop a shot and the darn thing goes anyhow…
We were trying to change history!

The unconscious or subconscious is (or should be) trained to move the trigger to
the rear and will result in the best result we are physically capable of performing. The
conscious mind will judge, worry, fear (failure and success) and cause failure.

As the late and great bullseye champion, Allen Fulford said in his training video, "If there is a secret to successful pistol shooting it is making the shot break with the sight inside your personal arc of movement," (superimposed on your target).

There is no point in trying to shoot better than we can hold. We should be working on improving our hold (arc of movement) by dry-firing, exercise and focused practice. At the same time let's work on our ability to prevent disturbing this hold until after the pistol finishes its recoil.

I hope this helps you improve your scores.

If you have comments I would like to hear from you. Please write me in care of THE BULLET.