Happy New Year

The year is nearly passed; I hope all enjoyed a merry Christmas.

The Perfect Pistol Shot has suffered a recent market absence because our Publisher, Paladin Press has gone out of business. Paladin Press was an excellent small house, in my opinion, and it will be sorely missed by firearms enthusiasts. Perfect Pistol Shot is back on amazon.com now though it will require a little searching for the present to separate the new book from third seller used books. The contents are the same, only the publisher has changed. 

Practics Handgun is being formatted for paperback and kindle and will be available soon. I deeply regret what has become a two year delay on the release of that book. 

Over the past few months, I've noticed some criticism regarding PPS, and its all the same old stuff, often issued from those who haven't actually taken the training but are certain that if they had it would not have improved their shooting.  You can't just read it, you have to do it. 

The light grip seems to be a great stumbling block for many readers. I don't know how to make it easier. I do assume a certain inquisitiveness and reason on behalf of my readers, I can't dumb it down because marksmanship is not simply a checklist of physical skills. It is an intellectual pursuit. That is why I would rather attend an all-you-can-eat tofu buffet than write a follow the pictures book. The truth is if Paladin hadn't made me include photos in the first book, I would not have done so (they were right, I was wrong). Reason makes marksmen not mindless imitation. Notice who are your local, consistently good shots--they may not be geniuses but they're rarely idiots.

Back to light grip. Does the handgun move off target during aiming by its own movement or by the shooter's? Does movement of a gripped object increase or decrease the harder the person holding it squeezes? Can the recoil from a service handgun lift your arms and shoulder carriage during recoil? The answers, you already know: The handgun doesn't move, humans move--constantly; the harder we squeeze anything the more it moves or we move, depending on weight; recoil cannot move us if we are properly balanced. Grip lightly with only enough pressure to retain the handgun between shots. What about when terrorist ninjas attack us? Well, I'm not an idiot either. You will grip harder under duress, but don't magnify your shooting faults through bad training. Duress increases error but it does not abolish ingrained reactions gained through proper training. "Perfect" can become "good enough" under stress but imagine what happens to "marginally competent."

​Next time we'll talk about sighting. Good shooting and a happy new year.