GUN TIPS

TIPS FROM MATT BURKETT:


Buying a Used Gun
If the gun is factory basic and just used in the normal course of duty it most likely is a fair purchase. Check for over all fit, function and amount of wear. If it seems excessive, parts may need to be replaced. A used gun may be a great place to save some money if you are looking at customizing. When buying a used customized gun first find out who built it and how competent they are as a gunsmith. Are they a member of the American Pistolsmiths' Guild (APG)? Try to find out if the gun has a background that other shooters know. Is it known for constantly jamming or running perfect all the time?

Starting At The Top Of The Gun

Sights
If it's a scoped gun, you should check carefully for any cracks or major dings. What is the condition of the scope? Has it been modified by one of the scope customizing companies? This increases the value as most of the Tasco style optics need to be bullet-proofed. Remember even custom scopes break or burn out. Is the dot too large? Around a ten-minute dot is premium for Practical Shooting and a 20-minute dot for steel shooting works well. Minutes of Angle will be explained later in this section.
Are the adjustments all the way to one side? This may be caused by improper mounting. Are there any cracks in the mount? Are all the screws tight? On an Iron Sighted gun, are they adjustable?
Fixed sights although durable don't allow the testing or switching of loads easily. Bo-Mars are still the best adjustable sight on the market. Check for loose sight parts such as the blade or the sight base. Is the front sight serrated and ramped?
Undercut front sights are nice but not practical if the gun is to be carried at all.

Compensator
Is the compensator loose? Does it twist by hand? Is there adequate clearance between the slide and comp? About 0.002" to 0.004" is needed. Is the slide hitting the comp? Look for shiny spots on the back end of the comp. Are the bullets hitting the plates in the comp? Look inside the comp for copper marks or tracks on the plates. If there is inadequate clearance you will have major accuracy problem. Check for erosion on the plates.
This where the bullet passes through the hole in the plate and the gas burns the edges of the hole. With the introduction of light bullets, plates can suffer from significant erosion, sometimes to the point that they break through.

Slide To Frame Fit
Check the slide to frame fit by gripping the gun in your strong hand. Grab the slide in the weak hand. Place your strong hand index finger along the frame and the slide. Rock the slide back and forth and up and down. By doing this you can tell the looseness of the slide fit. With Iron Sights, slide to frame fit
is not as critical to accuracy as with a scope. The sights are on the slide whereas the scope is attached to the frame.

Barrel Fit
With the slide closed push down on the top of the barrel hood. If there is any movement, there will be an accuracy problem. It will not be able to lock up correctly. With the slide closed place your finger on the end of the barrel and try to move it around.

Trigger Job
If you question the trigger job, lock the slide to the rear and drop the slide on an empty chamber. DO NOT do this more than once or without permission of the owner. (You better really want to buy the gun!) If it goes to half thingy the sear-to-hammer relationship must be adjusted or parts may to be replaced. You can check the over-travel on a gun by thingying the hammer and pulling the trigger all the way to the rear. Now rock the hammer back and forth - there should be no resistance from top to bottom. You should be not feel the half-thingy notch rubbing on the sear. If there is some resistance or scraping, take it to a competent gunsmith and have it adjusted.

Magazine And Magazine Well
Do the magazines fall cleanly out of the gun when the release is pressed? This should be true even with the slide locked back using an empty magazine. Also, check the magazine itself - the followers for damage, examine the spring for tension, and look for excessive wear or cracks on the feed lips.

Test Drive
If the gun seems to be in good condition, the next step is to fire it. Take it to a range and put some rounds through it. Look for the following:

* Does it perform consistently and reliably?
* Is it comfortable?
* Is it accurate?

If it passes all of the previous tests, by all means buy it.

TIPS FROM MATT BURKETT:


Grip and Stance•

Most basic shooting problems come from an improper grip (this includes tension and hand placement) and incorrect upper body position. The basics: Keep the head up and straight - not canted to the gun. Shoulders square. The arms bent. Hands together. Trigger finger free for movement. Place the strong hand on the grip as high as possible, both front and rear. The strong hand thumb should always be on the safety. (when shooting weak hand the thumb should alsoalways ride the safety) I relieve the bottom rear of the trigger guard on my guns to put my right hand at a more natural angle and reduce the pressure on the joint of the middle finger. The trigger finger should not touch or rub on the gun anywhere other than the trigger. The pad of the finger should be used - not the first joint. This will provide better trigger control.

The placement of the weak hand in a freestyle grip is where most people make mistakes. First the fingers should all be under the trigger guard. Your weak hand index finger should never be on the front of the trigger guard. Second, there should be total hand to hand contact at the left rear of the gun. (this is based on being right handed) The left hand should not sit straight forward on the gun. It should be canted at an angle with the back of the hand being higher on the gun than the front. If you trace you thumb on your left hand back past the knuckle to the base by the wrist, this should be in between the first joint and the knuckle of the right thumb. This is going to thingy the left hand at an angle and complete the contact between both hands. This also serves another purpose of bringing different arm muscles in on controlling the gun. You should feel the muscles on the top of the left arm by the elbow doing the work. If the hand is straight you will feel the strain on the bottom of the arm. Both thumbs should be pointing at the target and your arms should be pushing out in a positive tension against the gun. Several schools teach a push/pull technique.

Why should you pull on the gun when it is already going that way during recoil? Also be sure not to lock the arms out. This transfers all of the guns energy into your shoulders also does not allow you to work on the recoil of the gun. The left arm should be more straight than the right arm, which is probably the opposite that you've been told. (If your shoulders are relaxed, not hunched up, and you are standing square to the target, your left hand has to be further out than the right hand.) . Grip tension should be about 60% weak hand and 40% strong hand. Do not strangle the gun. More tension in the shooting hand = less trigger speed. If you have a proper grip you will be surprised at how little work you have to do to control the gun. This grip may feel uncomfortable at first. Try it out for a couple of weeks and I bet you will see a difference.

TIPS FROM THE GRANDMASTER MATT BURKETT:


Flinch or the phobic reaction to recoil
By Matt Burkett © http://www.mattburkett.com
Flinch is the subconscious reaction to the noise/recoil/fit of a firearm. Notice that I said subconscious. It is any uncontrollable action prior to the gun going off. Understand that it is nothing to be embarrassed about. It is something that can be overcome much like any phobia. The conscious part of the equation is the fear of the gun firing. The worst flinch I have seen was a guy shooting a .300 Winchester Magnum. He would close his eyes about two seconds before he pulled the trigger! That definitely didn’t help him hit the target. In fact, he didn’t even come near it.

Now flinch is different than recoil control. Recoil control or “timing the firearm” as I call it, happens as the gun is firing. There is only a few hundredths of a second difference but the difference in the effects on your shooting are incredible.

If you have never seen how the sights lift in recoil, you have been closing your eyes. IE flinching. Another thing to check for is to work on group shooting. If your shooting a 4” group off hand at 15 yards your most likely not flinching. If that group opens up with several flyers, you may be having an issue. If you can’t keep them on the target you are having a real problem.

Lets take a look at the different things that contribute to flinch and see if we can help you with some drills to work through this problem.

Noise
Face it, loud noises scare us and cause a reaction. Its not normal for people to have an explosion happen in front of their face and not jump, blink, or have their muscles uncontrollable contract. We need to train, focusing on overcoming the body’s physical and psychological reaction to the noise.
How do we go about doing that? Well let’s start with a gun that doesn’t make as much noise or even an air pistol. Learn some of the basics of shooting on a firearm, such as trigger control and sight alignment, without the distractions of the loud bang. Another thing that will significantly help will be double plugging. Using good ear plugs and a big set of ear muffs. This will help shut out the sound as it enters either the skull or the ear canal. You may want to also add a hat as this will reduce the amount of impact from the blast to the head.
Try shooting a few round safely with your eyes closed. (obviously after having checked your impact area and lined the gun up with the target) Feel what is bothering you. Is it the noise, recoil, blast??
Accepting the noise is one of the biggest things to learn. When the gun goes off focus on relaxing as much as possible. Use just enough grip strength to keep the gun from flying out of your hands. Start with a .22 rim fire and work your way up, learning to relax into the noise of each subsequent caliber.

Recoil
The rule with learning to handle recoil is to start small with a gun that fits you and work your way up.
The main technique that will help you handle recoil and your flinch is proper grip and stance. The less the gun pushes you around, the less chance your going to react to the recoil. What is the gun doing in recoil? Most likely you don’t know because your eyes are closed.
Another thing that will help reduce recoil is to change your loads and reduce the weight of the recoil spring. Try working with “target” loads or reduced power loads. Focus on seeing as much as you can while the gun is going off.

Pain
Pain caused by sharp spots on the gun can cause a flinch. Several of my students have gotten rid of their flinch just by making the gun fit their hand better. Grip your gun up tightly with your hand until your knuckes and fingers change color. Now, feel the gun, whats bothering you? Let the gun go and look at the palm of your hand and fingers. Where are the marks? These are related to the spots on the gun that you will need to have a gunsmith modify for you. Getting rid of the sharp spots and edges, and you will be surprised at how much nicer it will be to shoot the gun.
If you can’t hang on to the gun, you won’t be able to shoot it well. Make sure that you have a good purchase on the gun. If your hands are slipping around, it will make it more difficult to shoot. Add skate board tape, checkering or rubber grips so that you can get a better grip.

Psychological

Forcing your way to learn to shoot through a flinch. Set a target at 10 or 15 feet. Have someone check your stance and grip by standing off to the side and cycling the empty gun while your aiming it at the target. Now load the gun and shoot the magazine off as fast as you can forcing your eyes open and learning to relax into the gun and recoil. The more you tighten up your shoulders, neck, etc the worse it is.

A true surprise shot. Get into your shooting stance and have someone else pull the trigger for you. Try this both with you eyes open and closed. RELAX and see how much an incredible difference in recoil there is. The gun just flips and comes back to center.

Good luck with breaking your flinch. If you have any questions are additional idea's or suggestions, please contact me by either email or by phone at (480) 949-1553

May be reproduced as long as a link to http://www.mattburkett.com is included.

Eye Dominance
Laurence Writes: Is it REAL DUMB to deal with reverse dominance

by closing the dominant eye?

Not at all, although you lose the advantage of stereo vision which is the fastest way to transfer between targets. This is

only .05 to .1 of a second per shot time lag. Have you checked to see if you have strengthend the eye enough to open the other one? Try just placing a piece of transparent tape over the dominant eye and leaving it open. This will take some getting used too. When you close one eye you tense up your facial muscles and the other eye will have more of a tendency to blink .

Double Tap writes: wonderful stuff matt!!!! this is what i originally joined the list for!!! oh yes, i use my left eye.... and shoot right.... i seem to like shooting from left to right so my "free" right eye can see more in the direction i am engaging the array... is this the same for right-eye shooters? meaning right to left? and how does this effect performance ?

Most shooters tend to prefer transfering left to right. I think this is based on the English language. We have read left to right for so long that its just more natural and our eyes are more accustomed to it.

From Wade:

Being right-handed and left-eyed, I would like to add another suggestion. It is worthwhile to determine which eye is the strongest and has the greatest visual accuity. This is not always the dominant eye. It is usually advantageous to use the "best" eye and tape the other. If you tape the "best" eye your vision will be less clear and eye strain will be more likely. I tape my right eye and find that when using the isosceles stance my head is barely tilted at all.

On the subject of taping lenses, you should use the smallest piece of tape possible and place it to obscure the gun/sights/dot when the gun is aligned on target. This eliminates the "double-vision" and misalignment of gun/sights/dot while leaving stereo vision essentially unimpaired. A useful product is one called "Magic Dots" sold be mailorder in the back of ShotgunSports magazine. This is a set of six or so vinyl (or something) circles about 10mm in diameter which attach to the lens by static electricity and are easily removeable, leaving no gunk behind. They work quite well except in the cold.

Eye Speed
"You can only shoot as fast as you can see." Well its true!Increasing your eye speed can have a dramatic impact on your shooting skills. Time lost on target transitions can result in seconds added per stage. Here is a way to increase your eye speed and decrease your target transitions.

Without your gun, take two one inch black dots with a 1/4" white center and put them about five feet apart on your living room wall. Now standing about five feet back bring the white dot on the left one into focus. Quickly snap your eyes only to the other dot and bring the other white center dot into focus. Don't move your head use just your eyes. Now go back and forth as fast as possible bringing the center dot into focus each time. You will
probably start noticing how your eyes first locate the black dot with your peripheral vision and then how your eyes zero in on the center and bring it into sharp clarity. Try this four a couple of minutes. You will probably develop a light headache, take a break and repeat. Your eyes have never had to work this hard before.
Once you see some improvement put one dot three feet above the other one and practice vertical transitions with your eyes.

Now, move the dots back to the horizontal plane and put one just out of view. This way you have to move your head to get to it.
Your eyes always lead everything! They are the fastest part on the human body. Use your eyes to snap over and start searching for the other dot, your head then automatically follows.

It's time to add the gun--unloaded with no ammo in the vicinity of your practice area! (Assuming the use of the dot) Put the dot on the first white spot and pull the trigger smoothly. The difficulty of the shot will determine if you need to see the dot lift. Now snap your eyes to the other dot, focus clearly on the white spot. The gun will be catching up with your eyes and slowing to the white spot where your will pull the trigger again.
DO NOT slam the gun to a stop, slide it into position. A good analogy for this is braking your car coming up to a stop sign.
You don't hit the brakes at the stop sign, you start preparing to stop earlier (except for those who California Stop). What you don't want to see is the dot jiggling around when the gun stops.

NOTE: If you are shooting Iron sights vs. optics you would bring the front blade into focus after clearly focusing where you want the bullet to go.

Practice smooth perfect transitions before trying to speed up. You have to teach your body what you want it to do before going faster. This also applies to reloads, draws, etc. and will help when you go faster so that you won't have any extra unneeded movements that waste time. Burn it in and then speed it up.

R U R E A D Y T I M E R


CLICK>SAVE> & OPEN

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YOU CAN USE THIS IN YOUR DRYFIRING

WARNING:
OBSERVE THE RULES OF SAFETY

TIPS FROM US CHAMPION MAX MITCHEL JR:


Tip #3: Magazine Maintenance

Maintaining your magazines is a very important issue in action shooting. Magazine malfunctions are one of the most common malfunctions in the sport today. This major problem can be avoided by following the quick and easy steps to success. It is very easy for someone to be lazy and say well I dropped the mag but it really didn’t get dirty and then stick it back in the bag for the next sage. We have all seen this happen time and time again. Why should you give up valuable points to your opponents because of laziness or because you simply just do not know the proper way to clean your magazines? I can assure you your opponents do not mind. Get those points back and prove that you are the best shooter in your area!

Quick and easy steps to success:

After using or dropping a magazine completely unload it
Take the magazine apart
Brush out the magazine several times ensuring that all the dirt is out
Run a very slick silicon rag through your magazine (This will get that last little bit of dirt out of your mag and will provide a slick surface)
Brush off the follower and also wipe it with the silicon rag
Get a clean cloth and spin the spring through it making sure there is no sign of sand, dirt, etc.
Ensure your base pad is clean
Finally, put your mag back together
Helpful hints:

Polish your magazines inside and out every 6 months
Replace your magazine springs every 3-6 months depending on what type of springs you are using, some springs will last longer
The Arredondo mag brush is a must have
Any slick silicon rag will do the trick but keep it in a closed zip lock bag so it will not dry out
Also use the silicon rag to slick up your bullets before putting them in the magazine (This will give you just a little more added insurance)
The Arredondo mag brush and the slickest silicon rags can be found in our online store.

Conclusion:

By following these steps and helpful hints I am sure you will notice a more consistent and reliable magazine. It is just too easy to avoid the troubles of a major magazine malfunction. We can take 5 minutes after every stage to properly clean our mags, or else pay the price. Which would you prefer?

TIPS FROM GRANDMASTER SAUL KIRSCH


Tip #12: Magazine Reloads
Updated 29.07.03

Gear:

Make sure your mags fall free from the gun when the release is pressed. If they do not, investigate the cause and seek to fix it.
Number your mags so you can identify them easily. If one tends to stick in the gun, do not use it for a reload stage.
Use good quality mag-pouches. At least three. Four would be better.
Position them so you can get to each one in turn at the most comfortable angle. The front pouches should usually be angled back, and the rear ones more upright.
Adjust the retention of the pouches in accordance with the stage. If you have to run – tighten them so you do not loose you mags. If you are making a standstill reload – have the mag pouches looser.
Keep your magazines clean. If you drop one on the ground, take it apart and clean it.
Tip: Lightly oil the inside of your long magazine. Only do this just before you use it. Do not allow the oiled mag to collect dust.

Technique:

Speed is economy of movement! You do not have to move fast to have a good reload. All you need is smooth, fluid movement.
When practicing, start slowly and build up speed. Trying to rush from the start will teach you the wrong movement.
Make the reload with the gun high, up in front of your face, and close in.
Be visual! You have to see the magwell on the gun as you reload. You can even mark a specific point on the magwell (lower side of magwell is best), and make a point to see that dot as you reload.
Grip your new magazine with the index finger on the top round. This way, you can “point” the magazine into position.
The base pad rests in the palm of your hand. The base pad should be roughened, to prevent slipping.
When inserting the new magazine, bring the gun down a little onto the new mag, as you insert it up. This makes the overall motion much shorter.
Roll your support hand back into position, and grip the gun in the “high ready” position.