Sorry for the long post. Forgive the misspellings as I typed this out on my phone...
Are you doing dry fire drills at least 3 x per week? If you want to improve EVERYTHING, Dry Fire, Dry Fire, Dry Fire. If you aren’t familiar with Dry Fire exercises look up some interWeb. This is how I did it and it works for me. I say “works” because I still dry fire, at least 3 times during week. When I’m working from home, I’ll dry fire during lunch break, or even during a regular break. 20 repetitions performed consistently WILL make a difference. So when I started way back, I focused on weapon control and trigger squeeze. I would present my weapon, sighted in, but not looking at the target, I would watch my pistol. I’d pull the trigger and observe if my pistol canted to one side or rotated or moved. After many repetitions I started placing a coin on my front sight, with the goal of the coin still balancing after I squeezed the trigger. Was it frustrating as hell to even get a coin to balance? Yes, yes it was, but it taught me excellent trigger control and squeeze.
After that I started doing simple presentations. Some reps from my conceal holster and reps from my War belt. When I could draw my weapon and bring it up into a correct shooting posture - meaning I have a correct sight picture - when I got to that point where I could do 20 in a row without having to head bobble, I started bringing mag changes into the repetition. I didn’t try to break any speed records, because if I failed in any repetition, I had to start over. Then I introduced multiple target transitions. I’ve shot so many light switches, AC outlet plates, pictures, knick knacks it’s ridiculous (dry firing not literally shooting them) . As I worked through target transitions, I worked on mag changes. Not from sitting on the couch beside me or on a table, but from wherever I carry my spare mags when I carry concealed, which is every place I go. When doing reps with my war belt, I did mag changes from the pouches mounted on it.
That’s the pistol side of the house. I also do a similar thing with my M4 and incorporate room clearing after a training baseline is established. I will mag change from my pocket, which is what I would do if I were cleaning a room in my house. Failing at one of those because I put the mag backwards in my pocket, has driven home an awareness of every single time I put a mag in my pocket or holster to put it with rounds pointing in the correct direction.
Dry Fire costs you 3 things.
1. Time
2. Discipline
3. Patience
I had so many fails initially I lowered my success reps to 15, and then 10, but as soon as I hit 10 consistently I bumped back up to 20 and stuck there. At first I did not see if my draw stroke and mag changes were as fast as the Instagram clowns, I focused on developing positive habits. I focused on a smooth and consistent draw stoke and presentation. When I had reached that place, I incorporated speed. Not all at once either, I worked up to it. Sure there are A LOT of guys faster than me, but I still keep training. I don’t want to be the fastest, I just want to be the last man standing.
Dry Firing works. I believe next to live fire it is the single most important training you can do with your firearms - pistol or rifle.
A couple of more comments and I’ll stop blabbing.
1. I use very easy-to-identify mags for my dry fire. I do not allow a mag with live rounds to be in the same room I’m dry firing in. Some may say that’s paranoid - but I have yet to blast a light switch for real.
2. I have snap caps, which allow you to fire, manually chamber another round without the slide locking back. But guess what? Before I got them I made it just fine without snap caps.
3. Dry firing does not harm your firearm.
I probably should have read everyone posts to make sure I’m not beating a dead horse, but I absolutely 110% believe that if you dry fire on a consistent basis, your shooting WILL IMPROVE. Every single person I’ve talked to about dry firing has seen a marked improvement.
So even if it was your pistols fault...
DRY FIRE!!
If you already are.. well oops! At any rate I hope this helps. I also hope it doesn’t sound complicated , because it is not. Just be safe when you do it, clear the weapon. Paint some old mags pink (or some other easily identifiable mag) so you don’t mistake them for live round mags and never put a live round in them..
Good luck.
ETA: in spite of proofreading boy did I jack op some words. Stupid iPhone will autocorrect the wrong word, but let’s me misspell other words all day long. Hopefully, it’s above 5th grade reader level after the corrections. Probably still missed some.. lol
This was my initial run with it. I have a longer area I can set it up at but space in my apartment is limited. It can be configured for longer ranges if you have the room for it.
+1 on dry fire. Of the books and training systems by pros that I've read, that's #1 for most of them... it's easy, and you can do it sitting in front of the tv if you're super lazy.
TGT is awesome, but head over to brianenos.com and check out the technique and training sub-forums forums. There are some, literal, world champions on that forum and the level of knowledge and ability there is humbling, at the very least.
Get some 3rd party advice... unless you have a friend who is a very active, good, competitive shooter, ask around your range/club, and find a B, A, or GM shooter and make friends.
Last, COMPETE!! Go to whatever USPSA, IDPA, IPSC, tactical, bullseye, or bowling pin shoots (ok, so nobody really seems to do the later anymore, a guy can dream, right?) your local clubs or ranges have and get after it. 99% of the peeps who are active in those groups are knowledgeable and super helpful.
Get one of the cheap laser dots to put on the barrel. place a soft rubber pad behind the trigger and practice dry fire. watch the dot wiggle on the target! Don't look at the sights till the dot stops moving. Then you can actually try sighting. Then move to live fire.
If you have room (and if it's not against some city ordinance where you live) drop $40 on a decent CO2 bb pistol and practice. It's not the same feel, but the fundamentals of hitting your target are the same and it's good practice lining the sights up and putting a projectile where you pointed it. Daisy and Crosman make some decent ones with good accuracy, especially at short range within 20 yards or so.