{"id":4181,"date":"2015-09-29T16:45:02","date_gmt":"2015-09-29T20:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/?p=4181"},"modified":"2015-10-07T18:00:16","modified_gmt":"2015-10-07T22:00:16","slug":"how-to-shoot-small-pistols-better","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/how-to-shoot-small-pistols-better\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Shoot Small Pistols Better"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The problem is as old as the concept of concealable personal firearms: The smaller a handgun is, the more difficult it is to shoot. Whether it&#8217;s a single shot derringer or a polymer-framed pocket .380, handguns that are easy to carry sacrifice their utility in other respects. This can be an acceptable sacrifice if the convenient size of a small gun means that we&#8217;re more likely to actually have it close by\u00a0when we need it. On the other hand, the small pistol might not do us any good if we can&#8217;t shoot it accurately enough or quickly enough to fend off an assailant.<\/p> <p>Check out the video below for a couple of tips for overcoming some of the challenges of shooting small carry pistols.<\/p> <h2><strong>Video: How to Shoot Small Pistols Better<\/strong><\/h2> <p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pj3IJQFvBqE?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p><p><\/p> <p>The small, single stack 9mm semi-autos that we&#8217;ve talked about frequently here on the Lounge are among the most popular carry guns today. They are appealing self-defense tools for many reasons, and among their fans are the large segment of the gun owning population who are simply not inclined to expend the effort required to carry a larger pistol. That&#8217;s not so bad in itself, but unfortunately, this same crowd also tends to be unlikely to expend the effort to\u00a0learn how to overcome the challenges inherent in shooting a small pistol well. And what&#8217;s worse, most of these folks are blissfully unaware that they can&#8217;t shoot.<\/p> <p>What do I mean by &#8220;shooting well&#8221;? Good question &#8212; the 5&#215;5 Drill is a pretty good litmus test, which you can find on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/concealed-carry-tips-three-essential-shooting-drills\/\" target=\"_blank\">this post<\/a>.\u00a0If you have any trouble clearing that drill with your carry pistol, then you&#8217;re among the majority of small pistol owners who are in desperate need of practice. But practice isn&#8217;t helpful unless you start with solid technique.<\/p> <p>In addition to the advice regarding the grip that I outlined in the video above, keep in mind that no matter how much your shooting improves with small guns, you&#8217;ll always shoot larger pistols better.\u00a0If you&#8217;re comfortable running a full size pistol quickly, that means you have to\u00a0<em>slow down<\/em> when you&#8217;re shooting small guns. This is something I have to constantly remind myself of. If I try to run a small single stack gun at the same speed I would a full size or compact pistol, my accuracy falls apart. The small guns are not nearly as forgiving in terms of imperfect sight picture or sub-optimal trigger control. They can still be run quickly, but slowing down just a fraction of a second\u00a0will\u00a0go a long way toward improving\u00a0accuracy and consistency.<\/p> <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The problem is as old as the concept of concealable personal firearms: The smaller a handgun is, the more difficult &#8230; <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.luckygunner.com\/lounge\/how-to-shoot-small-pistols-better\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4190,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[50,46,47,21,17,108],"class_list":["post-4181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-toolbox","tag-380-acp","tag-9mm","tag-concealed-carry","tag-handguns","tag-self-defense","tag-technique"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.9 - 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