|
Everyone knows the saying
“Practice makes perfect”. This applies to handling the pistols used in
Cowboy Action Shooting. At first the rookie contestant will think that due
to the close distances, when compared to other shooting sports, will make
pistol handling easy. The CAS sport involves handling pistols very much
different than modern handguns and the skills to be smooth and quick need
to be developed.
Gun handling practice
should include (1) drawing from the holster, (2) re-holstering, ( 3)
loading and unloading, (4) dry firing, (5) target acquisition, and (6)
live fire accuracy exercises to name a few. Many of these exercises may be
practiced at home with snap caps, while others will require shooting live
ammunition.
Drawing the pistols from
your holsters will teach your muscles what to do and also define where you
will naturally want your holsters to be placed. Perhaps your initial
positioning the crossdraw holster was difficult to reach or you may decide
that drop loop holsters are more suited to your shooting style. This can
all be experimented with at your leisure at home. Don’t forget about
learning to re-holster; many shooters loose a few seconds fumbling around
trying to get the gun re-holstered. Learn where the holsters are so that
you don’t really have to look down. Conducting this practice while
wearing your full costume will also show up any adjustments to costuming
or leather rig that may be needed.
Setup practice targets
such as boxes at home. Place the five targets at expected distances of 7
to 10 yards and spaced a few feet from each other. Using snap caps in your
revolvers practice shooting these targets using the various shooting
styles: two handed, slip hammer, Duelist style, Gunfighter style to
determine which you are comfortable or want to further develop. These
exercises should include mental exercises by varying the target sequences
from standard Nevada Sweep to standard Reverse Nevada Sweep to variant
where you might shoot 1-3-5-2-4 or 5-1-2-3-4. This will help develop your
target acquisition and hand/eye coordination skills. Don’t worry too
much about target sight picture and sight alignment at this point, you get
this skill at the practice range with live ammo.
Snap cap exercises will
only carry you so far, eventually you will need to expend ammo down-range.
Expect to go through a huge amount of ammo (hundreds of rounds) to develop
your gun handling skills and be proficient.
At the local practice
range, work with a single target (we use a 9 inch paper plate) to learn
the proper target sight picture that you need for your particular guns.
Different guns may have different sight pictures. Target sight pictures
are what you see when both gun sights are lined up with your target. It is
a skill you need to develop on your own; you may even find that you
thought you were right eye dominant but actually are left eye dominant.
Perform these exercises at the typical CAS target distances: 7 to 10
yards. Remember that you may learn that the gun sights may need
adjustment, as well. This live fire exercises will also get you
comfortable with the gun recoil. You may also want to experiment with
different powder loads and bullet weights to develop a load that works
best in your pistols.
After you have the accuracy skills developed you can
progress to more difficult exercises. Place 5 targets (same 9 inch paper
plates mentioned above) spaced a few feet apart at the usual 7 to 10
yards. Practice shooting these 5 targets as you did with the snap caps
mentioned above. This will teach you new gun handling skills like how to
accommodate the gun recoil while moving to the next target. Work on the
same mental exercises (varying targets, Nevada Sweep, Reverse Nevada
Sweep, etc.) as before to become comfortable with gun handling and
thinking ahead for the next target. Use both of your pistols for these
exercises. |
