Montanadan;
Great to hear that you are still out there shooting. I've been told that shooters like wine get better with age. Case in point the 1992 Bronze Medalist in International Free Pistol was in his 60's.
The important thing is that you are still having fun with it. Here is some advice from a former US Pistol Shooting Team member and 1996 Olympic Shooting Team contender. Not knowing your skill level or shooting experience I will start basic, if it is beneath your level - accept my apologies I do not intend to offend or belittle your skill level. This forum has been an incredible source of info for me, I only want to do my part to keep it helpful and informative for folks.
1.) Have you identified your dominant eye? This can be accomplished by holding your hands out in front of you - arms all the way extended. Join your two pointer fingers and thumbs together to create a triangle. Center a far off object in the triangle with both eyes open. Keeping the object centered in the triangle and keeping both eyes open slowly move your hands back to your face. Your hands should come back to your dominant eye. Don't worry if it doesn't match your dominant hand. I am cross dominant and it never slowed me down.
2.) Do you dry fire? I found this to be the most important part of my training regimen. It helps both mentally and physically to create the fine tuned trigger feel needed for long range precision shooting. In CB revolvers this becomes more difficult. Here is something I did the last time I went to the range. Cap all cylinders with no charge and shoot as if you were shooting for score. When I was competitive I would shoot somewhere around 50 dry fires before I put a single practice round down range. So you can't dry fire too much, but most folks don't do it enough to be helpful. The key is to watch what happens with the front sight. Is it consistently moving in any direction? How is the post trigger break follow-through?
3.) Stance: Once your natural point of aim is identified and you feel comfortable shooting in that stance, you will be able to shoot longer and more comfortably. Over the course of fire your stance might change a little, that is fine, your muscles and physiology will change standing relatively stable for that long of a time. We used to teach folks to close their eyes and spin around a few times while someone else steadied them. Then roughly facing the target with eyes closed (that's where the friend comes in handy), lift both arms and point to the target with your shooting hand. Open your eyes, that is your natural point of aim. Adjust your foot position to get as close as you can to dead center. Close your eyes again and bring up your arms and point. Do this several times to get a good average of your point of aim.
Off hand position in stance. The most commonly accepted position with international shooters was to hook your thumb over your belt buckle. This kept the position closed and stabilized your shoulders. The hand in the pocket position tended to leave too much weight free and would destabilize your position.
4.) Ball and Dummy: Take a trusted shooting friend to the range with you and have them load your pistol. But have them alternate cylinders that have a load and those that only have caps on the nipples. Not just every other cylinder, but really try to confuse without creating a pattern you can't figure out. Have them lay the pistol on the bench. While you fire the pistol, have them watch your muzzle on the shots that are just caps. You watch that front sight. That is the movement you are making when the shot breaks and why some shots might not be where you expect them to be.
5.) Breathing: Several normal breaths followed by a slightly deeper breath. As you are breathing in, lift the pistol up and over the target. As you exhale about 40% of the breath, come down on the target. The last 5% of exhale should bring you through the bullseye and into your position. During your dry firing exercises you should become familiar with how long after you come on target you can hold steady before you abort the shot. Don't try to muscle the shot in, that very rarely works.
6.) Grip: On the old time revolevers, especially the Colt's designed guns, the grip size was intended to let you loop your pinky finger under the butt of the grip. That will help to prevent low shots by gripping the pistol with your pinky finger when pulling the trigger.
I could bore you with some more tips, but only if somebody wants to.
I hope this helps you, or someone else out there. Given that you are an avid shooter, some of these things may sound like old hat to you, but sometimes it is a good idea to tear down your technique to the basics and start over to erradicate any bad habits that have developed.
Again, I want to echo my admiration that you are still out there doing it and having fun :bow:
If these tips are helpful please let me know, if I am being annoying just tell me to buzz off.
Take care!
Styr
