Every shooter should know how to call their shots!
You have probably heard people say you need to be able to call your shots. Do you know what that means? Can you do it? Is it even possible?
Calling your shots does not mean never missing your exact point of aim. Rather it's a skill you can learn to determine where your rounds will hit the moment your gun fires.
Once you have amply worked on the fundamentals of shooting and you can shoot good groups (3" groups at 7-10 yards) without any time pressure, you can and should start introducing movement and time constraints. When you start stacking these difficulties, you will want to know how to call your shots.
So how do you do it?
Calling your shots is essentially knowing exactly where your front sight or red dot is lifting from the moment you complete your press and the gun fires. If you're used to closing your eyes the moment the gun fires, this will make this skill hard to learn. My suggestion would be that you do a bit more live fire drills to try and desensitize; this is so that you can keep at least one eye open through the firing process so you may observe where the sights are lifting from (allowing you to call your shots).
Barring any disruption of the sights as you finish the press, wherever your sights are lifting from is where you round will end up. Learning this skill is really helpful because you won't be staring at your target to see if you're being successful. Rather, you will learn to trust that what you saw as the gun goes off is the result you will get - calling your shots as the gun goes off. That will allow you to make the decision on whether you must fire again to improve your shot or move on to another problem/target.
Things to remember when learning this skill:
- Where is your dot or front sight lifting from as you complete your trigger press?
- Have you worked on the fundamentals enough to ensure a great trigger press so that the sights are not disturbed as you finish the press?
- On follow up shots, is your grip good enough to ensure your sights are not moving in an unacceptable way for the difficulty of the target (size/distance)?
We are big proponents of learning how to call your shots. Whether you're looking for firearms training for personal defense or practical purposes (sport), My Own Defender is your training company. In fact, check out our schedule of classes and look out for class announcements on social media as well!