At the CMP National Matches this past month, I had the chance to attend the Advanced SAFS class that was put on the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU). At the end of the class there was a panel that included Jim Henderson, Jon Shue, Sally Talbott, and a few others whose names I unfortunately do not remember.

The following are my raw notes:

• AMU’s standards for pistols
  • 22lr – 1″ at 50 yards
  • 9mm – 1″ at 50 yards
  • 45acp – 2″ at 50 yards
    • This is the minimum standard. Realistically, they’re getting better results
• Hammer forward, get grip
• Grip around the pistol, getting as much friction as possible
• Matches are just practice with paperwork
• Sharks are born swimming
• 15-20 minutes of dry fire daily
• Dry fire line drills
  • With thumb, trace a line up and down on the wall
  • 5 minutes, 2x daily
  • 1 minute of movement and 30 seconds (break I assume)
  • This came from Jim Henderson and is a drill that was suggested to minimize tremors (from memory)
• Not warming up is a mistake
  • At least move your arms around or something
  • This shows up in people that start off rocky and then get better
• The tighter the grip, the tighter the wrist lock
• Work on grip strength
  • Don’t forget to work on the extensors
• An interesting exercise, that can be done anywhere is:
  • With your shooting hand, pretend that you’re gripping a pistol
  • Now, move only your trigger finger as if you were going to fire
  • Ensure that there is only movement in your trigger finger