The guy or girl who holsters a .45, or a Beretta, or a Glock, or an M&P, or a Chief’s Special five-shot revolver, for that matter, and closes the book on pistol selection can get on to the more serious business of pistol training and practice. The principle resource that satisficing can buy you is time, which is the one resource you can’t buy or produce more of, and the one resource that is ever in short supply.
Hognose
January 25, 2016
Pistols & Optimizing vs. Satisficing
[H/T to Tamara.
Greg Hamilton has insight on a closely related topic which is relevant here as well:
If during the time you were reading the latest “stopping power” article you were instead practicing to save your life you would be far, far ahead.
You should spend far more of your time and money budgets on training and practice than on your equipment. I know this is difficult and it’s easy to run down the equipment rabbit hole but try to avoid it.—Joe]
I often see someone buys a new pistol to shoot a game or an agency gets a new firearm. They score better initially then default back to their old performance levels.My theory is they focus more on sight picture and trigger control with the new gun then slide back to old bad habits.
Our local popo switched from Glocks to M&P’s and their SGT was bragging about an improvement on qualification scores. I asked him, didn’t the officers just spend the whole day on a new weapons familiarization course , then shot the qualifier? Yes he said what’s the point? Do they usually practice for a couple of hours before qualifying? The light bulb went on. He called me a few weeks ago and said when he sent his problem children to the range they shot just as poorly with new side arms as they had before the switch.
I can tell my scores are all based on my level of practice and not on the pistol or rifle,
Training and practice – this is universal. Sports in general have become equipment crazy the last 15 – 20 years. Golf probably leads the pack. Instead of spending the $$ on lessons or on the driving range – they buy the latest club. I doubt that the club makes that much of a difference.
I remember a story about the Club Pro at some golf course long ago in West Los Angeles who regularly won rounds of golf using a shovel, a broom, and a third implement I forgot. He also reportedly spent the wee hours of the morning practicing hitting balls down the dogleg of Santa Monica Blvd in Beverly Hills.
I also have a friend who buys (or bought) his clubs at Salvation Army, saving more money for greens fees. I should take his example and get out to the range.
This goes well with a quote from Cooper. To paraphrase; “The job of the marketer is to make you unhappy with the gun you already have.”
At the local match this week one of the younger guys asked me how I shot an almost perfect score. I said “Twenty thousand rounds of work in two years.”
I for one don’t practice enough. Hope that changes some when my oldest gets to where he can go to the range with me. He’s only 2.5 so who knows when that will be…
Oleg Volk routinely shows photos of 8 or so year old serious shooting competitors. So I’d say another 4-5 years.
I just need him to hit the point he’ll reliably do as he’s told. At 2.5 the commands don’t always filter through even with regular “reminders” that yes in fact dad is watching. That’s an unsafe situation with anyone else around shooting…