I am having trouble shooting to the left with a S&W 686. A friend shot it with no problem, yet I have the sight clear to the right and still shooting 2 inches left. Holding on the right of a 3 inch circle, four rounds were in the circle and two rounds 3 inches left of the circle. Don’t have this problem with my simi-autos or black powder revolver. Any advice would be appreciated.
need shooting advice
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Preacher you have posed a very intriguing mystery and you have already moved upon it by having another person shoot the handgun. You stated that it perform well for him. You might try shooting the Smith & Wesson over a rest to eliminate as much human error as possible. I do this with my forearms supported and the handgun extended out. Use a target that gives you a good square point of reference such as a piece of white notebook paper with a two inch wide black bar drawed with felt tip horizontally across the paper. Line up on the bar and do your best to get a good grouping regardless of where the shots land on the paper. Make the range short for example 10 yards. Hopefully you will get a good grouping and you can adjust your sights accordingly. If this works out then you will have to anaylze your shooting of the handgun without the rest. Follow through is very important and you may be allowing the handgun to move enough to shoot to the left. Conscentrate on pulling the trigger back straight and try to be consistent in your follow through. Most of us have had trouble with these things and I am sure you will sort it out,
Just a thought. Are you shooting SA or DA? If you have been shooting the others single action and the 686 double action, try a different position on you finger. Bring the trigger back to the joint or pad instead of the tip and relax your thumb a little more.
I tried shooting with a rest. My groups are good. About 5 inches at 25 yards, which is the shortest on the range. I will work on the trigger positioning and pull. I do shoot single action. Don’t have this problem with any other weapon I own. I traded in a taurus with a 4 in barrel and didn’t have the problem. Could it be the way the grips fit my hand? A mystery to me. Have tried three different loads and all three are left.
Two possibilities come to mind. First, you could be jerking the trigger. But this will usually casue the shots to go right (assuming you are right-handed). If you are left handed then this may be the trouble. Or, you could be gripping the gun too much from the side which will push the barrel when you pull the trigger. This is called "palming." Try taking a grip with the gun firmly in the web of your hand so that the barrel is in a straight line with your forearm.
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What you could be doing on the shots to the left, if you are a right hand shooter, is squeezing with all of your fingers instead of just the trigger finger. This would pull the barrel to the left. Dry firing is a good way to detect this. Try to deliberately not squeeze with the tips of the fingers that are wrapped around the grip. This way you only apply pressure to the front and back of the grip. Another way to try and see if this is what you are doing is to place one or two dummy rounds in with live rounds and close the cylinder so you do not know when they will be under the hammer. You will try to shoot the dummy round as you would a live round so any mistakes you make will show.
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