Beretta Blog

Gun ownership continues to grow at record levels in the United States, and concealed carry permits are increasing right alongside gun sales, reaching record levels last year with no end in sight. However, anecdotal evidence suggests that the majority of people who go to the trouble and expense of getting a concealed carry permit don’t carry a pistol on a regular basis. When I went through my CCW class in Arizona many years ago, our instructor said that only a third of us would commit to carrying our guns on a regular basis. Based on my experience since then, I think he was optimistic.

Without pictures, it didn’t happen. Unless you bring back a t-shirt, you didn’t go. And without skill and progress measurement, you can’t improve.

One way to exercise your skills and measure your progress is to practice with a structured course of fire. A good routine will “walk you through” a variety of skills like strong hand only, support hand only, two-handed shooting, draws from a holster, and magazine changes. While the shooting community has developed hundreds of such practice scenarios, you don’t have to look any farther than your local law enforcement agency to find one. While every agency differs in the details, most have a structured qualification course of fire that every officer has to complete on a regular basis.

With many things in life, I deliver better results with aggressive time limitations. There’s nothing like a tight deadline to make me focus and produce. Unfortunately, shooting isn’t one of those activities. In fact, adding a time crunch to basic shooting tasks has the opposite effect of degrading performance, sometimes to near comical levels.

If you want to become a better shooter, you must measure your both your current skill level and your progress. You can measure and track accuracy results, and depending on your personal goals, that may be enough. For recreational shooting and some types of competition, time may not matter. However, if you want to improve your defensive shooting capabilities or perhaps move up the action pistol sports ladder, being able to shoot accurately under time pressure becomes important.  

A simple shot timer is a great addition to your range kit. Here’s what you need to know about how they work. 

Not too long ago, iron sights were the king of sighting systems for pistols and rifles. Rightfully so, as the fundamental designs of iron sights have remained largely unchanged for 300 years. Iron sights are thus a very mature technology that had been proven to be reliable and rugged. But slowly things began to change.

By very definition, semi-automatic pistols all have some basic features and functions in common. What makes them "semi-automatic" is the recoil system that performs a carefully orchestrated process of:

• Moving the slide to the rear.
• Ejecting the spent cartridge case.
• Cocking the hammer or striker for the next shot.
• Moving forward and stripping a fresh cartridge from the magazine.
• Loading that cartridge into the chamber as the slide closes and locks into position.

The sport of practical shooting requires you to make fast, accurate shots under the pressure of a shot clock, giving your body a taste of what it might be like to deal with the stress of a real-world encounter.

There are plenty of things that are obvious additions to a range bag. You’ll need eye and ear protection. If you like to bring guests, then pack extra safety glasses and hearing muffs, so everyone has a set. Targets, a stapler, and spare staples are also a given. Is that all you need? Not if you want to guarantee an interruption-free outing.

If you’ve been around the gun-related internet for any amount of time, you’ve seen how much fun it is to shoot action pistol matches like IDPA or USPSA. Action pistol (also known as practical pistol) is a ridiculously fun sport, but getting started can be intimidating for both men and women because you’re going to shoot an unfamiliar course of fire in front of your friends and others. Admittedly, the potential for embarrassing yourself is pretty high.

Ask me how I know this.

There’s a lot more to handgun sights than meets the eye. OK, so that little play on words was entirely on purpose, but it’s true. While sights seem simple and even mundane, there’s quite a bit of thought and sophisticated science put into the design of effective handgun sights.