Use a .22 pistol to expose your own trigger and sight errors

A .22 pistol won't lie to you about your trigger press, and American Handgunner argues that's exactly why it belongs in your training rotation, not just the kids' table at the range.

Snapshot

The article makes the case that low recoil and cheap ammo strip away the excuses a centerfire gun lets you hide behind. Without fireball and noise masking the result, a rimfire shows you precisely what your grip, sight picture, and trigger press are actually doing to the shot. The author backs this with his own mechanical accuracy testing, where rimfires like a Smith & Wesson Victory and a Browning Buck Mark consistently outgrouped centerfire guns at 25 yards.

Key points

• Establish a baseline: once you know a given .22, such as a Victory or Taurus TX22, can shoot a roughly 1-inch group, any larger dispersion you produce is on you, not the gun.
• Cheap ammo means more reps: the author says affordable rimfire rounds let shooters fire enough to actually spot patterns in grip and trigger technique instead of rationing shots out of cost anxiety.
• Call your shot: the piece recommends watching the front sight or dot through the break and holding eye lock after the shot lands, using mild recoil to make that habit easier to build before moving to centerfire.
• Watch for the trigger trap: many rimfires ship with light, clean target triggers that flatter the shooter, so good .22 groups don't automatically prove skill that will carry over to a harder-triggered carry gun.

Quick take

The appeal here is practical: cheap, low-drama range time that isolates fundamentals instead of masking them. Just don't mistake a great trigger for great technique until you can repeat the groups on something louder.

Read the full story: americanhandgunner.com