Hi All,

Looking for learning resources online and not getting very far, so thought I'd see what advice people had on here. Apologies if these have been discussed before, I hope over time and with new forum members the answer will be different anyway

So far with Air Pistol all people tend to say to me is "shoot how you feel comfortable", which seems like sound advice but leaves me thinking that to be the best in Air Pistol all you have to do is be the most steady handed person with the best gun/pellets for the job - and surely that's not the case!

I expect that a number of factors must be important:
  1. Vision? (e.g. glasses? eye patch? eye adjacent to shooting hand? peaked cap?)
  2. Footwear? (e.g. standard sole? flat sole? barefoot? are those expensive shoes worth the money?)
  3. Clothing? (e.g. posture support or rigidity?)
  4. Grip? (e.g. loose/tight?)
  5. Preparation? (e.g. if indoor, fresh air immediately before shoot? muscle warm-up or flexibility?)
  6. Stance (e.g. square or perpendicular? legs straight or bent, close or apart?)
  7. Aiming (e.g. extend arm and lower pistol? raise pistol?)


Dare say there are other aspects I'm missing from here and each one could probably be a forum post in its own right. I was hoping the experienced out there could run me through what they do for these factors and why.

Currently, for me in my beginners naivety (and not tested competitively):
  1. Vision: Don't wear anything, shoot with adjacent eye, closing other eye as it's slightly dominant.
  2. Footwear: Whatever I have on, tend to be boots with a bit of a heel (like an inch or so, before anyone suggests otherwise ).
  3. Clothing: Whatever I have on, usually a shirt and jeans.
  4. Grip: Never really thought about it, starting with my first gun tomorrow, so will find out.
  5. Preparation: None.
  6. Stance: I like to shoot almost square on, legs straight but not locked at the knee. L-stance, adjacent leg forward, ensuring that my shoulders are relaxed and my poster is upright to support the arm raise (physio once showed me how slouching at my desk changes the strength required to raise your arms). Also try not to reposition my feet between shots, obviously.
  7. Aiming: Tend to point upwards at 45 degrees then lower to target, breath all the way out until the barrel drops below the target, breath in until it is on the bull at the top, take in some of the trigger, then repeat once/twice to pull and fire.


Hope we can get some good discussion going