As a gun owner, you likely know that training with your firearm is vitally important so that you have the ability to put it to use in the rare instance when that would be justified for self-defense without endangering anyone but the aggressor. That means, of course, taking classes, yes, and also spending time at the range.

What you may not have considered, though, are other ideas to make you the best marksman (or woman) that you can be.

Fortunately, a writer going by the name of Luke C shares with us four tips from Dan Brokos, owner of Lead Faucet Tactical, on how to improve your performance using your pistol. Here are the four tips provided by Luke C along with our comments:

1. Stick With One Gun And One Trigger. Look, every firearm is different. Every trigger is different. When you need to shoot for self-defense, you want to be so comfortable with that firearm, so used to the way that it feels that you don’t have to think about it. You need to know that trigger’s break so well that it doesn’t distract you from focusing on the target and the situation when you pull the trigger. Get used to one gun (and one set of accessories, like a trigger, like a red dot, etc. on that gun) so that you don’t have to think about the gun when you have to use it. You just fire and put that bullet where it needs to go.
2. Prioritize Accuracy Over Speed. There’s a saying in training for other activities that slow is smooth, and smooth is fast. There are two parts to this as it relates to firearms training. The first is that it’s more important to make sure your shots hit their intended target and just as important to make sure that your shots don’t hit anything else. The other part involves the way that your neurology works: when you get used to doing something accurately when training it slowly, you will naturally still do it accurately when you speed up the activity. Practice it right. Practice it slow. Get those down before you even try to practice it fast, and you’ll be a better shooter when you have to be fast.
3. Practice Your Lower Body Stance. You need stability in how you stand and the ability to move when you need to. Stance is often an underappreciated but vitally important part of accurate shooting.
4. Practice Practice Practice. The more that you practice perfectly, the better your results will be. Perfect practice makes perfect results.

Solid advice, there, from Brokos, and the advice is based on solid principles which will improve your results in any activity.

You want to be effective with your firearm, so put these four tips into practice in your pistol training.