Does practice with a .22 help with shooting 9mm?

[hminsky]

I wonder what people think about the usefulness of practicing with a .22 pistol in terms of how that carries over to using a 9mm?

I find shooting .22 much more relaxing than shooting 9mm, and of course it is considerably cheaper. I realize it is a different beast, but how much do people think the practice carries over from one to the other?

[derek]

It's helps a lot. You practice sight alignment, trigger control, and most importantly muscle memory. Shoot the hell out of that .22

[Lugnut]

I'm sure Derek and others are right about this... the basics are the basics. But I'll be damned if I can get myself to spend more than a few minutes with my MKII before I get completely bored. I'd rather dry fire the other guns. I'm weird I know. [grin]

[FPrice]

I agree with Derek. Shooting a .22, especially one that is similar in operation to your 9mm should help you with the basic skills. As long as you practise those skills and don't just blaze away.

[derek]

I agree with Derek. Shooting a .22, especially one that is similar in operation to your 9mm should help you with the basic skills. As long as you practise those skills and don't just blaze away.

Exactly. Shoot as if you were shooting the 9mm as accurately as possible. I hear ya lugnut. I have a .22lr practice upper that I use for high power training. It is boring as hell, but it sure does help my scores quite a bit.

[Lugnut]

I hear ya lugnut. I have a .22lr practice upper that I use for high power training. It is boring as hell, but it sure does help my scores quite a bit.

I need to get more disiplined. [wink]

[KMaurer]

If you'd rather dry fire your 9mm than shoot the MKII, it may also be the fit of the gun. See if there's a .22 available that more closely conforms to the weight, size and feel of you 9mm. That might make a difference. Of course, dry firing doesn't hurt, either.

Ken

[Cross-X]

Practice with a .22 can be invaluable, especially if you get yourself a revolver and shoot lots of double action.

Also, do the ball and dummy drill, using some dummy cartridges along with the live ones. This is an easy way to detect and cure flinch.

One more idea -- stick a laser on your gun, even a cheap one that clips to the trigger guard. As Ken recently observed, seeing how the laser bounces with every twitch can help you learn how to be smooth.

[C-pher]

You guys are nuts...

I LOVE shooting my .22. I love them. I don't know why. But .22s are so much fun to shoot. More times than not, I spend more time shooting my .22s than I do my .45s, .40s and 9mms.

[derek]

One more idea -- stick a laser on your gun, even a cheap one that clips to the trigger guard. As Ken recently observed, seeing how the laser bounces with every twitch can help you learn how to be smooth.

Very good training idea.

[Bugs100]

I try and shoot 50-100 rounds from my Model 34-1 4 inch 22lr revolver ever time I go to the range. To me the difference between a 22 revolver and a 22 pistol is huge. The 22 S&W revolver really lets you concentrate on trigger control. I picked this J frame revolver just for the fact it's harder to shoot them a larger revolver such as a 617 or K22.

It is an exact duplicate of my older N frames, it's even pinned and recessed and blue. A few guys at BR have even come up to me and asked me if they could try it after seeing it.

Now I'm look for a K22 to go with it. How can you beat 11 bucks a brick.

[Optimistic Paranoid]

There is a difference between a .22 handgun and mounting a .22 Conversion Kit on your centerfire frame.

The obvious difference is that you have EXACTLY the same grip and trigger.

But wait! There's More!

Glocks will let you dry fire ONCE, and then you have to manually cycle the slide. With a conversion kit on the gun, you can actually work on catching the link and getting off the quick second shot!

Thus, with some guns at least, a conversion kit is actually BETTER than dry fire practice!

Regards
John

[Coyote33]

The Ruger 22/45 Mark III™ Rimfire Autoloading Pistol · P45GCMKIII (http://www.ruger.com/Firearms/FAProdView?model=10119&return=Y) is supposed to be set up similar to a 1911 government model as far as grip and stuff for training.

[Jose]

Rimfire guns don't have to be all that similar to your CF ones to have significant training value.

I use an Anschutz 1411 target rifle for prone and offhand practice as well as smallbore prone matches. That rifle is radically different in every respect from my AR15, and different enough from my Model 70 HP rifle as well. Still, the prone training that I've done with it has paid dividends over the winter. I've managed to increase my 600 yard prone average score by 8 points, and I am sure that due in large part to shooting the Anschutz almost every single weekend.

My smallbore club is only 30 minutes away in the country, while my HP club is 75 minutes away and I have to drive through two major cities to get there and back. So going to shoot SB is a no brainer in terms of time and $.

Also, smallbores are brutally unforgiving of mistakes in technique. But because of that, I can clearly see the effect I have on point of impact by changing things like head and hand pressures on the rifle. I've run several experiments that way and what I've learned has help tremendously in HP.