I'm surprised no one has really mentioned trigger discipline! This is especially true for any hip action. It's so easy to re-holster and forget you have your finger on the trigger... and *bam* you shoot yourself in the leg.
I was assuming that we are past the 4 rules. Trigger discipline is not especially true in certain times. It is true ALL the time as per the 3rd rule.
I agree that it feels natural to just rest your finger on the trigger, but he stressed the point of keeping that index finger out of the trigger area and held parallel to the barrel until ready to shoot.
Actually, train yourself to keep that trigger finger as high up along the slide as you can. Have it rest on the ejection port if need be - "give it something else to do", as they say. Practice, practice, practice, and keeping the finger of the trigger will become second nature.
"Give it something else to do" - good advice, GreenLED. Thanks.
The single most common problem I see is that so many people stop learning after their first few trips to the range. They unwittingly instill, then carry with them, a multitude of bad habits for the rest of their shooting lives.
Never be afraid to ask a seasoned shooter or instructor to occasionally review your techniques especially early in your development. Usually they are eager to help and won't even charge you for a session if you buy them a soda. They'll be able to quickly identify several problems with your fundamentals that may be invisible to you. Even the best shooters in the world often have coaches, critique one another, or study themselves on video from an expert point of view.
PW, after a while the finger will feel natural outside of the trigger guard. Since the gun spends the most time in the hand while not being fired you'll eventually only feel natural when the finger is resting along side the frame. The brain will go into "fire" mode when the finger comes off its home position.
One instructor said that I should be placing one thumb next to the other, and I haven't gotten into that habit yet either. I'm not suire how much that one matters as I seem to be doing ok with my accuracy without that, but we'll see.
Dudemar, regarding the your driver analogy, I'd have to break it into 2 groups. Group 1 would be your DMV book example. In group one would be the basics like safety, learning to use the vehicle control controls, and rules of the road.
Group 2 would consist of anything that occurred outside of the rhelm of normal driving. By never taking any higher form of learning they put themselves at higher risk if something goes wrong. Maybe they've never had any time on an obstacle coarse or race track with a qualified instructor. Perhaps they've never practiced and emergency lane change, felt their car slide or even used their brakes anywhere near their full potential....most drivers haven't. In other words anything that occurs outside of the drivers normal range or envelope of knowledge could potentially throw them a serious loop.
When the driving analogy is transferred over to shooting, group 1 would be the basics starting with safe operation and shooter technique. Group 2 would be taking the training to a level outside of bulls eye shooting. Maybe that's "tactical" shooting for some, like those interested in CCW, but it could just be leaning the advanced bio mechanics and mental training necessary for High Power or Silhouette shooting.
You're welcom, PW - just passing along a little something I heard somewhere.
Fully gripping the pistol and the resulting aid in accuracy is only part of it. As you move onto other guns (which you might or might not do), you'll find that certain thumb placements interfere with the gun's controls, or that you can't operate the controls properly.
The most "simple, logical and universal" (I was taught basic gun skills should adhere to those principles) way of placing your thumbs to prevent these instances is to place the thumbs one next to the other. If you adhere to the 3 principles, you'll have less trouble when using unfamiliar guns.
Also when firing a semi-auto handgun, be sure to not put your palm near or on the magazine. This leads to jams/feeding problems.