Task Analysis: Handgun Marksmanship

A task analysis is a breakdown of the knowledge and skills required to successfully complete a task. Psychologists use a task analysis to design training that teaches knowledge and skills systematically, instead of relying on vague instruction or trial-and-error learning. The result is a carefully-sequenced training program that is far more effective than traditional demonstration-and-practice instruction.

This web page documents the task analysis used by the author to develop the training program described in this book.

Training Objective

The main goal of Handgun Marksmanship is to provide step-by-step instruction that a reader can use to teach himself/herself to shoot bullseyes safely and consistently while holding a handgun in a two-handed grip and shooting from a standing position.

The knowledge and skill set required for a reader to teach himself/herself to shoot bullseyes is described below:

Handgun Safety

The reader must know and apply rules such as:

Safe gun handling. Treat the gun as if it were loaded, point the muzzle in a safe direction, keep finger off the trigger until ready to shoot.
Safe gun usage. Know target and what is beyond, be sure gun is safe to operate, use correct ammunition, wear eye and ear protection, never use alcohol or drugs while shooting.
Safe gun storage. Store handgun safely and securely, do not “hide” gun, use a gun safe and/or gun lock.

Target Analysis

The reader must know how to analyze bullet-hole patterns to improve shooting performance. This activity requires an ability to:

Create a marksman’s target. A good marksman’s target has three attributes: the point of aim and point of impact are visible from shooting distance; the target has a clear bullseye, a grid, and a scale to measure shooting performance; and the target is inexpensive.
Assess shooting proficiency objectively. Distinguish bullseyes from missed shots.
Compute basic measures of shooting performance: percent of bullseyes and percent of missed shots high, low, left and right.
Compute two measures of shooting accuracy: average windage error and average elevation error.
Compute one measure of shooting precision: bullseye potential. (Bullseye potential is the percentage of bullseyes that would result if a shot group were repositioned so its center coincided with the center of the bullseye.).

Familiarity with target analysis is essential for specifying the correct point of aim, assessing mechanical accuracy of shooting equipment (handgun and ammunition), defining a challenging training goal, and measuring shooter performance objectively.

Goal Setting

The reader will define a marksmanship goal that is uniquely tailored to his/her individual situation - challenging (beyond the reader’s current capabilities), yet attainable (not beyond the capabilities of the reader’s gun and ammunition). This task requires an ability to:

Choose the right handgun for training. The reader should understand factors that make some handguns harder to shoot accurately than others. If the reader has a choice, he/she should train with the hard-to-shoot handgun.
Measure baseline shooter skill. From a distance of 7 yards, the reader should shoot at least 50 rounds of ammo at 10 marksman’s targets (5 rounds per target), while standing using two hands to grip handgun. Baseline skill is measured as percent of bullseyes.
Measure mechanical accuracy. From a distance of 7 yards, the reader should shoot at least 50 rounds of ammo at 10 marksman’s targets (5 rounds per target), using a shooting rest. Mechanical accuracy is described by percent of bullseyes, average windage error, and average elevation error.
Define training goal. The reader sets a personal goal (percent of bullseyes) that is challenging, but attainable – greater than baseline skill but not greater than mechanical accuracy. The goal should specify shooting distance, bullseye radius, and percentage of bullseyes.

For example, goal accomplishment might be demonstrated by hitting a 1-inch-radius bullseye at least 80% of the time from a distance of 7 yards while shooting two-handed from a standing position.

Marksmanship Fundamentals

The likelihood of executing a successful shot (i.e., hitting the bullseye) increases when a shooter practices good marksmanship fundamentals:

Sighting. Identify the correct point of aim, based on average windage error and average elevation error when shooting from a benchrest. With iron sights, align front and rear sights over that point of aim. With red dot sights, place the glowing dot over the point of aim.
Trigger control. Separate trigger-finger movement from the rest of the hand. Move the trigger straight back smoothly without disturbing sight alignment.
Grip. Integrate dominant and support hand to keep sights on target through the trigger press. Use a "push-pull" or equalizing pressure in the two-handed grip to prevent gun from shifting during the trigger press. Place shooting hand as high on handle as safety permits (just under tang on autoloader, just below hammer on revolver).
Breath control. Breathing moves chest up or down, which interferes with sighting. Use the “natural respiratory pause” to take shot between breaths.
Stance. How to position arms, place feet, and tilt torso to make it easier to keep sights on target through the trigger press. The reader should know the Isosceles stance, the Weaver stance, and possible adjustments in line with natural point of aim.

The key to great shooting is executing all of the fundamentals simultaneously at the instant that the shot breaks.

Dry Fire Practice

Knowledge, skills, and abilities that make dry fire effective include:

Knowledge of dry fire safety. Shooter must unload firearm, visually confirm no bullets in cylinder, chamber, or magazine, remove live ammunition from training area, and use safe backstop.
Ability to follow through. Shooter maintains focus, grip, sight alignment, and trigger control for a brief moment after the shot breaks. Good follow-through ensures shooter can call the shot.
Skill of "calling the shot" (visual feedback). After each dry fire trigger press, shooter can describe exactly where the sights were oriented at the moment the sear released. Shooter can interpret alignment with intended point of aim as “hits” and deviations from intended point of aim as “misses”.
Ability to diagnose errors. Productive dry fire requires analytical self-observation. An attentive shooter can identify sighting, trigger control, grip, breath control, and stance issues; so those issues can be corrected in dry fire practice drills or in live fire practice drills.
Knowledge of dry fire practice drills. Shooters set challenging dry fire goals and measure performance objectively. The consecutive hits drill and the percentage hit drill are examples of effective dry fire practice drills. Drills ensure a focus on continuous improvement in practice, not random repetition.

Gains seen in dry fire (improvements in sighting, trigger control, grip, breath control, and stance) transfer to live fire.

Live Fire Practice

Live fire practice is about diagnosing performance, reinforcing shooting fundamentals, and eliminating specific errors. Knowledge, skills, and abilities that make live fire effective include:

Ability to follow through. Shooter maintains visual focus, grip, sight alignment, and trigger control for a brief moment after the shot breaks. Good follow-through ensures (a) shooter can describe the sight picture when the bullet exits the barrel and (b) shooter can call the shot.
Follow through diagnostic knowledge. After every shot, determine whether shooter followed through.
- If shooter cannot describe the sight picture when the shot broke, shooter is not following through and shooter cannot call the shot.
- If the called shot and actual shot disagree, (a) shooter is not following through or (b) the point of aim is incorrect.
Knowledge of perfect pistol shot. A perfect pistol shot occurs when the sight picture at follow through matches the point of aim.
- When a perfect pistol shot results in a hit, the validity of the point of aim is confirmed.
- Whan a perfect pistol shot results in a miss, the validity of the point of aim is called into question.
Skill of "calling the shot”. When shooter follows through and point of aim is correct, shooter can describe exactly where the sights were oriented at the moment the sear released.
- When the sights are aligned with the intended point of aim, shooter can predict a “hit”.
- When sights are aligned high, low, left or right, shooter can predict a miss high, low, left, or right, respectively.
Missed shot knowledge. Based on the position of a missed shot (high, low, left, or right), shooter can describe the sight picture that produced the missed shot.
Shot group knowledge. Shot group patterns from one live fire session can be analyzed to prioritize problems to be corrected in subsequent dry fire or live fire sessions. Things to look for include:
- Tight group, off-center. This indicates a sighting issue that can be solved by adjusting the point of aim.
- Missed shot analysis. Categorize missed shots as high, low, right, or left. Identify the most frequently occurring type of missed shot for attention in future practice sessions.
Live fire goal setting. Set a goal for each shot in live fire. The goal should address the single biggest problem identified in previous live fire shooting session. When that problem is solved, set a new live fire goal to address the next biggest problem.