By George E. Emanuel
The short answer is yes you can. If you do it consistently!
However, the basic body position and the basic steps to firing the shot are your fallbacks when things go sideways.
We teach the basics in our NRA Basic Pistol Course to give you a solid, proven, and simple foundation to begin your shooting career. The word foundation is key here. Like a building, the foundation gives necessary support and a firm grounding that does not change from one structure to the next. Think of it as a universal truth. Fail to build a good foundation and the building may collapse. Much like your shooting deteriorating into the abyss of frustration.
When this happens, we need to be able to return our minds and our bodies to the basics. If you’re shooting faulters this is the only sure way back. The foundational aspects of shooting must be revisited and your form repaired.
Now, we don’t care if you shoot using your pinkie as the trigger finger, standing on one leg with the gun upside down as long as you hit the target consistently!
There is that pesky word consistently again. If you are not consistent improvement will continue to be elusive.
No matter how you shoot you must be consistent with every shot! You must have balance, you must have a proper sight alignment, a sight picture, breathing and trigger press, and follow through PERIOD! Violate any one of these and the marksmanship toilet awaits your arrival. Imagine Tiger Woods without follow-through! Say the word to yourself before breaking form after the shot.
This is one reason why we feel it is necessary to have an NRA Basic Pistol Course under your belt. We teach each of the foundational skills for you to improve your shooting and perhaps more importantly to have a solid base to return to should you wander into that dreaded land of inconsistent results.
Only after you have become the master of the basics should you carefully consider changing anything in your firing of the shot.
In more advanced classes we teach “flash” sight pictures, “unsighted”, (not unaimed) shooting, and other skills that are more appropriate to the subject matter with which those classes concern themselves.
As Instructors and Range Safety Officers, we see regular ignorance and outright defiance of the basics. Difficulty getting started is caused by ignorance in new shooters, and defiance in the shooter who has a very overinflated opinion of their techniques and abilities. As professionals, we would rather teach the former, but do not shy away from the latter. We carefully guide the beginner and correct the course of the “I have been doing it this way for years, (read unproductive) experienced shooter.
From experience, we know that we can improve a new shooter’s ability, and safety by spending five minutes showing them the proper grip alone. Imagine what we could help them achieve if we could wave our magic wand and have them perfect all of the steps to firing a shot, successfully!
So, to summarize, yes you can be successful in modifying the basic techniques. But you ignore them at the peril of killing enjoyment in shooting sports. Even in the example above, as wild and crazy as it sounds, it is possible. But not without that solid foundation.
Sign up for a Basic Pistol Class if you haven’t yet taken one. We guarantee you’ll become a better shooter and learn what you don’t know, but, should.
Now as they say go practice! Practice the basics, and return to them when your shooting deteriorates. “Amateurs practice until they get it right, professionals practice until they can’t get it wrong!”
Strive to become a professional!