When Should You Blame Your Gun?

The above below is a target I shot from 5 yards to 30 yards with my Sig P320 with iron sights. It all started because I was at ETTS shooting some drills that I wanted to video for the blog and social media content. I was just warming up with a BC zone steel plate at 70 yards and was frustrated. My front sight was on the target throughout my trigger press, and I still missed more than I hit.

I switched to 50 yards and then 25 yards and was still experiencing the same thing. I could not account for why I was missing when my sights said “hit.” So, I ran a walk back drill on paper out to 50 yards.

What I discovered is clear in the image above. Even when I concentrated on every shot, pausing between each, I was still consistently left. I have a hard time just blaming the gun and accepting it’s time for a sight adjustment tool, but it seems pretty clear. For this gun and the way I interface with it, I need to adjust my sights to hit consistently where I want to.

Rob Leatham said when diagnosing yourself or another shooter, always blame the gun first. That way you can eliminate the tool as the problem. I was trained that the gun is usually fine, it’s usually the shooter at fault. Who’s right?

Rob is arguably the GOAT in the shooting world. Obviously, he’s right. But the firearms instructors I was trained by in the Border Patrol and Secret Service were also right. Eliminate the gun as the problem and you are left with the shooter. In this case, I am willing to accept that the gun is shooting left because it is so repeatable. I could spend a lot of time chasing a modification to my grip and stance that may eliminate the issue. But why? I know changing my sight will correct for the issue, and then I can focus on shooting more quickly or reducing group sizes at range. At this point, for me, it makes more sense to blame the gun and drive on.

If I were spreading the shots around the target, particularly at 5-10 yards, my response would be different. If I could not call my shots, my response would be different. This decision is very shooter dependent, but there are some guidelines to help you know when to make adjustments.

First, blame the gun. Get another competent shooter to see if he or she has a similar issue. Second, run a similar test to see if you are falling apart somewhere. My consistency in a group really fell apart at about 15 yards a couple years ago, so I could not rely on any information I obtained from shooting beyond that. Now the 30-yard group has valuable input. Lastly, compare the gun in question to one you shoot better. I shoot my Glock 19 with an RDS better, but I adjusted my RDS to point of aim, point of impact. Maybe it's time for me to do the same with my irons.