Shooting Smarter: Why Range Time Without Purpose Is Just Noise

Conrad Castano
Jun 12
4 min read

Man practicing live fire pistol training at an outdoor range, using proper stance and trigger control with a spent casing mid-air. — Train like it matters — every rep builds or breaks your skillset. This isn’t for show. It’s for survival.

You're Not Training, You're Wasting Ammo

If you’re just mag-dumping with no focus, congrats — you’re building muscle memory for mediocrity.

By: Family of Patriots

Let’s just get this out of the way:

Going to the range and pulling the trigger doesn’t make you a better shooter.

I don’t care if you’ve been shooting for two years or two decades — if you're walking into the range without a clear goal, you're not training. You’re just burning money and reinforcing garbage habits.

I see it constantly. “I’ve been shooting for years!” Yeah? Then why does your stance look like you're line dancing and your trigger finger is doing a half-hearted finger-poke of death?

This blog isn’t here to baby you — it’s here to make you better.

Build Good Habits Now — Or Break Them Later

My wife says it best:

“It’s easier to build good habits than break bad ones.”

(She’s usually right — don’t tell her I said that.)

So if you’re new to shooting:

start clean. If you’ve been at it for a while: stay humble and reset your foundation.

It’s not an ego thing — it’s a performance thing. Even seasoned shooters get lazy and start phoning it in. Complacency is a silent killer.

What Range Time Should Be

I get it. Sometimes you’re at the range just to decompress. For me, the smell of gunpowder is straight-up aroma therapy. Clears the head.But even then — pick a focus.

Work your draw
Tighten up your transitions
Refine your trigger press

Otherwise, you're just playing pew pew and calling it practice. This isn’t Call of Duty. This is skill development. Respect it.

The 3 Offenders I See Way Too Often

1. Trigger Slap City

People act like the trigger’s a light switch. Wrong.

It’s not about yanking it as fast as possible.
It’s about finding the wall, breaking the shot, and riding the reset like it owes you money.

Use the pad of your finger — not the damn joint like you're pulling a lawn mower cord. Pull straight back, not in some twisted side-angle crank.

And if you're anticipating your shot?

---Slow. Down.

Let the shot surprise you. That’s how you build control. That’s how you shoot clean.

2. The Movie Grip (AKA “John Wick You Are Not”)

Holding the bottom of the mag like it's a damn action movie? Stop. That. Shit.

That grip isn’t tactical. It’s a one-way ticket to limp wristing, poor recoil management, and looking like a tool.

Only one actor gets a pass — Keanu Reeves.

He trained like a beast. He runs live drills better than half the dudes on YouTube flexing in plate carriers. Everyone else? Garbage.

3. Standing Like a Fence Post & Closing One Eye Like a Pirate

This one hurts. Literally.

People stand straight up like they're waiting for a school photo, or they lean backward like the gun’s gonna bite them.

Lean into the gun. Own the recoil. Be aggressive.

Not passive. Not pretty. Functional.

Now, about that pirate vision. You’re not cute. You’re not mysterious. You’re cutting your awareness in half.

Let’s talk dominant eye reality:

Most shooters are right-eye dominant. Close your left eye and boom — you’ve just created a blind spot around your 8 or 9 o’clock.
For left-eye dominant folks? You're losing your 3 or 4 o’clock zone. That’s where bad guys come from. Or worse — the innocent person trying to help that you didn’t see.

If you're training for real-world encounters, closing one eye is training to lose.

And no, don’t tell me you “can’t” keep both eyes open. You also couldn’t drive at one point in life, but here you are — sending it at 85 on I-75. Practice it. Train for it.

Bonus Section: Watch That Flinch — Anticipation Kills

A big red flag? Jerking the trigger or pushing the shot low — that’s anticipation. You’re flinching because you know the bang is coming, and your body tries to “prep” for it.

Slow it down. Breathe. Let. The. Shot. Surprise. You.

If that means going back to dry fire and live fire drills at 50% speed — so be it. This isn’t about speed — it’s about control. Speed comes later. Precision builds speed.

Shooting Is a Craft — Not a Competition With Your Ego

Think of it like this: every round you send downrange is a brush stroke. You’re creating something. It may not be on canvas, but it’s still art. It deserves focus, attention, and respect.

This isn’t about mag dumps and ego lifts. This is about mastery. And mastery happens in the boring reps — not the flashy ones.