Secrets of the Taco Hold?

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jmoore
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Secrets of the Taco Hold?

Post by jmoore »

Trying once again to figure out how to shoot a Contender standing after many years without such a platform. And this Taco Hold business has me frustrated once again! Tried the peep on peep sights with the .22LR just to get a baseline before going to the .22 Hornet. Wow! Horrible! So bad I pulled the sights and attached a rifle scope. No better. Finally put the rig on the bench and proceeded to make a five shot group not much bigger than the bullet at 25 yards, so it's not the pistol. Or the sights.

Tried shooting it at arms length like my usual revolver hold and did far better, even though neither the peep on peep nor the rifle scope was optimal for such usage.

So, operator error somewhere. Big time! Probably better off with a conventional hold and eyes shut after the initial lineup....

Any hints to shooting the Taco hold? (Have aleady punted with the Hornet for now and have installed a Ken Light highrise mount, but I want to give it a go with the .22 for a while.)
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aggshooter
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Re: Secrets of the Taco Hold?

Post by aggshooter »

I'm no expert, so take this for whatever it's worth.....

I stand as if shooting a rifle, (right handed). Left foot forward, body turned 45-60 degrees from target. Left hand supports gun. Right hand does sight picture and trigger control. Keep your head up and bring the sights up to eye level, don't bend at the neck trying to bring eyes down to the gun.

I find my natural point of aim by adjusting my feet. Once found, feet are glued in one spot until all 5 shots are done.

When sights (or crosshairs) are on target, apply pressure to trigger. If sights wander from target, stop squeezing trigger.

A good trigger is pretty important, I like mine to be no more than 10 ounces with no creep. I will often put my trigger finger at the bottom of the trigger to give me better leverage.

If you can't break the shot in a timely manner and start to lose control of sight picture, put the gun down for a few seconds, rest, and reset.

You can't hold the gun rock steady. If the crosshairs are in the black and moving slowly toward the target center, squeeze trigger. If moving away from target center, stop squeezing until they head the right way.

Practice. A lot.

Dry fire with a TC. I can't tell you how many dry fire shots I've taken on the neighbors doorbell (from inside my living room). 25 quality shots a day (dry fire) will beat 200 shots on Saturday.

Just my .02

Rich
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Hosspower
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Re: Secrets of the Taco Hold?

Post by Hosspower »

I'm still not good with the taco hold but 1 tip that helped me was trigger hand thumb placement. Varying thumb pressure when wrapped around the grip will throw shots so what I have started doing is I don't wrap my thumb. I point it right at the hammer. I use finger groove grips and I choke down 1 finger groove anyway so I have enough room to point my thumb at the hammer.
jcunclejoe
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Re: Secrets of the Taco Hold?

Post by jcunclejoe »

Thank you Rich, great advice. I am going to print this out and follow your advice or at least try my best.

A person can also vary the hold with the left hand. You could hold it with the hand wrapped around both the barrel and hood. You could hold it with the thumb on top of the hood. You could hold it with the hand wrapped around the barrel only.

Shoot the entry early in the day and eat a good breakfast with a lot of protein. It helps eliminate the wiggles.

Joe
Standing is my favorite category. (Not right in the head)

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jmoore
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Re: Secrets of the Taco Hold?

Post by jmoore »

Thanks, y'all!

Will work on this hold some more. Possibly a whole lot more before going to a match. I like shooting standing, guessing that's about 90%+ of what IHMSA i've done. But little using this popular hold. (I think my only try to date is with the Anschutz and shot no better than I have with an iron sighted S&W .22 revolver held at arm's length, more or less.)
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Re: Secrets of the Taco Hold?

Post by jmoore »

Was out yesterday at the range to try and get ready for this weekend's match. Was generally a travesty, including managing to not bring ammo for the 7-30 Waters barrel, but the .22 Hornet barrel with the Ken Light super high rise mount was quite good. So maybe that's my solution for scope use whilst standing. But the Taco Hold still eludes me! Wretched!

:-\

Funnily enough, shot a "new to me" M1A Super Match with iron sights after all the handgun shenanigans were wrapped up and it was super easy to use the aperture sights on it and get good groups. Was worried a bit beforehand. Had thought me eyes were going or something, maybe. One less thing to worry about!
:)

The high protein/low sugar "match diet" does seem to help, but it did cost me 1 AM free ice cream at work before the range trip. x_x (Third shift guy). Sacrifices must be made, no?
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Re: Secrets of the Taco Hold?

Post by MSLiechty »

its been said standing is one of the hardest disciplines to master. I just started shooting again after 15 years away from IHMSA and I have never shoot creedmor. While its not easy shooting standing a hit is rewarding.

ML
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Re: Secrets of the Taco Hold?

Post by jmoore »

I hope you're right, because, aside from this newfangled (for me at least) Taco Hold business, my biggest troubles have been whilst NOT shooting standing! Mind you, I'm just a AA standing guy, maybe AAA in FP, but it's pretty much all been done shooting isosceles or modified Weaver stance. (And probably 80%+ with S&W revolvers) Have found freestyle at best uncomfortable and difficult.
jcunclejoe
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Re: Secrets of the Taco Hold?

Post by jcunclejoe »

The best thing I could offer about standing is to seek out the best standing shooters you can, spend as much time as possible watching them and ask a lot of questions. When I was trying hard to get better at standing, I was able to watch and ask questions of one of the best in the world at the time. Ken Neill from Portland Oregon. Ken was a huge help.
Another thing that helped me improve was shooting and practicing a lot. One year I shot 200 entries Worked out to 40 something matches at about 4.5 entries per match. Not all of them were standing but usually it was 2 of every 5. Then as often as possible I would go the range the day before the match and shoot a half match with each gun.

Good luck and be great.

Joe
Standing is my favorite category. (Not right in the head)

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Re: Secrets of the Taco Hold?

Post by aggshooter »

I too watched many of the best local standing shooters. You obviously can't shoot all the styles, so I would watch and try and see what worked for me.

Do you shoot your M1 standing? Shooting a rifle standing with your off hand under the mag well is very similar to shooting taco. I shoot some 10 meter air rifle during the winter and the only real difference is the position of my left hand. In 10 meter, I support the gun just in front of the trigger guard with a closed fist, the rifle resting on knuckles. With pistol, the left hand is rotated slightly and the fist opened up so my thumb is under the pistol (and I pull my upper arm away from my ribs).

The cross training is great, last match I shot 37 in Unlimited Standing using IZH and taco hold.

Changing styles sometimes takes time to see improvement. Many years ago, I shot a Ruger standing. I watched Pennsylvania great Bill Zewe at the NRA nationals with a Ruger, he had an odd hold, but he hit 13 of 15 turkeys. I asked him about it, he gladly showed me his method. I adopted it, it took about 600 shots to get the hang of it, then my scores went from AA to Int.
Rich Hawkins
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"Go ahead and shoot. The bullet has to go somewhere."
George Hawkins 1917-2000
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