Handguns are not anywhere near as easy to learn to shoot well as something like a rifle. Grip stability and trigger finger position play a huge part in how stabily you hold your gun for shooting.
Check out this Todd Jarret video on pistol grip and trigger finger positioning. It really helped me out a lot as it did a lot of others from what I've heard about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa50-plo48Here's another good tool for helping you to figure out what is wrong.
http://www.is-lan.com/challenge/images/Pistol-Correction.pdfFinally... for me it really helped to get a .22 semi and alternately shoot the .22 and then the pistol. It really helped to eliminate, or at least control, my tendency to flinch and anticipate. I would have gotten there eventually but by shooting two magazines of .22 and then a magazine of 9mm and then back to the .22 I not only saved a HEAP of money on ammo costs but I learned to ignore the firing of the gun other than noticing it as a sideline experience to my shooting. Try it if you can set up the second pistol in .22. It really helps. So can dry firing with a bore laser but at some point I think you need to lose the dot on the wall and shoot something. If the laser does the job then great. But if you find you can't bring the laser dot shooting to control your real shooting then try the .22 solution.
EDIT- Sweet, I wasn't expecting the video to be embedded like that.
Also I just wanted to add that there's a whole other reason for trying the .22 than as an aid for your center fire pistol shooting. And that is that it's fun on its own as well as being dirt cheap fun. I bought my 9mm Shadow first just becuase it worked out that way. But shortly after that I asked to borrow a .22 and my own .22 pistol became my very second purchase as the experience described above hit home like a ton of bricks.
What .22 did I buy? Well as it turned out I went for a Tanfoglio Force 22. You may well ask what that is since they are only sold in Canada. For once we have something up on ya Yanks.....
But an excellent pistol (and the borrowed one that I shot about 500 rounds through) is a S&W 22A. It's light enough that the .22 kick moves the gun and forces you to concentrate on both your hold and your trigger finger control. Something that a Ruger, with it's much more solid weight, does not respond to with the same degree. Don't get me wrong. The Ruger .22's are fantastic pistols for putting holes in targets. But they are so heavy that they insulate the shooter from much of the need to learn the proper techniques to the same degree as a lighter pistol.
Another great option is one that I just bought for myself. It's an older S&W 422. Light but super accurate if I do my job. A great little plinker.
