Distance For Begninner

If training a new shooter to shoot bullseye, would you start them out at the official distances, or would you start them out with a short distance until fundamentals are ingrained?

How new is “new?”

If you have an indoor 50ft range available, use it. You can get more range time in inclement weather. The 50ft slow fire target is tough. If you can do well on it, your fundamentals are sound. When a 50yd range is available, use it. It's a different game there and tests your wobble confidence more.
Once you have the trigger control needed for slow fire at a decent point, then start working on sustained fire. Get a good 16-18 second timed fire cadence and a 8-9 second rapid.

First time my daughter shot a pistol it was on a B16 (slow fire reduced target) at 25 yards and she shot a in the 70s with her first 10 shots. I've taken friends too who put 0 of those shots on paper, and struggle to hit a 11x17" at 7 yards (and these are guys that own their own guns). I think you might need to see where they are and meet somewhere in between. And remember the military exercises start with a blank target - might want to work with them on group before score. I had two prospective shooters I started on regulation targets & distances that did poorly and were disappointed enough not to come out again.

There is a neat phenomena where, the rare times I go to a public range, putting my targets against the back stop slowly pulls other shooters' targets downrange. When people see it's possible to hit the target at 25 yards some will want to try it themselves. A few months ago I went to a public range and even on the rifle side of the range, with every stall filled, the furthest target out was 10 yards.

Is this person so new that they need instruction on the basics (how to build a stance, how to build a grip, how to align sights, how to press a trigger)?  Or is this a shooter that has some experience, but not bullseye?

A true brand new shooter should be started completely dry, and then start shooting a blank sheet of paper until there is a consistent group on there at a reasonable range.  10 yards, maybe 15.  If they can keep everything on the back of a repair center or piece of printer paper at 25, then they have the fundamentals down well enough to start shooting for score.  

No point in putting a black bullseye in the sight picture if there's a 0% chance the sights could ever be zeroed.  Once the newbie is able to hold a sight picture and press the trigger without messing things up too badly, the target and distance is kind of irrelevant except for mental pressure.  The rings and blacks are all scaled.  I'd start them off shooting slowfire at the sustained fire targets on the shortline until we've confirmed they can still keep a group (and control their eyes from wandering towards the bull), then step them up to shooting strings of two or three, then five, keeping it all in the scoring rings with some semblance of control (i.e., not all 6s and 5s). 

If they can do that, it's match time.

Experienced and skilled shooter with semi autos, two handed, combat/defense shooting drills at close range.  Wants to learn bullseye with iron sighted revolver.  Going to use a S&W 617-6.

sjs wrote:If training a new shooter to shoot bullseye, would you start them out at the official distances, or would you start them out with a short distance until fundamentals are ingrained?

Being a nobody shooter, this is not advice, only an observation. The fundamentals are often more boring than fun, at first, but they are so fundamental.

Just something to consider with a person who is coming to the activity from the average two handed, 5-7 yard B27 / zombie target, static "combat" stance world.

We didn't get the chance to do it often, but Erich Buljung sometimes would have newbie Rapid Fire/Sport Pistol shooters start with the lift at really close distance, like maybe 7 yards, and then work back from there.

I think there's validity in that approach, but you really need to start with someone who's starting from zero.

I always like to setup a shooter for success. Start at 7 yards while working on stance, grip, etc. If all shots are in the black, immediately go to about 15. If still in the black, go to 20, etc. Accompany the above with a lot of praise and encouragement. If it's not fun, they're unlikely to stick with it, regardless of current, 2 handed skill level. Only slow fire at first. Then, 2 shots in a row, no timer but no dawdling. Build from there.

There are multiple approaches that can support early learning.
When I had students shooting at close range, there were instances where we turned the target around to shoot at a paster over an otherwise blank target. Shoot for group…introduce consistency. 10 meters was as close as I ever encouraged

sjs wrote:Experienced and skilled shooter with semi autos, two handed, combat/defense shooting drills at close range.  Wants to learn bullseye with iron sighted revolver.  Going to use a S&W 617-6.

Start with safe handling of the guns and the basic safety rules. This is the hardest person to teach bullseye pistol shooting. They have to break the old learned trigger manipulation and re-learn proper trigger control. Find out what distances the "new" person has been shooting and go from there. I always start at close distances of 7-10 yards. Sometimes, they rapidly advance to greater distances (up to 25 yards) in one session. I find that many action type shooters get impatient and bored easily with real bullseye pistol shooting. I've known really experienced action pistol shooters say that they want to learn to shoot bullseye pistol shooting, but won't put in the effort. Really new, new shooters are easier to deal with.

As others have noted, I’d start them at 7 or ten yards. I’d use a B6 (50 yard) repair center as a target and look for 100% hits. Start them 2 handed if necessary. Then push them back to 15 then 25 yards.

Thank you, folks for all the helpful comments.

BE Mike wrote:I find that many action type shooters get impatient and bored easily with real bullseye pistol shooting. I've known really experienced action pistol shooters say that they want to learn to shoot bullseye pistol shooting, but won't put in the effort. Really new, new shooters are easier to deal with.

This is an elegant way of what I clumsily tried to say.

I will agree with Ashley.
There is absolutely no upside to shooting at 25 yards until you can hit at 7-10 yards.
When that happens move the target out to 10-15-25. At each distance practice until the person is confident in being able to shoot that distance. All ten shots in the black. 
Score doesn't matter. Success along the way does.

Fundamentals will need to be improved, and will be naturally as practice and yardage increases.
Encouragement is the key.

A good, but difficult training process is setting up the target close enough so you can shoot only tens, or X's. Move target out a few yards, still shooting tens. Keep repeating larger distances while learning how to shoot tens- always.