Blackwater
08-19-2015, 02:25 PM
An awful lot of folks are getting into shooting now that really haven't, or haven't had the opportunity or motivation to for a long time, so their experience is often less than extensive. Others may have shot for a long time, but have simply been too busy (welcome to "the new millenium!") to really give a whole lot of thought to HOW we shoot our pistols. For any of these, and for you older "pros" who can contribute more or argue the fine points, I make this post.
What I've found in my experience, having taught a good many folks to shoot handguns, is that many if not most of us tend to rely a little TOO much on the sight alignment issue, and forget the other parts of pulling a trigger on a handgun. In my own experience, I've had the best and most success trying to teach newer handgunners to shoot by "feel" - a more tactile technique than I usually see others using. It has really worked well, and I post it here for any and all's consideration. If you try it, it may feel a little different at first, but if there's one thing I've learned, it's that what feels a bit "out of the ordinary" at first sometimes has proven golden in the long run. I just haven't been so hard-headed that I'd keep doing the same thing in the same way and expecting different results.
It's really pretty simple. All I do is first ensure the grips on the gun are appropriate to the shooter's hand size, and that trigger reach is appropriate to finger length. Stretching and reaching will ALWAYS be a near insurmountable problem if one chooses the wrong size grip or trigger reach. The hand should learn to grip the gun the same way every time. I've found smooth grips help this, and if a quick grab doesn't put it in the right position for the first shot, it'll usually slide right into place for a 2nd. round. I like checkering, but I've come to prefer non-checkered smooth grips on just about all my handguns. They just tend to work a little better, but only IF they fit the hand well. It's best to buy a slightly larger grip and sand it down to the right dimensions. Just have the person hold the gun in their hands, and note how the girth affects where and how they hold it, and how it'll react with recoil. If a grip makes the shooter have to re-grip to have the same grip, they'll get vertical dispersion, always, that will be habitual and keep coming up no matter how "grooved in" they get with those grips.
Once you've got a good fit of hand to gun, so that the trigger finger isn't cramped by the middle finger of the shooting hand, and the girth puts the trigger finger in the right position for a good and consistent trigger pull that won't make the gun shift in the hand with subsequent shots, you're ready to start shooting.
At that point, I've already told them to close their eyes and to concentrate on how it feels when their hand is in the proper shooting position. I take what they usually think is too much time on this, but after fitting the grips to their hand, they'll usually do it anyway, and subsequently benefit from it.
Then we go to the target, and learn to grip with the right PRESSURE on each finger. This is a step many poo poo, but is really essential for really consistent performance, especially early on. The middle finger and thumb are the primary pressure points in gripping a handgun. The ring finger should grip with a little less force, and the pinky should be less still - almost just laying there at the beginning. This simply helps get a straight back trigger pull, especially at first. Many complain it's difficult to do this, but I'm insistent, and if I can get them to do it, they'll later come back and often say, "I see why you made me grip it like that. I'm shooting much better now." As we begin shooting, I get them introduced and concentrated on sight alighment and a straight back trigger pull, and a good follow through where the muzzle doesn't suddenly dip down on trigger release. That muzzle dip is almost always caused by too much pressure by the pinky finger, and really is a mild (but still consequential) form of a flinch. I always have them wear plugs and a muff, and women in particular seem to be amazed at how easy it really is to shoot well when you're not afraid of that big "boom" at the trigger pull. Finger pressure, and in particular differential pressure with each grip of the gun for another round, can and really does make a sometimes huge difference in the kinds of groups you can shoot. The worst part, is if you do that in practice, you'll almost surely do that if you ever have to shoot for keeps! That ain't no small thing! In a real fight, only hits count, and we "fight like we train" to quote an often heard truism of today's fighting men.
We often take the subtlties of our grip and the grips on our guns too lightly, but they CAN and actually DO affect how good we ALLOW ourselves to become. I've usually found that we often "like the feel" of grips that are a bit too small or too large (too large is more common) than we really should be using. Bigger stocks spread recoil out more, but the price for that is we can't hit with them as well or as consistently.
Grips and grip size and conformation is something that really isn't talked about much these days. Making grips expressly fit an individual hand can't be done via mass production methods, and all the advertising we see is geared to exactly that - what CAN be mass produced. However, some good thought, observation and analysis, and cautious application of some sandpaper really CAN make us almost instantly better shooters. It's amazing how much difference it can make sometimes. Just be sure your grips place your fingers in the right position to not cramp each other, and to allow a good, straight back trigger pull, minimize the lower two fingers' effect on the grip by ovaling out the bottom of the grips, and you may well find that, if you go slowly and use caution, you'll be able to become a better and more consistent shot almost instantly, and those "fliers" will become much more rare. Nothing will eliminate them ALL, but they really CAN and likely WILL be minimized greatly by some very simple things and a little close observation and thought and analysis. Once you've got a good set of grips that really fit you, don't sell them off, but get a spare set if you sell that gun, and replace them with your spare set. Nobody will complain, and if you get another, you'll have the grips that make it fit your hand already in stock. Don't ask how I learned THAT one, though!
What I've found in my experience, having taught a good many folks to shoot handguns, is that many if not most of us tend to rely a little TOO much on the sight alignment issue, and forget the other parts of pulling a trigger on a handgun. In my own experience, I've had the best and most success trying to teach newer handgunners to shoot by "feel" - a more tactile technique than I usually see others using. It has really worked well, and I post it here for any and all's consideration. If you try it, it may feel a little different at first, but if there's one thing I've learned, it's that what feels a bit "out of the ordinary" at first sometimes has proven golden in the long run. I just haven't been so hard-headed that I'd keep doing the same thing in the same way and expecting different results.
It's really pretty simple. All I do is first ensure the grips on the gun are appropriate to the shooter's hand size, and that trigger reach is appropriate to finger length. Stretching and reaching will ALWAYS be a near insurmountable problem if one chooses the wrong size grip or trigger reach. The hand should learn to grip the gun the same way every time. I've found smooth grips help this, and if a quick grab doesn't put it in the right position for the first shot, it'll usually slide right into place for a 2nd. round. I like checkering, but I've come to prefer non-checkered smooth grips on just about all my handguns. They just tend to work a little better, but only IF they fit the hand well. It's best to buy a slightly larger grip and sand it down to the right dimensions. Just have the person hold the gun in their hands, and note how the girth affects where and how they hold it, and how it'll react with recoil. If a grip makes the shooter have to re-grip to have the same grip, they'll get vertical dispersion, always, that will be habitual and keep coming up no matter how "grooved in" they get with those grips.
Once you've got a good fit of hand to gun, so that the trigger finger isn't cramped by the middle finger of the shooting hand, and the girth puts the trigger finger in the right position for a good and consistent trigger pull that won't make the gun shift in the hand with subsequent shots, you're ready to start shooting.
At that point, I've already told them to close their eyes and to concentrate on how it feels when their hand is in the proper shooting position. I take what they usually think is too much time on this, but after fitting the grips to their hand, they'll usually do it anyway, and subsequently benefit from it.
Then we go to the target, and learn to grip with the right PRESSURE on each finger. This is a step many poo poo, but is really essential for really consistent performance, especially early on. The middle finger and thumb are the primary pressure points in gripping a handgun. The ring finger should grip with a little less force, and the pinky should be less still - almost just laying there at the beginning. This simply helps get a straight back trigger pull, especially at first. Many complain it's difficult to do this, but I'm insistent, and if I can get them to do it, they'll later come back and often say, "I see why you made me grip it like that. I'm shooting much better now." As we begin shooting, I get them introduced and concentrated on sight alighment and a straight back trigger pull, and a good follow through where the muzzle doesn't suddenly dip down on trigger release. That muzzle dip is almost always caused by too much pressure by the pinky finger, and really is a mild (but still consequential) form of a flinch. I always have them wear plugs and a muff, and women in particular seem to be amazed at how easy it really is to shoot well when you're not afraid of that big "boom" at the trigger pull. Finger pressure, and in particular differential pressure with each grip of the gun for another round, can and really does make a sometimes huge difference in the kinds of groups you can shoot. The worst part, is if you do that in practice, you'll almost surely do that if you ever have to shoot for keeps! That ain't no small thing! In a real fight, only hits count, and we "fight like we train" to quote an often heard truism of today's fighting men.
We often take the subtlties of our grip and the grips on our guns too lightly, but they CAN and actually DO affect how good we ALLOW ourselves to become. I've usually found that we often "like the feel" of grips that are a bit too small or too large (too large is more common) than we really should be using. Bigger stocks spread recoil out more, but the price for that is we can't hit with them as well or as consistently.
Grips and grip size and conformation is something that really isn't talked about much these days. Making grips expressly fit an individual hand can't be done via mass production methods, and all the advertising we see is geared to exactly that - what CAN be mass produced. However, some good thought, observation and analysis, and cautious application of some sandpaper really CAN make us almost instantly better shooters. It's amazing how much difference it can make sometimes. Just be sure your grips place your fingers in the right position to not cramp each other, and to allow a good, straight back trigger pull, minimize the lower two fingers' effect on the grip by ovaling out the bottom of the grips, and you may well find that, if you go slowly and use caution, you'll be able to become a better and more consistent shot almost instantly, and those "fliers" will become much more rare. Nothing will eliminate them ALL, but they really CAN and likely WILL be minimized greatly by some very simple things and a little close observation and thought and analysis. Once you've got a good set of grips that really fit you, don't sell them off, but get a spare set if you sell that gun, and replace them with your spare set. Nobody will complain, and if you get another, you'll have the grips that make it fit your hand already in stock. Don't ask how I learned THAT one, though!