Home > Articles > Shooting Techniques
We found 0 results matching your criteria.
Choose a sub category:
Managing Bore Conditions For Ultimate Performance

Shooting Techniques


It is a constant observation at local ranges. As I walk to my lane at my local indoor range, it seems like every person I see with a pistol raised to fire has a fundamental flaw in their grip and approach to shooting their pistol. It’s not much different than a day spent on a golf driving range watching people struggle through a bucket of balls. Shooting a pistol isn’t much different. There is a hand full of fundamentals required so that the shooter can see the right things, manage the recoil and get back on target quickly. The inadequacy of these observed pistol grips is only exaggerated when shooting larger calibers like .40 S&W or .45ACP

Let’s begin with your strong hand. Fundamentally, when managing recoil we have a physics and geometry problems to solve. We want our hand to be as close to the point of force as possible, in the case of a pistol this for is coming straight back in line with the barrel and slide. The we want to be able to apply an equal force in our hand as close to the recoil force as possible. This translates to a high grip. To be specific, a very high grip, as high as you can squeeze your hand against the beaver tail as possible. Your bottom 3 fingers, then need to wrap around the pistol grip stacked as high as they can and your ring finger pressing firmly against the trigger guard. Your thumb on your strong hand needs to remain high on the frame and resting/riding the safety if you have one such as 1911/2011 and pointed inline with the bore of the pistol. The overall grip strength is firm, like a determined handshake. The Trigger finger when ready to fire is free to move and is placed comfortably on the face of the trigger ideally the pad of your trigger finger is perpendicular to the bore of the gun.

Next we will discuss support hand placement. This is the one area that is most often done incorrectly. Most shooters do not take advantage of this hand and do not place it correctly on the gun or apply the right pressures. The thumb of your support hand should be placed above the trigger on the frame pointed in line with the bore of the pistol. The remainder of the hand, then fits along the left side frame and grip like 2 puzzle pieces coming together where there is contact from the thumb all the way down the ridge of the palm on the frame and grip. The 4 fingers, then wrap around the grip and the 3 fingers on your strong hand and again a steady strong grip is applied.

Mastering this fundamental is the first step on a journey of shooting proficiency