Help a newbie shooter with trigger control!

[WhiteyMacD]

Simplest and best advice so far. I had and have the same issue. Mine comes from gripping with my dominant hand too much, and when I press the trigger, my grip torques the gun to the left.

Your non dominant hand should be bearing the majority of the grip. All your shooting hand should be doing is guiding the trigger straight back. I still struggle with this. As Mike said, concentrate on the grouping first, the other is fine tuning.

The egg approach. A good one to follow.

 

[aestus]

For the longest time, I shot low and left with my glock. I found that pulling the trigger back wasn't the issue... sort of. I was pulling it back straight. It was when the trigger would come to a stop and the force of my finger kept pulling that caused my finger and right hand to "clinch" the gun and I could see a slight roll to down and to the left.

It turns out, it was the stance. I was doing the traditional weaver stance where both arms were extended and formed a "V" to the gun, The gun being in the middle in relative to my chest and my shoulders squared off.

To aim properly in this stance with the shoulders squared and gun in the middle of your body, the right wrist had to bend back slightly so that the gun was straight on to what I was aiming. When your hand clenches tightly, your wrist wants to straighten and even curl inwards. It was forcing my shots slightly left and below and took a great deal of effort to combat that.

To correct this problem, I now hold the gun with my right arm perfectly stiff and straight. My weak arm is now more bent holding the gun and the gun is aligned to the right side of my body up where my shoulder is instead of the center of the body if you were looking at me straight on. I also raise my right shoulder up high to my head and pretend my right arm is a rifle and form a cheek weld with the upper part of my right arm/shoulder as I'm aiming.

This elimnated the wrist movement and curling during the trigger pull due to "clinching" the gun when the trigger comes to a stop. My accuracy has vastly improved, as well. The downside is that I look weird with my right shoulder up high and my head tilted using my arm as a buttstock.

 

[grwd]

Oh my God
All this differing info; some good, some... interesting, makes it clear how worthy taking a good pistol class will be for you.

 

[tm8634]

people are different what works for one may or wont work for another, no one or one answer maybe 100% right but take pieces from everyone and apply them to your problem, "i think" the fun is going out to shoot and getting to work on the problems you want to correct...good luck

 

[stewartglock]

Definitely take a handgun course. This will give you some great insight.

My uncle showed me a long time ago a way to practice while dry firing, put an empty shell casing on the front sight and pull the trigger until it breaks keeping the sights on target. That will show you where in the trigger pull your deficiencies are.

Lock your wrists, most people lock them from moving up and down but not side to side, that will help with shooting to the left.

Also, from my experience (which doesn't amount to much) if you are a righty shooting left of the target, your weak hand is typically the issue.

Good luck.

 

[WhiteyMacD]

Here is a question. Whats the difference between locking your arm and keeping it straight. In order for my arm to be straight, I would consider it locked.

Mike, FWIW, thats the only misleading advice I gave...

 

[new_glock17]

I'm sitting at my desk trying this now... I'm getting weird looks haha.

When you do this, do you tilt your head to the right to lean your cheek against your shoulder?

For the longest time, I shot low and left with my glock. I found that pulling the trigger back wasn't the issue... sort of. I was pulling it back straight. It was when the trigger would come to a stop and the force of my finger kept pulling that caused my finger and right hand to "clinch" the gun and I could see a slight roll to down and to the left.

It turns out, it was the stance. I was doing the traditional weaver stance where both arms were extended and formed a "V" to the gun, The gun being in the middle in relative to my chest and my shoulders squared off.

To aim properly in this stance with the shoulders squared and gun in the middle of your body, the right wrist had to bend back slightly so that the gun was straight on to what I was aiming. When your hand clenches tightly, your wrist wants to straighten and even curl inwards. It was forcing my shots slightly left and below and took a great deal of effort to combat that.

To correct this problem, I now hold the gun with my right arm perfectly stiff and straight. My weak arm is now more bent holding the gun and the gun is aligned to the right side of my body up where my shoulder is instead of the center of the body if you were looking at me straight on. I also raise my right shoulder up high to my head and pretend my right arm is a rifle and form a cheek weld with the upper part of my right arm/shoulder as I'm aiming.

This elimnated the wrist movement and curling during the trigger pull due to "clinching" the gun when the trigger comes to a stop. My accuracy has vastly improved, as well. The downside is that I look weird with my right shoulder up high and my head tilted using my arm as a buttstock.

 

[new_glock17]

I've heard so much contradicting information regarding this. So with my shooting hand, do I grip hard or not?

The egg approach. A good one to follow.

 

[WhiteyMacD]

I've heard so much contradicting information regarding this. So with my shooting hand, do I grip hard or not?

I've always heard the following "Grip pressure should be roughly 60% weak hand, 40% strong hand."

 

[Josh-L]

Growing up I was always told 70/30 then at cleet I was taught push/pull which I had good results with until recently. Not sure what changed but I have started shooting low and left. It's consistent though. Maybe I need to "watch more shows"....