Get a Grip for Better Trigger Control

Shooting a handgun accurately can be much more challenging for shooters than shooting a rifle, simply because the smaller firearm is more easily affected by slight movements of the hands and body.

Think about it, the bullet only has a few inches of barrel to travel down so the slightest dip in the barrel or flinch of the shooter can alter the trajectory drastically in just a few short yards of travel. To improve your ability to fire a handgun accurately, focus on these three aspects of grip for better trigger control and, ultimately, a better aim.

Grip High

When holding the handgun with your dominant hand, the web of the hand should be held high, all the way under the rear grip tang on a semi-automatic pistol to the point where the skin of your hand creases beneath it. On a revolver grasp the grip of the pistol as high as you can on the backstrap just beneath the hammer. The idea is to allow recoil to travel directly through the hand and down the arm and pushing more backward than upward. Hold it low, and recoil will tend to tip the barrel of the gun more skyward making accurate follow-up shots much more difficult to achieve.

Maintain a Firm Grip

Using what famed defensive gun writer Massad Ayoob calls the “crush grip” shooters should grip the firearm firmly with both the support hand and the dominant hand to reduce or even eliminate the tendency of all the fingers on your dominant hand to move reflexively when the trigger fingers squeezes the trigger. If you are holding the gun lightly or with a 60 percent-40 percent grip as some instructors suggest, the sympathetic response of those fingers will be more exaggerated causing a shooter to typically dip the gun down and to their offhand or support hand side. Grasping the pistol grip with maximum pressure also provides a measured consistency each time you shoot that leads to more reliable accuracy.

Roll the Trigger Smoothly

Suddenly pulling a trigger places a number of pounds of pull on a firearm that only weighs a pound or two at the most. It’s no surprise for many shooters, the gun will jerk the shot off target. To ensure a smooth trigger pull that keeps the barrel pointed straight at the target, the shooter wants to ensure solid contact between the finger and trigger, smoothly and evenly squeezing the trigger straight back and then allowing it to fully return before squeezing it back each time. Movements should be fluid and the finger should never pull away from the trigger until shooting is complete. This will help prevent trigger slap, another common cause for inaccurate handgun shooting.

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