The Problem
You bought a handgun, the one recommended by the guy at the gun shop. You even shot it at the indoor range where you bought it and hit your target, sort of … Most of the shots were on the target somewhere.
After learning to shoot your new purchase, you decided to enter the realm of carrying the gun concealed. You took a concealed-carry course and bought a holster for everyday carry, but from the start you haven’t been able to connect the dots. Aside from talking to different people more experienced in carrying concealed than you, reading magazines and watching videos, you feel there is still something lacking.
Three separate factors are most often emphasized: sights, trigger and gun fit, but you don’t see how they relate to one another—especially gun fit. In your mind you need to better understand why these factors are so important.
The Solution
Fitting a gun to a shooter’s hand(s) is paramount to the two main objectives of using a firearm, which are safe handling and being able to hit a target on demand. Both require a conscious awareness of the position of the gun’s muzzle and the shooter’s trigger finger to be effective. A gun fitted to the shooter’s hand aids where it is pointed and where the trigger finger is located with the appropriate attention paid to both.
Fitting a gun to a shooter’s hand is a pretty simple process, once the components of how to hold and shoot a gun with one or two hands are understood.
For starters, the handgun needs to be positioned so that it is an extension of the hand(s) holding it. What this means is that the gun will point as if it were an extension of a dominant hand’s index finger pointing at an object that has the attention of the shooter’s eye. This capitalizes on the shooter’s natural attribute of eye/hand coordination.
Realizing that every hand is slightly different, the general rule to get the gun aligned with the shooter’s natural point is to point at an object with one’s trigger finger. Next, place your thumb parallel to the trigger finger, forming a “V” between the two, with the remaining fingers extended in line below the index finger. By seating the grip (handle) of the gun in the web of your hand, aligning the slide and frame with your fingers and thumb, the muzzle of the gun will point where your eyes are looking—commensurate with where your index finger is pointing.
The single-hand grip is completed by wrapping the three fingers below your index finger around the front of the grip holding the gun seated in the web of the hand between the thumb and index finger. The index (trigger) finger is placed above the trigger along the frame until it is needed to pull the trigger. This is followed, when appropriate, by placing the trigger finger on the face of the trigger in a manner that will allow the trigger to be pulled without lateral pressure to either the left or the right through the full range of the trigger’s movement.
If this is not possible, a gun with a smaller grip-frame diameter or shorter trigger reach will help you obtain the intended goal of optimizing the gun’s fit to meet your need of keeping the sights, and therefore the muzzle on the target when the trigger is pulled.
In an ideal situation, the ability to reach your gun’s controls such as the magazine release, slide stop and any manual safeties without changing the grip on the gun would be a worthy goal. Using these guidelines helps the shooter to quickly align and refine the sights’ position on the target because they are already coarsely aligned through natural eye/hand coordination.
Trigger pull, which is the primary component of achieving hits where you intend for them to go, is made easy by fitting the gun so the trigger can be pulled and reset without any errant side pressure to move the muzzle off the target during shooting or dry-fire practice.
The support hand can be added to the dominant hand to assist in guiding the gun to the target and stabilizing the muzzle on the target to ensure the best hit probability in the least amount of time. By joining the heels of the hands, positioning the thumbs so as not to obstruct the operating levers or movement of the slide and overlaying the fingers over the fingers of the trigger hand while applying gentle pressure for stability, the support hand will assist the dominant in getting the shots where they need to go.
Do not be reluctant to experiment with hand placement or grip pressure. When you find something is comfortable and is working for you, stay with it until you find something better. The Wall Drill, mentioned in this column previously, is an excellent diagnostic tool to ensure the sights, trigger and grip on the gun are optimized and working together. Keep it simple, safe and successful.
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