I'm shooting low and left with most guns, even after drifting or adjusting all their sights to the right and increasing rear elevation.

How can I fix this ?

Are there any majik bullets ? Not expecting any miracles and am perfectly willing to work on it, but I sure could use something that may have worked for you guys with the exact same problem, since everything I've tried so far has not worked, fwiw.

Jerking the trigger, or squeezing the grip as you pull the trigger back.

Try gripping the gun firmly and then take do a few deep slow breaths, and as slow as you can, mover the trigger back until it surprises you.

You are expecting the bang more than you realize.

It's sort of like driving and drifting to where you are looking. Sympathetic response.

(my guess from many miles away and not seeing it happen)

If you have someone else shoot this same firearms, how are their shots hitting?


It's like not knowing how slow your car is, until you run it on the drag strip.

You will be surprised how defective your gun isn't, when someone else outshoots you with that broad sided barn killer.

Have someone else load a few mags with a dummy round or snap cap in there somewhere. When you fire and it doesn't go bang, see how much you flinch and you'll know what's going on and what to correct.

This chart helps
https://aegisacademy.com/blogs...tol-correction-chart

If I don't maintain proper finger placement on the trigger, I push left. When the trigger hits the lower part the "pad" then I tend to pull back in a straight line. Too far to the end of my finger and I am left. YMMV, it took me a while to figure it out.

I have an HK USP40 with a LEM trigger that does the same thing. To even remotely control this tendency I need to hold it differently than I do my other pistols. Shooting right-handed, I've learned to press hard right with my left thumb and squeeze the grip with the tips of my right hand fingers. It's weird, but kinda works. Kind of...

I don't have this issue with my other .40 cals or any other pistol for that matter. I've wasted over 1500 rounds trying to figure something out and changing my grip is all I've come up with. Now it just sits in solitary confinement in the back of my safe until it repents of its sinful nature. But no, it just continues to think I suck, and it hates me.

Every gun you shoot can't have the sights that far off. Low/left + right-handed shooter = pushing the gun down in anticipation of the noise and kick (usually).

With the small grip of my P365, I have to insert my trigger finger clear between the first and second joints to keep from shooting left. With my Ruger LCP Max, I often put the shot way low/left, but almost entirely when I shoot one-handed. I need to work on that.

If the “most” guns are handguns and you’re right-handed, a common cause is increasing pressure on the grip as you’re pulling the trigger. This is especially true when shooting Glocks. When I have students consistently hitting low and left with their Glocks, I encourage them to firmly grasp the grip before pulling the trigger.

Excellent advice:

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:
Try gripping the gun firmly and then take do a few deep slow breaths, and as slow as you can, mover the trigger back until it surprises you.

As an aside, the charts that supposedly tell us why we’re missing in a particular direction were originally developed for one-handed bull’s-eye shooting, and are largely worthless for how most people shoot handguns today.

I do the same! At a pistol class once I actually found myself compensating by aiming high and right to hit the target tight so as not to embarrass myself! I actually bested most everyone that way! Not good! Yea not ideal... I admit ally need much more practice and attempt to actually correct the fault instead of compensating... like I compensate for other "things". :-).

Try this
Hold the gun in your strong hand with about the same amount of pressure you would be holding an open bottle of water or a can of beer. Now, take your support hand and crush your grip with it. 80% strength with your support hand and 20% with your strong hand. That will lock the gun in place.

This will keep the muscles in your gun hand loose. This will allow you to pull the trigger much quicker if you're practicing Bill Drills or 3 and 2s.

as an instructor told me some 50+ years ago,

"You're a yanker, stop yankin".

This isn’t meant to solve your problem, but it made me think of something I saw in a video from John McPhee. He talked about your brains hardwiring and how it uses your fingers together because that’s how we almost always use them.

He demonstrated, and I can’t find the video, how when we “press” our trigger finger, the other fingers will move due to instinct for lack of better word.

I’ve begun practicing making sure I only move my trigger finger when I pull the trigger. I do this with an empty hand in a loose grip position. Simply looking at my finger and pressing the trigger without having any other fingertips move.

It’s tougher than it sounds.

Ignore the words on this photo, it’s just for reference on how I have my hand when I do the exercise.

Dang Otto... We need to get you some moisturizing lotion!

RDC life sure has aged you.

quote:

Originally posted by RogueJSK:
Dang Otto... We need to get you some moisturizing lotion!

RDC life sure has aged you.

Smartass random internet photo!

You want to see the perfect sight picture as your finger releases the shot.



First half explains the why and the how.

The second half teaches the bump drill.



Thanks, again, Mr. Gray.

Guilty. Worked on the support hand grip, thumb against frame etc., but I also need to make sure the barrel and the forearm are in a straight line, i.e., the grip shouldn't be deep in the thumb joint that would cause leverage when pulling trigger, although it feels more comfortable.

Based on everything I've learned about beating this malady, I THINK it's basically a recoil-induced flinch.

I'm going to try the bump drill described in the video by Bruce Gray. I gave up on the trigger chart since I learned that chart is about the grip, my fingers are short so there's not much I can do with my trigger placement anyway, and I've done all the testing with grip and finger placement that I'm capable of with my short fingers, and am still shooting left.

So the only thing probably left is recoil induced flinch. I know I have it because if I pull the trigger on an empty chamber no matter what gun I'm shooting rather it be a pistol or shotgun or high power rifle, I notice it, and it's not pretty.

So I need to find some technique or drill to reduce flinching, which will probably be some type of distraction or psychological process to slay that dragon.

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
Have someone else load a few mags with a dummy round or snap cap in there somewhere. When you fire and it doesn't go bang, see how much you flinch and you'll know what's going on and what to correct.

^^^^^^^ THIS^^^^^^^

quote:

Originally posted by sigfreund:
As an aside, the charts that supposedly tell us why we’re missing in a particular direction were originally developed for one-handed bull’s-eye shooting, and are largely worthless for how most people shoot handguns today.

...and yet they just won't die.

It has been proven time and again that they are mostly useless and people persist in linking/showing/referring to them. It is like a crutch folks just can't let go of

quote:

Originally posted by Rick Lee:
Have someone else load a few mags with a dummy round or snap cap in there somewhere. When you fire and it doesn't go bang, see how much you flinch and you'll know what's going on and what to correct.

This first-
but you got to be 100% honest with yourself or have someone standing next to you and watch your front sight. That will show you what's happening.

*** Probably too much finger in the trigger, and you're "pushing" the gun (ever so slightly) down and to the left. Usually because you're using your whole hand.

The remedy-
dry fire, dry fire and dry fire some more.
But again, you got to be 100% honest with yourself on where that front sight is during and after the trigger break.

quote:

Originally posted by wrightd:
So I need to find some technique or drill to reduce flinching, which will probably be some type of distraction or psychological process to slay that dragon.

We use the word flinch even though that isn't what it is, unless it is the flash and sound bothering you. The obvious solution is either starting with a smaller caliber or doubling up on your hearing protection.

The flinching we usually encounter has to do with moving the trigger suddenly (jerking) to the rear and upsetting the sights. This is usually caused by wanting to fire the shot at the "exact" point the sights are perfectly aligned on target If you do away with this investment in that "perfect shot" and stay in the process of pressing the trigger without moving the sights

The other thing to learn to do is to "prep" the trigger to reduce the time/space between when you start your press to when it is completed...Which is really more important when you start shooting faster. But it is more important to establish a solid fundamental of good trigger management to begin with