I've watched many IPSC/USPSA competition type videos and I am always amazed at how light the recoil seems to be, and how flat shooting the pistols are. There appears to be very little recoil, as I have observed it, with everything from M&Ps to Beretta 92s. Everything from 9mm minor to .40 major seems to go off without significant recoil.

How is that accomplished? Is it a matter of proper grip? Is it some special loading of the ammunition? Is it some modification of the pistols being used?

I experience debilitating recoil that slows my strings down, obscures my sight picture, and reduces second shot accuracy. How do these competitors seem to mitigate the recoil as they do? What am I doing wrong?

H&K-Guy

With stock pistols and standard power ammo, it comes down to proper grip and stance, and lots of practice with this proper technique.

But in some competitions, they can "game" it and give themselves an edge by using custom tricks like lighter recoil springs, lightened slides, lighter pressure ammo loads, and weighted frames.

Shooting heavy projectiles with subsonic velocities can certainly help mitigate recoil.

There are plenty of grip and lock-up techniques to help with recoil management as well.

And as with everything in the firearms world....Lots of practice.

Andrew

Grip, stance and load all work together. One thing that helped me a bunch was the TPC wrist cam technique. Basically, you rotate your support hand so it’s more straight from your forearm to thumb. This compares to the closer to 90* thumb up of your firing hand.

https://tacticalperformancecen...id-handgun-grip/?amp

The power factor of the load helps, I’m shooting a 180gr .40 bullet at about 960fps to get a 172pf. Minimum is 165 for Major in USPSA games. The weight of the gun helps as well, my steel frame CZ flips a lot less than a standard Glock.

You don’t have to be a big muscular person keep a gun shooting flat with good technique.

quote:

Originally posted by Riley:
Grip, stance and load all work together. One thing that helped me a bunch was the TPC wrist cam technique. Basically, you rotate your support hand so it’s more straight from your forearm to thumb. This compares to the closer to 90* thumb up of your firing hand.

https://tacticalperformancecen...id-handgun-grip/?amp

The power factor of the load helps, I’m shooting a 180gr .40 bullet at about 960fps to get a 172pf. Minimum is 165 for Major in USPSA games. The weight of the gun helps as well, my steel frame CZ flips a lot less than a standard Glock.

You don’t have to be a big muscular person keep a gun shooting flat with good technique.

I too am shooting a CZ, a TSO with CZC side mount RDS and thumb rest. I am more accurate with this combination than I am with any other rig I have.

I thank you for the "thumb forward" approach, and the link. I will incorporate this into my defensive pistol shooting and see what happens.

I will also try a heavier load at lower speed to try and reduce recoil.

Thanks all for your help so far. Looks like grip, stance, loading, and properly weighted firearms are the answers I am hearing.

H&K-Guy