A Small Change in Your Pistol Grip Makes a Big Difference
A few millimeters in your handgun grip can make a huge difference in your shooting speed and accuracy.
The original shooting technique for the handgun was to literally shoot it one handed. That’s where the name comes from. Over time, our technique for a shooting grip has slowly evolved with many variations. This often leads to poor technique being spread. While that technique might’ve been valid at one point, it is no longer the best way to hold a handgun.
Proper grip technique is absolutely critical to fast and accurate shots, which is why I have written about handgun grip over and over and over. Very minute minute differences in a pistol grip can make for very large differences on shot placement and shot times.
Take a look at this 30 second video to see how much of a difference a small change in a pistol grip can make.
This video on pistol grip in particular is very concise and informative. I recommend giving it a watch.
Training the proper pistol grip
For self defenders and competition shooters, we don’t have the time to slowly get the perfect shooting grip on our pistol. We need to be able to grip the handgun quickly and as close to perfect as we can. To do this, we need to practice it over and over and over. The key to this is dry fire practice.
At home, with no live ammunition costs and no range fees, we can practice obtaining the proper pistol grip with ease. Simply put the handgun in the holster or on the table, pick it up, acquire a sight picture, and put it down. Do this over and over and over again, paying close attention to your pistol grip. Recording yourself doing this is a great way to self-critique.
Eventually obtaining the perfect pistol grip becomes quick and instinctive.
Written by Brian Purkiss - always a student, sometimes a teacher.
I don't consider myself a competition shooter - I think of myself as a performance pistol shooter. I am all about performing at as high of a level as possible. Towards that end, I am obsessive about learning how to perform. I spend a lot of my life learning from the best across the entire firearms world and even into other areas of performance and other sports. I am a USPSA Carry Optics Grandmaster, currently working towards my second GM title in the Open division.
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