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THE SIMPLE DRILL THAT MADE ME A BETTER PISTOL SHOT

Speed and accuracy with a pistol always eluded me until I learned this one tip

By Scott Einsmann | Published Jan 6, 2023 12:33 PM EST

 * Guns


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I’ve always struggled with shooting fast and accurately, which keeps me as a
mediocre C-class USPSA shooter. But, I recently attended a pistol class at
Vortex Edge that fixed an issue I’ve been working on for years—I, like many
right-handed shooters, hit low left when I try to shoot fast. 

In the first 30 minutes of the class, we did some simple drills and the
instructors made two modifications to my grip. I could then shoot fast (.19 to
.22 splits) and maintain A-zone (6 x 11 inches) hits at 15 yards. I then
progressed to a sub-second (.97) draw with an A-zone hit, another milestone. 

If you are also struggling with maintaining accuracy with your pistol while
pushing for speed, here are the simple tips and drills to try. 


A GOOD GRIP OVERCOMES A BAD TRIGGER PULL

The Vortex Edge instructors, Brennan Brennecke and Chris Urrutia, both master
class USPSA competitors, began the class by explaining that you can slap the
trigger and stay in the A zone of a USPSA target, even at 30 yards. 



I had been taught that you needed to smoothly squeeze a trigger for accuracy so
the motion doesn’t shift the barrel’s position. But, Brennecke and Urrutia
explained that if you lock a pistol in a vise, you can hit the trigger as hard
as you want, and the gun would still shoot tight groups, and therefore a good
grip can overcome an aggressive trigger pull. 

“I should be able to grip my gun in such a way that I can press the trigger
anyway I want without moving the sight out of an A zone at 25 to 30 yards,”
Brennecke says. 


THE DRILL

I was skeptical but willing to give the concept a try. We started with a drill
called “trigger control at speed.” 

“The premise of the trigger control at speed drill is to figure out how to grip
the gun well enough so that the way you press the trigger doesn’t matter,”
Brennecke says. “It’s basically a grip diagnostic.”

This is a dry fire drill done with an unloaded gun or with a dryfire training
system. Take your unloaded pistol and aim it at something small, about an inch
target at 5 yards. Then take the slack out of the trigger and press start on a
shot timer set to random delay. If you don’t have a shot timer, you can download
a free shot timer app that will serve the same function. 

“As soon as the timer’s beep goes off, I want you to smash through the trigger,”
Brennecke says. 

Pay attention to what your front sight or red dot does after you hit the
trigger. Did it move left? Did it move down? 



“This drill where we force ourselves to slap the trigger, is good for teaching
us how to grip the gun correctly and putting the right pressures into the gun,”
Brennecke says. “If we see movement we know we are doing something
incorrectly.” 

Read Next: Best Handguns


ADJUSTING YOUR GRIP 



The adjustments to your grip are based on the idea that your gun will move in
the direction of the least resistance. It will take some experimenting to find
the proper grip pressures for you and your gun, but here are some basic
guidelines. 

If you’re a right-handed shooter and your sight moved left, you need to increase
support hand pressure. Your support hand should squeeze the gun and firing hand
like a vise. “I want my left hand squeezing the gun hard enough that will
overcome anything that the firing hand will put into the gun,” Brennecke says.

If your sight dips low, you’re likely tightening your ring and pinky finger, on
your trigger hand, simultaneously with the trigger finger. The fix is to preload
tension on those fingers so they’re already gripping as tight as possible. That
way they can’t tighten as you hit the trigger. “I like to feel good
front-to-back pressure where the meaty part of my palm is pushing into the heel
of the gun and my bottom three fingers are pulling the grip into my hand,”
Brennecke says.


KEEP DRY FIRING 

You’ll do the same drill again, but this time don’t take any slack out of the
trigger. 

“This is where you’ll start to see more movement in the sight. When I’m doing a
bigger movement with my trigger finger I’m more prone to squeeze with my whole
(dominant) hand,” Brennecke says. “As I squeeze with my whole hand that tends to
apply pressure to the bottom of the grip with my ring and pinky fingers, which
will cause the muzzle to dip.” 

Watch for front sight or dot movement again and keep adjusting your grip
pressure until you don’t see any movement. 

Then take your finger all the way off your trigger so that you wind up and smash
it. “This is a little unrealistic, but it proves the point that you can hold the
gun in a way that allows minimal dot movement,” Brennecke says. “That to me, is
a really fantastic grip, and that’s the grip I’m going to work on getting every
time I pull the gun from the holster.” 

You can work on this drill in live fire too, but Brennecke suggests continuing
your grip work in dry fire practice. 

“I’ve learned more about shooting in dry fire than I ever have in live,” he
says. “If you can figure out how to press the trigger really aggressively in dry
fire and not get much or any movement, you are going to see huge dividends in
your shooting.” 

Scott Einsmann

Scott Einsmann is Outdoor Life’s gear editor. He oversees the gear team’s
editors and writers who are subject matter experts in bows, knives, hunting,
fishing, backpacking, and more. He lives in Richmond, Virginia with his wife and
two bird dogs.



Competitive Shooting
Handguns


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