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dreaded left pull


Stiven

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I cant shake throwing my shots left at 9 o clock, ive tried everything to fix it. 

grip is proper with strong support hand and firm strong hand. doing all the right things with trigger pull and do the dry fire drills but still. others shoot the gun and its fine so it's all me. this all started within the last year, i took a break due to life and finally have time again and now this. 

pisses me off to no end because i used to be fairly decent. Shot a uspsa match recently and was just running on autopilot and did pretty well better than i thought. I just ordered a case of ammo and am adamant about fixing this. 

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25 minutes ago, Stiven said:

grip is proper with strong support hand and firm strong hand. doing all the right things with trigger pull and do the dry fire drills but still. others shoot the gun and its fine so it's all me. this all started within the last year, i took a break due to life and finally have time again and now this. 

There's really not enough information here to give a good plan. What you feel is "proper" and "the right things" may not in truth be proper or right. I also don't know what you allow yourself to get away with in dryfire. When I yank a shot, I both see and feel the mistake while I'm making it. Do you see your sights being yanked left when you shoot? If you don't see it that is a big problem and I recommend you re-double your efforts on shot calling after you figure out how to stop moving the gun off target.

If you're dry firing with slow and crisp trigger control, that is part of the problem. Needing to minimize time on stages means you aren't always going to have perfect trigger control. I think dryfire needs to be done pulling the trigger hard and fast so you can learn how to keep the gun still with less than perfect trigger mechanics. It is a common misconception that great trigger control is required to shoot accurately for the type of shooting we do. With the information you provided the only thing I can really say for certain is that you are moving the gun off the target before the bullet has left the barrel and you need to figure out how to stop doing that. Hold the gun firmly still on target and don't let it move while pulling the trigger.

If you're having trouble seeing yourself make the mistake, a red dot can help to highlight the problem.

Edited by Jake Di Vita
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" grip is proper with strong support hand and firm strong hand."

If that were true, then your shots wouldn't be going off center, like you say.

But how to determine your grip is actually what you think and not just appearing so?

That's the hard part, determining how a really good grip is supposed to feel is very much subjective.

Fortunately, there's plenty of free instruction on the web to help us, especially youtube videos.

No end of them, actually.

You might want to go that route and practice those techniques until the problem goes a way.

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8 minutes ago, g.willikers said:

" grip is proper with strong support hand and firm strong hand."

If that were true, then your shots wouldn't be going off center, like you say.

I don't think this is actually true. Your grip primarily effects recoil management, not shot placement. Shot placement is entirely dependent on keeping the gun still until the bullet has left the barrel. This is possible whether your grip is terrible or great. I see people all the time who have a crappy grip on the gun that still shoot accurately.

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Yessir, I should have included "as long as the trigger pull isn't messed up."

But I've run across plenty of folks who swear up and down their grip is just like they see on the training videos but it isn't at all.

They often lose the grip just as they shoot, yank the trigger one way or another, 'etc.

And a really good grip really helps not to mess up the trigger pull, too.

Too bad it's so hard to convey what it's supposed to feel like to someone else.

 

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27 minutes ago, g.willikers said:

Yessir, I should have included "as long as the trigger pull isn't messed up."

But I've run across plenty of folks who swear up and down their grip is just like they see on the training videos but it isn't at all.

They often lose the grip just as they shoot, yank the trigger one way or another, 'etc.

And a really good grip really helps not to mess up the trigger pull, too.

Same issue here though. Correlation =/= causation. Having great trigger control doesn't mean you won't move the gun off target before the bullet leaves the barrel. Comparatively, having poor trigger control doesn't mean you will move the gun off target before the bullet leaves the barrel. I yank the crap out of my trigger on all but the most difficult of shots and don't have a problem at all with accuracy because I do it without moving the gun. On partials and plates beyond 25 yards or so, I'll start being a little more precise with my trigger manipulation.

It's entirely possible to have a crappy grip and a crappy trigger pull and still hit what you want to hit. There are lots of people that can flip a gun upside down and shoot it accurately with their pinkie. I think we'd both agree shooting like that gives you less than ideal grip and trigger manipulation. So if it's possible to shoot accurately like that the logical extension is neither of those things are actual requirements for hitting the target. The only requirement for accuracy is holding the gun on target until the bullet is gone.

I've always felt for the type of shooting most of us here do (uspsa) that great trigger control is overrated and grip matters more for getting the gun back on target and the speed of your follow up shots than anything else.

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You're not pulling the trigger straight back.

A firm grip will help hold the gun straighter as you pull left, but you're still pulling the gun with the trigger. This is OK until the target is so far away that you're pulling it out if the A zone.

You don't need the perfect trigger pull, the A zone is 6 inches wide. You do need to figure out how nice you have to be too the trigger at various distances. Then you need the patience to do what you need to do to hit any given target in a match.

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12 hours ago, PatJones said:

You're not pulling the trigger straight back.

A firm grip will help hold the gun straighter as you pull left, but you're still pulling the gun with the trigger. This is OK until the target is so far away that you're pulling it out if the A zone.

You don't need the perfect trigger pull, the A zone is 6 inches wide. You do need to figure out how nice you have to be too the trigger at various distances. Then you need the patience to do what you need to do to hit any given target in a match.

I do not concur.

I can easily demonstrate putting my finger on the right corner of the trigger, pushing hard left on the trigger/gun while pulling it, and still not let the gun move. What matters is how connected you are to the gun and how well you can keep it pointing where you want it to be while you move through the stage and pull the trigger.

Most of the time people aren't applying more than 5 or 6 pounds of pressure total through the entire trigger press. Say they are doing it inefficiently and 2 pounds of that pressure is pushing the gun to the side. It's very easy for both of your hands to resist that 2 pounds of sideways pressure. Focus on the sights and drive them into the target the entire time you're pulling the trigger and you'll start to find that sloppy trigger control is easily counteracted by just forcing the gun to stay where you want it. 

If we're talking bullseye at 25 yards or shooting a rifle at 800 yards then sure, work on trigger control. The acceptable margin of error is so small in those disciplines that everything needs to be much closer to perfect. We simply will never need that level of precision in uspsa.

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