Quick grip question

[Lior]

Dear dischargers of shooting irons,

This week I have started training using an Open division pistol (Bul M5 Ultimate Racer) in addition to my Production piece (CZ75 SP01 Shadow). I have been shooting for a while and am never completely satisfied with my trigger work or grip. I intend to continue to compete in Production but am training in Open to free my eyes to look at the targets while shooting them. I have a quick question on gripping a pistol:

Should the palmar aspect of the weak hand's wrist make contact with the thenar eminence of the strong one, to cover better the lower weak side backstrap? In this position, the weak hand's hypothenar eminence would contact the strong hand's palm in the thinner, flatter portion between the eminences and the tip of the strong thumb would lie on the middle of the weak hand's first metacarpal bone. My current impression, based on dry fire between range sessions, is that when the weak hand is cammed with digits pointing 30 degrees down and the thumb parallel to the gun's barrel, that the palmar aspect of the wrist (over the carpal tunnel), can reach the flesh of the strong hand proximal to the thumb. Am not sure yet if this tames recoil or helps relax the shooting hand's flexor muscles yet, but I want to ask others of their experiences in this regard. In all of my previous shooting, I have not paid attention to this point and there is a 90 degree arc of lower grip of the gun that is not covered by either hand (rear weak side quadrant).

Any tips, links to good explanatory sites / videos and requests for anatomy textbook references would be welcome. Best regards, Lior.

Edited May 13, 2012 by Lior

[leemoe83]

Posting some pictures of what your talking about would help, to be honest the anatomy talk will go right over everyone's head including mine. Some pointers on grip.

1. Everyone's grip will be slightly different based on hand size and the gun's grip size.

2. Taking into consideration #1 the more contact you can make with the grip the better. That being said I have large hands and when I shoot my Glock 34 my hands swallow up the entire grip, when I shoot my Glock 21 I still have some exposed grip on the weak hand side close to my wrist cause the grip is huge.

3. Typically the more canted you weak hand grip the better for controlling recoil.

4. When gripping the gun freestyle the weak hand is usually the workhorse for the grip (referring to how much grip pressure is applied), think of the weakhand as a vice, squeezing the strong hand into the gun along with palm of the weakhand.

5. The closer you can get your hands to the bore axis the better for controlling recoil.

6. The first joint on my strong hand fingers above the knuckles typically seat inside the same joint on my weak hand.

7. Grip the gun with the strong hand first, the web of your hand should be as high up on the grip as possible, the bore should point down through the strong elbow (only at first, you will roll your wrist later as the weak hand make contact).

8. The weak hand will come in as high as possible tight under the trigger guard, line up the joints of the hands and roll you wrists on both hands so that the weak hand rolls in and the palm make contact with the weak hand side of the grip, if your thumbs are pointing straight ahead your probably on the right track. Your strong hand thumb should rest on top of the weak hand thumb.

9. Different shooters do different things with there thumbs, I like to have no tenison in my thumbs and the thumbs do not contact the slide or the frame, this gives me sight tracking that is straight up and down. Some shooter do put tension on the side of the gun with there thumbs, this is irrelevent so long as the gun returns to the exact same spot as before the shot in the quickest amount of time possible.

I can only tell you how I prefer to grip the gun, ask 10 different GM's and you will get 10 grips with slight differences, but in general the big things are all the same.

And after writing all of that, I am sure this topic has been beat to death, if you run a search in handgun techniques you will probably get hits a mile long. And a lot of them will have pictures (worth a thousand words).

[leemoe83]

Look at FAQ's at top of handgun techniques thread.

[diehli]

"Don't get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water." - Bruce Lee

Just grip the gun.

[Lior]

Thanks for the heads-ups, folks.

[DoubleL]

"Be like water" I like that one. I've found if I actively think about grip.... I screw it up. After a few draws just now, I have a gap in my grip, some pistol showing through. No way could I cover the entire grip panel and still hit a barn. For me, the pressure of my weakhand is more important than the exact position. Recognizing a truly horrible hold on the pistol is something I've been working on in dry fire, like strings of 5 reloads, I make sure to correct it before pulling the trigger. I wish I had gorilla hands sometimes...

[mudman]

Dammit Jim - I'm a shooter, not a doctor!

Unfortunately I don't know the medical terms for all the parts of my wrist... But this article might provide some useful insight. Hope it helps.

http://www.personaldefensenetwork.com/articles/handguns/maximizing-the-combat-grip/

Good luck and keep at it!