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Shooting To The Left


ramtough47

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I'm new to this forum and to this sport but i have been shooting for a while. My problem is not the fault of my gun or sights its me. Let me explain what is happen: If i take my time and do a 2.0 draw and to take just a tad bit of time to make sure of my front sight, i will have excellent singles/doubles, whatever the round count needs to be,shot placement. Now, if i try an speed that up and get down to 1.20 to 1.50 range i have noticed[especially shooting multiple targets] that on my first target,if I'm double tapping, one or both of my shots will tend to be on the left side of the target now as i move to my second target my shots generally hit more to center as well as any more i may be shooting. Is this a "grip" problem? Is this a "trigger finger" problem? Do i need to just simply slow down a tad. I shoot Production division with a Glock 34. Look forward to everyone input.

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If the shots are breaking at the 9 o'clock position, then generally this means that you are using the joint of the index finger instead of the pad of your finger to press the trigger. The joint will push in from the right to the left, if you use the pad of your finger then the movement is front to back.

If the shots are going low and left, then this usually indicates that you are not prepping the trigger.

When you shoot slowly your probably doing everything right, but when pushing yourself to shoot faster and with the awareness that you are going to swing across to the target then some bad habits may be creeping in.

The phrase double-tap has different meanings for different people. Some talk of a double-tap as aligning the sights and pressing the trigger twice. Ideally you need to see an acceptable sight picture for both shots. There is not one 'double-tap' but two distinct shots; If you prep the trigger between shots then your split times will come down and the accuracy will stay the same as if you were shooting slowly.

I hope this helps.

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It very well may be that you don't have a proper grip on the pistol. You can find out very easy thru dry firing. Do some controlled draws with an empty pistol on a used target at home and see where your sites line up. Then do the same thing when you do a "quick" draw and see where your sites line up, then without moving your hands, check your hand positions and see if you have a proper grip on the pistol. If you do, then you do indeed have a trigger indexing problem.

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As TRP says dry fire may help you diagnosis this. Also as BritinUSA says you may not be prepping the trigger. You also may be slapping the trigger trying to get fast splits.

I would add to the dry fire suggestion to make sure you are seeing the sights and following thru for every shot, it may be that you are trying to shoot faster than you can ‘see’ right now.

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Video-tape yourself or have a good shooter watch you. Could be some of the things already mentioned but I would bet it's 'five-fingering' the gun. Your entire strong-hand and wrist may be trying to 'help' at the moment the shot breaks. It's very common and because it's subconscious [like blinking] you won't know it's happening.

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Check your trigger squeeze and relax your strong hand grip. i had this same problem a long time ago. I was over gripping the pistol with my strong hand causing the gun to cant left. Since I was gripping hard and my strong hand was tense, I couldn't feel the trigger very well and it caused me to jerk the trigger causing me to shoot left and down.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Check your trigger squeeze and relax your strong hand grip.  i had this same problem a long time ago.  I was over gripping the pistol with my strong hand causing the gun to cant left.  Since I was gripping hard and my strong hand was tense, I couldn't feel the trigger very well and it caused me to jerk the trigger causing me to shoot left and down.

I bet this could be why I shot like crap at my last match on Sat.. mmmm I think it's time to dry fire a bit more. No no a LOT more. :wacko:

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A right handed shooter hitting to the left is from rough trigger engagement (slapping). Too much finger will cause the same shooter to miss right. I like to teach trigger control with a revolver and dry fire. If you can cycle a revolver through the double action pull and keep your sight picture you have the basics down.

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I'm glad it's not just me. The milking tends to show up on longer distance shots for me. I think it is because I tense up knowing that I tend to get tense and milk the grip on long shots, visious cycle.

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  • 1 month later...

Shooting Left is also a problem of not having enough Finger in the trigger. When I shot a Para to get the trigger to pull straight back I had to use the tip of my finger (or very out side of the Pad) when I changed to an STI I had to break myself of this because it made all my shots move to the left.

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Shooting Left is also a problem of not having enough Finger in the trigger. When I shot a Para to get the trigger to pull straight back I had to use the tip of my finger (or very out side of the Pad) when I changed to an STI I had to break myself of this because it made all my shots move to the left.

I'm a left-shooting unit also. I will try more pad tomorrow and see how I do. I think my Glock trigger exacerbates the problem because of its "creepiness". I shoot less to the left with my Kimber, probably because the crispness of the trigger doesn't give me time to pull left.

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As TRP says dry fire may help you diagnosis this. Also as BritinUSA says you may not be prepping the trigger. You also may be slapping the trigger trying to get fast splits.

I would add to the dry fire suggestion to make sure you are seeing the sights and following thru for every shot, it may be that you are trying to shoot faster than you can ‘see’ right now.

I agree. If you are taking 2sec to get a good shot and 1.5 to get a poor shot than sounds like you need to work on reading the sights.seeing the sights lift and come down back to target. when you go to the range and shoot, watch the sights lift and watch what they do, whether it be bullseye shooting or shooting a bill drill.

Also you may want to look at your grip, and make sure you are holding the gun with the best possible grip to control the recoil. ie thumbs pointing towards the target. hope this helps

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Went to the range yesterday and concentrated on pulling the trigger with the tip of my finger only, and........

I shot the best, right-on-the-money groups I have ever shot. Shot my G34, my Kimber and my G17 with the Advantage Arms .22 unit on it, and the bullet holes appeared where the front sight was! Put 14 of 15 shots in the headbox of an IDPA target, strong hand, at 12 yards.

How many frickin' times had I heard "use the tip of your trigger finger" before this? Hell, I can remember my dad telling me this many moons ago. I've even had training classes where my left-leaning shooting was noted, but not diagnosed. "use the tip of your finger"....who knew?

Now I gotta work on using it all the time....

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A right-handed shooter shooting low left is almost always caused by "pulling the trigger with both hands," as opposed to just an isolated movement of the trigger finger.

be

I worked on that first, starting about a year ago, and managed to get to the point where both of my hands are still when I shoot. Perhaps by isolating my trigger finger I am removing any remaining hand action.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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