Shooting Left...Advice/drills appreciated

[Stickboy]

Hi Folks-

I'm hoping to find someone with advice or recommendations to help me improve my shooting, specifically drills or practice techniques I can try at home or at the range.

I usually shoot a Glock 17 with Meprolight night-sights. I use an isosceles stance, but I am right handed and left-eye dominant. I consider my grip to be firm, but not a death-grip type of thing.

I've been practicing at 10 yards, and have been hesitant to start increasing the range until I resolve my "shooting left" issue. My groups have been consistently within 5" or so (improving slowly), but *always* left. Seriously, if I shoot 50 rounds, I'll get maybe 3 or 4 right of centerline. I don't seem to have a problem with a high/low trend...just left.

After looking at "error" targets, I tried working on trigger-finger placement, and now contact the trigger either on the distal knuckle crease or between the center of the finger pad and the knuckle crease. This has improved my problem slightly. I've also tried increasing the grip with my right hand, and slightly relaxing the grip with my left. Still, however, the tendency is to shoot left. I find these two corrections to be a little uncomfortable, but would gladly train myself to get used to them, if they helped. I tried using my right eye for sighting, but I was all over the place. (BTW, I shoot rifles with my right eye, and don't have a particular problem...go figure!) I've shot a SIG P226 and an HK USP Compact with similar left-sided shot placement (although only about 50 rounds with each, on 2 different training sessions)

I usually shoot "strings" of 3 shots, with the first shot aimed after bringing the weapon up from a rest/ready position, and then 2 shots maintaining the strance and using the Glock "trigger set." There seems to be no difference among each shot...all have a left trend.

In my dry fire practice, I feel comfortable with my grip, sighting and trigger squeeze. I don't notice a significant tremor or drift during practice. Certainly, there's always room to improve consistency and smoothness, but I don't notice a particular trend.

Due to the consistency of my error, I'm really convinced that I have some grip or trigger-pull tendency that's causing the problem. Anybody have some suggestions to improve?

Thanks in advance,
-sb

[shep854]

Assuming you are shooting right-handed, the problem sounds as if you are "pushing" the pistol to the left as you squeeze the trigger. I noticed the same problem myself*, so I have to focus on pressing the trigger straight back. I shoot one-handed, to isolate the problem. For economy, use a >22, until you get this under control. I am slowly getting the problem under control, but it is not something that will be dealt with swiftly. BE PATIENT. One-handed "bullseye" shooting is all I am doing right now. Everything else can wait until I get these fundamentals nailed.

*note: when shooting left-handed, my shots tended to hit to the right of the mark

[Trapp]

didn't work for me but I know a few people it worked on. Try interlacing your fingers. Left hand pinky on the bottom, left hand first finger on the front of the trigger guard. Too uncomfortable for me, but like I said seen it work for other people. I just practiced and eventually (few thousand rounds eventually) it went away.

[beenthere]

Okay, you've gone to the target analysis sites. The only thing I can suggest is what shep854 said. Maybe it's been the wrong choice of words when we say "squeeze, don't jerk the trigger". If you squeeze a ball you squeeze with the entire finger or hand using all of the finger joints in a curling motion. The pressure is applied differently. When you squeeze a trigger it needs to be squeezing or pulling the trigger straight back.

Good luck. I had to learn to isolate that motion too.

[Stickboy]

Hey Guys-

Some good ideas already. I'll keep them in mind next time I go to the range, and let you know if I have any success. Thanks very much!!!

Live it up,
-sb

[Dwight55]

Stickboy, . . . I would suppose you have already been here, but old gunny would tell you to draw up your empty weapon in your shooting hand and straighten your shooting arm out as straight as it can go, elbow locked.

Now, . . . pull that arm around till it is just almost 90 degrees from your nose as it is facing forward.

Turn your head and look down your arm. Try to draw an imaginary line from the middle of your bicep to the front sight of the pistol. That line should go straight across the dead center of the top of your forearm, through the top dead center of your wrist, carry on exactly through your hand, the rear sight and out to the end of the barrel.

If the line is figure four'ed to the right, . . . you will shoot to the right.

If the line id figure four'ed to the left, . . . you will shoot to the left.

This is not a perfect, 100% rocket science, never fail point, . . . but it works for the majority of people. Try it.

When you go shooting, before you load up and go hot, . . . take a moment to go through this exercise again, . . . trying to remember how the weapon feels in your hand, . . . (building muscle memory). Then without relaxing the grip, load up and shoot a couple of targets.

You may be one of the few this doesn't work for, . . . but even if you are, you can find just the "bend in the line" that will make it work for you. Just takes practice & application.

May God bless,
Dwight

[Stickboy]

Okay, team-

On the last trip to the range, I made about 100 holes in pieces of paper hanging from strings.

Dwight- I tried imagining the plumb line that you suggested. I'm not sure I was clear on the "figure 4" part, but I did look to refine the overall alignment of my arm, hand and pistol. The big thing I noticed was that I tended to have an ever-so-slight clockwise rotation of my hand when holding the weapon. When I transitioned into my isoceles stance and grip, I tried to make sure there was no rotation.

For the first few targets, I concentrated on two things: squeezing the trigger straight back, and maintaining a good follow through (1 shot...2 sight pictures). Overall, I still had a left trend. However, the first shot of a string was more centered than the rest.

Next step was to re-think my stance and grip. The basic change I made was to "strengthen" everything. I locked out my arms a bit more, tightened the wrist, and increased the grip with both the shooting hand and the support hand. I emphasized getting a real strong shooting hand grip...I tried to get as much surface area of my hand to be in contact with the grip, and for the pressure to be evenly distributed around the frame.

The next few targets were a *lot* better. The groups were well centered. At first my accuracy suffered, but after a bit of work, I had a few targets with 3-4" groups.

In a little self-analysis, I think that the rotation in my wrist, coupled with pushing the gun left (probably secondary to a weak grip) was giving me the high-left trend.

As I finished up, I also noticed that I tended to revert to high-left shots whenever I got lazy: That is, didn't concentrate on maintaining a strong grip, squeezing the trigger straight back, and following through.

Well, so-far-so-good. At least I have a few things to concentrate on and hopefully I'll continue to improve with practice. Thanks to everyone for the suggestions, I think they really helped.

Live it up,
-sb