Unsteady hand

[JarYetz]

Anyone have any tips or techniques for training an unsteady hand?

I'm trying to improve my pistol shooting, but I have issues with general shakiness. What can I do to stop this, or train myself to be more steady?

[Dwight55]

If you are new to handgun shooting, . . . a large part of your "shakiness" is simply from asking your arm and hand muscles to do something that they do not normally do.

Used to be, . . . a lot of new shooters trained by taking a large bottle, . . . like an old glass 16 oz pepsi bottle, . . . filling it with sand, . . . and extending the arm, . . . holding it up for as long at one time as they could.

It built muscle memory (and through repititions) muscle mass.

Then they went on to dry firing, . . . and did a lot of it.

The key is to get your hand and arm to "remember" what to do, . . . and a lot of the shakes will vamoose.

May God bless,
Dwight

[The Great Mahoo]

1. Don't drink so much. :-p

2. On a more serious note, practice, practice, practice. I don't know to the extent your 'general shakiness' is, so I don't know if there is any permanent solutions here. My grandfather suffers from terrible tremors in his hands ever since he suffered a stroke a few years ago. Unfortunately, there is a neurological condition from nerve damage in his case, so theres nothing to be done; hopefully thats not the case for you.

If you just keep practicing, you can develop the much needed muscle control in the areas that you need. It may get frustrating at times, but it will pay off if you stick with it. Spend more time with the gun, even off the range. Check that it is empty (safety first and foremost!) and do some dry-fire drills. Practice stance and extension, building your arms into condition. Work on dry-fire to tune your dexterity to smooth actions.

Also, I would recommend a hand-spring device. These palm presses are something you can just idley squeeze while watching tv, reading or what not, which will strengthen your hands in general.

Its all about training your body and adapting.

[GUNSITE]

i don't know you personally but i'll think you can look at... diet, caffeine, confidence/nerviness in shooting, or a medical condition... and make sure your not gripping your weapon to tight and/or locking out your arms with to much force.

[Hook686]

Aside from the above, I have found that constant practice with a dime placed on top of the barrel (round barrel revolver) helped with not only steady handhold, but trigger squeeze also.

[pax]

Don't fight the shakiness. Accept it. No matter how bad that wobble is, you aren't going to be wobbling clear off target unless you fight it by yanking the trigger back suddenly whenever you think everything is "perfect."

Focus instead on a smooth, controlled, steady, even trigger pull, and let the wobble fall where it will.

pax

[nitetrane98]

Don't fight the shakiness. Accept it. No matter how bad that wobble is, you aren't going to be wobbling clear off target unless you fight it by yanking the trigger back suddenly whenever you think everything is "perfect."

Focus instead on a smooth, controlled, steady, even trigger pull, and let the wobble fall where it will.

Definitely agree with this. About the time you think you've got a rock solid aim with no shakes, put a Crimson Trace or laser type device on your gun. Oh yeah, that's solid as a rock.

Different types of shooting require different types of accuracy. I remember reading of a guy who advocated making a tiny figure 8 move around the X. He allowed that he was more able to control the sights by consciously moving them than just depending on pulling the trigger when ever the sights happened to align randomly while shaking.

Trigger control is paramount. You can't just jerk the trigger when the sights cross the X. You have to know what the perfect sight picture looks like and simply refuse to pull the trigger until you get it.

[Frank Ettin]

[1] How shaky are you? No one can hold a gun perfectly steady. The gun will waiver.

[2] So pay good attention to pax' post 6. Focus on the front sight and concentrate on a smooth press on the trigger -- pressing it straight back, with only the trigger finger moving -- until the gun fires. Don't try to make it fire at a specific instant in time.

[3] If you're shaking a lot, you may be holding the gun too tight. You want to hold the gun firmly, but you don't need a death grip.

[4] Some upper body conditioning is always a good idea, if you can manage it.

[Scrapperz]

I tried aiming and shooting fast and it seemed to help my accuracy and then ya just get better. But remember to squeeze not jerk the trigger.

[grymster2007]

I recently started taking beta-blockers for hypertension. Apparently they slow the heart rate and reduce tremors. Seems some people use them to combat stage fright or to enhance archery and shooting sports performance. I don't recommend you try this stuff, but I will report back my experience next time I go shooting.

If I report that I shot lousy, there could be something to it.

[w_houle]

There's two pictures you are looking at: The small picture and the big picture. If you look at the small picture, you see the small changes that rapidly take place in your sight picture. If you act upon the perfect alignment and act instantly, you will end up jerking or slapping the trigger. When you look at the larger picture, you see what you sights line up on as an average, then you proceed to use solid basics: Stance, hold, squeeze, and overall sight picture.