Saturday, July 16, 2011

Mod

In helping me to troubleshoot my persistent pistol shooting flaw (anticipation) a commenter, Ritchie, suggested gripping the lower fingers on your grip and relaxing the trigger finger.  Hold the grip more firmly and you'll duck it less waiting for that big bang.

It's also Todd Jarrett's advice, sorta.  Todd's is "grip it 20% tighter."  When he comes around to check how your new tightened grip is coming he'll probably say, "grip it 20% tighter."  A tighter grip solves a host of problems.  I had been holding it like a golf club.  That didn't get me anywhere, a gentle grip.  So I go a bit harder now.

Now it's important that the trigger finger is relaxed to do the squeeze and surprise break.  While I am gripping like mad I forget all about how hard I am holding on and concentrating on that finger.  Which is probably what I am supposed to be doing.  I am seeing some small incremental improvement.

Anyhow, Ritchie said:

"Trying to come to grips with my G20, I happened upon something which may apply to you too. I realized that when I tightened the lower part of my hand, the lower 2 fingers, that pressed the lower end of the Glock's backstrap into the heel of my hand. This sort of took up some slack in that area and prevented pulling shots low. YMMV, or it might work for you too. "

To help himself, he added some bulk to the backstrap, and sent me a picture of the testing prototype and permission to share it:


Obviously, he swapped out the surgical tape when he went "live" with it. (baseball tape!)  If you look close there is a bit of leather there on the back.  This added bulk, as I mentioned, like an arched mainspring housing on a 1911 as opposed to a straight housing.  I prefer straight mainspring housings, but I'm not married to it.  I can always switch back.  I might like a little padding back there as I build up better callouses in the event I go the Full-Jarrett and aim to shoot a million rounds over 2 hour per day sessions for years to get truly good at shooting.

7 comments:

Sean D Sorrentino said...

There's one sure cure for recoil anticipation. It's called the Ball and Dummy drill. Take a partner. Have them load either a live round (Ball) or a snap cap (Dummy) into your pistol while you are not looking. Then you shoot. Have them load the dummy round about twice as often as the live round, but keep it random. Then you just keep working that drill until you learn not to flinch.

45er said...

I've been thinking about you, T-Bolt, when I'm doing my dry drawing reps. I notice that when I do not rotate my weak hand forward enough by muzzle tends to point down naturally. That is especially important on the 1st round from the draw (and probably the most important round fired in a fight). It really came to light when I was practicing with my new Kel Tec P3AT. The size of that thing leaves not room for error. Try rotating that weak hand forward, thumb should be on the frame below the barrel. I dunno, I'm just throwing things out there now. It's real hard when you're not hands on to make little adjustments and note the results.

Bubblehead Les. said...

Can't hurt, might help. Fatter bottom grips seem to help me. RE Yesterday's Post: Thanks for the Williams Clarification. That statement that DC vs Heller only applies to keeping a gun in the Home seems to have "Cherry Picked" out what was written in the Ruling. It should go to Scotus.

Bubblehead Les. said...

John Richardson over at his "No Lawyers" site just posted a Video Friday by Doeg Koenign and the NSSF on Gripping a 1911. Take a look at it when you get the chance.

Clint said...

“I had been holding it like a golf club.  That didn't get me anywhere, a gentle grip.”

That's the WORST thing you can do. Let me guess, you've been shooting a lotta 22's right?

Sometimes 22LR guns can make anticipation worse. Sometimes the difference in muzzle blast changes the way your sub-conscious threats your firearm. (You need to re-learn to not fear the gun.)

Mostly, my experience shows the biggest pitfall of rimfire practice is the 22 guns are too forgiving of bad grip habits.

22's almost encourage people to hold them lightly. Many bullseye guys hold the grip a bit like holding a potato chip in your hand as that way lets to fine-tune your sight picture without fatiguing your hand.

You do that with center-fire and you hit-ability goes to hell. Target shooters sometimes compromise by using a light spring and so-called “softball” loads. Softball loads are like cowboy load for semi-autos, sometimes the velocity can be as low as 600 fps.

Questions:

Do you have access to reloading equipment?

What guns to you practice with the most? (include airsoft)

How often do you dryfire?

Feel free to email me.
Clint1911

Anonymous said...

A million rounds of .45 at .30 a round equals $300,000 in ammo???
A million rounds of 9mm. is still $200,000... unless you're getting yours a lot cheaper than mine-
Myself I'd rather pay off my house, frankly-

Tam said...

Can't remember where I read it, but Mas Ayoob wrote someplace explaining his "crush grip" that, if you're already squeezing as hard as you can with your four non-trigger fingers, you're not going to be able to clamp down harder with them when you do your trigger press and throw the shot low...