Pistol shooting fundamentals-hitting left

[TradLife406]

I can run my 2k11 very very well.
But shot my G 19 clone today and had the classic left and low left.
Picked up the Kimber 2k11 and shot a soft ball at 10 yards with a magazine.

Don't get it.

The "Glock" has an Angled Spade comped slide so the recoil is a nice push. So I don't think I'm scared of it.

But kept throwing shots left.

Also fighting a compressed thumb ligament in my left wrist so it's tough to get a good support hand grip.

Or is the double stack 9 1911 just that easy to shoot?

 

[Formidilosus]

I can run my 2k11 very very well.
But shot my G 19 clone today and had the classic left and low left.
Picked up the Kimber 2k11 and shot a soft ball at 10 yards with a magazine.

Don't get it.

The "Glock" has an Angled Spade comped slide so the recoil is a nice push. So I don't think I'm scared of it.

But kept throwing shots left.

Also fighting a compressed thumb ligament in my left wrist so it's tough to get a good support hand grip.

You are commanding the gun to go off. Anticipation/flinching/snatching the trigger/etc.

Glock triggers and grips do not let you hide that stuff.

Or is the double stack 9 1911 just that easy to shoot?

Yes. Try a good single stack… it’s worse.

 

[RockAndSage]

Focus intently on a smooth press that moves the trigger straight back to the tip of your nose, the entire length of travel, without moving your sights in any way across the entire press.

Do this in dry fire until you can't get it wrong. Then go apply with live fire and recoil.

Depending on your hand geometry/finger length in relation to a given gun, you may need to adjust your strong-hand grip a bit to be able to ensure your trigger-finger is able to press the trigger straight back to the tip of your nose the entire length of travel - be willing and ready to experiment. But the fundamental you're going for, is simply to be able to press the trigger without moving the sights/dot, working up to doing it at-speed with longer strings of fire. But it starts in dry-fire with single, careful, observant reps.

Despite years of 1911s and Sig 220s/226s/229s in the 1990s and early 2000s, I had no idea just how crap my trigger press was until I got a striker-fired gun with a red dot on top. Re-training my trigger press to be able do it without moving the dot across the entire press blew me out of a plateau I'd been in for years.

Single-actions let you get away with a lot more - they're just a lot more forgiving. And because of that, it's easy to miss out on a lot of refinement and leveling up.

 

[Jason Snyder]

If you are rapid fire shooting you need to add more grip with your support hand. If you are trying to shoot spots, you are anticipating the shot and need to isolate the trigger press.

 

[RockAndSage]

Also fighting a compressed thumb ligament in my left wrist so it's tough to get a good support hand grip.

There are a number of different grip styles and approaches, a couple of which don't need support-hand thumb pressure at all. Run a youtube search for "handgun nut cracker grip" to see if something comes up.

Short version: you're wrapping your support fingers over your strong fingers to kind of lock them in like a fulcrum or a hinge pin, while pressing into the gun's grip with your palms/heels. Left thumb is somewhat relaxed and often not even touching the gun at all. Lock your wrists back as part of that, with generally even pressure left/right in pressing your heels into the grip - it almost feels like you're trying to pull your knuckles away from each other, but they're locked in and it's actually tightening everything down through leverage.

You're also not hulking down on the grip, trying to eliminate recoil - you're just managing and mitigating its effects as consistently as possible while the gun cycles and you focus on the target, sight alignment, and trigger press. This grip, in my own experience, simply allows for the most consistent shooting at speed, and across long strings of fire.

Part of the consistency I get out of this grip comes from how it helps isolate the trigger finger's entire structure away from unwanted inputs into the gun. Especially at speed and under pressure - I haven't found a better one in mitigating crap trigger presses. Which means, it's been the best so far in assisting in the most consistently good trigger presses. Largely because it changes the biomechanics of what's going on inside your hand with your firing hand's muscles, ligaments, flesh, etc, especially the trigger-finger's entire system, all the way up into the wrist. It isolates all of that more effectively. Other grips result in variations of pressing that trigger-finger and its components in the palm harder into the top of the gun's grip, which actually magnifies unwanted inputs - often resulting in shots going left, and the sights tracking in a kind of elliptical orbit rather than straight up and down. This grip results in extremely good, consistent vertical sight tracking, and better trigger presses under pressure.

 

[n816kc]

I agree fully with the above on grip, its the foundation for accuracy and consistency. One other thing you may want to consider is how much finger you have on the trigger. Use the pad of you finger to press the trigger just like your 2k11. Its pretty easy to find your first joint on the trigger of striker fired pistols, that'll push your shot left.

 

[sierracharlie338]

Formadidlydoo and rocksage hit the nail on the head. You have to focus on trigger manipulation when you shoot a glock. The design inherently exposes even slight weaknesses in fundamentals. I have found that most people can tweak their grip slightly and when they focus on their straight back trigger press they see an improvement.