Low and left, what do you do?

DR505 said:

Try less trigger finger. Your finger can be pushing against the frame as you press the trigger. You could be flinching. Hard to tell without watching.

For dry firing lay a dime flat on top of your front sight and press the trigger. If the dime falls off, you need to change things up until it doesn't.

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WC145 said:

Aim high and right.

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WrongHanded said:

Shoot left handed. Then it'll be low and right.

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Frank Ettin said:

In my experience shooting low left is often connected with anticipating recoil and/or jerking the trigger. The trick is to learn to press the trigger to cause the gun to fire, without disturbing the index of the gun on the target.

My instructor group teaches regular NRA Basic Handgun classes, primarily to folks having no prior experience with guns. We have had a good deal of success helping our students learn to press the trigger to make the gun fire without disturbing the index of the gun on the target applying the following:

1. One essentially presses the trigger to make the gun fire without disturbing its index on the target by applying a smooth press straight back on the trigger with only the trigger finger moving. Maintain your focus on the front sight (or the reticle if using a scope) as you press the trigger, increasing pressure on the trigger until the shot breaks. Don't try to predict exactly when the gun will go off nor try to cause the shot to break at a particular moment. This is what Jeff Cooper called the "surprise break."
   
   
2. One wants to place his finger on the trigger in a manner that facilitates that. Usually, the best place for the finger to contact the trigger will be the middle of the portion of the finger between the first knuckle and the fingertip, and that part of the finger should be perpendicular to the direction in which the trigger moves.
   
   • With some triggers, e. g., heavy double action triggers with a long travel, that placement might not provide enough leverage to work the trigger smoothly. In such cases, the trigger may be placed at the first joint.
     
     
   • In either case, the trigger finger needs to be curved away from the gun sufficiently to allow it to press the trigger straight back without the trigger finger binding or applying lateral pressure to the gun. If one has to reach too far to get his finger properly on the trigger (or turn the gun to the point that the axis of the barrel is significantly misaligned with the forearm), the gun is too big. (For example, I have a short trigger reach and can't properly shoot some handguns, like N frame Smith & Wesson revolvers double action.)
   
   
3. By keeping focus on the front sight (or reticle) and increasing pressure on the trigger until the gun essentially shoots itself, you don’t anticipate the shot breaking. But if you try to make the shot break at that one instant in time when everything seem steady and aligned, you usually wind up jerking the trigger.
   
   
4. Of course the gun will wobble a bit on the target. It is just not possible to hold the gun absolutely steady. Because you are alive, there will always be a slight movement caused by all the tiny movement associated with being alive: your heart beating; tiny muscular movements necessary to maintain your balance, etc. Try not to worry about the wobble and don’t worry about trying to keep the sight aligned on a single point. Just let the front sight be somewhere in a small, imaginary box in the center of the target. And of course, properly using some form of rest will also help minimize wobble.
   
   
5. In our teaching we avoid using the words "squeeze" or "pull" to describe the actuation of the trigger. We prefer to refer to "pressing" the trigger. The word "press" seems to better describe the process of smoothly pressing the trigger straight back, with only the trigger finger moving, to a surprise break.
   
   
6. You'll want to be able to perform the fundamentals reflexively, on demand without conscious thought. You do that by practicing them slowly to develop smoothness. Then smooth becomes fast.
   
   • Again, remember that practice doesn't make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.
     
     
   • Practice also makes permanent. If you keep practicing doing something poorly, you will become an expert at doing it poorly.
   
   
7. Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of the gun firing "by surprise." They feel that when using the gun for practical applications, e. g., hunting or self defense, they need to be able to make the gun fire right now. But if you try to make the gun fire right now, you will almost certainly jerk the trigger thus jerking the gun off target and missing your shot. That's where the "compressed surprise break" comes in.
   
   • As you practice (perfectly) and develop the facility to reflexively (without conscious thought) apply a smooth, continuously increasing pressure to the trigger the time interval between beginning to press and the shot breaking gets progressively shorter until it become indistinguishable from being instantaneous. In other words, that period of uncertainty during which the shot might break, but you don't know exactly when, becomes vanishingly short. And that is the compressed surprise break.
     
     
   • Jeff Cooper explains the compressed surprise break in this video beginning at 36:04. This article by Jeff Campbell and this article by Jim Wilson might also be helpful.
     
     
   • It may help to understand the way humans learn a physical skill.
     
     • In learning a physical skill, we all go through a four step process:
       
       • unconscious incompetence, we can't do something and we don't even know how to do it;
         
         
       • conscious incompetence, we can't physically do something even though we know in our mind how to do it;
         
         
       • conscious competence, we know how to do something but can only do it right if we concentrate on doing it properly; and
         
         
       • unconscious competence, at this final stage we know how to do something and can do it reflexively (as second nature) on demand without having to think about it.
       
       
     • To get to the third stage, you need to think through the physical task consciously in order to do it perfectly. You need to start slow; one must walk before he can run. The key here is going slow so that you can perform each repetition properly and smoothly. Don't try to be fast. Try to be smooth. Now here's the kicker: slow is smooth and smooth is fast. You are trying to program your body to perform each of the components of the task properly and efficiently. As the programing takes, you get smoother; and as you get smoother you get more efficient and more sure, and therefore, faster.
       
       
     • I have in fact seen this over and over, both in the classes I've been in and with students that I've helped train. Start slow, consciously doing the physical act smoothly. You start to get smooth, and as you get smooth your pace will start to pick up. And about now, you will have reached the stage of conscious competence. You can do something properly and well as long as you think about it.
       
       
     • To go from conscious competence to the final stage, unconscious competence, is usually thought to take around 5,000 good repetitions. The good news is that dry practice will count. The bad news is that poor repetitions don't count and can set you back. You need to work at this to get good.
       
       
     • If one has reached the stage of unconscious competence as far as trigger control is concerned, he will be able to consistently execute a proper, controlled trigger press quickly and without conscious thought. Of course one needs to practice regularly and properly to maintain proficiency, but it's easier to maintain it once achieved than it was to first achieve it.

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Riomouse911 said:

I’ll use a fired cartridge case as well (sight must be flat on top), works the same way.

OP, if you can get some snap caps have a friend load your magazines and sprinkle some randomly through your magazines. This will rat out a flinch every time.

Stay safe.

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RetiredUSNChief said:

Consider the mechanics of the human body when you're looking at what might be causing you to shoot one way or another.

The body is nothing more than a bunch of levers and pulleys, when you think about it, with your bones providing the levers and the muscles/tendons providing the pulleys. And don't forget your breathing and heartbeat affect the stability of this machine, as well.

Holding your right arm out, is it easier to move the arm across to your left or to your right? The muscles in your chest which control arm movement across your body are typically bigger and stronger than the ones in your back which control outward movement of the arm. Same for lifting and lowering your arm...there is a difference.

If you anticipate your shot and exert even the slightest "compensating" movement as a right handed shooter, the tendency will be down and to the left.

For a left handed shooter, it would be a mirror image...down and to the right.


There's an incredible bit of understanding to be had once you think of the body mechanically. Why, for instance, when standing and shooting will a figure-8 pattern evolve for most people? Because your breathing will act to move your point of aim up and down, while your heartbeat will act to move it left and right. If you shoot enough, a figure-8 pattern would tend to evolve unless you understand and compensate for this.

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.38 Special said:

I disagree with some of that. I believe dry-fire is the one of the best prescriptions for flinch. I also believe that "more practice" just contributes to more flinching, unless the the practice is done with something like a .22 LR.

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JeeperCreeper said:

Lazy way that will get people mad:

If you're right handed and shoot low left... Press your left-hand thumb harder against the gun.

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