cured my shakey hands

[Ukraine Train]

I've only started shooting pistol a few months ago and a problem I was having is my dominant (right) hand would get shakey after a couple magazines. Well, the other night I was shooting and tried varying my grip. I used to squeeze the grip at the front and back but tried squeezing it on the sides and that helped tremendously. What I then tried is squeezing my left hand over my right so about the only work the right hand does is squeeze the trigger and that helped even more. It's still not perfect but a couple more range sessions should smooth it out completely.

 

[Jim Watson]

Yup.
My coach said the "weak" hand should provide 60% of the grip. Hard to tune that fine, but you have the idea now.

 

[DMK]

I used to squeeze the grip at the front and back but tried squeezing it on the sides and that helped tremendously.

It's my understanding that the front/rear squeeze is preferrable. Squeezing the grip on the sides may encourage the pistol to twist slightly when you squeeze the trigger.

 

[461]

Best way I've found "for me" is to not squeeze at all, but just to grip firmly. A great hold is to push the weapon forward with your strong hand and use your weak hand to pull back slightly, that way the force is equalized and the weapon remains stable. Not saying anything is better than anything else, this is just what I use.

 

[Jim March]

YUP! That push/pull thing works for me too, but you need to be in a Weaver hold for it to work right.

 

[M2 Carbine]

When my right hand gets to shaking, I shoot left handed.

When they both shake I go load ammo.


Today a friend's teenager shot my Makarov left handed because of a hurt right hand.

Then I shot left handed, just for fun.

They were the 2 best groups shot today.


I told him, next time we shoot left hand and left eye.

 

[Wanderer]

You know, I bet there's a reason for that. Because you were shooting left handed, I'm guessing you spent a little more time and concentration on aiming properly. My $2.

 

[shu]

Thank you very much Matt Burkett
http://www.mattburkett.com/

What he say make alot of sense.

 

[M2 Carbine]

Wanderer.

Yes, you are right.
I'm sure that was much of the reason the boy did so well but he is a good shot with everything.

I practice a bit shooting left handed.
Left handed and left eye is also fun.

 

[Ankeny]

Matt Burkett, Rob Leatham, Jerry Barnhart, Brian Enos, Todd Jarret, Ron Avery, etc. all teach about the same thing. Grip, balance, and stance are so very critical to developing proper technique, but so few people commit the resources required to really understand what its all about. Really is kind of a shame.

 

[cratz2]

I was raised, shooting-wise, by a guy who was an Elmer Keith kind of fellow. He used a 357 Magnum to take deer at over 100 yards on several occasions. He was really more of a 1911 guy and he taught me that when shooting the 1911, most of the support should come from squeezing the thumb and middle fingers towards each other. And he used a low thumb grip.

I've done a fair bit of handgun shooting at 100 yards. I've found the two most important factors in connecting at that distance are knowing exactly what you're doing at 25 yards (and then doing the exact same thing at the longer distance... sort of a Zen thing ) and the other most important factor is no caffeine for at least 4 hours before shooting.

And I'm not kidding.

 

[4v50 Gary]

Cut out caffeine helps too. I learned that from one of my students who had shaky hands.

 

[gunsmith]

whaddya mean no caffeine!!!

hey whaddya call a cow that had an abortion?
DECAFFEINATED!

yuk yuk!

actually I have been cutting down quite a bit due to heartburn,I have a friend who hands are allways shaking and he is a heavy coffee addict,and my coworker so I'll pass along the info ,thanks

 

[Ukraine Train]

I believe cigarette smoke also adversely affects heart rhythm due to the chemicals in it

 

[Zach S]

Caffeine and cigs do affect my groups. I almost always have caffeine and nicotine in my system before I go to the range, because I smoke a pack of Marlboro Lights a day and drink a lot of tea. About half the time I go after being awake for at least 15 hours, most of the time more (I have to go to work at 2100, the range doesnt open untill noon, and I rarely go to sleep on Friday or Saturday, depending on overtime).

Thats how I carry. That's how I practice.