Is it possible to grip too tightly?

[dovedescending]

My shooting is much better than it was before I still haven't scraped together the change for a class at Blackwater/SIG/whoever, but the improvement is there.

Question about grip... I've been going with the "wrastle that gun like it wants to bite you" school of thinking... i.e., I grip that pistol HARD. Is there a point where I might be gripping it TOO hard?

 

[The Bushmaster]

Yup...Grip no more then necessary to hold the gun on target and have control of it during recoil. The more relaxed your body is the better.

 

[MrCleanOK]

Squeeze it like an egg. Firm, but not hard. A death grip leads to muscle fatigue, and puts unwanted control input on the gun.

 

[CraigC]

Absolutely no reason for a white knuckle death grip. No matter what it is or how hard it recoils. Grip it firmly, only as tight as necessary. Your accuracy will suffer if your hands are shaking from squeezing too hard.

 

[MrBorland]

I've been going with the "wrastle that gun like it wants to bite you" school of thinking... i.e., I grip that pistol HARD.

Wrastlin' the gun and gripping it hard are 2 different things.

The great bullseye shooter, Bill Blankenship, was a big proponent of a hard grip. His gun would leave an imprint in his hand when he put it down. And while the great revolver shooter Jerry Miculek tells people he doesn't grip very hard, yet he's known for his powerful hands, so I suspect his "not too hard" could still crack a walnut. As others point out, then, a hard grip is good, so long as you're still in control and not fatiguing yourself.

Wrastin' the gun's never a good thing, though. You can bet Blankenship didn't and Jerry doesn't.

 

[stork]

No right answer, no wrong answer.
Depends on the pistol, caliber, load, distance, casual or match shooting, and the individual definition.

As Bullseye is my choice of shooting disciplines, I'll address your question from the one handed shooters perspective.

First, my definition of the grip. The semi auto should be pinched between the center section of your second and third fingers and the section of the palm between the base of the thumb and the life line in the palm. Think of your hand as a vice and you are pinching the front and back of the pistol with your "vice". Your finger tips should not curl around to press against the side.

The little finger should not grip the stock. It is very hard to establish consistent tension with all 3 fingers and the little finger is WAY down at the bottom of the lever (if you think of the grip as a lever) where it induces the most effect with the smallest amount of variation.

1911-45ACP. Grip until your sights start to tremble then slack off when the sights stop trembling. Having an inconsistent grip makes shooting a pistol virtually impossible. I have found the hard grip is easier for a new shooter to use consistently. After, you have a few thousand rounds down the bore you will settle on YOUR best grip, not necessarily MY best grip. I have shot with Master and High Master shooters that grip the gun so gently I swear it would torque right out of their hand, but it works for them. I no longer grip the 45 really tight.

22 semi auto. Duplicate the 45 at first, however the learning curve is faster on the 22 due to the recoil factor. When I shoot Free Pistol or International my grip is very light and almost gentle. But those disciplines are all slow fire, and loaded a single shot at a time. The pistols also have very light crisp triggers. When I shoot timed or rapid fire the grip is harder.

For "TARGET" revolvers, the grip should be gentle. EX: 32,38,41,44,45 target loads around 600-750 fps. This of course should not be done with heavy hunting or silhouette loads, those must be gripped tight in order to not have to remove your front sight from being embedded in your forehead.

If you have any 'good' Bullseye shooters in your locale, search them out and ask questions. NOT DURING A MATCH or during a string of fire. Like any shooting discipline I have ever tried, they are extremely helpful and share a wealth of information to get a new shooter shooting well much faster than trying to learn it all yourself. Don't try to reinvent the wheel.

FWIW

 

[Wishoot]

I grip my LCR like I was hanging on for dear life. Otherwise, I have a tough time getting back on target.

My 9mm guns can get by with a lighter, more comfortable grip however.

 

[Al Thompson]

Agree with Wishoot, each handgun needs a bit of grip adjustment for your hands and stance. However, as mentioned, gripping too hard induces tremors and fatigue. Try gripping until your hand shakes and then backing down from that level.

BTW, Shootrite is between Ft. Payne and Scottsboro, or about 2 hours from Rome. Excellent instructor and should be close enough that you can take a weekend course from Mr. McKee. Just noted that there is a one day handgun course for 200 bucks in November...

http://www.shootrite.org/

 

[Captcurt]

Absolutely no reason for a white knuckle death grip. No matter what it is or how hard it recoils. Grip it firmly, only as tight as necessary. Your accuracy will suffer if your hands are shaking from squeezing too hard.

No need to put it into a death grip like you are trying to choke it. The main thing is to grip the gun consistently. Try to do it exactly the same every shot.

 

[doc540]

One idea is to read Brian Enos' "Practical Shooting: Beyond Fundamentals".

He has some excellent advice about gripping a handgun, and it's helped me a lot.

 

[GLOOB]

It depends on the gun and your wrist and hand strength. Some SA big bore revolvers are best gripped a little loose. You let the grip rock in your hand and the muzzle comes up. But with some 9mm polymer frame guns, the firmer the grip the better. More of the shock gets absorbed by the frame, felt recoil goes down, and the sights come back on target faster. You'll have to experiment to see what works for you and your gun.

 

[Shadow 7D]

Yes, look up the chart, there is one, that helps you analyze your handgun groups, I have it saved somewhere, very useful if you just can't seem to get your groups onto POA

 

[raz-0]

This is something I have been trying to figure out for myself lately coming form the perspective of a high B USPSA shooter trying to get to A class in matches as well as on paper.

The conclusion I've come to is that once you get out of the realm of limp wristing, you can have a relaxed grip that ranges from detrimental to effective, and a strong grip that ranges from detrimental to effective. Simply gripping harder may or may not cause problems while shooting.

I'm still trying to get a handle on the effective strong grip without losing speed. I know it's there because I can manage it some of the time, it's just a matter of making it a 100% of the time thing.

People's grips vary a LOT, so it's hard to convey the right thing to the right person in terms of how hard they should be gripping. My general recommendation is that you need to be gripping the pistol about as hard as you would be gripping a hammer to use it to sink a roofing nail in one shot.

Of course as we enter an era where even experienced roofers haven't hammered a nail in quite some time, it's becoming a less meaningful point of reference.

 

[kludge]

http://www.gunthorp.com/how to shoot a handgun.htm

This writer strongly recommends the “crush grip.” How hard do you hold the handgun? As hard as you can.

(I hope this quote is OK with the new rules.)

Ayoob shoots pretty well; I follow his advice and give it to all the people I teach, though I stop before the "tremors". Most new shooters, and many experienced ones, anticipate the recoil by squeezing harder as they pull the trigger. If you are already squeezing harder your sight picture doesn't move in anticipation or sympathetically.

 

[CoRoMo]

You can't prevent recoil, but you can use it.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

I'm with the "consistent grip" philosophy. Firm, like going to grip until it causes you to shake, then backing down until you become steady again, BUT, being consistent, shot-to-shot, is the big thing. If you are consistent in position and firmness, it will make your shots consistent, or reduce the amount of bad influence your grip has on your shooting.

 

[sniper5]

Firm. Bullseye is a great way to hone your grip and trigger skills.

My wife was having a problem with light grip and clutching during firing and after showing her what she was doing to the sights, I simply asked "If you are afraid of it recoiling, why don't you just grip harder from the git-go and then the sights won't move?" Firmed up her grip and solved the problem. Groups tightened.

 

[tack]

From 22 target to 45 Auto

I started shooting with a 22 target pistol held lightly with one hand. The grip needed adjustment when I went to a 45 Auto 1911 held in both hands. This is what worked for me when I wanted speed and accuracy.

The muscles in your forearm that move your fingers are relatively weak. If you grip hard you will quickly start to shake. Use the strong muscles in your chest and shoulders to hold the gun. Push your strong hand outward and pull inward with your support hand. Slightly clap your hands together to apply pressure from side to side. Both forces combine to grip the gun between your hands with only light effort from the finger muscles. Your arms are also pre-tensioned to resist recoil and rapidly return to sight alignment.

I'm not that strong and this improved my accuracy and speed compared to a crushing grip. I hope that works for you.

 

[HappyHunting]

With me at least, my groups begin going down the tube pretty quickly after 70 rounds because I grip too tightly with my finger/forearms. I usually just shoot 45 out of a 3 pound 1911, but I still want the sight to move as little as possible.

I'll try and press like I'm doing a chest fly in the future.

 

[MikePGS]

Interesting thread.
I too read Ayoob and took it to heart when he says to grip it very tightly. When I grip a handgun it's basically like I'm trying to smash it in my hand. Now when it's something light, like a .22 or nine or something I definitely loosen it up quite a bit. But when it's a caliber that is heavier than those I go for the crush grip. It helped my shooting quite a bit, but to be fair I was trying a lot of new things out that also may have contributed.

 

[PT1911]

with a typical two hand hold, I find that many people (including myself at times) tend to grip too tightly with their strong hand... the grip should be somewhere along the lines of 30 percent strong hand 70 percent weak hand.. the weak hand is actually providing the most support and the strong hand focusing on pulling the trigger... If you are gripping tightly with your strong hand and attempting to pull the trigger smoothly, you will pull off target one way or another... fatigue is another factor.... I maintain a strong grip with my weak hand and just enough of a grip with my strong hand to maintain the full surface of my hand in contact with the gun.. that way my strong hand provides a good "foundation" onto which my weak hand can overlap and maintain smooth and consistent support.

I certainly hope that didnt come across as confusing.

 

[MikePGS]

I also try a bit of the push/pull thing, where I push forward with the hand holding the gun and pull back with the hand wrapped in front of the strong hand. Does anyone else do this, or am i just being ridiculous?

 

[rainbowbob]

Push your strong hand outward and pull inward with your support hand. Slightly clap your hands together to apply pressure from side to side.

What tack wrote in post #18 and...

... the grip should be somewhere along the lines of 30 percent strong hand 70 percent weak hand.. the weak hand is actually providing the most support and the strong hand focusing on pulling the trigger...

...What PT1911 said.

That is what I've been working on as a practical and consistently steady platform. Aiming may be a whole nuther discussion.

 

[Ben86]

A moderate grip is best. Grip too lightly and your recoil control suffers. Grip too hard and your accuracy suffers because the muscles start to shake and it makes your hand less steady. You have to find your middle ground. It's different for each person. You can't say: grip it with X amount of pressure, you have to discover what works best for you. If I were to try to quantify it (for me personally) I would say I grip with about 40-50% of total grip strength.

Often overlooked is the effect the grip your support hand has on the gun. Gripping strong with your support hand will help recoil control greatly. Especially with tiny guns.

 

[gunzee]

It depends upon what you are trying to do. If it's combat, it'll be less than 5 yds, and you'd best not waste even .10 second, so grip it as hard as necessary to get the fastest repeat hits possible, as well as the fastest "traverses" to other enemies.