Thought this could spur some good conversations. How important is it to have the gun aligned with the strong side arm. Is devotion a little to the right or left bad? I ask because I have little hands so any gun that has a long trigger reach I have to physicall shift the gun to the right to get enough finger on the trigger.
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Perfect alignment with the shooting side's forearm just about implies Weaver Stance with the head cocked over and the body bladed. I you are shooting modern ISO there typically will be some angle in the wrist relative to the forearm.
Most importantly you need a grip and a stance that allows you to control the gun through recoil and get back on target ASAP. How you achieve that will be specific to your abilities and your physical attributes.
That was my thought but I had someone I used to shoot with mention this to me today. Is it something people just say still or do some people think it has merit with modern ISO?
Kind of hard to do. You can get closer as you extend the gun further out but you have to extend beyond your area of maximum control and you will never get far enough out to align perfectly.Originally Posted by breakingtime91
Mike Pannone gives a nice demo on pistol grip and more here. Stop the video right at 2:01 where he shows a top down view of his grip and arm alignment you can see where the axis of the bore is relative to his forearm. Also he give an excellent lecture on Power, Control & Vision.
I feel like I'm straying out of my lane here but IMO it's better to have a grip that facilitates your ability to manipulate the trigger smoothly than to maintain perfect alignment between the gun and your arm.
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I think it's probably important for bullseye competition.
Jay mentioned Bullseye, in that discipline you shoot one handed. That's the hook, when shooting strong hand or weak hand (gasp!) only, aligning the gun with the shooting arm is possible. When gripping the gun aggressively with 2 hands, it just doesn't work that way for most people.
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That's what I thought. I remember jay saying years ago it wasn't important for modern iso, was just surprised to hear it from my friend who is a pretty decent shooter. Didn't know people still believed that.
IMO, gun alignment does really matter when going really fast. If I get a sloppy grip on the gun out of the holster (by sloppy I mean good solid grip but gun misaligned badly with my wrist/forearm) my index will be off, usually left, especially noticeable in sub 1 second draws to lower % targets in dry fire.
I have been working lately on more consistent hand placement during the draw stroke, especially as it rests beside the OWB holster. It helps to have a properly aligned wrist/forearm before you get a grip on the gun. A better solution also needs to be found with my AIWB holster, but I do find I get a little bit better alignment due to the strong hand thumb being a little more active (still moving towards a complete grip) later in the draw stroke with an AIWB draw. It is a bit slower tbough...
Good discussion!
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I've personally been examining this from my own perspective for the purpose of improving my own shooting. In trying different techniques to improve and also just see how the biomechanics work vs. a pistol. So my opinions and findings are based on MY perspective for MY needs. I say this as YMMV, obviously.
I think that gun to arm alignment is something that should be maintained regardless of your stance as long as you are able to manipulate the trigger properly. In the case of an ISO stance and grip, yes, your hand does break a straight alignment with your arm vs. if you kept them aligned for SHO/WHO/Bullseye shooting. However, I have noticed that when I'm shooting ISO vs. SHO, my gun still stays in the exact same spot in both scenarios. It's merely the alignment between the hand and the arm that has changed and not necessarily the gun as the gun does not move in that equation. I've found that the gun to arm alignment seems to best facilitate proper trigger manipulation for me.
Now if someone were to align the gun with their arm, but found that they were not able to reach the trigger or were unable to properly manipulate that trigger in some other such way, then I would argue that the hand location would need to change in order for proper trigger reach and manipulation to take place. This will obviously vary from shooter to shooter depending on the gun in question.
TL-DR - I think gun to arm alignment is best used as a function to gauge firearm fit to ensure proper trigger manipulation. In some cases it can help in recoil management, but it is not required as the alignment is circumstantial.
Last edited by spinmove_; 09-21-2016 at 08:01 AM. Reason: Grinny face in TL-DR
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