My New Strange Grip?

[randyflycaster]

I've been struggling with my shooting for some time now. I'm a left-handed shooter. My shots drift to the right. I've read 4 books on shooting and watched many videos. Still my shots drifted. One of the problems I had was that my support hand kept drifting forward and off the gun, even though I put rubber grips on my gun.

Last week for some reason I moved my support-hand thumb from the side of the frame to the back of the gun: below the beavertail, and below the base of my strong-hand thumb. Suddenly I felt I had a much better grip. I shot some rounds and my support hand didn't slip forward, and my shots were right on.

Yesterday I shot about a hundred rounds with my support-hand thumb on the side of the frame. Again my shots drifted and my support hand kept slipping, so I again tried my new "thumb behind the gun" grip, and again my shots were right on.

I've never heard of this kind of grip. I'm curious to know why.

Thanks,

Randy

[spinmove_]

I’m having a hard time picturing how you’re putting your Support hand thumb “behind” the gun. Any pics to illustrate?


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[blues]

I’m having a hard time picturing how you’re putting your Support hand thumb “behind” the gun. Any pics to illustrate?


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I'm thinking he's referring to something akin to this grip method which many used with revolvers years ago:

[Robinson]

Your new strange grip feels stronger/more secure because you are relying on having your thumbs wrapped around opposite sides of the pistol grip. It's sort of like holding a baseball bat only with both hands at the same place.

This indicates to me that you should consider everything about your grip and technique together. When shooting, how are your arms positioned? Are you using the rest of your upper body to help or just relying on hand strength? Are you allowing your upper body to lean back (not good)?

If you use a grip technique such as the one shown in the video in the thread linked below you should not have trouble with your support hand slipping.

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....and)-placement

[randyflycaster]

Good video, but nothing I haven't seen before. I also don't enjoy shooting for very long using a death grip, as I find it very tiring. Shannon Smith doesn't use a death grip, and I tried to model my grip after his.

[scjbash]

Kelley mentions Vogel in that video so I'll add this video with Vogel explaining his grip as well. Using Vogel's technique of torquing the gun over with both hands helped me tremendously when I was having problems keeping my support hand on the gun due to injury.

[spinmove_]

Good video, but nothing I haven't seen before. I also don't enjoy shooting for very long using a death grip, as I find it very tiring. Shannon Smith doesn't use a death grip, and I tried to model my grip after his.

Yeah, I wouldn’t do that. You may not have your thumb in a position to get hit by the slide right now, but what happens if you start moving, shooting faster, sweaty hands, etc?

Sounds to me like your new technique feels new and you’re gripping harder with your left hand by doing that vs how you were gripping it before. Regardless of if it feels like you’re gripping harder or not. This is evidenced by your shots going where you want them to go as the gun takes the path of least resistance. If you weren’t gripping harder, your shots would be going right again.

Work on gripping harder with your support hand in dry fire A LOT. You don’t have to death grip it, but if you pay attention, you can catch yourself not gripping as hard as you should be.


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[Robinson]

Good video, but nothing I haven't seen before. I also don't enjoy shooting for very long using a death grip, as I find it very tiring. Shannon Smith doesn't use a death grip, and I tried to model my grip after his.

It's not a death grip, it's a proper grip.

There are two good videos linked in this thread now, created by really excellent shooters. It takes lots of correct practice and developing good grip strength to be able to shoot a pistol well. If you say "bah, I don't want to do it that way" then I got nothing.

[Peally]

Yeah, that's a bad grip. I have "pussy hands" and I manage a normal/standard one, you definitely can too. With your current grip aside from the poor stability it's eventually inevitable that you'll take little piece out of your thumb.

I struggled with grip for a long time before I just "got it". Keep at a normal common grip and make little adjustments as necessary. I don't do any torque thing whatsoever but some people (like Vogel in his video) do; those are the minor variations on the same grip you'll figure out over practice and experimentation.

As far as throwing shots your grip doesn't matter diddly unless you're moving the gun around with your hands, grip is for recoil control not accuracy. If you want to stop drifting shots to the side you need to align the sights and be able to pull the trigger without moving the gun around. If you hold the gun upside down and pull the trigger well with your pinky finger the round is still going exactly where you aimed it (which is fun to do by the way).

[randyflycaster]

I've watched the Vogel video several times. Still not sure what he means by "monkey grip."

Randy