# Issues shooting with my weak hand



## ihaveagibsonsg (Oct 30, 2011)

For some reason I cannot shoot accurately with my weak hand with a semi automatic hand gun. I am right handed and I sight with my right eye. When I shoot with my weak hand I will shoot low and right so drastically to the point at 10 yards + I'll miss the target completely. I tried using my left eye and many hours of dry practice. Any advice would be greatly appreciated, thank you.


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## Gunners_Mate (Feb 17, 2010)

You may have seen this before, for right handers and may not have known that it's different if you are a lefty. here's the left version:










looks to me that you may be slapping the trigger with your left hand and, most likely, tightening your hand/fingers too much to compensate for your "weak"
hand. It's probably not as weak as you think, hold it firmly but not too tight, just like you would right handed.

are you also supporting with your other hand (in this case your right)? You may be using your right hand to apply too much pressure to the left, or your right wrist might be trying to take over the weapon, bring your shots to the right.

as for the eye issue, so long as your looking at the front sight and it's between the rear fixture, you should be fine no matter which eye you use. I'm left eye dominant/righthanded and can shoot with my left hand with either eye. unfortunately I get confused sometimes, it's a matter of me training to train to be more left handed, :/ trying, anyways,  practice practice practice


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## Holly (Oct 15, 2011)

Gunners_Mate said:


> as for the eye issue, so long as your looking at the front sight and it's between the rear fixture, you should be fine no matter which eye you use. I'm left eye dominant/righthanded and can shoot with my left hand with either eye.


Agreed. I can shoot with both hands but NOT both eyes. If you're right eye dominant, I would stick with it.


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## VAMarine (Dec 25, 2008)

If you're not shoot both eyes open you want to stick with your dominant eye regardless of what hand you're using. There are some techniques in this thread: http://www.handgunforum.net/tactics...-have-one-two-eyes-open-when-you-shoot-3.html regarding methods of getting the front sight closer to your dominant eye.

If you're new to trying "weak hand" shooting, you may want to start from a rest to get more comfortable with the fundamentals while using your left hand as the primary firing hand.


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## sunburst (Jul 5, 2011)

You may want to tilt the gun slightly (gangster style) to make the sights light up better with your dominant eye.


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## Gunners_Mate (Feb 17, 2010)

sunburst said:


> You may want to tilt the gun slightly (gangster style) to make the sights light up better with your dominant eye.


I don't know about tilting the gun... they are designed to be fired vertically after all, and training your hands to put a tilt may be difficult between left and right hand shooting. From what I've read lots of cross dominant people tilt their heads, not their guns..

but if it works for you then go for it (so long as you don't have someone looming over your shoulder threatening to hit you with a (insert whatever you are here, ie civilian, gm, sailor, marine, soldier, LEO, ect) realignment tool (such as an asp, rawhide mallet, wrench or whatever is available to be thrown at the time) for shooting like a moron. such someones are also likely to give the answer "pure effing magic" to any questions they don't feel like answering at the time. if you lack such a person, do your thing,


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## HK Dan (Dec 22, 2010)

Biggest thing? stablish the same grip with the left hand that you use with the right hand. This is why you are shooting low/right. It's okay to use your left eye when you shoot weak hand, but you don't need to, and it will neither help nor hurt if you do.

Main thing--get your trigger finger on the trigger just as you do with the right hand, get the grip identical (most of us tend to wrap the hand further back when shooting non dominant).

Lemme know how it goes!


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

*Try this list for a possible fix:*
1. Grip the pistol _tightly_ with *only* your left hand. Using your right for extra support will only complicate things. If your grip is tight, you will be much less likely to "milk" your pistol's grip by squeezing with all of your left-hand fingers along with your press on the trigger.
2. Leave your left index finger free to _press_ (not "pull") the trigger straight back. But make really, really sure that the rest of your fingers maintain a firm grip, and do not move in concert with your left index finger.
3. Turn your body to 45°, so that your _left_ side is angled toward the target. Balance your weight on both feet.
4. Place your right hand tightly upon your chest, as if you were reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. This keeps your right hand from doing anything to disturb your body while you are shooting left-handed.
5. Yes, angle the pistol at somewhere between 30° and 45° to the right of vertical, so you can comfortably use the sights with your master (right?) eye.

OK, now practice doing this, both with a lot of dry-fire, and also some live-fire. Pay special dry-fire attention to keeping your sights in the same place throughout the "shot" and its follow-through.


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## HK Dan (Dec 22, 2010)

Steve has done this before...<g>


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

Yes. Lots.


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## ihaveagibsonsg (Oct 30, 2011)

I will try angling the handgun. This is left hand supported, not non supported. I'm pretty sure my trigger pull is not the issue, I stumped 4 firearms instructors with my issue and they all agreed it was not my trigger pull. The instructors only had about 15 minutes to prepare me before my re-test so I don't blame them. I was able to put 6 out of 6 shots in the 9/10 ring from 15 yards away shooting from a baricade, but that was only because I aimed about 2 feet high and left of the entire target not just the 10 ring. I'll take your input and apply it at the range and see how things go from there.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

"Supported" by what? Your right hand? Or just by the barricade?
Is the "weak"-hand shooting a requirement of some sort? A better left-side-of-the-barricade solution might be to shoot with both hands in your normal manner, leaning out to the left a little, with your "strong" hand pressed against the barricade for support.
If you are using the barricade for support, and shooting with your left hand only, what part of hand or pistol is in contact with the barricade?
More information, please.


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## rgrundy (Jul 16, 2011)

If 4 "instructors" can't put their finger on the issue may I ask just what you are testing for? Shooting weak hand from a barricade means that I'm at least arms length from the barricade (so a skipped round won't be as likely to hit me and I can move quickly without backing up first) and am probably using both hands and tipping my head to get the sight picture. One handed I have my strong hand in a fist and against my pectoral muscle and bicep to help support my arm. I too feel that your grip and trigger control may be suspect. Have someone load the weapon for you and put dummy rounds in it intermittently to see if you flinch. Tipping the pistol brings in other issues like shooting left and right as the sights are set to elevate the bullet for trajectory which is up unless you tip the pistol.


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## denner (Jun 3, 2011)

If you can I'd stick with "both eyes open" as I believe this is the proper technique. With both eyes open your dominent eye should automatically adjust for sight picture, plus in a close quarters defense situation two eyes are much better than one in my opinion. What your attempting to accomplish is no easy matter for even experienced shooters, so I believe practice and proper technique as mentioned above is your answer.


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## ihaveagibsonsg (Oct 30, 2011)

My left hand is supported by my right hand. My left finger is pulling the trigger. I've tried holding the handgun exactly like I would shooting normally with my right hand, not moving my position at all and then pulling the trigger with my left finger. I still miss horrendously. 

It's the POST academy testing standards. We are required to shoot with both hands, meaning I have to pull the trigger with my left hand. I've already passed and I got one of the highest scores in my class, but that was only because I could adapt. I need to figure out the real reason why I'm having trouble with it so when things go south in real life, I won't have to calculate that I need to hold the handgun a certain amount of feet above someone to the left just to save my life or another persons. I owe it to the public that I am competent with my handgun all the time, not by chance.


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

I still suggest that you are "milking" the gun's grip. That is, you are squeezing with all of your fingers, in "sympathy" with the squeeze of your index finger.
Use a Gripmaster exercise tool to learn to isolate your left index finger while maintaining a strong, solid grip with the other left-hand fingers.

If you are strongly right-handed, right-index-finger isolation comes naturally, but doing it with the left hand is very, very difficult.

(The Gripmaster has one section of individual-finger press exercisers, and one section for the whole hand. Its whole-hand section goes toward the palm of your hand, while the separate-fingers section allows you to practice individual-finger isolation.)

Click on: WELCOME TO GRIPMASTER


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## berettatoter (Sep 1, 2011)

If I shoot weak hand, then I don't even get my other hand in the equation. I just shoot single handed, weak hand, and do better than if I tried to get my strong hand involved. Strange enough, I shoot better with my weak hand only compaired to my strong hand only.


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## rgrundy (Jul 16, 2011)

ihaveagibsonsg said:


> My left hand is supported by my right hand. My left finger is pulling the trigger. I've tried holding the handgun exactly like I would shooting normally with my right hand, not moving my position at all and then pulling the trigger with my left finger. I still miss horrendously.
> 
> It's the POST academy testing standards. We are required to shoot with both hands, meaning I have to pull the trigger with my left hand. I've already passed and I got one of the highest scores in my class, but that was only because I could adapt. I need to figure out the real reason why I'm having trouble with it so when things go south in real life, I won't have to calculate that I need to hold the handgun a certain amount of feet above someone to the left just to save my life or another persons. I owe it to the public that I am competent with my handgun all the time, not by chance.


Now that you have passed you can get on the road to becoming an expert in pistolcraft. Start out by hanging out with expert shooters. Join USPSA or another discipline and watch and talk to the smart kids. We see many LEOs come to the open weekly steel shoots and "burn down" on the courses because they did well in class but really need to learn to shoot. One of your statements is you support your left hand with your right hand. Both hands should encircle the grip and weld at the rear of it. You should not be using the Barney Miller teacup grip with a supporting hand. My nephew recently graduated too and the instructor hated him at first because he would take no instruction. Then they saw him shoot and shutup. He has been an expert with a handgun since he was in his teens. Here's a good video to watch. 
Todd Jarrett on pistol shooting. - YouTube


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## Steve M1911A1 (Feb 6, 2008)

berettatoter said:


> If I shoot weak hand, then I don't even get my other hand in the equation. *I just shoot single handed, weak hand, and do better than if I tried to get my strong hand involved*... [emphasis added]


...As I previously wrote.


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## denner (Jun 3, 2011)

Steve M1911A1 said:


> I still suggest that you are "milking" the gun's grip. That is, you are squeezing with all of your fingers, in "sympathy" with the squeeze of your index finger.
> Use a Gripmaster exercise tool to learn to isolate your left index finger while maintaining a strong, solid grip with the other left-hand fingers.
> 
> If you are strongly right-handed, right-index-finger isolation comes naturally, but doing it with the left hand is very, very difficult.
> ...


Yep, I agree with Steve as usual. You must isolate your trigger finger from the rest of your grip to shoot properly. If you dont you'll be pushing or pulling one way or another, basic handgun shooting 101. What makes it more challenging is the fact your weak hand is exactly that, a weak hand until you get strengh and proper isolation of the trigger finger.


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## JeffWard (Aug 24, 2007)

I'd suggest you need to shoot about 1000 rounds weak-hand... until it works.

1) Stance
2) Grip
3) Sight Alignment
4) Trigger Press
5) Repeat X 1000

After that, 1, and 2 become less relevant.

If you're low left with your right hand, you're flinching!
If you're low right with your weak hand... you're flinching! You just need more reps...

JW


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