Shooty and Squeezy: A Tale of Two Hands

We talk a lot of principles in our classes, and today I'd like to discuss one particular facet as it applies to handguns - grip.

Let's face it - shooting a handgun well is more difficult than shooting a carbine well.
A carbine allows four points of contact for the shooter to create a stable shooting platform, while the handgun only allows two - your hands. This means it's important to have a good firm grip that allows both positive control, and the ability to manipulate the trigger.

So, let's have a look at your hands. We're going to go on the assumption that you have two of them. You have a dominant hand, and a non-dominant hand. Generally, most people will manipulate the trigger with their dominant hand - let's call him Shooty. Your non-dominant hand, who we'll call Squeezy, is used to support Shooty and maintain a solid grip on the gun.

Before we get too far into the conversation, let's have a quick talk about fine motor functions and gross motor functions. A fine motor function is something that requires fine movements, or a certain amount of finesse. For instance, manipulating the trigger or the slide stop is a fine motor function. Slingshotting the slide, on the other hand is a gross motor function - you simply grab it and pull back, as opposed to trying to find the slide release with your thumb and pushing down. Gross motor functions don't require a lot of manual dexterity, fine motor functions do. So, let's get back on track, and talk about your hands and their function.

Your dominant hand, Shooty, is important because his job is to not only have a firm grip on the handgun, but to manipulate the trigger. Your hand should be positioned so the web of your thumb is all the way up the backstrap of the handgun and your "non-trigger-pulling" fingers should be wrapped around the front of the grip. Unless you're ready to shoot, your trigger finger should be straight along the frame of the handgun (not the trigger guard). The amount of grip strength you use should equal a good, firm handshake - not a weak, wet, hippy handshake, and not a grip you would use to wrestle your opponents into submission (Don't treat the handgun like it owes you money).

A weak, hippy handshake will affect handgun function, and is known as limp wristing. A limp wrist ensures that your hand soaks up enough of the recoil impulse that the slide may not run all the way back and successfully complete the ejection and reload cycle. This is a particular issue with smaller, compact handguns which have far less slide travel available to get the work of ejecting the empty and reloading a new round done.

Gripping the handgun like you're trying to choke the life out of interferes with trigger control. Having a white-knuckle grip with your fingers means you're not going to be able to control the finger as finely, and will lead to jerking or mashing the trigger.

Controlling the handgun and having a good, strong grip is where Squeezy comes in. Squeezy works in tandem with Shooty to grip and control the handgun. The best way to ensure you have Squeezy working at his optimum level is to make an "L" with your support hand (assuming you're right handed), and rotate it 90 degrees so that your fingers are pointing downrange, and your thumb is pointing up. Place that hand on the exposed grip of the firearm, wrapping all your fingers around the grip of the handgun below the trigger guard (you'll already have Shooty's fingers there, so wrap them on top). The thumb should be pointing forward along the frame of the handgun, as high as possible without interfering with the operation of the slide. The idea is to have as much of your hand directly on the grip of the handgun as possible, while avoiding things like wrapping a finger around the trigger guard.


A good understanding of how your hands work together will go a long way to improving your shooting skills, and may even fix some hard-to-diagnose problems you may be experiencing.

-Kirk