Copyright Personal Concealment Solutions, Inc. Grip & Alignment Issues A major cause of shooting difficulty is alignment of the firearm in the hand. Many shooters tend to put their finger too far into the trigger guard to get a better “pull” against the trigger. That causes the gun to be positioned incorrectly in the hand. The gun must be properly positioned in alignment with the hand and arm - to the shoulder - to allow the upper body to absorb recoil. Recoil comes straight to the rear. Kick is the result of an improper grip and exaggerates muzzle flip dangerously.

Copyright Personal Concealment Solutions, Inc. Grip Issues This is how many shooters grip their pistols. Note that the alignment of the front and rear sight indicates the gun does not follow the alignment through the wrist and elbow to the shoulder.

Copyright Personal Concealment Solutions, Inc. Correcting Alignment To correct alignment, rotate the front of the gun to the left, the rear of the gun to the right. This rotates the gun in your hand slightly to turn alignment toward the wrist. Note the finger extending outside trigger guard.

Copyright Personal Concealment Solutions, Inc. Corrected Grip Alignment Correct alignment is your knuckle to the first joint parallel to the frame/slide and equal width from the gun. Note: the proper grip puts the first digit of the finger resting on trigger within the fingernail area.

Copyright Personal Concealment Solutions, Inc. Corrected Grip Alignment Proper grip allows the knuckle to first joint area to align away from the grip surface. This allows the trigger to be squeezed using just the first and second joints without disturbing the knuckle.

Copyright Personal Concealment Solutions, Inc. Corrected Grip This is what a correct grip should look like from above. Note the perfect alignment of the front sight, rear sight and wrist. Not seen here is that the alignment also follows elbow to shoulder in that same straight line.

Copyright Personal Concealment Solutions, Inc. Two-Hand Grip This is what a correct grip should look like from the left side. Note both thumbs follow the parallel of the slide. The support thumb rests against the frame, the strong thumb rests on top as shown here.

Copyright Personal Concealment Solutions, Inc. Two-Hand Grip This is what a correct two-hand grip should look like from above. Note the finger on the strong hand and thumb of the support hand are adjacent to each other and they are at the same position on the frame.

Copyright Personal Concealment Solutions, Inc. Two-Hand Grip This is what a correct grip should look like from the strong side. Note the fingers of the support hand wrap around the strong hand, touching the trigger guard and fingers closed together. Sight Picture.