As I’ve aged, a couple of things have happened to me that have affected my barely-competent handgun skill. (Cliff Notes: I’ve always been a much better shot with a rifle than with a handgun, the latter being just average.)
The problem is twofold: as my age-induced arthritis continues to plague my hands, I find that I can no longer grip the gun as firmly as I’d like, which has led to Problem #2: I’ve started to develop a profound flinch whenever I pull the trigger. No matter how gently I squeeze the thing — and all my handguns have excellent triggers — I often catch myself dropping the hammer on an empty chamber and seeing my hand pulling the gun down at least an inch, with predictable results on the paper. To put it bluntly, at the end of the session, my target often resembles that of someone trying to register their shotgun’s grouping, blindfolded. (I think it was either Mr. Free Market or The Englishman who once commented caustically, “I had an old shotgun that printed better than that.”)
Loyal Readers will already have seen my dissatisfaction with firing 158gr .357 Mag loads, and selecting instead the much-lighter 110gr pills for my backup ammo. With the latter, there is no flinch; with the 158gr loads, a profound one. Ditto, by the way, my .45 ACP preference for 185gr loads over the 230gr. Heavy bullets = flinch; lighter bullets = no flinch, or at least not enough to make a fool of me.
This is not affected by my usual shooting partners, they being either the Son&Heir or Doc Russia, both being horrifyingly proficient handgun shots whose one-hole groupings never fail to make me look like a complete beginner.
All this, by the way, is to introduce Champion Pistolero Rob Leatham’s video entitled: Aiming Is Useless (!!!!).
So my next few trips to the handgun range are going to feature his training tips, along with Mas Ayoob’s Wedge Grip.
I’ll let you know how it pans out.
