Is it me or the sights?

[ewetstone]

I am very new to hand guns. I have now about 500 rounds thru my .45 and am hitting consistantly low left . I have tightened up my grip and worked on trigger pull to not much avail. Am I really that bad??

[old cop]

It is almost surely a case of jerking the trigger.

Dry firing is a big help but the best thing is to get some qualfied instruction.

[bdavis385]

Are you right or left handed? Low and right would be an indication that you are working the trigger improperly if you are left handed (the reverse is the are right handed). It is common to need to drift sights to get the POA to be the same as POI.

[gunnut606]

Consistently low right , but how is the group ? Good , Bad , All over ?

If the group is good then adjust the sight to hit where you aim.
If the group is bad then shoot it from a rest and find out if it's you or the gun.
.

[Lorenzo]

First you need to determine the mechanical POI (point of impact) by eliminating your technique. A fancy benchrest is great if you have access to one but sandbags work well too. I have found a rolled up towel makes a good enough rest for the purpose of sighting the pistol. http://archives.gunsandammo.com/cont...t-your-handgun

Once you've done that, and adjusted the sights accordingly, you can refer to this chart that shows what technique error would cause impact to be off in different ways:
http://www.targetshooting.ca/docs/Pi...t_Analysis.pdf you might be able to find a better version of that by Googling "pistol target analysis"

[ewetstone]

Had to edit post. Meant to say low left. thanx for the responses though.

[ewetstone]

Yeah...my grouping is good....I even aim a bit upper right to compensate. I still hit lower left. Driving me nuts!

[HiredHand79]

Originally Posted by ewetstone

Yeah...my grouping is good....I even aim a bit upper right to compensate. I still hit lower left. Driving me nuts!

It is possible that you are consistently mashing the trigger.

You might want to read this: http://www.bullseyepistol.com/chapter3.htm

[musc]

I would say definitely trigger jerk if you are right handed and shoot low left. I still do this from time to time when my trigger control is off. As someone else mentioned, you can bench rest shoot the gun and see how the sites are or easier yet, just let someone else shoot it.

[spinks]

Try using some dummy rounds, such as Snap Caps, randomly loaded in with live rounds. If you have an anticipation, or jerking, problem you will be able to see it when the hammer falls on the dummy round. Have someone else load the mags if possible. In a 7-8 round magazine two dummy rounds should do the trick.

[GunBugBit]

Lorenzo is giving solid advice. Apply what he is saying and you should be squared away.

[nosreme]

It's also possible that his hand is so big and/or the trigger-to-thumb "V" is so short that shooting low and left is inevitable unless (maybe) he forces his trigger finger out so far that he has fingertrip control only.

I had that very problem with a DA/SA non-1911 I bought before I became enlightened about gun buying (i.e. short reset means the trigger won't feel as good as it did at the store).

[SRJim]

As said, I think, low left is normal for a new 1911 shooter that hasn't mastered trigger control. New meaning a lot of shooters, even those shooting for years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa50...NHTPqwBXVxSjVg

That will help get you moving forward a bit.

[TClark22]

trigger jerk...happens to me

[mrw123]

I've been having a similar problem. Has been driving me NUTS. I did everything I could and was confident I wasn't doing anything wrong, but the shots kept going left and low. Finally did what I should have done weeks ago--I hired a trainer to work with me to figure this out. He watched me shoot (shots went left again and again) and he didn't notice me doing anything wrong. He took a few shots and hit center so he knew it wasn't the gun. He guessed that I may be left-eye dominant instead of right (they way I'd been shooting). So he had me take a few shots using my left eye instead of right. Center mass. I wouldn't have tried that in a million years. Huge relief.

(I'm wondering if my prescription has changed so I'm going to the optometrist asap.)

[45'r]

Originally Posted by mrw123

I've been having a similar problem. Has been driving me NUTS. I did everything I could and was confident I wasn't doing anything wrong, but the shots kept going left and low. Finally did what I should have done weeks ago--I hired a trainer to work with me to figure this out. He watched me shoot (shots went left again and again) and he didn't notice me doing anything wrong. He took a few shots and hit center so he knew it wasn't the gun. He guessed that I may be left-eye dominant instead of right (they way I'd been shooting). So he had me take a few shots using my left eye instead of right. Center mass. I wouldn't have tried that in a million years. Huge relief.

(I'm wondering if my prescription has changed so I'm going to the optometrist asap.)

Changing eyes with one eye closed can also result in you subconsciously shifting your grip. If the trainer didn't give you a dominant eye test, you might want to do one yourself to make certain. Very quick and easy .... pick a stationary object about twice the size of a deck of cards 20 feet away .... extend both of your arms fully with the palms facing out. .... make a triangle by crossing your thumbs and touching your index fingers together....look thru the triangle with both eyes and center the object ..... close one eye at a time....your dominant eye will leave the object centered while the other moves it out of the box.

[SAM2]

Originally Posted by 45'r

Changing eyes with one eye closed can also result in you subconsciously shifting your grip. If the trainer didn't give you a dominant eye test, you might want to do one yourself to make certain. Very quick and easy .... pick a stationary object about twice the size of a deck of cards 20 feet away .... extend both of your arms fully with the palms facing out. .... make a triangle by crossing your thumbs and touching your index fingers together....look thru the triangle with both eyes and center the object ..... close one eye at a time....your dominant eye will leave the object centered while the other moves it out of the box.

45'r, I am a right handed shooter. I tried your test and it confirmed something that I have known for years. I have a profoundly dominant left eye. However, when pointing my SR1911 at a target and performing the same test, sometimes I get the shift and sometimes not. I may be showing my age here but I never had a problem shooting, both eyes open, with the peep sights on my government issued M1 Garand or carbine. In fact, I was quite good at it but was always inconsistent with the M1911A1. Now that I need bifocals my sight picture problems are compounded. I really need shooting glasses that allow greater depth of field and also help the parallax problem. Would shading one lens a little darker help or is something that simple just wishful thinking? What do I tell my optometrist?

[skosh69]

Dry firing helps. Balance a nickel or dime on the front end of your slide ( the front sight preferrably ) and pull the trigger, try to keep the coin balanced!

Here's the shooters wheel for help in diagnosing your shooting also.

[gunnut606]

Originally Posted by skosh69

Dry firing helps. Balance a nickel or dime on the front end of your slide ( the front sight preferrably ) and pull the trigger, try to keep the coin balanced!

Tips :

If the coin keeps falling, a piece of 2 sided tape under the coin will help.
.

[ewetstone]

Originally Posted by mrw123

I've been having a similar problem. Has been driving me NUTS. I did everything I could and was confident I wasn't doing anything wrong, but the shots kept going left and low. Finally did what I should have done weeks ago--I hired a trainer to work with me to figure this out. He watched me shoot (shots went left again and again) and he didn't notice me doing anything wrong. He took a few shots and hit center so he knew it wasn't the gun. He guessed that I may be left-eye dominant instead of right (they way I'd been shooting). So he had me take a few shots using my left eye instead of right. Center mass. I wouldn't have tried that in a million years. Huge relief.

(I'm wondering if my prescription has changed so I'm going to the optometrist asap.)

Thanx...going to try that...I would be very surprised.

[1911A1FS]

Glad to have found this thread!

I'm only 150 rounds through my new 1911A1-FS and have been consistently left and low. (W-SW is how I described it elsewhere.)

I'm actually ambidextrous, but, predominantly left-handed and have always shot guns right-handed. But, I'm fairly new to handguns and this thread has some interesting suggestions and advice.

[mikeg1005]

As an instructor in into to pistol classes.... Low left is ALWAYS one of these two, or a combo...

Gripping the pistol with your other three fingers(middle, ring, pinky) while pulling the trigger = Its just natural for us to try to "grab" with the whole hand when moving a finger, focus on isolating your index finger movement from the rest of your hand, over time, this will become natural, but a lot of new shooter don't have that worked into their muscle memory yet.

Jerking the trigger/their wrist as they pull the trigger... Focus on the front post, and squeeze that trigger, don't think about the shot.

If your can shoot with both hands, I suggest you shoot whichever side your eye domiance is(don't shoot cross eye domiant).

And last, if you have the time, dry fire the crap out of your gun... it gets A LOT of habbits fixed before even having to fire a live round.

MIke.

[darthkevin]

Originally Posted by ewetstone

I am very new to hand guns. I have now about 500 rounds thru my .45 and am hitting consistantly low left . I have tightened up my grip and worked on trigger pull to not much avail. Am I really that bad??

From a background of military and 20 years experience when you shoot left or right it is almost always trigger pull. Up or down is almost always breathing. You are new to handguns so don't let this discourage you. Handguns by nature are less accurate then rifles. Work on "rolling" the trigger other then "pulling" the trigger. You want a nice smooth trigger roll. Another thing...make sure your sight picture is consistent. These will come with lots of (who would have guessed it) practice.

[darthkevin]

Originally Posted by darthkevin

From a background of military and 20 years experience when you shoot left or right it is almost always trigger pull. Up or down is almost always breathing. You are new to handguns so don't let this discourage you. Handguns by nature are less accurate then rifles. Work on "rolling" the trigger other then "pulling" the trigger. You want a nice smooth trigger roll. Another thing...make sure your sight picture is consistent. These will come with lots of (who would have guessed it) practice.

Came across a great article about this today in GUNS magazine talking about placement of finger in relation to how stiff your trigger is...pretty insightful stuff.

[safeman]

Go online and read this it will help you shoot better. Sounds like you are squeezing your hand when you shoot and not just your trigger finger.

http://www.ssaa.org.au/handgun/handg...ting-guide.pdf