Glocks Galore

It’s all in the GRIP

The hands are the part of the body that interact most directly with a handgun. And how the gun reacts to its own recoil depends on how the shooter grips it.  Glock Competition Parts

Ideally, what we want is a grip technique that causes the gun to point naturally at the target; we shouldn’t have to waste any time searching for and aligning the sights. Also, when the gun fires, we want it to track consistently, i.e. return to the exact same spot with no effort on our part. If we make that happen and learn how to reset the trigger action while the gun is still in recoil (an entirely different topic), we can fire the gun as fast as it comes down out of recoil and still be accurate.

Dave Sevigny has burst onto the practical shooting scene like a supernova. Beyond any doubt the best Glock shooter on the planet, Dave began competing in IDPA and USPSA in 1999. Famous for using Glocks with very little or no modifications, Dave won his first IDPA state championship using his carry Glock 23 and inside-the-waistband holster. Since then he’s won more than 60 world, national, area and state IDPA/USPSA/IPSC championships. He’s the reigning USPSA National Production Champion, IDPA Stock Service Pistol National Champion, IPSC World Production Champion and Pan American Production Champion. He’s currently the anchor of Team Glock.

The most successful practical-pistol shooter in history (and still going strong after 25 years), Rob Leatham is one of the fathers of the straight-thumbs technique.

STRAIGHT-THUMBS
The straight-thumbs method of gripping a handgun, which today has become the accepted wisdom among serious shooters, was developed in the early 1980s by Rob Leatham and Brian Enos.

As this close-up of Brian Enos’ grip shows, in the straight-thumbs technique the support-hand thumb points straight ahead; the master-hand thumb is laid on top of the heel of the support hand and also points forward.

HOW HARD TO GRIP THE GUN
Dave Sevigny: “Grip the gun as hard as it takes to track up and down with the least amount of muzzle rise. If your grip is too relaxed, the pistol will recoil too much, track erratically, or it may shut down (failure to feed/eject, etc.). Gripping too hard, by contrast, may negatively affect sight alignment, induce trigger freeze (failure to let the trigger return forward far enough between shots to reset) for multiple-shot engagements and create fatigue in your hands and forearms. The pistol type and caliber will dictate how much actual grip pressure is needed.”

Try gripping 60 to 70% with the support hand, 30 to 40% the trigger hand.

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SETTING THE WRIST

Dave Sevigny: “For me, the support-hand wrist lock is a very important element to help reduce muzzle flip. Because the muzzle lifts during recoil, the top of the backstrap pushes rearward and the bottom of the frontstrap pushes forward. Controlling these two points is critical, and camming the wrist forward accomplishes that for me. Since it stops your hand from moving very much, it stops the gun from moving very much [as well].”

SIDE-TO-SIDE PRESSURE
Dave Sevigny: “It’s important to have the side-to-side pinching action of the support hand because, in order to have the best sight tracking, all parts of the grip should be in contact with your hands.”

HIGH ON THE GUN
Dave Sevigny: “Really, I want to get as high up on the gun as I can without interfering with the slide. The higher the better. If I could, I’d put my hand on top of the slide to hold it down. Getting as high up on the back of the gun as you can with your strong hand assists recoil management. To see for yourself, try a few rapid-fire shots with a half- to three-quarter-inch gap between the top of your strong hand and the grip tang. Then correct your grip, get your hand up under the tang with no gap, and shoot again. The results will speak for themselves.

“For me, contact under the triggerguard with the support-hand index finger strengthens the wrist lock and grip and serves as a locator during the draw. This ‘bridges’ the points between the triggerguard and the bottom of the frontstrap with your support hand while overlapping the strong hand. So when taking multiple shots and transitioning the gun (moving it from target to target), everything feels rock solid.”