How to Properly Grip a Handgun : Target Shooting

Part of the Video Series How to Shoot a Semi-Automatic Handgun

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Learn how to grip a semi-automatic handgun properly in this free video featuring a Marine Corps double expert marksman.

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Member Comments

Posted by JohnR on Tuesday, 21 August, 2007 at 8:55 AM

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The proper grip for target shooting is to provide bone support to eliminate the need of muscular effort to shoot accurately. Using muscles to aim will, without a doubt, soon cause a tiny shake from the exertion of holding the firearm in place, outstretched from your body. This tiny shake will cause your accuracy to severely diminish. The key to accurate shooting is muscle relaxation and breathing control. Lose either one of those and your accuracy will suffer. This hand grip is the optimum grip for proper muscle relaxation.

Posted by bloation on Monday, 11 June, 2007 at 6:37 AM

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Sir, with due respect, but i think your proper gripping of the gun is quite incorrect. i thought the supporting hand should be 45degree panning and gripping over the strong hand?

Video Transcript

How to Properly Grip a Handgun : Target Shooting
Hello! This is John with Expert Village. This next segment is going to be on the grip of the handgun. Now, we’re using an HK, Heckler & Koch 40 USP. So the first thing we do when we pick up a weapon is, following the safety rules, make sure it’s unloaded. So you pick up the weapon, you take the barrel, you take the magazine well to make sure there’s not magazine or round in the chamber. Now we’re going to put the magazine in it. Again, making sure it’s empty. Push it in, make sure it clicks and the magazine is in place. Now this grip here, make sure your finger is along the barrel keep your fingers straighten off the trigger, again with the safety rules. We can go underneath the weapon, support it from the bottom. I’m wrapping my fingers up around the back of my hand. Now, on the back side of the weapon, you see the fingers here? Hold on the magazine well. Support it with the center of the palm and that’s how I hold the pistol when I’m shooting. And we take the magazine out. That’s how you hold a handgun. My name is John with Expert Village.

About the Expert

Expert: John Ritenour has been target shooting for the past nine years. He qualified as a double expert in the U.S. Marine Corps with the Beretta M92 pistol and the M16 rifle, and he teaches handgun classes. Read More