Let’s face something of an inconvenient truth. Handguns are, by their very nature, difficult to control and shoot accurately.
With their smaller footprints and lower mass, they also produce volumes more felt recoil than shoulder-mounted arms, even those in the same caliber.
With a handgun, you don’t even have the advantage of the stability of shoulder-mounted arms. Shooting confidently and accurately while bucking recoil is, for some, a lot harder than for others.
So, we rounded up some good tips for how to shoot more confidently, more accurately, and even how to help control recoil.
Here are our top suggestions, from shooting an appropriate 9mm full metal jacket target round to getting a good grip.
Choose an Appropriate Caliber (or Target Ammo)
The first thing you should do, if your goal is to stand up to recoil and shoot more accurately, is to set yourself up for success with appropriate ammo.
This starts with your purchase of a gun. If you’re buying a gun for competition, then stopping power should not figure in your calculations.
Get a rimfire or a handgun in a lighter cartridge, like .380 ACP. These kick less and are also more affordable, so it’s easy to shoot through a lot of it without feeling it, both figuratively and literally.
If your gun is chambered in 9mm, .40 S&W, .45 ACP, or some similar caliber, don’t waste hard-hitting, recoil-heavy defensive hollow point rounds at the range (unless you’re training for defensive carry, then you should).
But if you’re just punching paper, get some 9mm full metal jacket rounds that don’t produce a lot of muzzle energy. If your purpose is to score accurately and not neutralize a threat, you should be shooting the lightest rounds you can.
The point here is there’s simply no reason for you to be shooting .44 Rem Mag or .50 AE simply for the purpose of target practice. Shoot something lighter.
Stance and Grip
After choosing an appropriate caliber and cartridge, stance and grip are the next most important factors you need to work on to corral recoil.
Grip is one of your greatest defenses against recoil. Holding the gun improperly will exacerbate its effects, whereas holding it properly can help mitigate them.
You should be thinking “high and tight.” Hold the gun high up on the frame to maximize surface area contact between your hands and the gun’s frame, and hold it tightly.
We’ve written about how to adopt the proper grip before. Consult our previous blog for additional details: Get a Grip: How to Hold a Handgun, and Why It Matters.
Stance can also help you absorb recoil, whether you are shooting .357 Mag or 9mm full metal jacket rounds.
There are multiple stances you can choose, but regardless of the one in which you train, bend your knees, get a little lower, and lean forward.
This will lower your center of gravity and shift it forward, giving you a little extra mass to help absorb the force of recoil when you pull the trigger.
Training and Drills
There are numerous drills you can practice that will help you eliminate flinching and help you conquer common shooting errors that will rob you of accuracy.
We’ve written about this extensively in the past. For more information on helpful shooting drills, how to do them, and how they can help, please consult our previous blog: Handgun Shooting Drills to Help Improve Handling and Accuracy.
Install a Compensator
Depending on what sort of handgun you shoot, or if it has a threaded barrel, you may be able to install a compensator without making any additional modifications.
A compensator is a muzzle device, much like a muzzle brake on a rifle, that changes the way gasses are ported at the muzzle.
By altering the manner in which gases are ported at the muzzle, a compensator can vastly decrease the force of felt recoil, in some instances by as much as 50%, without adversely affecting shot power.
The installation of a compensator is definitely one of the most impactful upgrades you can make insomuch as it relates to diminishing recoil and muzzle flip.
Install a Heavier Guide Rod
If you shoot a semi-auto, you might also want to think about installing a heavier guide rod.
For some polymer-framed pistols, like Glocks and HK VP9 pistols, installing a heavier guide rod, like a tungsten guide rod, can help add weight toward the muzzle that will keep the muzzle down, fighting both recoil and muzzle flip.
For some handguns, it won’t make much of a difference at all, but for others, that extra weight and mass can go a little of the way toward cutting recoil.
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