Been shooting my new 44mag ruger super blackhawk hunter with a 2x nikon scope.

I keep pulling low and left no matter how much i adjust the scope. any ideas on how i can correct my bad form?

BTW I'm right handed shooting off sandbags at 25 yards

Been shooting my new 44mag ruger super blackhawk hunter with a 2x nikon scope.

I keep pulling low and left no matter how much i adjust the scope. any ideas on how i can correct my bad form?

BTW I'm right handed shooting off sandbags at 25 yards
AGinAZ try putting less of your trigger finger on the trigger and make sure you pull straight back. skeets

Not wanting to state the obvious, but:

Put only 5 rounds in the cylinder. Either have someone else spin and lock the cylinder or you do it without looking to see where the empty chamber is. Carefully acquire your sight picture, breathing and S Q U E E Z E the trigger slowly. What you are checking for is an unintentional dropping of the front sight or flinch in anticipation of the cartridge firing. If the hammer falls on the empty chamber and you notice these things, it's a matter of practice and control to correct the problem.

How bought some more info. I am a novice of about 2 serious years with handguns and most every thing that can be done wrong, I have done it and some of it I still do.

Do you have groups and what do they look like at 25 yds. Since you say everything is low left that says to me you have pretty good groups. Are you on a 8 X 11 target?

What load are you shooting?

Try moving closer if your groups are not good.

This is kind of contrary to what you would think but try a harder rest and see if that brings it up any.

If you are new to the 44 mag round you may want to load down if you handload or if not shoot some specials for a while.

The last thing as I have found many times after tons of wasted ammo. Make sure your base is rock steady and your scope is mounted right. You may even want to shoot the iron sights a while just to elliminate that extra from the mix.

I have only one pistol with a scope and I still shoot better with iron sights for now at 25 yds.

I just picked up a Taurus 651, .357 mag. snubbie. I shot it for the first time yesterday, and found that I'm doing the same thing, low and to the left. I put this off to having big hands and a small revolver. Too much finger on the trigger. It will take some practice to get out of this habit. All of my other handguns fit fine, so no pull, but this gun is getting lost between my fingers. I'm hoping that correcting this won't ruin me for the bigger guns.

Don

Low and left in a serious indication that you are "milking" the pistol as you fire. That means that as you pull the trigger, you are also "tightening" the rest of your grip.

To correct that, you need to practice getting your shooting hand to operate in three separate areas. The first, and the one causing the gruop shifting, is the three fingers which force the pistol into you palm and thumb base. That must remain steady and tight throughout the trigger pull. It should be nearly "white nuckle" grip.

the second is the thumb, which needs to do nothing with a revolver, but operates the safety in an auto, needs to be placed in the same location, and without exerting undue or uneven pressure on the side of the pistol. That is absolutely contrary to the finger grip pressure and must be independent.

The last is the finger on the trigger. You must train it to move to the rear, exerting an ever-increasing, but steady pressure on the trigger, without sideways pressure. It must operate independently from the other two areas.

The best way I know to do this is to do a great deal of "dry fire" practice, watching for movement of the sight picture. When that movement gradually disappears with practice, you should have a feel for that trigger pull and the grip. When you don't have that feel, you may go back to milking. Practice, practice, practice. Correct practice will make good habits. Poor practice makes poor habits.

Hope this helps.

dclark

Hello AG,

Low lefting is the most common problem with short guns for right handed shooters. The advice listed above it excellent, espiecally the one about the dead chamber.

Two causes of this, for righties. The first is anticipating recoil, which is at the root of most evil for pistolaeros. The only way to rectify this is to make sure you are looking at the sights, not the target, and if you watch the sight start moving low left, then that is exactly where your round will strike. If you sights stay on target when the weapon goes off, that is a hit, as it really can't help but to be.

The second cause of this is not enough tension on your non-firing hand, and incorrect placement of the trigger finger on the trigger. The non-firing hand(not "Weak" hand) has to wrapped completely around the firing hand, and have as much, if not more tension than the firing hand. If not, you tend to try to hold onto the pistol too much with your firing hand, and instead of just squeezing the trigger straight back, one tends to squeeze with all four of his fingers, or "milking". The right edge of the trigger needs to be welded to the first joint of the trigger finger.

Back in the old days, allot of old Army shooters used to use the "cup and saucer" weak hand arrangment, and it worked pretty well for the 1911, but it is not anywhere near suitable for the fatter gripped M9. When I shoot the M9 for record, I make a conscious effort to grip the pistol with my firing hand, wrap my non firing hand around (all four fingers), and then, relax my firing hand so that I am actually applying isometric tension against my nonfiring hand. In this way, I am gripping the pistol more left than right handed, and the trigger pulls straight back.

Hope this helps.

Steve

Low and left in a serious indication that you are "milking" the pistol as you fire. That means that as you pull the trigger, you are also "tightening" the rest of your grip.

To correct that, you need to practice getting your shooting hand to operate in three separate areas. The first, and the one causing the gruop shifting, is the three fingers which force the pistol into you palm and thumb base. That must remain steady and tight throughout the trigger pull. It should be nearly "white nuckle" grip.

the second is the thumb, which needs to do nothing with a revolver, but operates the safety in an auto, needs to be placed in the same location, and without exerting undue or uneven pressure on the side of the pistol. That is absolutely contrary to the finger grip pressure and must be independent.

The last is the finger on the trigger. You must train it to move to the rear, exerting an ever-increasing, but steady pressure on the trigger, without sideways pressure. It must operate independently from the other two areas.

The best way I know to do this is to do a great deal of "dry fire" practice, watching for movement of the sight picture. When that movement gradually disappears with practice, you should have a feel for that trigger pull and the grip. When you don't have that feel, you may go back to milking. Practice, practice, practice. Correct practice will make good habits. Poor practice makes poor habits.

Hope this helps.

dclark
I'm home all day today, with Flu? I still made good use of my time by practicing with the snubbie. The cure for me was to put less shooting finger on the trigger, and apply pressure with my off hand folded over the shooting hand, thumb locked over the shooting hands thumb, and the off hands index finger pushing up on the bottom of the trigger guard. I've seen this hold used with snubbies before, and it does work. It's a good solid hold.

Don

Check out this link and look at the "correction chart." More often than not this chart will tell you exactly what you are doing wrong.
Chart (http://www.sportshooter.com/improving/targetgallery.htm)

Check out this link and look at the "correction chart." More often than not this chart will tell you exactly what you are doing wrong.
Chart (http://www.sportshooter.com/improving/targetgallery.htm)
Great aid Big Bore. Thanks for the link. wonder what happened to AG. Must be out practice shooting.

One other thing you might want to try while you do the stuff already recommended is some down loaded ammo to reduce recoil if you are sensitive to that. Then as things fall into place load'em back up. Not so easy if you don't handload, but it does help. I've done this for the kids and ladies, and it helps. Don't worry about POI right now but whether you are shooting good groups. The front sight is most important to hold on target. Don't let if drift, wobble, or fade away while you squeeze. Now, in order to get really good you need to dry fire and, you have to shoot lots and lots and lots of ammo -- durn the luck!!! sundog

AGinAZ
I shoot double action all the time. I have to remember the preferences of each of my Smiths, and they all have Pachmeyers. One like the thumb tight against the cylinder latch, one likes the thumb away from the frame completely, one likes the thumb along the slope of the frame beside the Hammer, another doesn't care what you do with your thumb but watch out what you do with the pinky.
One of my shooting buddies got into a rut, where no matter what he did with his thumb, pinky, left hand, where the sun was, hat on backwards those bullets were going low and left. So we dicided that the whole world was lower on the left and put a 50 caliber ammo box under his left foot to raise the gun carriage, so to speak.
It was so silly that it got him to laughing and broke the low and to the left spell.
Jim

No, wasn't out practicing.... The last few days I have been hunting quail and just relaxing. I just finished finals for grad school and took advantage of my break. Great info all .... I now have some good ideas on how to fix my poor form.

Thanks for all your replies ... I love this forum!

I'll keep yall informed on my progress .... I have a Javelina hunt in March and I want to use my 44mag.

PS. I did not have the same problem when shooting 44 specials. Does that change anyones advice?

No, wasn't out practicing.... The last few days I have been hunting quail and just relaxing. I just finished finals for grad school and took advantage of my break. Great info all .... I now have some good ideas on how to fix my poor form.

Thanks for all your replies ... I love this forum!

I'll keep yall informed on my progress .... I have a Javelina hunt in March and I want to use my 44mag.

PS. I did not have the same problem when shooting 44 specials. Does that change anyones advice?

That narrows it down considerable. I may have missed some stuff so I'll just say this. If your mag groups are good and low left try a heavier bullet mag round. The empty cylinder trick should show you if it your form. The heavier bullet will raise your point of impact.

Come back with more info like rest or offhand, what kind of rest, actual loads and we can do more.

AG,

I still think you are anticipating the recoil, prior to the gun going off.

If you hold the weapon properly, line up the sights, and get a surprise break, then the rounds ought to go where you want them too.

Good luck.

Steve