I have been doing this a good bit at home and can't see any movement off target or using the laser and seeing it move to the left. It seems I have been pulling my shots left about 2 inches at 15 yards, the shots group well just at 9 o'clock. I think I may be gripping to tight with strong hand and moving pistol as my finger presses to the rear. Any drills to help my hand not move when my trigger finger moves?
Are you slapping the trigger? Slowly squeeze until you feel the wall; that's the takeup prior to break. Try not to anticipate what comes next, that's where all the problems occur. Your trigger should have a crisp break that surprises you at first. If the breakover is mushy or creates too much tension (a la the 12 lb NYPD trigger in NYPD Glock service pistols and nothing else on earth), you'll run into problems. Lastly, congratulate yourself for becoming critical of your trigger and moving to that level of snobbery. Most people don't shoot enough to know the difference between a great trigger and an average one. Also, check your grip; it has as much to do with pushed shots as anything else. I'm assuming that you're right-handed and shooting a double stack pistol. My problem is big mitts and stubby fingers and I push a lot. Thinning the grip will help if you have such a luxury of Glock, etc.. with several grip size options.
It doesn't matter what I am shooting is the reason I think is my grip, XDS, XDM double stack or the awesome trigger on my S&W E- series 1911. The break of the trigger always seems good and taking my time after the shot to ease back to the reset but I don't think my trigger finger can move without my whole hand squeezing my grip.
Tough call. It might be tightening your grip in anticipation of the trigger breaking over. Have you experimented with taking an empty case and placing it on the front of the slide, or on top of the sight, to demonstrate flinch/tightening/etc.?
Also what part of your trigger finger are placing on the center of the trigger. I had a habit of using the first knuckle joint to pull the trigger when I first go into pistols and pulled all my groups to the right(I'm a southpaw). I started pulling the trigger with just the tip of my finger and my groups centered up for me.
Center of pad behind fingernail, I am careful about not getting it in to far or not enough. The funny thing is I tried doing it wrong to see if it changed point of impact and didn't make a whole lot of difference.
Try uncurling your fingers from around the grip. Only works on rifles, but it'll help isolate the problem for sure.
Hope to get back to the range at the end of the week and have a few ideas and that being one. It would be nice if I had someone I trusted to come with me and watch me or pull the trigger for me as I line up sights and get my grip.
I've had this same issue for years. Right handed shooter and I produce nice groups. They're just slightly to the left. I've found that pushing more of my pad onto the trigger helps. It's because your finger isn't pulling straight back. You need a completely linear pull to shoot what you're actually aiming at. For me, my trigger pull pushes slightly right and rear, which pushed the gun left because I was using just the tip of my finger. This is what's taught for rifles, to give you slightly better control of the trigger. But on a handgun the gun reacts a lot more dramatically to small movement. So getting your finger more in line with the bore, and creating a straighter pull should help. Watch your front sight while dry firing, and you'll see it very slightly pull left. That's enough motion to move your point of impact just slightly left.
I went to the range yesterday and worked on several things to see if I could get some results, as you said Bcamos I stuck my finger in a little further, changed the amount of grip on hands and worked on a push pull grip also. I did get things to come in a little but as I backed up around 25-30 yards it was obvious the problem was still there.
Simple fix is to add a little windage. Easy to do with dovetail sites, and you can validate it with a boresight. Is there a chance somebody installed night sights and improperly adjusted the new ones?
No it's me, I shoot the same no matter what pistol it is, I want to correct my problem and not adjust it out.
Here's whats up 3 round each fire from 10-15-20-25 yards, see how for out the 20 and 25 yards start getting. I dropped the one shot and know that was trigger jerk.
Looks like my groupings. I have the same issue I'm trying to work out myself. Always just a little left. I haven't been shooting pistols enough to really have time to dial it in and figure it out, though I have changed the position of my trigger finger a bit and that didn't really help. Now that I no longer have to hoard my ammo I'll be shooting a whole lot more and will hopefully get it straightened out. I hope you do too.
I was doing the same thing solid groups but always a tough high and 1-2" left. Older guy at the range was watching me and he saw my frustration. He had me bring the pistol up and present towards target. To my amazement when he had me pause half way through I looked dow. And sure enough I was actually presenting the pistol probably a good 15* rotated left. My grip pressure was way unbalanced and obviously I was correcting it as I focused on the target but the pressure wasn't even so I would shoot left. Take a look you maybe doing the same thing if so drive harder with your left thumb forward
Last trip to the range I concentrated on push pull for front and back pressure and side to side pressure and loosened my fingertips on my strong hand. That combined with close attention to the trigger pull things got much better. I have been doing this at home with my dry fire to set the muscle memory and concentrating on the front sight not moving. It is amazing how quick you can develop stupid habits .
I had a coach when I shot competitions that used to stress that point about developing bad habits very quickly. He used to say "only perfect practice makes perfect".
Amen to that, I just got back from the range and was proud of myself today, most everything went where I intended as long as I was paying close attention. Not much to the left even at 25 yards and was shooting just a little high but centered up.
One of the guys I used to shoot competitions with... he says, "If you aren't doing it the same way every time, you're doing it for the first time every time." One of my problems is that on my .45ACP, the front post filled the back sight completely -- if there was daylight around the front post, I was misaligned. My Smith & Wesson M&P has daylight on both sides of the front post, so I really have to focus on balancing it. And being right handed but left eye dominant can make that a little work. Good job on putting the rounds where you wanted them today!