Shooting left.

D

dayman

New member
I have a tendency to shoot a little low and to the left when I shoot with my 1911. I've done enough looking on the interweb to know that I'm probably either pushing the trigger, or tightening my pinky too much, but I haven't been able to find a lot on how to correct the issue.
To further complicate the issue I've been - for me - shooting quite well recently. I'm getting good groupings (2" @ 30' on a good day, 3" on a bad day), they're just centered 1-2" low and 1-2" left of where I'm aiming.
Any advise will be greatly appreciated, thanks.
 
Two things come to mind for low-left! Tightening the fingers and jerking or slapping the trigger. Dry fire practice while concentrating on finger/trigger control will help! 'Mo:)
 
Maybe you just need to adjust your sights. Have someone watch you dry fire, and correct any motion at sear release. If there is none, move your sights.
 
there are also potential maintainence issues; cleaning, ect. The 1911 is a difficult weapon to use accurately. It can be shot very accurately, but it takes a dang good shot to do so. I used to have a very tough time with my military issue 1911, I barely quilified on it. The advice given about dry firing while an experience pistol shooter watches your triggering, is a good idea!
 
Ahoy dayman ---

Low and left is a very common shooter error.

Its all about maintaining sight picture and imperceptible trigger pull, and learning to do this very quickly. This is why SA shooting is so much easier than DA (for me), and the trigger on a 1911 is unparalleled.

In the short term you can cheat by shooting 2-handed, ie using the support hand to gently nudge the bottom of the trigger guard. There is an easy way to do this but hard to describe.

You're shooting decent groups already, so you will get there...I'm sure I could get you to 1-1.5" groups, center target in 15 minutes or less.

Get some snap caps and do like hornet41 & JimPage advise. Become one with the gun. You will get there, Jerry Miculek said it took him a gazillion rounds to learn what he knows.....
 
If you are consistently putting the rounds in a very tight grouping, I would suspect the sights need adjusting. While it is true, as others have mentioned, low and to the left usually is an indication of jerking the trigger, in this case where the groupings are tight, I don't think that is the problem.

Find another shooter that is a consistently good shooter and give him a magazine or two to see what he does with the gun. If his rounds go low and to the left, good chance it is the sights. If they are well placed and in the center, go out there and work on dry firing your gun.
 
Try a ball and dummy drill, if you have snap caps have someone load your mags so you don't know when the gun will go bang or click. If you are dipping on the click then you are anticipating the recoil. If you don't have snap caps empty brass will work also.
 
thanks!
I'm gonna have my old man test the sights, and try some dry fire exercises. I was thinking it might be easier to see what's going on with a boresighter in.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top