Student Handgunner: Fine Tune Your Handgun Grip with High Tech

I never realized how hard it is to do something incorrectly when you know better. In the name of education and an effort to refine my grip, I experimented with a variety of different ways to hold the pistol, including some that are just wrong.

What’s The Point?

In any kind of shooting, you know when something feels right and when it doesn’t. Sometimes you must change things in ways that you don’t initially favor, but benefit you over time. The question is, how do you prove if something really works?

When I first began my foray into handgunning, like many people, nothing was truly measured. You could measure group size, score a target, report on how it felt, but without isolated variables, determining the main problem is difficult. Having an experienced eye observe and coach greatly facilitates this process, but what about learning on your own?

The companion phone app shows you in exquisite detail your recoil
control performance — allowing you to experiment and improve.

Recoilmeter

Enter the Mantis X10 Elite. This company has been making waves in the shooting world, providing people with affordable ways to train inside and outside their home with dry and live fire. The small device attaches to any Picatinny rail or magazine base. This USB chargeable sensor communicates with a smart device and app that offers real-time feedback, instruction and a variety of training drills.

The X10 was in its element when Editor Tom assigned me a different challenge: exploring recoil control. To quantify this task, I used the Mantis systems’ RecoilMeter, a drill designed to not only measure the gun’s recoil path but my response.

The analysis is given individually by shot and as an average of the number of shots in the session and includes the following:

Muzzle Rise — The peak angular rise of the gun after the shot.
Recovery Time — Time for the gun to return and stabilize to the original point of aim.
Recoil Angle — The angle to the left or right that the gun moved as it recoiled upward.
Recoil Width — The width of the loop formed by the upward and downward movement of the gun.

The rechargeable unit weighs next to nothing and mounts on either rail or magazine base — and even revolvers.

The Experiment

I started with a traditional two-handed grip on my Stoeger STR-9. Most of my shots broke low and left, which Mantis attributed to “tightening fingers.” My average recovery time was 0.42 seconds. The mobile app provided data including a graph displaying the recoil path of my shots. My third shot not only scored the best, but had the smallest muzzle rise and recoil width with a recovery time of 0.38 seconds — in the middle compared to my other shots (0.12 seconds, 0.16 seconds, 1.02 seconds).

My next test was using a “cup and saucer” grip; certainly not recommended, but widely used by novice handgun shooters. A consistent pattern emerged in reviewing the graph and recoil angle. All recoil took place to the left of center whereas it stayed relatively center on target with the two-handed grip.

I’ve watched many a bullseye shooter fire one-handed, so I decided to give it a try myself. Keep in mind I have not been formally schooled in this method, so recoil management was my primary focus. The average recovery time, at 1.70s, far exceeded that of the former two tests. With fewer contact points on the gun, I had less control over recoil, and it showed. The gun moved far more than it did previously. This does not necessarily mean shots are bad, just that it takes longer between them to return to target.

Conclusion

Each grip change came with a noticeably different recoil path. Though the pattern remained similar with the same grip, they were certainly not identical. Much of this is due to my inexperience, but it also proved different grips are more or less effective at managing recoil. Rather than just score, think about what’s happening after the shot, not just during. Technology is changing the way we shoot and train, affording us the ability to collect data never before possible.

Next, I plan to refine my traditional two-handed grip even more. People insist altering pressure between strong and support hands and experimenting with pinky pressure can yield dramatic differences. Stay tuned.

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