It’s a good time to reevaluate some of the fundamentals of shooting, and nothing could be more foundational to handgunners than your grip.

Your grip should be high on the gun with the middle of your fingers riding in a direct line to your trigger guard.  The off hand should be knuckle row on knuckle row.  Everyone needs to practice their draw stroke with the proper grip.[See D.R. Middlebrooks Tactical Shooting site for more info]

Two problems seem to show up if you don’t have the proper grip:

  1. You can’t handle the recoil if you grip low on the gun, or you have a weak grip.  You will constantly be fighting the gun.
  2. If you over grip, you will be forced to realign the sights after every shot.  The proper grip should allow you to simply let the gun track back to a normal position where the sights are basically on the same line you had before you broke the shot.

Incidentally, the proper grip allows you to point shoot very effectively at closer ranges.  Give it a try from inside 10 yards the next time you hit the range.