Leftie Shot, shooting to the right

I hope this is an appropriate sub-forum for this.


I am a left handed shooter, however I notice I tend to shoot to the right of where I am aiming. On a standard size paper silhouette target, I actually tend to have my shots land in a way that I basically only ever hit the right half of the target - i.e. you could draw a line down the center and none of my shots will be on the left side at all. I'll hit dead center, then the rest of my shots fall the right by about 1-3 inches.

I find this odd since, if anything, I'd expect to be shooting to the left since my trigger finger would probably be pulling slightly in that direction.

I've tried dry firing, but I don't notice any significant movement in the sights. When a friend watch me shoot however, he said that he saw a very slight "push" at the last moment in my trigger pull. I'm not aware of me doing this, so I'm a bit confused as to how to correct it. I use a very tight grip (just shy of enough pressure to cause any sort of shake).

Any suggestions on how to correct for this slight push?

If you are slapping the trigger, it will pull the shot to the right. Relax your grip and depress the trigger with a steady, even pressure.

Lefty here, as well. These diagrams might be useful for you. It's a good place to start. Consider dry-firing practice, as well, until your trigger pull is smooth and straight back, without any tightening of the hand or fingers around the gun (which can pull the lefty's barrel to the right and down).

Shot Group Analysis -- for lefties

Shot Group Analysis -- for righties

take 1/2 step to the left

I'm a lefty and had a similar problem. Proper grip solved my problem.

See what you can get from this:

Ruger Tactical Tips - 2: Handgun Fundamentals - YouTube

What pistol are you shooting? I'm also a lefty and had a similar problem with some, but not all of my pistols. With me, my mistake was placing the tip of my finger on the trigger. This made me "push" the pistol slightly to the right. When I placed the trigger in the first joint on my trigger finger, my shots lined up and the problem went away. Try this.....make sure your pistol is empty!! Dryfire your pistol in your bathroom aiming at the mirror. See if the muzzle moves to the right when you press the trigger. For me, there was a very small move to the right. Now, place the trigger at the first joint of your trigger finger and do the same dry fire experiment. The muzzle movement should go away.

Wow, lot of helpful stuff - thanks!

The shot group analysis diagrams and the video (and one that came up in a suggestion after it finished) really helped. Mlittle, what you mentioned with the tip of the finger is exactly what I was doing. Also found I had my weak hand a little farther back in my grip than it should have been.

Few minor adjustments and my shots came much more in line. Still need practice, that's for sure but I'm not having nearly the same distance between my shots when I went to the range today.

The problem you were having is exactly why it is so important to buy a pistol that fits your hand. Some of the double stack pistols have too large a stock for me and I just can't get my finger placed properly on the trigger without shifting the handgun in my hand. I have average hands and prefer single stack pistols......