Low & Left

I'm consistently shooting my new S&W M&P Shield low and left. How the do I correct this.?

As a firearms instructor, I've found that to be the most common miss among inexperienced handgun shooters.

Generally it's a slight "flinch" or "anticipation" just as the shot is going off.

You can check this yourself with a "ball and dummy" drill. Have someone load a magazine with mostly live rounds, but a scatter a few dummy rounds in the magazine. The shooter can't know where they are. Then fire. It may take a couple of magazines, but usually its very clear when the gun jerks and... no shot has been fired...

Okay - so that diagnoses it - but doesn't cure it. It's only the first step.

Slow your trigger squeeze down. Way down. Nice, easy, soft, slow squeeze until the shot breaks.

Then perfect follow-through. Don't move from your shooting stance, don't change your grip, just hang there for a moment. Then relax the trigger finger and gently re-set the trigger. And repeat.

Keep your shooting strings short, maybe five shots or so.

Assuming you've got a good shooting stance, make sure your two-handed grip is good. The firing hand should be fairly relaxed, maybe 40% of the grip strength from it, the majority of the grip strength coming from your support hand. This makes it easier for the shooter to maintain fine motor skills in the shooting hand and trigger finger.

It helps to have a good coach. I like to use the "Mudget Drill" wherein the student shooter holds the gun on target. Perfect stance, perfect grip, perfect sight alignment and sight picture. Then I pull the trigger and reset it and fire again and again. At first I'm doing this without the student's finger on the trigger, then we put his finger on the trigger, but relaxed. And I do all the pressing, showing/teaching what a smooth trigger pull is all about. Many folks REALLY rush the trigger pull, which has disastrous effects on accuracy with a handgun.

Another trick is to completely reverse your grip, and use your non-dominant hand as the shooting hand...

Yes, if your'e right handed, shoot left handed. Supported. Mirror image grip. Often we find that our non-dominant hand & trigger finger haven't developed any bad habits - and suddenly we're shooting very well, with our support hand. Good grief!

Lots of dry fire. Lots of emphasis on slow, easy, gentle trigger pull. Lots of emphasis on follow-through.

That ought to do it, I've helped a lot of shooters overcome that flinch and learn to shoot well. Wish I was closer than 3,000 miles, we'd put some rounds downrange and get you all fixed up!

Best of luck with it, Guy

Great information and response Guy on cause and fix for the dreaded low left hits.
If I might add from my experience in Bullseye shooting which is done one handed the same thing occurs but when one uses too much finger on the trigger and the grips on the firearm are too small for the shooters hand and allows for improper trigger pull, The pad on the first joint of the trigger finger should only contact the trigger to get a straight even trigger pull. with too much finger on the trigger one tends to pull down and push left causing the shot to go low left when shooting one handed.
The shooters mechanics can cause a lot of different problems when shooting.
Merry Christmas.

The only thing I might suggest is for right handed shooters and a two hand hold. Where your thumbs sit on one another the left thumb should "caress" the frame under the slide, gently enough so that it doesn't interfere with slide movement but provides support for that part of the gun.

Thank you all for your responses I will work on it. I 'm loading for it so ammo is no issue. I've only shot a couple hundred so far but seems to be a very nice little gun.

Otter - how is it going? Still shooting low & left?

Fly on out here to the west coast and we can shoot together. I've got this "thing" against going east any more often than I must. :mrgreen:

Well farther east than the Mississippi anyway...

Guy