Which hand should exert more pressure on a semi-auto grip?

[Crash]

The other day a handgun instructor told me that the non-dominant hand should exert 80% of the pressure on the grip of a semi-auto and the dominant hand only 20%. Is that correct?

Crash

[WildBill]

The other day a handgun instructor told me that the non-dominant hand should exert 80% of the pressure on the grip of a semi-auto and the dominant hand only 20%. Is that correct?

Crash

I don't think so.

[The Marshal]

I would go with a more 60% Support hand, 40% Shooting hand
Deathgrip on the firearm will wear you out. And if you squeeze the shooting hand too hard, you will affect your trigger control.
Thumb placement is key. If you try to shoot like the old 70's Detective shows with the 'Teacup' hold, you are gonna miss consistently.

[puma guy]

The other day a handgun instructor told me that the non-dominant hand should exert 80% of the pressure on the grip of a semi-auto and the dominant hand only 20%. Is that correct?

Crash

Not for me. Consider this. The strong hand will be absorbing the recoil, has the butt against the heel of the hand, has the better position for a firm grip and is naturally more atuned to your brain for muscle control. The non-dominant hand has only a side and frontal position in most two hand grip styles and simply adds stability.

[Jusme]

I always use equal pressure, the dominate hand holding it out the off hand pulling in to provide a stable platform. There may be some difference in pressure if my elbow is completely locked out, but when running shoot and move drills, or contact distance, my elbow may not be locked. I've never put a scale on my grip (if that would even be possible) to test it, but it sounds like something you wouldn't want to have to think about, especially, in a stressful situation. JMHO

[WildBill]

Shannon Smith states about 70%/30% at time = 6:35. He also states that this is an estimate and he has never measured it.
By pointing the thumb parallel to the barrel, he locks the wrist which helps to minimize muzzle flip.

[Soccerdad1995]

Part of this might also be a training tactic. A lot of people will naturally assume that the shooting hand should exert more pressure than the support hand, so if my student has that starting belief and I want them to end up with a 60/40 split in favor of the support hand, I might initially tell them that they should exert 80% of the pressure with the support hand.

I had a similar issue with golf. I tend to over swing, so my instructor told me to take a 3/4 swing every time. When I make what feels like a 3/4 swing, it is actually a full swing, so all is good. But if I told someone else to make a 3/4 swing every time, I might be giving them bad advice.

[canvasbck]

I have written a pretty long and technical article on this. Short version: It should be mostly support hand holding the gun. If the "strong" hand is gripping the majority of the gun, you are much more likely to engage your "power grip" fingers (pinky and ring finger) when breaking a shot, causing the shot to go low left for righties. Normally what feels like 70/30 would be the best accuracy grip.

[allisji]

I'm by no means an expert at anything gun/shooting related. But I would say that I try to have a significant amount more grip force on the support hand. 70:30 is probably pretty accurate, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was 80:20.

I learned this at my CHL class from Tom Estep. Before my class I was mostly gripping 50/50. This has greatly improved my accuracy.

[RogueUSMC]

When shooting a rifle, I have always started with about a 20% grip with the shooting hand. Tightening your shooting hand makes the trigger finger come back naturally and smoothly. I do this somewhat with my handgun but not as much tightening. I would guess I am about 30% with a slight squeeze when my trigger finger needs to come back. Try to curl the other three fingers of your hand and see what it naturally does to your index finger. Over gripping will definitely move the gun though. As for the support hand, the fingers tighten around my shooting hand fingers but the palm stays pretty loose. I have always used the push-pull in the weaver stance. The current thing is squaring up to the target and I haven't completely embraced this yet...kinda like the stiff support hand when shooting a rifle offhand. I don't get it...lol

[LucasMcCain]

When shooting a rifle, I have always started with about a 20% grip with the shooting hand. Tightening your shooting hand makes the trigger finger come back naturally and smoothly. I do this somewhat with my handgun but not as much tightening. I would guess I am about 30% with a slight squeeze when my trigger finger needs to come back. Try to curl the other three fingers of your hand and see what it naturally does to your index finger. Over gripping will definitely move the gun though. As for the support hand, the fingers tighten around my shooting hand fingers but the palm stays pretty loose. I have always used the push-pull in the weaver stance. The current thing is squaring up to the target and I haven't completely embraced this yet...kinda like the stiff support hand when shooting a rifle offhand. I don't get it...lol

Thanks for saving me the time I would have spent writing exactly that.

[WildBill]

I'm by no means an expert at anything gun/shooting related. But I would say that I try to have a significant amount more grip force on the support hand. 70:30 is probably pretty accurate, though I wouldn't be surprised if it was 80:20.

I learned this at my CHL class from Tom Estep. Before my class I was mostly gripping 50/50. This has greatly improved my accuracy.

I guess I should have paid more attention in Tom's class.

Actually I learned to shoot "bullseye" style and used that when I did my initial CHL qualification. Tom came over and watched me shoot for a little bit.
I guess he decided that since I was hitting the target, he didn't say anything about my weak hand being in my pocket.

[JustSomeOldGuy]

The other day a handgun instructor told me that the non-dominant hand should exert 80% of the pressure on the grip of a semi-auto and the dominant hand only 20%. Is that correct?
Crash

I'd say it depends on
- is your base stance isoceles or weaver?
- bend or lack of same in one or both elbows
- wether you wrap your weakhand index finger around your strong hand, or use it to apply pressure to the outside front of the trigger guard.
- is this auto a single stack or double stack?

So I guess I'm voting "No, not correct"

[RogueUSMC]

I guess he decided that since I was hitting the target, he didn't say anything about my weak hand being in my pocket.

It was probably more like, "he goes by WildBill...he'd best know how to shoot."...lol

[Bitter Clinger]