This guide will show you how to correct shooting left with a Glock. If you're not shooting straight or shooting low left with Glock or right, there are a couple of reasons:
- Bad grip
- Trigger finger curve
- Glock grip frame thumb indents
- Anticipating recoil jerking motion prior to the bullet leaving the barrel
- Inaccurate barrel or loose lock up
- Unzeroed sights (Included red dot)
- Poor ammunition
The fastest way to diagnose your shot error is to reference this pistol shooting errors chart.
The center circle is the point of aim and intended point of impact, and any rounds that fall elsewhere are the causes.
We highly recommend MANTIS X10 tracker to diagnose your errors with much more precision, see how it works below:
Correct Your Grip First
The first thing to check is your grip. A proper shooting grip should close all the void inside the grip so the recoil impulse doesn't go in the direction of the least resistance.
If you have Gen 4 or 5 Glocks, changing grip panels until you feel comfortable with the grip is a good starting point.
For smaller guns for example, if your Glock 43 shooting left, the same principle applies.
Under cutting the trigger guard so the hand can grip higher, and it can slightly change the angle of the grip to help with recoil control.
Mitigate Recoil Anticipation
Recoil anticipation is the biggest cause of missing shots. In fact, bullet leaves the barrel way before the shooter felt the recoil. Any downward jerking motion before will cause a missed shot.
If you shoot low to the left as a right handed shooter, common reasons are:
- Not getting high up on the tang
- Jerking motion, which in turn drives your shots low and sometimes to the left
Anyone using a red dot or a laser sight can quickly notice the tremor
Read about handgun recoil reduction tips here
Squeeze The Trigger Independently
If your shot hits low left or left is due to squeezing and curling your whole hand while pulling the trigger instead of moving your trigger finger independently.
Sometimes, too much finger or too little finger contact on the trigger can impact it as well.
Get to the wall of the trigger first, then slowly squeeze to the rear until the trigger breaks. If the shots tend to go to the left, it generally means too much finger on the trigger or uncoordinated trigger squeeze.
It takes practice to get good. Once you're decent with the stock Glock trigger pull weight of 5.5 lbs.
Now, you will appreciate a 4.5 lb trigger with a flat face trigger bow, which will reduce finger tension, less travel, cleaner trigger break regardless where the finger contacts (high or low)
Re-Zero Sights Correctly
If you're shooting iron sights, make sure they are properly installed. Sometimes you may need a sight pusher to readjust the rear iron sight to align properly.
If you're shooting with a red dot sight, the dot itself will give you immediately feedback on how much you're jerking.
If you're shooting with a red dot sight, be sure to re-zero the dot, test and verify point of impact.
Tip: A bigger dot size reticle like the 6 MOA will tremor less on a handgun than a smaller dot (1 MOA , 2.5 MOA or 3 MOA)
Upgrade To A Match Grade Barrel
Upgrading the barrel may not be necessary, but it can improve the accuracy with tighter rifling groove and tighter slide lock up.
Factory Glock barrel shoots well if you have the fundamentals down. Getting match grade barrel can give experienced shooters that edge to shoot more accurately.
If you want to go a step further, adding a barrel compensator to your Glock can minimize muzzle flip and lateral movement for faster follow up shots.
Learn more about what a does a compensator do on a pistol based on ammo type.
The side ports will minimize horizontal muzzle shifts. It works better for fast follow up shots
Our favorite is the match grade barrel from Killer Innovation, but there are others you can check out here
Diagnose Shooting Performance In Real-Time
Dry firing practice is highly recommended for Glock shooters. The Mantis X10 Elite is a precision tracking device that collects exact shot data in real time:
- Tracks muzzle movement into a readable graph
- Track micro muzzle movements the shooter just can't
- [Live fire] real time diagnose like the pistol shooting errors chart with high precision
- Dry fire diagnosis
- Save data to see improvements overtime
- Tons of rifles & handgun data profiles to choose from
Check it out here
![Shooting With Both Eyes Open Or One Closed? [Visual Illustration]](https://www.badassoptic.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/aiming-with-two-eyes-open-270x162.png)