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The Fundamentals

In order to be effective, you must be able to perform the following fundamentals each and every time you fire a handgun.

1. Stance
2. Grip/Locked Wrist
3. Sight Alignment
4. Breath Control
5. Trigger Control
6. Follow Through

If you are an inexperienced shooter, be sure to study these fundamentals carefully.  Any training classes you take will work off of these fundamentals and a basic understanding will serve you well.

Stance

There are basically two types of stances (or body positions) you will learn in any type of firearms safety education class.  The Isosceles stance and the Weaver Stance.  To be more accurate each of these stances also has a "modified" version - the Modified or Modern Isosceles, and the Modified Weaver, giving us four:

• Isosceles Stance
• Modified/Modern Isosceles Stance
• Weaver Stance
• Modified Weaver Stance

These stances are very similar and easily confused.  But remember it's noy so important that you remember the names of these stances as much as you can identify which one is more comfortable for you and that you can perform it correctly.  Each stance has benefits and weaknesses, and there is no shortage of variations or opinions as to what is proper.  That's not to say you can shoot accurately in any body position you feel like, however, your stance should be based on one of these or a variation of these stances if you want to reliabley deliver hits to your target.

In the Isosceles Stance the shooter faces the target with feet spread about shoulder width apart, and equal weight distribution.

• The legs are straight or slightly bent but not stiff.
• The firearm is held directly in front of the shooter.
• The body should be balanced with the head over the shoulders, the shoulders over the hips, and the hips over the feet.

If you were to look down on the shooter from above, this position would form the shape of the triangle which gives the stance it's name.

In the Modified or Modern Isosceles Stance the shooter assumes a more forward and aggressive body position.

• The feet remain about shoulder width apart, but the "Gun-Side" foot is positioned closer to the target than the other foot.
• The entire body leans toward the target.
• The shoulders are closer to the target than the hips.
• The hips are more forward than the knees.
• The shoulders are rotated toward the target.
• The head, rather than being upright is "turtled" down behind the sights.

Grip/Locked Wrist

The grip should be like a firm hand-shake, not a "prissy" one.  Your hand should be high on the "backstrap" (the back side of the handle of the firearm) and nestled in the "V" between the thumb and forefinger. Your knuckles should be centered under the trigger guard with the trigger finger (primary safety) outside the trigger guard.

Things to keep in mind:

• If the shooter's grip is too tight, a tremor will occur.
• Too loose a grip will cause the gun to shift in the shooter's hand and possibly induce a malfunction.
• The shooter must maintain the grip while squeezing the trigger. If the fingers are tightened as the trigger is squeezed, the sights will be pulled out of alignment. The shot will then hit the target low, either to the left or right. The meaty portion of the non gun hand, below the thumb, must touch the grip of the gun. 65% of the
• weight of the gun is held by the non gun hand. This allows the gun hand to slightly relax, making it easier to control the trigger.
• The proper grip and locked wrist insure first shot accuracy and shot-to-shot consistency. With the correct grip, the shooter's recovery time will be much quicker.
• Trigger finger placement has a direct bearing on where the shot will go. Too much finger and the shot will go to the shooter's weak side, and too little finger will put the shot to the shooter's strong side. Place the forefinger on the trigger approx. midway between the tip of your finger and the first joint for the most accurate shot.

Sight Alignment

Your sights must be aligned with the target at the moment the shot goes off.   That's it.  Everything else is designed to help ensure that your sights are in the right place when the shot fires.

Explaining proper sight alignment is often more difficult than it should be and is a concept that can be easily lost on new shooters.  So let's look at it in very basic terms and go from there.

1. Each firearm ( pistol or rifle) comes equiped with both a front and a rear sight.
2. These sights are designed to help you "line up" the firearm with your target.
3. Some sights are "styled" differently than others.  The rear sight may be a U shape, a V shape, two dots, a straight line, or a simple notch in the back edge of the slide.
4. The front sight might be a "blade" or a "dot".  If it is a dot it could be large or small.
5. To line up the firearm with the target you position the firearm so that "visually" the tope edge of the front sight appears to be even with the top edge of the rear sight.  Also the front sight must appear to be centered right to left within the rear sight.
6. The target must appear just above the top edge of the front sight.

Be carefull this is where people get lost.  The shooter's focus is not on the target, rather it is on the front sight.  The target should be in view, however it should be blurry.  This image is often referred to as the "Sight Picture".  The sight picture is the last image seen before the shot is fired.  If you imagine that instead of pulling the trigger on a firearm, you were pushing the button on a camera to take a picture.  The picture would show a firearm stretched out in front pointed at a target.  The front and rear sights would be aligned as described above.  The rear sight, and the target would be blurry.  The front sight would be clearly in focus.

Breath Control

Proper breath control is as important for effective shooting as any of the other basic elements. The movement of the chest and upper body, which is part of the breathing cycle, makes it impossible to maintain a correct sight picture. Therefore, the shooter must control breathing during the shot. The proper breathing process is to take a breath and expel to the natural respiratory pause, then hold your breath during the shot.

Trigger Control

Trigger control is described as the continuous pressure to the trigger as the shooter fires. The word "squeeze" implies constant, controlled pressure applied on the trigger until the hammer falls and the gun fires. The trigger must then be returned at the same rate as it was squeezed.

Follow Through

Follow through is maintaining "status quo," and not altering any of the basic fundamentals that have been achieved until the bullet leaves the barrel.  For correct follow-through, the shooter should develop a slow, even rhythm, and complete each action the same way each time the handgun is fired.