Proper Handgun Grip Demonstration

Today’s article on handgun grip demonstration starts with a demonstration that I do in my firearm classes to show the students WHY we grip the handgun as high as we can. Normally I do this with a plastic red gun, but since we were on the range with a double checked handgun I decided just to throw the concept out to you.

Simple physics is comes into play. As the slide recoils to the rear of the gun the closer you can get your hand to the line of force the less “bucking” you are going to feel. The lower your hand is on the grip panels of the gun, the more leverage the recoil will be able to exert.

If you think of your hand as a fulcrum (pivot point), the grip as the lever, and the slide recoiling as the force it is readily apparent that the longer the lever is from the fulcrum to the force, the less energy is needed to do work. In this case the work is the gun bucking in your hand.

The bigger the kid on the seesaw, the closer they need to be to the fulcrum to keep from tossing their little cousin into low earth orbit. The larger the recoil impulse of a firearm the more important it is for you to choke up on the grip the right way.