TargetTalk

Looking for advice on adjusting the palm shelf and "gripping" an AP. I am fairly thin with fat free bony fingers/hands. The pisiform bone on my right hand really sticks down into the palm shelf and can be pretty uncomfortable, yet lowering the shelf seems too unstable. This must be a fairly common issue, how is it best dealt with?
As for holding the grip I'm finding that rather than thinking about squeezing the grip, I focus more on "pushing it hard into" my right hand and using just enough force from the middle digits of my ring and middle finger to keep that "pushed into hand" feeling at the V between thumb and index. Does this make sense? Thanks. Just don't want to develop bad habits that will bite my butt later.

Hi there..

I'm sure there will be plenty of opinions re your question but what ever you do it has to be right for you...and you only. Don't grip your pistol or clench it as you will end up with pulse and your grip will steer the direction.. you need to be standing in the correct position first. Write down settings or mark on the grip where you have it adjusted and shoot that for a period before making another adjustment. Alter ONE thing at a time.. A shooting diary is very important.

All the best going forward.

A light grip is all that is required, and you should keep your finger tips and thumb completely relaxed, or better yet OFF the grip. You don't need them to support the pistol, and any sideways force you apply will move the pistol around if there is any variation in it. As far as force goes, think of shaking hands with a frail grandmother.

The balance point is typically forward of where the 2nd finger sits. The weight of the pistol will be on top of that finger, and the pistol will want to tip forward. What stops it is upward pressure from the heel rest against the rear of the hand. You want it to hit where there is little muscle tissue, so that changes to your gripping pressure won't move the pistol. That means it should be hitting the bottom of the pisiform bone, as you indicated. The contact area can be changed in pitch angle, but you can't shape the grip so there is a rounded notch that comes up on the outside at all. There's nothing in the rules that I'm aware of that says you can't put a piece of "moleskin" on that area to cushion it a little. A lot of grips have a fairly sharp back edge that tends to dig into the hand. You ran round that as well.