Hold onto that gun!

Your hold on the gun is important to the accuracy of the shot. This is true of slow fire, but only slightly. With sustained fire, should the gun shift in your hand, you will have a lot more work to do when getting back on target.

A good hold on the gun will keep the gun from shifting in your hand as it goes bang. Brian Zins has an excellent method on his site which works good for 1911 pistols. You may be able to adapt it to other guns, however, I have not, it depends on the gun shape and size of your hand.

In any case, you have to learn how to grip the gun so that it cannot shift. You want to hold tight, but not so tight your hand shakes or that your forearm fatigues quickly. You want to hold the gun high on the grip to direct the recoil straight into your arm as opposed to on the bottom of the grip where it causes the muzzle to lift and breaking your wrist. You don't want to hold so high on the grip that the webbing between your thumb and trigger finger is smashed tight.

That high hold is a problem that is hard to understand because its effects are related to trigger control and not the shifting of the gun. If you pinch that webbing on your right hand with your left hand and make the motion of pulling a trigger, you will feel all the tendons and muscles moving around. You will also notice that your hand may make a jerking motion at some points during the process. Now, while doing this ask yourself this "how is the point of aim going to be affected by all this?". You have to learn how to hold the gun so you are not binding up the tendons and muscles that control the trigger finger!

How much does the hold affect your score? It is hard to answer this but I would have to say only a small amount, more so in sustained fire.