Secrets Of Recoil Control

Secrets To Shooting Faster

Delivering rapid and accurate hits on target to stop an attack is what we call effective fire. It is effective in stopping the action, in this case an attack and a major skill needed is recoil control.

Time & Recoil Control

When it comes to rapid hits on target you get into the subject of recoil control. There are many different theories on how best to achieve recoil control, but few are based around outcome performance. In this case, the outcome is our ability to fire shots in quick succession that are accurate enough for the situation. How do we measure or value our technique? One way is through the use of a timer. You identify a par time, time it takes to complete the task. Then on the signal try to beat the timer. That is a great way to validate technique, but it might not be the best way to build your technique. To get this outcome we have to ensure a few things are developed to a high level of skill beforehand.

Starting With The Grip

Probably the most important is going to be your grip. You want a crush grip for sure, but it goes deeper. You want to make sure your hands are interfacing with the firearm in a manner you can exploit as much performance as possible. This usually is accomplished by through real estate and friction. When your hands are properly placed on the firearm, it ensures you literally contact every microscopic surface area. This creates friction that when combined with power help to create the crush grip. When it comes to power, the power needs to be generated from the bottom of the hand first. That means actively squeezing with your pinkies of both hands. Then you press the heels of your hands together and finally lock your wrist. That power applied to the proper grip is what creates the crushing nature we need for high volume rapid fire. The last ingredient is consistency. You need to apply this level of power for the entire duration of your shooting string.

Recruiting Muscles & Consistency

From there, you need to recruit muscles. Mainly the larger muscle groups of your upper body. This is accomplished by maintaining active, yet neutral shoulders. Aside from any extra movement being unnecessary you want to place your shoulders in the safest place you can apply consistent tension. Retracting your shoulder blades down and back will allow you to connect to the largest muscle group of the upper body. Once you bring your Latissimus dorsi into the equation it allows you to tie everything into your mid line or abdominal region. Again, as with our grip we need to make sure we are consistent with the application of power to maintain tension.

Have A Strong Stance

Then we look at our feet or lower body. Maintaining an athletic stance is ideal, a stance you can use for everyday activities. It just so happens one of those activities is rapid fire with a gun. Starting with an offset stance will help distribute your weight in a manner that allows the recoil impulse to travel through your extremities to the core. Keep your toes pointing forward and knees flexed. The secret is keeping your weight on your toes. This slight forward attitude shifts the mass of your upper body forward into the recoil impulse. This means with a solid grip and mount, the energy is being distributed over your entire body and not isolated to your arms only.

Being Comfortable With Less Than Perfect

All of of the above techniques should have achieved one very important outcome. To be able to shoot fast, you need to not only manage recoil, but have a predictable path your sights travel. Maintaining your sights within your “sight box”. Your sight box is an imaginary box at arms length. Think of a 3×5 index card you are looking through. You want to keep these two objects within this box as much as possible. The first is your target; which is the easy part. The second is your sight system. If your sights travel outside of your sight box you run the risk of broken rhythm as you wait for your sights to settle or you miss. In other words, good technique will keep your sights within the box; which we eventually come to appreciate as an acceptable sight picture. It is acceptable for the time, distance and exposure of the target. When the sight remains inside this sight box you don’t “need” to wait for them to settle into a perfect sight picture. You may “want” to wait, but you don’t need to wait because the sight picture is acceptable for the shot. Recoil control is two parts technique and one part acceptance. If you can accept what you want for the shot, then hold the gun steady you will be surprised with your results.