One-handed pistol stance and grip for target shooting

The one-handed pistol stance, in six points:

• Feet about shoulder width apart or a little less, the weight even on both.
• The body turned well away from the target, from about 45 degrees to side-on; your natural point of aim decides exactly where.
• Head level and upright; bring the sights up to your eye, not your eye down to them.
• The arm straight, elbow and wrist locked without strain.
• The free hand in a pocket or hooked on your belt, never hanging loose.
• The same grip every shot, on a grip that fits your hand.

Target pistol in the USA comes in two kinds, the CMP’s guide explains: classical bullseye, shot with one hand on ring targets, and two-handed practical, defence, silhouette or speed shooting, usually on steel or hit-or-miss targets.

In many ring-card matches, one hand is the rule. The ISSF’s rule applies to all its pistol events, the 10 m air pistol included (ISSF Rule Book 8.1.1 and 8.7.1); its wording is on the 25 m precision pistol and 50 m pistol cards. The NRA’s rule for bullseye is on the B-6 card, with the match that allows one hand or two.

Start with the feet: about shoulder width apart or slightly less, say the USAMU’s and the CMP’s guides. Too narrow, the USAMU’s guide warns, and the arm sways sideways; too wide, and the legs strain and the hips stiffen, which tires you.

In a study of 12 national-standard air pistol shooters, all men, the body swayed less from side to side as the stance narrowed from 90 to 30 cm, and the pistol spent a larger share of the hold within an area the size of the ten; the authors suggest rethinking the usual advice of a wider stance (Hawkins and Sefton, 2011). It is one small study: try a few widths on a range and let your cards decide.

Keep the weight even on both feet, the knees straight but not rigidly locked, as the USAMU’s guide does. In a video series written up by John Parker for Shooting Sports USA, an NRA journal, Brian Zins, a 12-time NRA National Pistol Champion, stacks shoulders over hips, hips over knees and knees over feet, so that nothing twists as the pistol comes up.

The angle is where the sources differ: the CMP’s guide has you almost side-on, at 85 to 90 degrees, Zins starts at about 45, and Staff Sergeant Ryan Franks of the US Army’s service pistol team, in a USAMU pro tip published by Shooting USA, stands perpendicular to the target. In a study of eight national-standard air pistol shooters, the stance angle changed how much of the hold stayed within an area the size of the ten, and a score adjusted for the sights’ zero, though not the body’s sway (Hawkins, 2013). Start between 45 degrees and side-on, and let your natural point of aim settle the rest.

The CMP’s guide keeps the body upright, leaning moderately away from the pistol to balance the arm. The USAMU’s guide adds a slight backward bend in the back, and How to hold a gun steady explains why.

Keep the head level and upright, the USAMU’s guide says, so that you see the target in line with the arm and the sights: no tilt to the side, not pushed toward the rear sight, not tipped far back. A strained neck tires, and a tired neck moves. If you are cross-dominant, read Eye dominance before you tilt your head toward the sights.

The arm goes out straight, with the elbow locked and the wrist stiff, but without strain, as the USAMU’s guide puts it. Keep the wrist straight too: the CMP’s guide makes the thumb a straight extension of the arm, and Zins keeps the wrist flat, as if throwing a punch, which he says helps with the recoil. The CMP’s arm lift, timed with the breath, is in Breathing when shooting.

Put it in a pocket or hook it on your belt. The USAMU’s and the CMP’s guides both give that choice, the CMP’s so that the hand, arm and shoulder can relax, and Franks stows it the same way.

Never let it hang. A loose arm swings in the wind or as the body recoils, the USAMU’s guide warns, and passes that movement on to the body. What it may do in a match is set by the position rule: see cards such as the 50 m pistol and the B-6.

Seat the pistol with your free hand. The USAMU’s and the CMP’s guides set it in the V between the thumb and index finger of the shooting hand, the USAMU’s with the muzzle kept downrange, and Franks works the hand high and tight into the grip.

Hold it so that the sights stay aligned by themselves, without the wrist or head having to correct them, as the USAMU’s guide wants; if they do not line up as the pistol comes up, Zins says, it is most likely the grip, not the stance. He presses front to back, not on the sides, and calls the trigger finger’s placement the most important part of the grip, as the only part that moves. Where it goes is in Trigger control.

Grip firmly enough for the recoil, Zins says, but not so hard that your hand is worn out by the end of a match; how firm the sources want it is in How to hold a gun steady. Above all, grip the same way every time. The USAMU’s guide allows no variation from shot to shot or day to day, and names a common fault of new shooters: the hand slightly off to one side, which moves the finger on the trigger too.

A club pistol often has a plain grip for either hand. A pistol of your own may have thumb and heel rests, and that grip has to be adjusted or fitted to your hand, the CMP’s guide says. Many adjust: the walnut grip of Feinwerkbau’s P8X air pistol comes in different sizes, its hand rest moves about 10 mm, and the grip turns about 3 degrees either way and tilts through about 20.

Nick Pye, pistol development squad coach for Scottish Target Shooting, goes further in a discussion article on its site: since a grip can be made to fit you perfectly, it should. He takes the largest size the hand can use, rasps off wood and fills gaps with wood filler, left to harden with the hand in the grip and the pistol on a stand, aimed. His test, with an air pistol on a range under its rules: you should be able to fire with every finger off the grip but the second. Fit the grip with the pistol unloaded and checked, ammunition and pellets out of the room and the muzzle in a safe direction.

A fitted grip must still keep to the rules. The rule on the wrist is on cards such as the 25 m precision pistol; the grip rules are these:

ISSF, contact

No glue or resin to improve the contact between hand and pistol; chalk, talcum or magnesium is allowed. No bracelet, wristwatch or wristband on the hand and arm that hold the pistol.ISSF Rule Book 8.4.1.1 a

ISSF, adjustable grips

Allowed if they keep to the rules once set for your hand, with random checks. No compressible material.ISSF Rule Book 8.4.1.1 b

ISSF, 10 m and 25 m

The grip must not encircle the hand. The part resting on the hand between thumb and index finger may be at most 40 mm (10 m) or 30 mm (25 m) long, from where it first touches the hand to the grip’s deepest point. The heel rest has limits too.ISSF Rule Book 8.4.1.5 and 8.4.1.6

NRA bullseye

No part of the grip may encircle the hand, and adjustable grips must keep to the rule’s dimensions. A glove on the shooting hand, or a band or watch within two inches of the wrist joint, counts as artificial support, banned unless authorized for a disabled shooter.NRA Precision Pistol Rules 3.7 and 5.2

Check the stance before every string. The eyes-closed test and the rear-foot correction are in Natural point of aim, and Franks repeats his check all through a session, as the body relaxes or tightens. Pye films it: a phone in front of you, aim at it, close your eyes and hold five seconds or more, a few times, then watch where the pistol drifts. Unload and check the pistol first, keep ammunition and pellets out of the room and the muzzle in a safe direction.

Once the stance works, stick with it, Zins says; the USAMU’s guide adds that it will still change as your skill grows. Judge a change over several sessions on a range, under its rules: scan the cards from before and after in Shooter, and each shows where the shots went and the size of the group. What that says about your stance is for you, or your coach, to decide.

Very few young shooters start with the strength to hold a pistol steady in one hand, the CMP’s guide says. Progressive Position Pistol, a junior air pistol programme, builds up to it in steps (PPP Rules 5.1, 2025): up to age 12, seated or standing with the pistol rested, in one hand or two; then standing, one-handed, with the pistol on a counterbalanced stand; last, the one-handed stance with no support. Even with the pistol rested, the CMP’s guide calls one hand the better training, if less stable.

Shoot both ways and the fundamentals carry over, Zins says: the stance changes a little, but the sights must still come up aligned to the eye. What a second hand can do to a group is in the pistol correction chart. If your matches are one-handed, train one-handed.

Why do I shoot better one-handed?

Perhaps because there is less to go wrong: a 4-H fact sheet on pistol groups warns that shooting with two hands opens the way to more form faults. Test it on paper rather than by feel: on a range, fire one card one-handed and the next two-handed, a few times over, and compare the group sizes.

Should my shooting arm be locked or bent?

For one-handed precision, straight and locked without strain, as the USAMU’s pistol guide teaches. Fast two-handed shooting is different: in a USAMU pro tip for Shooting USA, Sergeant Coley keeps a slight bend in the elbows, as shock absorbers for several quick shots at several targets.

Which foot goes forward in a one-handed stance?

The foot on your shooting-hand side. Turned away from the target with the arm toward it, that foot is the nearer one: the right for a right-handed shooter, the left for a left-handed one. Zins plants that front foot and moves the back one to steer the stance left or right; the USAMU’s guide also moves the rear foot.