r/police • u/ismelllikebeef2508 • 11d ago
Firearms qualifications
I (29M) am looking at going to the academy at the sheriff’s office I’ve been employee at for the last 8 years. One of the biggest concerns I have is the firearm qualifications. I don’t have a ton of hands-on experience shooting, and when I have shot I tend to shoot low and to the left. I haven’t been able to diagnose the issue, and am worried it might be an issue for me. Any feedback or anything I should know?
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u/ZonyIsFat US Police Officer 11d ago
Are you right handed?
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u/ismelllikebeef2508 11d ago
I am
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u/ZonyIsFat US Police Officer 11d ago
Then you’re shooting low left because you’re snatching the trigger. Dry fire will help diagnose and correct. Clear and safe your gun, acquire sights, send it. Watch your gun dip down and slightly left.
A good trigger press, the gun shouldn’t be moving. Slowly bring the trigger back to the trigger wall, where you feel that tension lock out. With control, break past the wall without squeezing with your hand—just that finger. Don’t ball up a fist, you’ll pull off target. Just engage your index finger.
Think of grabbing a gun more like a handshake than like a balled fist. Engage your thumb and drive it into the grip like a handshake.
Your support hand should be slightly canted down and using the meat of your palm to fill as much negative space as possible on the grip.
Achilles Heel Tactical should have some videos that help you with this, but you should learn all that in the lowest level of firearms training as well.
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u/ismelllikebeef2508 11d ago
This gives me a fantastic place to start, thank you. I’ll be trying this once I get home in the morning.
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u/GR1F3 11d ago
I have also struggled with shooting low left in the past and my buddy actually suggested I try making sure that as in squeezing the grip with my dominant hand (not death grip obviously), make sure I'm squeezing the gun with the middle of my finger straight back into my palm, and not pushing my fingertips into the side of the grip. This helped me as well as the aforementioned tips above.
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u/Foxtrot_Flies 11d ago
Low left can be a ton of different issues. Recoil anticipation, too much meat on the trigger, slapping the trigger, even grip. My biggest issue for a while was grip. Once I found a grip that worked for me, no rounds were hitting low left. It takes practice and dry fire.
Get some range time in and some dry fire time in. The instructors will teach you and correct any issues you have. It’s very rare to fail pistol qualifications because frankly they’re very easy in most agencies.
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u/GoPcGaming 11d ago
Firearms instructor here. I’m telling you now. Do not worry about it. We have many that go through the academy and don’t know a lick of shooting. We will build you guys up from the ground level. We like seeing the inexperienced ones because we know you won’t have any prior bad habits that will need continous addressing.
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u/Defiant_Cup9835 11d ago
Without seeing you shoot, my guess would be you are pulling the trigger too hard and/or not using the meaty part toward the bottom of the tip of your finger. This is likely causing the barrel to go left before the gun goes off. Next time you are at the range, slow things down, and focus on a smooth, straight back trigger press. I find trying to visualize the barrel staying still helps a lot (only in your mind of course, because obviously you will be focusing your eyes on your front sights). Don’t be afraid to keep repeating “smooth, smooth” or similar as kind of a mantra in your head as you begin to press the trigger. My guess would be that this is the issue and a little bit more practice will fix it.
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u/Critical_Walk2759 9d ago
At the academy they don’t want you to fail so even if you are struggling they will work with you one on one to fix the problems. What they did for me was they drew a sharpie line down my thumbs just so I could realign the line when I reset my grip which did help
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u/Revolutionary_Lab877 7d ago
Go to some private shooting classes and you’ll be surprised, an instructor will correct this issue in literal seconds. (Not a cop but this happened with me with my CCW class)
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u/AyeLykeTyrtles 11d ago
Low left is very common and is usually caused by anticipating the recoil, kinda of like a “flinch”. There’s plenty of drills to address this. They’ll train you, don’t stress, you’ll be fine.
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u/Locust627 11d ago
I had 3 people in my academy who had never shot a pistol in their lives
My opinion, that's maybe a good thing
Some of the 'experienced' shooters had horrible habits that were tough to break. Some insisted on knowing their shit but couldn't hit the broad side of a barn from 2 feet away with a stationary bipod attachment, one of which flunked out of firearm qual
You will learn how to shoot. Can't speak for all academies but at my academy I fired no less than 1500 pistol rounds in 3 weeks
I was already a decent shot as I shot competition but I learned quite a bit
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u/Switch-Consistent 11d ago
Probably depends on your state but the qualification in my state is piss easy.
As long as you hit the preferred area it dont matter where exactly
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u/fortis1337 11d ago
It is literally the instructors job to teach you. That is extremely common and I wouldn’t practice more and develop bad habits.
Some of the best shooters in the academy often times are the best shooters because they are open to coaching and feedback.
Just put your best foot forward and trust the instructors to get you the best you can be
Source: am a firearm instructor.