Shooting low left

March 2026

There are two types of handgun shooters in the world: those who shoot low left, and left-handers.

(Joke ruined by explaining it: left-handers shoot low right.)

Shooting low left is a result of anticipating the recoil — also known as flinching. This is obviously very natural, and if we don’t work on overcoming our nature, our nature comes back.

If a shooter is, I’ll say, currently not shooting low left, it’s because they’ve worked on the skills. These people may even be able to name some of the things they’ve done to overcome it.

As a side note, the most adjacent skills are grip, trigger control, proper trigger reset, trigger finger placement, and follow-through, which are the types of things that some intermediate handgun trainings tend to refine.

Increase pressure on the trigger

This is instead of pulling it at once to fire "now". You can have a friend count from 1 to 10, and with each count, you put a little more pressure on the trigger.

A steady increase of pressure doesn’t mean go slow. It just needs to be a steady pull straight back, and a good way to achieve that is to increase pressure until …

The shot surprises you

If you know the precise instant the gun will fire, you can anticipate the recoil. If the shot surprises you, you can’t, and the bullet will go where you’re intending.

Use inert cartridges

If you mix a couple dummy rounds into your magazine with live ammo, some of your shots will go click instead of bang, and you won’t know which. Don’t overcomplicate it, but there are ways to place them so you won’t know where they are. You can also have a friend load them.

This gives us two tools. We can tell ourselves that the next round is inert, so there’s no recoil to anticipate. The more believable the better. With a revolver, leave two cartridges empty — not adjacent or opposite of each other.

I use inert cartridges and empty chambers at most of my range trips because I fall into the first category of handgun owners.

Use peer pressure

Here’s the fun part of fixing recoil anticipation. Tell your friends what you’re doing with the dummy rounds, and have them watch the gun. If you flinch, they’re all gonna laugh at you. Now you can’t flinch. 

Wear double ear pro

Lessening the impact of the recoil gives us less to flinch about. Is our ear pro working? 

Shoot a lighter-recoiling gun

This isn’t a strategy. It’s more of a proof of concept. If you shoot tight groups with your .22 and large groups with your .45, it’s probably because of recoil anticipation. Do with the .45 what you were doing with the .22.

Experience or even enjoy the recoil

You’re controlling an explosion in your hands. Enjoy that phenomenon, and let the recoil do what it does without fighting it. There’s a peace to be found in that.

And that’s it. Do these until you don’t flinch, and then do them again when it comes back.

As a bonus, here's a free "miss target" you can use.