Whether you like it or not, when you pull the trigger on a loaded handgun, and the gunpowder ignites, forcing the bullet down the gun’s barrel, there’s going to be some recoil involved. It’s a simple matter of physics—the old “equal and opposite reaction” principle. But by understanding the principles behind handling recoil, shooting a handgun can be less stressful and a lot more fun.

Handling Handgun Recoil

For many beginning shooters—and, in fact, even some seasoned shooters—recoil is an uncomfortable reality. Not to mention, the muzzle blast is closer to their face than when shooting a long gun. So, the reaction to both can lead to many bad habits that are not conducive to accurate shooting.

Just as with rifles, weaker cartridges, like the .22 LR, fire a 40-grain .22-caliber bullet at about 1,100 to 1,300 feet per second (fps). The resulting recoil is fairly soft and easily managed.

However, bigger calibers utilize more gunpowder and push bigger bullets at the same or higher velocity—like 9mm, .38 Special, .45 Auto, .357 Magnum, .44 Magnum, etc. Correspondingly, the resulting backward push is much more powerful.

This more powerful recoil causes many new shooters to cringe, close their eyes, and/or flinch in anticipation of the blast and recoil when they are squeezing the trigger. Doing any of those makes it impossible to hold the gun on target as the round is fired. This results in a shot that doesn’t hit where the shooter intended.

In broad terms, flinching from anticipation yields the same bad results as flinching when feeling the recoil. Today let’s take a look at some strategies for overcoming both and putting those shots right where you want them. Note that we’re talking about shooting a semi-auto pistol here. Revolvers are different animals to be discussed at a different time.

Stance Is Important

Just as when attempting to tame rifle recoil, setting up in a good, solid stance is the first key to managing recoil in handguns. Stand with your feet side-by-side, a little wider than your shoulder width, and your chest squared to the target. That will give you a solid base.

The arms should extend to nearly full extension, and the area between your shoulders and your gun should look somewhat like a long “V.”

You should be leaning somewhat into the target so your upper body will mitigate some of the recoil. With a back-leaning stance, you’ll likely get knocked off balance. If you don’t get a good stance, most of the other tips here will help some, but not a lot. Start with a good, solid foundation, and you’re well on your way to taming the beast.

Get A Good Grip

Building a good grip is the next most important thing. Not everyone agrees on the best way to do this. I tried a lot of methods when first starting out. So, I can share with you what I’ve found to work best, as have several of my shooting friends.

Start with getting your strong hand (gun hand) as high up the grip and into the backstrap as you can. That’s because that high grip itself will help reduce some of the backward movement of the recoil.

Once you have the strong hand in place and your fingers wrapped around the grip except for the trigger finger, mate your weak hand into the open space on the side of the gun’s grip that your strong hand left uncovered. Your palms will now be touching. The meaty part of your hand, where the thumb and wrist connect, will also be pressed tightly together.

Wrap your weak side fingers around and rest them in the grooves formed by your strong hand fingers. Snug your index finger up against the bottom of the trigger guard. Your thumbs will be pressed against each other.

Next, extend both thumbs forward where they are pushing toward the target. When you fire the handgun using this grip, you will be battling both backward and upward recoil. There are lots of other theories on grip. So, if this one doesn’t work for you, try a Google search to find a grip that does.

Concentrate On Grip, Target, and Squeeze

Now that you have your stance and grip, you’ve got most of the tools you need to tame recoil. However, one very important thing remains—getting your mental side to cooperate with your physical.

Thinking about the upcoming recoil and muzzle blast causes many shooters to flinch or jerk. The simple answer is to not think about it!

I’ve found the best way to do that is to put all of my mental faculties into other aspects of the shot. I concentrate completely on keeping a perfect grip, keeping the sights on the target where I want the shot to hit, and making a straight squeeze on the trigger. This doesn’t leave me enough mental bandwidth to worry about what comes next.

Think “grip, sights, squeeze” instead of, “Oh, no, here comes the blast!”

Embrace The Suck

This might sound dumb, but recoil is just a fact of life, and you might as well embrace it. Practice shooting often enough with a good stance, grip, and squeeze. Soon, the recoil won’t be as apparent as it once was.

Trust me, you’re not going to change the laws of physics. So, it’s better to accept them for what they are and concentrate on mitigating them.

I’m not talking a couple hundred rounds here. But once you’ve shot thousands of rounds and trained consistently, recoil won’t be the bothersome force it once was.

Consider A Different Gun

If you’ve tried all these things but still haven’t succeeded in overcoming recoil, remember that a heavier gun shooting a lighter, slower bullet will recoil less than a light gun shooting a fast, heavy bullet.

If you don’t want to go down in power (say, 9mm to .380), you can still go up in weight to get a similar tradeoff. Perhaps try an all-steel handgun in place of your polymer-framed pistol. That might be just the ticket to taming your recoil woes.