Should I change the way I grip my pistol?

Dominant thumb over non-dominant thumb with thumbs along the frame pointing at your target.

Referred to as a "thumbs forward" grip. It gives you more control of the handgun closer to the muzzle and provides much better recoil management.

Refer to my video or this picture:

Handgun Accuracy and Proper Technique



Notice how his left thumb extends in front of the trigger guard. This gives you much more control near the muzzle.

Is that a Glock?

I do that now that I switched stances. Never had a problem before, but turning my body a little bit moved my thumb enough to rest on the slide lock. Causes me to click, look at it, rack slide, drop mag, and then add another mag. I'd rather it lock back, drop mag, add mag

Counting shots is all good and well when I'm at the range, but I doubt I'd do it IRL

I presume it's your right (strong hand) thumb that's causing the problem.

Neither thumb needs to touch the gun. I'm no expert, nor am I a Ninja class shooter. But FWIW both of my thumbs "float" alongside the slide, and both point forward.

As was mentioned, locking the right (strong hand) thumb onto the top of the left thumb will//should also help solve the problem. Massad Ayoob recommends this (he calls it the "crush grip").

Another option, if you are unable to get your thumbs well away from the slide, is to change to a "high thumb" grip with your right (strong) hand. Tom Givens recommends this (but he doesn't insist on it) to avoid the problem you're describing and to avoid accidentally flipping a 1911 safety "up." But you still need your left (support) hand "cammed" downward, which results in that thumb pointing forward, to take advantage of the tendon/muscle lock that causes the gun to come back down after the recoil impulse.

FWIW I spent two days with Jerry Miculek a few years ago getting one-on-one training. Jerry never suggested having me do anything different with my thumbs (both forward, neither one touching the gun).

I have also taken a three day pistol class with Clint Smith (Thunder Ranch), and two-day classes at a number of other schools. No one has ever suggested that I needed to have my thumbs touching anything (the gun or the other thumb). But none of these instructors has ever said that you have to "float" your thumbs if what you're doing works.

I'm sure the foregoing is confusing. It's easier to show this stuff than to describe it. This is one of those elements that you need to experiment with until you have something that works 100% of the time -- then get enough repetitions to burn it into your muscle memory (neural pathways).

Just my $.02 worth.

Just shoot left handed. Problem solved

I actually run into the same problem on occasion when I shoot offhand, throws me off since I normally don't worry about the slide stop lever

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Can we start a slide release vs slide stop fight on the OB like the clips vs magazines threads?

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I love the irony of someone writing a blog about terminology and has this in his opening line

"That little gizmo, usually found on the left side of most auto pistols, is quite often misunderstood. "

I don't know of many people who have automatic pistols. Semi-automatic sure, but not auto.

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are you the author of an article floating around the concealed world right now?

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Not that I'm aware of.

I think I'm just gonna keep my grip the same. If SHTF, my hand is naturally gonna go in that spot anyway. It took long enough for me to get used to isosceles. That switch also made me shoot at 7 o'clock at 25 yards. Not a big enough deal for me to worry about it because I can still hit what I'm shooting at, but it was enough to aggravate me. Doesn't affect anything inside 15 yards though

If I can't hit something with 16 rounds, I'll just defer to your thread earlier to figure out what I'm doing wrong