Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Need Help Taming Double Action Revolver Squirm

Double action revolvers are my favorite handguns, but I've never really focused hard on shooting them double action until a couple of years ago. My trigger control has improved but controlling the revolver is more difficult. Unless the grip is made of soft rubber like a Hogue monogrip or the old Lett grips that Ruger used to put on their GP100, I can't seem to control the squirm. With any wooden grip (except the huge old S&W target grips) the gun rotates clockwise (looking down at it) and jumps up in my fist incrementally. This, of course, causes my second shot to strike a different POI. I've tried gripping harder with different fingers and I've tried several different grips to no avail. I've considered getting full checkered wood grips from Herretts, but that's quite an investment. I'd rather improve my technique.

I really want to be able to use wood grips on my favorite Smiths, can anyone help? Probably I should mention that I have relatively small hands, so I can't use grips that cover the backstrap.

It's an old book, but Fast And Fancy Revolver Shooting is actually an excellent training manual for becoming highly proficient in the practical use of double action revolvers. Ed McGivern didn't write the title. The publishers did, thinking it would sell books. Misleading.

It was through the study of this book, and applying it's methods, that I became very good with double action revolvers in not very much time at all. Should work for you too.

Be prepared to develop a blister, then a callus, on your trigger finger if you actually follow his training instructions.

One thing he doesn't mention is snap caps. Use them. Saves wear on the firing pin and the pin hole.

Are you staging the trigger?

Sounds like you have solved your problem with the hogue grips already.

That could be the problem. Hacks have taught people to stage double action triggers from days of old. It's wrongheaded. The double action pull needs to sweep all the way through, from start to finish, without delay or change in pace, all the while keeping the sights aligned on the target.

No, I'm not staging the trigger. I pull straight through. It's the recoil that makes the gun squirm.

The Hogue grips do solve the problem, but they're a crutch. I'd like to solve this problem by improving ME, not the gun.

The grips solve your problem, so good enough. Not a crutch. The human hand has its limits in anchoring down tiny, poorly fitting, grips under recoil. That's the good thing about revolvers. You can get grips that fit you.

Just wondering, how are you gripping the gun....Bob

Have you tried adjusting the position of your trigger finger?

i recently bought a small hand cannon. a ruger 2.75 incher in 41magnum, came with those smooth ruger grips. I understand that they were made that way to have the revolver roll in your hand. I don't want to have the revolver roll in my hand. So they were replaced with sticky rubber grips. I am also one of those wierdo's that likes the smith target style grips. Each to there own, but for sure it's not the same for everybody.

When you grip the gun make sure the backstrap is right on the heel of you hand, you should not be able to see it.
Looked at from above the barrel should be lined up with your arm bone.

Good suggestion about McGivern's book, I have it and have enjoyed studying it. As far as how hard I grip, I've tried I've tried gripping as hard as I can but that makes trigger control much harder. McGivern suggests a moderate grip pressure. I do hold the revolver so that it is in line with my forearm and with the top of the backstrap even with the web of my hand, so that my grip is as high as possible. Normally I use even pressure among all four fingers, but I've tried pressing extra hard with my pinky or with my middle finger. I can't vary the placement of my trigger finger much. If I have the gun lined up with my arm, I can only engage the trigger with the last pad of my finger. On a GP, it hits at the first joint.

I never knew I was a hack, thanks for the info.

In my day we used DA revolvers on embassy duty. I ended up instructing at Quantico after my tours overseas.

Thumbing the hammer was NEVER done, strictly verboten. We were taught, and taught our students, to master two different trigger pulls with the DA revolver.

Un-interrupted trigger pull - a smooth straight-through pull, used for close range, typically inside 15 yards.

Interrupted trigger pull - a quick stage that snaps the cylinder into it's next index, and followed by a squeeze to fire. Typically for 15+ yards.

The two both work and have their application.

The caveat is that we spent hours/days/weeks dry firing and building muscle memory. I mean to the point of blistered and bleeding trigger fingers. (I had a real admiration of Marines on the live fire range with taped fingers, and blood dripping off the triggerguard of their S&W Model 19, and putting them in the black from 3 to 25 yards).

Most civvy's don't have the time or inclination to train to that level. I get that. And most civ shooting schools I've looked at online, are 1-2 days at best, with minimal dry-fire or live-fire.

I lay a quarter on the top strap and dry fire double action, making sure the quarter doesn't fall.

And the 'staging the trigger' is taught by hacks is a bunch of BS too, as Shane already explained.

I was actually suggesting that he try it.

I shoot DA's more accurately with a staged trigger than shooting the same gun SA whether offhand or from a rest. My best groups from a rest are 1" at 50 yds, no bs.

It makes sense as with a staged trigger your hand is in tension and you can hold the gun more solidly.

The value of frequent quality dry firing can't be underscored to develop proficiency with handguns.

They put the single action there as an option for a reason. No need for developing a staging technique for distance shooting. For the vast majority of self-defense utilization of a double action revolver, a straight through double action pull is the only appropriate method. YMMV.

God damn, you're a frigging tool. From being an expert on goat and elk hunting, Dakota rifles etc in the early days to this crap.

Amazing what you've done in your parent's basement.

With mastery of an interrupted trigger pull, there is no need to break your shooting grip (to thumb the hammer). It's very fast, but still very deliberate.


It does require a serious commitment to training.