02 Jun Five Ways to Fight Muzzle Flip
Muzzle flip, muzzle jump, muzzle rise. You can call it whatever you want, but it’s the bane of competitive shooters, especially when practicing speed shooting.
Fortunately, there are things you can do to keep muzzle flip under control.
What’s the Big Deal, Anyway?
For shooters, competing, or plinking with shoulder-mounted platforms, muzzle jump, and recoil is an annoyance.
But for shooters that practice or compete with handguns, muzzle flip can turn what should be a tight group, into what looks like a pattern produced by an open-choke 12 gauge at 25 yards. It’s not good.
When you pull the trigger, some of the force of recoil makes your muzzle want to jump, or flip. This pulls your sights up and off the target.
The nature of handgun shooting, with a lighter firearm, and arms extended, makes muzzle flip a much greater obstacle to control for performance.
Here are our top five suggestions for you to practice the next time you visit the range.
Adopt a Better Stance
Unless your training indicates otherwise, it’s generally a good idea to have your feet nearly parallel. The Isosceles stance is ideal for absorbing most pistol recoil.
If you use a Weaver-style stance (which is good for minimizing your profile as a target), move your head slightly forward, over your dominant foot.
Do not keep your weight flat on your feet; this makes it too easy for recoil to push you back and makes it difficult for you to “push down” on the gun. Keep your weight on the balls of your feet.
Keep your knees slightly bent. Not too much; you want to rely on your joints for stability, not your muscles. If your muscles are taxed you’ll become fatigued too easily.
Lean In
This could be considered a component of stance but we think it merits its own callout. You don’t want to be standing totally erect when shooting or it will be too easy to take you off balance.
Lean into your stance slightly; this will help you exert greater downward pressure on the gun, which will help you keep the muzzle down and your sight on target.
Get a Grip
There’s no universal consensus regarding grip orthodoxy. However, gripping the pistol properly will help you mitigate recoil and control muzzle jump.
Whatever grip you prefer, try not to let one arm dominate the other. Control the firearm with an equally strong grip through both hands.
You want a higher grip; getting as high on the frame as you can, (while keeping in mind of the slide coming back), will allow you to choke up. The lower your grip, the more mechanical advantage the pistol will have against your wrists when it wants to jump.
Whichever hand you use for support, extend the thumb forward along the frame. Don’t do this with revolvers, or pistols with very short barrels, and keep your thumb well below the slide.
Sliding your supporting thumb forward along the frame of the pistol in front of your dominant hand’s grip, will increase your surface contact area with the pistol, giving you greater control.
Angle your supporting hand slightly downward. With your wrist at this angle, you’ll be better able to keep the muzzle of the firearm on target.
Another tip: keep your supporting hand’s index finger off of the front of your trigger guard. This will weaken your mechanical control over the handgun.
Extend Your Arms Fully, but Don’t Lock Your Elbows
You don’t want to have your pistol choked up close to your body while you’re shooting. Extend your arms almost fully and lean into the stance to maximize the downward pressure you can exert on the gun.
Locking your elbows, and trying to actively fight recoil, can make it harder to get the pistol back on target. Instead, with your arms fully extended, but without your elbows locked, your arms can absorb the recoil and the spring of your muscle tension will help you to almost instinctively get the pistol back on target.
Fighting the recoil by trying to lock your elbows is a losing game. Instead, manage what little flip there is so that the muzzle wants to return to its starting position.
Install an Appropriate Compensator
In addition to adopting the proper stance, and consistent shooting techniques, there is a mechanical device that can help significantly fight the effects of recoil and muzzle flip: a compensator.
Compensators do for pistols what muzzle brakes do for rifles. They capture the expanding gas before it exits the barrel and redirect it. Typically, compensators redirect much of the gas out of ports along the top of the device. The effect is that the compensator uses that force to push the muzzle down instead of up.
Anarchy Outdoors carries several different types of compensators for popular handguns. Their catalog contains S&W M&P Shield, Glock, CZ, Ruger American Compact and Full Size, HK compensators for the VP9 and VP40, and many more.
Easy to install, practical, and effective, their Glock and HK compensators can drastically reduce felt recoil and muzzle flip, reducing recoil by as much as 50% and muzzle jump by up to 60%.
Along with a proper stance and training, a compensator can help mitigate the effects of recoil, keep your sights trained on target, encourage more confident handling and enable faster, more accurate follow-up shots.
Not only are their Glock and HK compensators available in a number of colors, easy to install, and effective at recoil management, they do not affect shot power and come with a generous, 100% replacement lifetime guarantee. (Please note, their compensators are manufactured by them, not the manufacturer of the compatible handguns. The compensators are not compatible with threaded barrels.)
Questions About Anarchy Outdoors HK Compensators and Compatibility?
Armed with these tips you can get onward to keeping muzzle jump under control.
If you have any questions about Anarchy Outdoors products, installation, or compatibility, get in touch with us directly at 833-980-0333.
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