My Gun Culture

Guns, Shooting Tips, Ammo, Concealed Carry & Gear. Who's bringing the chips?

  • Store
  • Cart
  • Guns
    • Handguns
    • Rifles
    • Shotguns
  • Ammo
  • Shooting Gear
    • Optics, Sights and Lasers
    • Holsters
    • Accessories
    • Reloading
  • Shooting Tips
    • Competitive Shooting
    • Concealed Carry
    • General Tips
    • Gun Maintenance & Customization
    • Gun Safety
    • Home Defense
    • Reloading
  • News
    • 2nd Amendment
    • Business
    • Competition
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • NRA Annual Meeting
    • SHOT Show
  • Opinion
  • Reviews
    • Ammunition Reviews
    • Book Reviews
    • Clothing Bling Reviews
    • Gun Accessories Reviews
    • Gun Reviews
    • Holster Reviews
    • Optics and Sights Reviews
    • Reloading Equipment Reviews
  • Half-Cocked
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Shooting Tips / Competitive Shooting / The Seven Deadly Sins of Handgun Shooting: The Cup and Saucer Grip

The Seven Deadly Sins of Handgun Shooting: The Cup and Saucer Grip

June 17, 2013 By Tom McHale 1 Comment

This article originally appeared at OutdoorHub.

One of my very favorite things is to take new shooters to the range. My second favorite thing is simply seeing new shooters at the range. My least favorite thing is to see folks launch into their shooting career without any instruction, thereby developing a bunch of bad, and sometimes unsafe, habits. To help them along, I’ve put together some tips that will help improve anyone’s handgun shooting skills. After all, it’s much cooler to look like a pro on the range, even when you’re brand new to the sport.

Cup and saucer handgun grip

Using a cup and saucer handgun grip is just about this effective.

I have scientific proof that the “cup and saucer” handgun grip is bad and bordering on evil. Check this out. If you rearrange the letters in “cup and saucer” you get the following secret phrases:

Arcane Cud Pus

Uncaused Crap

Rude Caca Puns

Freaky isn’t it? Who knew that “cup and saucer” was some type of satanic code?

Now that we can agree that a cup and saucer grip is bad form and just plain spooky, what exactly is it? More importantly, how does one go about exorcising that demon?

Cup and saucer golf club grip

Here’s a cup and saucer grip being used for golf. Don’t see this much on the PGA tour do you?

The cup and saucer grip

The cup and saucer grip simply refers to a handgun grip style where your support hand acts more like a tea set saucer than a support. The butt of your handgun simply rests on top of your open support hand palm.

Let’s face it, if you’re having tea with Prince Harry, you’ve got a tea cup on one hand and a saucer in the other. The cup holds the tea, so what purpose does the saucer underneath serve? Obviously it drives up the stock price for Royal Doulton China and adds complexity to the job description of footmen. Other than that, the saucer only serves to catch things that spill. It’s a waste of a perfectly good hand that could be used to eat scones.

It’s exactly the same with shooting. While your dominant shooting hand will be a little stronger, why waste all those nearly-as-strong muscles in the non-dominant hand? If you’re simply resting your dominant hand and gun on top of a wimpy-looking hand-saucer, you’re not getting any benefit from the support hand, are you?

Other sports figured this out a long time ago. Ever see a golfer use a cup and saucer grip? Or a designated hitter in Major League Baseball? Even fishermen figured out the value of using two hands. Apparently we shooters can be a little slow on the uptake.

Performing the exorcism

Well, for starters, we can blame the guy who invented the term “handgun.” After all, if the best way to shoot them is with two hands, so shouldn’t they be called “hands-guns?” If the name were more intuitive, that would certainly help people think about using both hands effectively. Just saying.

Since that’s not likely to happen, let’s focus on some things we can do. Here’s how to achieve a solid and proper handgun grip.

Proper handgun grip Step 1 With your primary shooting hand, open your thumb and index finger. Push the web of your hand as high as it will comfortably go on the handgun grip, making sure that the barrel of the gun lines up with the bones in your forearm. Wrap your fingers around the front of the grip, making sure to keep your index finger out of the trigger.
Proper handgun grip step 2 Do you see some free space on the inside grip panel of your handgun? Good, that’s where the bottom part of your support hand palm is going to go. Smack it on there and don’t worry if there’s not enough room to get your whole palm on the inside grip panel. There won’t be and that’s OK.
Proper handgun grip Step 3 Now wrap your support hand fingers around the front of your dominant hand fingers. Your support hand fingers should be high–to the point of pressing against the bottom of the trigger guard.
Proper handgun grip step 4 You’ll know you’ve got it right if both of your thumbs are somewhere near parallel to each other and touching.

Next time you shoot, notice how much less your muzzle jumps. Your support hand can do wonders to help control recoil when you actually put it to work! Plus, a proper handgun grip looks really cool–you’ll be a hit at the range. And those forward-facing thumbs? They naturally help you aim. Things tend to go where you point.

If you have trouble shaking the cup and saucer grip habit, try these emergency counter measures:

  • Bag the tea and drink coffee.
  • Next time you go fishing with a buddy, use a cup and saucer grip with your fishing rod. The tsunami of taunting and hazing will break your cup and saucer habit almost instantly.
  • Smear a dab of Krazy Glue on the bottom of your handgun butt. You’ll only make the cup and saucer mistake once! On second thought, using Krazy Glue may not be the wisest idea. Perhaps some lard?

Filed Under: Competitive Shooting, General Tips, Shooting Tips Tagged With: cup and saucer grip, Grip, guns, handgun grip, handgun tips, outdoorhub.com, Seven Deadly Sins, Shooting, shooting grip, shooting tips, The Seven Deadly Sins, tips

About Tom McHale

Tom is the primary author of the Insanely Practical Guides series of how-to books. He believes that shooting can be safe and fun, and works hard to make the shooting world easy to understand. If you want to learn about the world of guns, shooting and the American way, check out some of his books. Have a laugh or two. Life is too short for boring "how to" books.

You can find print and ebook versions at Amazon. For more information, check out InsanelyPracticalGuides.com

Feel free to visit Tom at his website, MyGunCulture.com. It's a half-cocked but right on target look at the world of shooting and all things related. If you want to learn with a laugh about guns, shooting products, personal defense, competition, industry news and the occasional Second Amendment issue, visit him there.

Comments

  1. David Fell says

    February 19, 2017 at 8:01 am

    Next (after the hands are properly positioned): the squeeze on the handle should be 30% with the dominant (trigger) hand and 70% with the non-dominant hand. Paying attention to this is key to controlling recoil. (This is what Marshall Luton teaches at The Defensive Shooting Academy in Tulsa.)

    Reply

Got something to say? Cancel reply

IMPROVE YOUR SHOOTING SKILLS RIGHT NOW!

Get our FREE eBook, A Fistful of Shooting Tips!

Your weekly subscription will get reviews, tips and a few laughs delivered right to your inbox.

Once a week and no spam ever.

Get Your FREE eBook: A Fistful of Shooting Tips

* indicates required

Legal disclosures about our review policies.


IMPROVE YOUR SHOOTING SKILLS RIGHT NOW!

A Fistful of Shooting TipsDownload A Fistful of Shooting Tips and get FREE reviews, tips and a few laughs delivered right to your inbox! Once a week and NO SPAM - ever!

Get Your FREE eBook: A Fistful of Shooting Tips


Follow My Gun Culture

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Pinterest
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter

Check out our books

  • The Practical Guide to the United States Constitution

    The Practical Guide to the United States Constitution

    $14.99
    Buy Now
  • The Practical Guide to Reloading Ammunition

    The Practical Guide to Reloading Ammunition

    $12.99
    Buy Now
  • The Practical Guide to Gun Holsters for Concealed Carry

    The Practical Guide to Gun Holsters for Concealed Carry

    $12.95
    Buy Now
  • The Practical Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition

    The Practical Guide to Guns and Shooting, Handgun Edition

    $12.99
    Buy Now
  • Sale! Hot off the press! The Rookie's Guide to the Springfield Armory XD-S

    The Rookie’s Guide to the Springfield Armory XD-S

    $12.97 $4.99
    Add to cart

Related Products

More Related Products

Dale Fricke Holsters Dale Fricke Seraphim Rmr Holster
$94.99
Sticky Holsters Inside-the-Waistband Holster (LARGE)
$29.99
Sticky Holsters Extra Travel Mount Adhestive Strips 3 pack
$6.99
Crimson Trace Round Butt Red Lasergrip For S&W J-Frame - LG-105
$119.99 37% Off
Dale Fricke Holsters Dale Fricke Archangel Holsters
$94.99

Most Popular

  • The Seven Deadly Sins of Handgun Shooting: Inappropriate Racking
    The Seven Deadly Sins of Handgun Shooting: Inappropriate Racking
  • A Spiffy Upgrade for the Ruger 10/22
    A Spiffy Upgrade for the Ruger 10/22
  • 8 Ways To Spot Someone Carrying A Concealed Gun
    8 Ways To Spot Someone Carrying A Concealed Gun
  • 8 Shooting Tips: How Not To Look Like An Amateur Shooter
    8 Shooting Tips: How Not To Look Like An Amateur Shooter
  • The 5 Best Pocket Carry Handguns
    The 5 Best Pocket Carry Handguns

Looking for a product you’ve seen here?

About My Gun Culture

Hello, my name is Tom McHale. I'm the creator and primary author of the Practical Guides series of how-to books.

I also write lots of articles for various shooting related magazines and websites. You'll find my work at Shooting Illustrated, Concealed Carry Magazine, Tactical Retailer Magazine, Beretta USA, Guns Magazine, OutdoorHub, GunsAmerica, American Handgunner Magazine, Bearing Arms, AmmoLand, The National Shooting Sports Foundation, Grand View Outdoors, and Shooting Sports Retailer Magazine.

I help explain complicated things in a fun and easy-to-understand way. I believe that things don't have to be so complicated, although I suppose excessive techno-jargon keeps lots of well-intentioned lawyers in business.

If you want to learn about the world of guns, shooting and the American way, check out some of my books. Have a laugh or two.

Amazon Author Profile

LinkedIn

Google

Archives

Shooting Tips

  • Competitive Shooting
  • Concealed Carry
  • General Tips
  • Gun Maintenance & Customization
  • Gun Safety
  • Home Defense
  • Reloading

Guns

  • Handguns
  • Rifles
  • Shotguns

Gear

  • Holsters
  • Optics, Sights and Lasers
  • Reloading
  • Accessories

News

  • 2nd Amendment
  • Business
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • NRA Annual Meeting
  • SHOT Show

Reviews

  • Ammunition Reviews
  • Book Reviews
  • Clothing Bling Reviews
  • Gun Accessories Reviews
  • Gun Reviews
  • Holster Reviews
  • Optics and Sights Reviews
  • Reloading Equipment Reviews

Privacy Policy and Legal Disclosures | Copyright © 2019 My Gun Culture · Log in