[Rockets]

Took my VP40 out to the range today, was not my best day shooting, groups were a bit large, figure it is me, still do. Brought it home, cleaned and lubed it and did some dry firing.

I noticed that my trigger moves freely left and right perhaps a 32nd to 16th of an inch, I can take it back to the break and still wiggles, it feels right but the left right slop has me concerned, it moves like a lose tooth, I am not forcing it in the least.

Do any of you experts with a VP9 or VP40 have this issue, is it normal?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Aegis]

I just checked my VP40 I have slight right left play also. I think this is normal. I would look at changing the grip panels and back strap.My 40 came with medium all round,I assume yours did also. I just changed the rear to small and the left grip panel to small. I have not shot it yet to see how that works. I have 350 rounds down so far. As far as my hand size I can wear L gloves but hey are very tight XL fit more comfortable. Depending on hand size and comfort you may want to experiment to see what works best for you. You say your groups were large, were they center of target?

 

[Klaustrophobia]

Well it's not completely rigid, but I wouldn't call what little motion I can get on mine "wiggle".

 

[Deadwing]

Both of my VP9s have a small amount of lateral movement in the trigger, but nothing i'd have ever noticed without reading this thread first.

 

[Rockets]

That's all, looks like I need to work on my skills, still a fairly new gun.

 

[Rockets]

I just checked my VP40 I have slight right left play also. I think this is normal. I would look at changing the grip panels and back strap.My 40 came with medium all round,I assume yours did also. I just changed the rear to small and the left grip panel to small. I have not shot it yet to see how that works. I have 350 rounds down so far. As far as my hand size I can wear L gloves but hey are very tight XL fit more comfortable. Depending on hand size and comfort you may want to experiment to see what works best for you. You say your groups were large, were they center of target?

I expect you are right, some were dead on, many were a few inches left and low (I'm right handed and often have those issues with a fairly new gun till I get the grip and the trigger down) I did change grip panels from last time at the range to large everywhere except small and the left hand side, might try all large.

The odd thing was in slow fire one would be spot on and the next would be low and to the left, no matter how many grip changes and and trigger finger changes and slow fire this would repeat, one on, next low left about a few inches left and down. Change grip and finger position, one on, one left low. This was all slow fire, normally in slow fire once I find the grip and trigger finger position I am spot on till I law it down and have to find the correct grip and trigger placement again till I get used to the gun. (All about 15 yards)

On thing I found last night is the "wall" seems stout and long for me, I could see the front sight wiggle. And as at the range, one might have not wiggle and the next would without changing grip. Since the wall seemed stout and long and I only have perhaps 300 round through it I dry fired it 800 times last night and that seemed to smooth it out quite a bit, I am trying large panels all the way around next week and taking all the panel to the range.

Might try gloves, any other advice is welcome, just never had a firearm in slow fire mode that did not hold a solid pattern through a mag with no finger or grip change. Fast fire I often go slightly low and left but that normal for me when I push it and still well in the zone I want for self defense.

Thanks.

 

[Aegis]

Right handed shooters, common to shoot low left..Left handed shooters low right..Generally too much trigger finger.. Possibly your grip is changing between shots. Practice , practice, practice, dry firing can help. Another common problem I would see is stance. I come from 35 years of LE experience and I was taught to stand square facing the target feet shoulder length apart, solid stable platform. My agency was adamant about the mechanics of shooting and doing it their way. When I am in a public range, which is rare, I can't help but notice 10 shooters and 7 out of the 10 with poor stance all doing something different. This does not mean they can't shoot just an observation. When I ran our range I would see some shooters, not many that modified our training method but could shoot very well. Most of the problems I dealt with were grip and trigger control. 80% of our officers were issued Berettas, 92F the rest was HK USP 45 and a few other models. I preferred USP 45 for my last 13 years. We had approx 11K shooters..

 

[Rockets]

I agree, the low left I can recover from unless I shoot a bit too fast for my abilities. Funny you should mention stance, I tried to switch that day from a modified Weaver to the stance you are talking about. I think I was trying to change too many things when shooting something I was not very used to. I should either get the VP down without changing stance, or try to change stance with something I have shot for many years. I've been doing Weaver for 25 years so trying to change it overnight did feel odd. If you think of anything else please let me know.

Right handed shooters, common to shoot low left..Left handed shooters low right..Generally too much trigger finger.. Possibly your grip is changing between shots. Practice , practice, practice, dry firing can help. Another common problem I would see is stance. I come from 35 years of LE experience and I was taught to stand square facing the target feet shoulder length apart, solid stable platform. My agency was adamant about the mechanics of shooting and doing it their way. When I am in a public range, which is rare, I can't help but notice 10 shooters and 7 out of the 10 with poor stance all doing something different. This does not mean they can't shoot just an observation. When I ran our range I would see some shooters, not many that modified our training method but could shoot very well. Most of the problems I dealt with were grip and trigger control. 80% of our officers were issued Berettas, 92F the rest was HK USP 45 and a few other models. I preferred USP 45 for my last 13 years. We had approx 11K shooters..

 

[Aegis]

I agree, the low left I can recover from unless I shoot a bit too fast for my abilities. Funny you should mention stance, I tried to switch that day from a modified Weaver to the stance you are talking about. I think I was trying to change too many things when shooting something I was not very used to. I should either get the VP down without changing stance, or try to change stance with something I have shot for many years. I've been doing Weaver for 25 years so trying to change it overnight did feel odd. If you think of anything else please let me know.

Obviously it would help if I could see you shoot.. I watched literally hundreds of shooters while I was working..Another possibility is using dummy rounds interspersed in your magazine. If you choose to try this have someone else load the mag so you will not know when a dummy round comes up. You and an observer will should be able to see if you flinch/jerk trigger. This is one drill we used. May or may not work for you but in my opinion it should shed some light on your physical response. One other thought is if you get your grouping good but too spread out consider pushing out with right arm and pulling in with left, this push/pull I see as more of a subconscious thought not to be a primary function. You should notice that the gun is steadier. Make sure your right arm is locked and not bent at the elbow.
We never considered the 40 as the recoil is more pronounced than 9mm with 11K shooters our range staff felt the increase in recoil would be problematic with the diversity of shooters we had.45ACP was acceptable for those that wanted to go thru additional training and carry your own weapon as I decided to do.. BTW 40 & 10mm are my favorite calibers I reload most pistol calibers..

 

[Rockets]

Obviously it would help if I could see you shoot.. I watched literally hundreds of shooters while

Wish I could do that but not really set up for that. The one thing that sticks out is it is me and this pistol, others I have I shoot fine. I have a buckets full of pistols and all others we are good to go. Big fan of the USP and USPc, have three and do well with them and my other handguns, I'm not the greatest shot in the world but I can normally hit the 9 and 10 ring slow fire at 15 yards on a FBI profile target out of ten times.

If you choose to try this have someone else load the mag so you will not know when a dummy round comes up. You and an observer will should be able to see if you flinch/jerk trigger.

I know that's not it. Fought that battle along time ago and also really paid attention to just a slow pull for a bit to make sure.

One other thought is if you get your grouping good but too spread out consider pushing out with right arm and pulling in with left, this push/pull I see as more of a subconscious thought not to be a primary function. You should notice that the gun is steadier. Make sure your right arm is locked and not bent at the elbow.

Printing this out, that I shall try. I do bend my elbows slightly.

BTW 40 & 10mm are my favorite calibers I reload most pistol calibers..

Most of mine are 40, even with the drop in popularity I still love the round, always found it as manageable as a 9. I've switched to 357 sig for my preferred round. In fact my VP 40 has a 357 sig barrel in it and I have never shot it with the 40 barrel (that may change due to cost per round till I get over my issues).

I'm not new to the round I shot my USPc 357 sig and my three sized Glocks in 357 sig fine.

But you may be on to something with the elbows. Hope it is nice Sunday as I will try that, I'll let you know.

Thanks a ton.