Handguns are most accurate when they fit you well. Sarah Stallone is Lead Firearms Instructor and owner of Accurate Advantage.  She’s also the Trip Tips columnist for Hunt Alaska magazine. In this video, Sarah explains five points to help you ensure any new handguns you’re thinking of purchasing fit you, or how to measure the fit of any handguns you already own.

Sarah explains that your accuracy and safety with handguns are not dependent upon gun fit, but that proper handgun fit can surely help with both. She also provides four rules for safety with handguns, as well has the reasoning for ensuring handgun fit. 

All too often, people purchase handguns with little or no thought regarding fit.  Rather, people buy the latest and greatest model, or they buy with a caliber in mind (say, for bear protection or home protection) but they don’t even consider fit. This is an unfortunate situation, for purchasing a handgun that fits will greatly improve your ability to handle that firearm safely and shoot it accurately.

Handguns that fit like your favorite old pair of jeans is what everyone wants. Sarah’s five points will help you determine the fit of your handgun, or the handguns you’re thinking of buying.

The five points to determine handgun fit are:

1. Alignment test (helps ensure the barrel, trigger and grip are in alignment with your bone structure)

2. Wraparound test (determines if the grip is too large, too small or just right)

3. Slide-function test (to ensure the slide operates easily with your hands)

4. Magazine-release function test (to determine if you can easily and naturally insert or remove the magazine without unnecessary movements)

5. Sight-alignment test (to see if the sight picture lines up naturally with your shooting stance). 

If your handgun passes all of these tests, chances are you will experience the best possible accuracy and safe operation of that handgun. Again, accuracy and safety aren’t dependent on handgun fit, but proper handgun fit can flatten the learning curve and instinctive accuracy will be easier with your handguns.