Survey Says….

 American Handgunner’s Tom McHale asked a few interesting questions as part of a reader’s survey in the March/April issue. 

Excellent questions.  So why not take advantage of them?  I'll paraphrase them.

What’s your grip, Weaver or Isosceles?

I had to think about that.  On the square range, practicing my draw stroke or reloading, I use a lot of Isosceles.  But not exclusively.  Several months ago, I tore the rotator cuff in my non-dominant shoulder.  I couldn’t use Isosceles.  I remembered hearing that Jeff Cooper had elbow trouble, which pushed him into Weaver stances.  It turns out Weaver worked well for me, and I spent the time tuning it up before my surgery. 

Jeff Cooper and his Classic Weaver Stance -  I tend to bring my elbows in closer to my body

As I thought about it, I realized that when I pie/clear corners, I transfer my handgun to the side leading around the corner.  Here, if there is space, I used Chapman.  It lets me extend the handgun at the very edge of my slice.  If the working area is too small, it’s back to Weaver.

Chapman stance - Here too I drop my left elbow and bring it in.  Yes, stolen from the internet  

I tend to keep the support elbow down and tucked in in all my stances.  It takes some work, but I'm not telegraphing my position.

Coming out of a pocket holster or ankle carry, I use Weaver.  The gun is tight to my body and ready if I need it.  I can index off my body to get the gun in my line of vision fast and without calling too much attention to myself.  I usually try to keep my position concealed, so I often need to turn to face the target.  Holding the gun in tight helps control the angular momentum and maintain balance.  If you've ever overswung on a plate table, that’s angular momentum.

Massad Ayoob with the Isosceles stance - I like it as it take less upper body strength

I let my feet find the optimal position to maintain mobility, balance, and control of the handgun recoil.  I suspect this only comes from practice, starting with the more traditional foot placement for each stance.  Having said that, when I bring the .44 magnum out to play, it’s a deep Isosceles, and my feet are positioned to best control the gun and its recoil.  I typically never carry the .44 mag for self-defense.

Where do your thumbs go?

This is almost laughable.  There are too many variables for me to pontificate a thumb placement.  Variables?  Sure.  Hand size, gloved or ungloved, gun size, gun controls, not to mention hand strength.  With some guns, a thumb forward always seems to find the slide release lever, so my last shot doesn't lock open.  Not knowing you are out of ammo has significant impacts on either gun games or self-defense.  Other guns have me activating safeties with a high thumb during recoil or retarding cylinder rotation with thumbs forward.  Some thumb positions and hand shapes will not depress grip safeties consistently, hence the need for a speed bump on 1911 grip safeties.

In my opinion, you want as much flesh on the gun surface as possible from both hands, provided it doesn’t interfere with optimal performance.

This is best found by trying different grips at the range until you find one that maximizes your performance.

DIY Wrecked?

No, not me.  I know people who think that with a butter knife and a stone they can significantly improve their firearm over a professional gunsmith.  They are easy to find on the range, as they are constantly clearing jams, double feeds, and dropped magazines.

The closest I’ve ever come was cleaning my Ruger Mark 2 target pistol.  I had removed the bolt and handgrips as per the instructions, turned it over to better oil some component, and a pin fell out.  Damn!  That was followed by two flat pieces of metal.  Double Damn!

I had the parts diagram, but it took me a long, sweaty hour to discover while the diagram indicated part A goes in front of part B, it was the other way around.  That cured me of any desire to fiddle with my fighting tools.

I have changed grips, installed lights, replaced muzzle breaks, and extended magazine tubes on shotguns, but fiddle, grind, stone, polish?  Not me.  Part of that is my concern that a self-modified firearm used for self-defense could result in painting you as careless and ignorant of gun safety.  Nobody wants that when you’re defending your actions in court.

Red Dot?

Yeah!  My eyes are old, but the dot helps.  I remember when dots first appeared on bullseye guns.   A red dot was an easy 5-7 point jump in scores.  In those days, your fellow shooters called you a pussycat, well, something like that. 

Golden Boy in .357 Mag  - the dot makes it a lot more fun to shoot

I have them on my ARs, my lever action rifle, and several of my sporting guns.  They make shooting more fun.  After all, hitting the target, ringing the gong, and running the plate table is where the fun is, not missing. 

None of my self-defense guns have them.  Why?  I don’t entirely trust them.  I have yet to read a good torture test where someone wearing the holstered gun crawls through the weeds, mud, and stones, gets banged on a concrete corner while rushing to get around it, comes out of a salt water dunking, gets shaken off, and goes to work.  I’ve seen too many diode flashlights fail because they were stored in freezing conditions.

My iron sights work through all those conditions.

You going to put a dot and a light on a ankle-carried gun?  Please send me a picture!

Size is the second problem.  I have not seen a working dot on a pocket or ankle holster-size gun.  

There is no room for dot or light on my small S&W 642 J-Frame 5 shot.  I bought the laser grips mostly for training during dry firing

These guns are typically small and don’t accommodate a dot very well.  And if you have a dot, you need a light because, at some point, the dot’s brightness will blind you in a low light level environment.  If I can't read a book by available light, I need a gun light.

Glock 42 in .380ACP.  Same questions, Where would a dot and light fit? 

Just one last bit of advice.  Learning to use a dot effectively could be a long process.  It isn't an instant transition from iron sights to a dot.  I must bring the dot closer to my line of sight before I press the gun outward.  I want to find the dot as quickly as possible, so I like the ones with a large circle, like a 32MOA, surrounding a 2 MOA dot.

There are plenty of trainers who can help you transition to a dot away from iron sights.