Silly question: What exactly constitutes limp-wristing?

[Nitrogen]

Silly, possibly, but i'm going to ask anyway:
What constitutes limp-wristing? I've always had a firm grip on my pistol; keeping it from moving back and fourth while shooting, but I usually let the pistol freely "flip" a tad after each shot. I find when I do this, I'm not "pre-correcting" for recoil, and I shoot much better.

I'm just curious if i'm starting a bad habit.

 

[scout26]

*Grabs popcorn and pulls the lever on the recliner.*

I predict that you'll get three pictures of various poofda's, and that this thread gets locked down for "Unsportsmen Like Conduct" within 24 hours.


IIRC, Limp wristing is akin to trying time the trigger sqeeze as your sight sweeps the target. But I'm probably wrong.

 

[EghtySx]

If you hold the pistol or your hand/wrist loosely enough that the action fails to cycle because of it you are limp-wristing

 

[Manedwolf]

*Grabs popcorn and pulls the lever on the recliner.*

I predict that you'll get three pictures of various poofda's, and that this thread gets locked down for "Unsportsmen Like Conduct" within 24 hours.


IIRC, Limp wristing is akin to trying time the trigger sqeeze as your sight sweeps the target. But I'm probably wrong.

Naah. I think a lot of people are beyond that. Especially after those Pink Pistol groups have been angrily vocal in opposing the SF gun ban.

 

[Nitrogen]

If you hold the pistol or your hand/wrist loosely enough that the action fails to cycle because of it you are limp-wristing

OK so basically it's only a problem if your semiauto fails to cycle?
Ok, I think I got it. Thanks.

 

[Dr.Rob]

I promise you will get reprimanded for off-color humor. It's the HIGH road, not the low road. While I realize it's FAR easier to make a snappy schoolboy comment and release your inner 14 year old child, I'd much prefer to see a little more outer adult making constructive replies to the TOPIC AT HAND.

Are we clear?

Someone once described 'limp wristing' as a jam caused by failure to properly brace a pistol with a lightweight slide to frame ratio.

IE... the BHP has a heavy frame (esp. loaded) in comaprison to the weight of the slide... for it to 'work' properly you need to hold it steady... as the gun empties the wieght equalizes and it's less of an issue.

(Now I've ONLY seen this once while trying out a rack of 9mm's... from Sig, Browning, Glock, Beretta etc... one girl in our four person team could shoot the BHP well... but it jammed on her ALL the time. She had no such problems with the Sig, Glock or Beretta... no other shooter (myself, her husband, my girlfriend) had the same problem with the BHP.

Limp-wristing was the only possible soultion we came up with.

LW could also be a simple matter of the gun not properly fitting the hand.

I'm not convinced of the so-called gun expert's explanation of slide to frame weight ratio... but there is a definite truth in properly bracing a weapon to make it work right... like Browning Auto-5 shotguns.

 

[DonP]

My daughter had that problem

She was shooting my Colt .380 Government Pocketlite and it kept jamming on her. I thought it was bad ammo since I had the same jamming when I tried WinClean in the gun.

I had to watch her shoot it a few times to realize she wasn't holding her wrist firmly enough for the semi auto to cycle properly. Now she knows she has to hold her wrist firmly but not locked. No more problems.

What was funny was that she never had that problem with my Mil Spec .45. She's a little tiny thing at 97 pounds and had to really firmly grip the .45 to hold it on target, but the .380 was light enough that she limp wristed accidentally.

 

[NukemJim]

lightweight slide to frame ratio

Not sure what you mean with the above

Slide weight divided by frame weight ?

I was under the impression (quite possibly wrong) was that it had to do with a lightweight frame, but I do not know.

If you could help my misunderstanding it would be appreciated

NukemJim

 

[280PLUS]

Ditto on Nukem's comment. I just had my BHP apart last night and I would swear the slide weighs more than the frame. But I wouild have to weigh them to prove that.

The other thing about limp wristing vs cycle problems is when the USN taught me to shoot a .45 the Master Chief Gunnersmate had us holding the gun VERY loosely in our hands in the "cup and saucer" style grip. Not once was there a feeding problem, with my weapon anyways, and I spent 2 hours a night for 2 weeks shooting it.

Please, I'm not trying to start a new limp wristing war. Just making observations.

Oh, well duh, the slide was not loaded when I had it apart. That may explain it. But it sure does feel like a feather when it's empty.

 

[Hawk]

A lot of us think "limp wristing" has nothing to do with either the words "limp" or "wrist" but is rather an incantation meant to invoke the demons of "go away, I sold you a gun that doesn't run".

It is most often employed, along with other signs and sigels, by gun dealers who have just been told of a jam in a new toy. In these cases it can be invoked without the dealer in question even observing the malfunction. The noob then wanders off, until he learns by trial and error that the gun really was a dog.

Slide on over to the semi-auto forum and do a search. One limp-wrist thread was actually stickied for awhile.

I'll concede it actually exists but it's used as such a "catch all" diagnosis by so many that it makes it needlessly difficult for those that diagnose it in a thoughtful fashion.

 

[280PLUS]

I'd concede the same as I know of one case where hubby shoots the same gun same ammo no problem but wifey jams it all the time. And it's something like a .32 Pardini IIRC so it's not like it's a piece of trash.

 

[www]

nitrogen

Limp wristing is simply failing to lock the wrist. Some who have this problem think gripping the gun harder will solve the problem. It may in some cases, but it also a hurts their scores. Keep a firm but comfortable grip on the gun and consentrate on locking the wrist.
By purposely allowing the muzzle to flip, you may be anticipating the recoil. That is not a good thing. It will also hurt your score.
Hope this helps.

 

[benEzra]

A recoil-operated semiautomatic pistol is cycled when the recoil pushes the slide backward. In order for it to cycle, the frame has to be held stationary. (i.e., you can't rack the slide of a semiauto without firmly holding the frame, else you're just waving it around by the slide.)

If the gun is held loosely enough, the recoil may move the whole gun instead of just the slide, causing the slide to short-stroke and fail to feed the next round. That's limp-wristing.

Some pistols are less prone to it than others, because of the frame's inertia, the recoil spring configuration, etc. etc.

 

[oweno]

In line with what Hawk said above, in my painful experience with an AT-84, "limp wristing" is what the importer and his so-called gunsmith blame for a pistol that won't feed, won't eject, and won't go bang when the trigger is pulled.

It's been over 20 years since I had this unpleasant experiance with this "Swiss designed/Italian made" nightmare and I ain't forgotten it.

On it's best day, it *might*, *might* function properly for 2 rounds in a row.

...and yes, I'm STILL angry about this....

grumble....mutter....

But I learned a good lesson. Never, ever trust the reviews published in the national gun magazines. "Handled 250 rounds of mixed ammo with nary a bobble." Yeah, right.

 

[ball3006]

It is a condition that is the...

result of young, maybe, guys doing too much "cuffing the carrot"...........someone told me this........chris3

 

[LJWebster1]

I look at it like this. If you hung your semi auto from the ceiling by a string and then fired it, the recoil would make the entire gun go backwards, instead of just the slide, which would mean that the spent round would not eject and the new round would not feed. By holding the frame stationary, just the slide moves back, enabling ejection of the spent round and feeding of the next round. Failure to hold the gun stationary could cause problems to a greater or lesser degree, depending on the amount of travel the entire gun has backwards.

 

[Hawk]

Originally Posted by Jammer Six
Everyone has a limp wrist in the seconds after they've been shot.

A weapon that won't function with a "limp wrist" is a weapon that might not function when you need it most. It's an argument against tiny weapons. It's one of the big things (besides reliability) that tiny 1911s compromise.

Better to have that big, heavy, inconvenient chunk of steel that soaks up recoil and functions when you hold it with two fingers, in the one hand that is still working.

Lots more good stuff over in "semi auto".

An interesting experiment is to take a gun that's running like a top and try to induce a "limp-wrist" malf.

There's also anecdotes of what originally appeared to be "limp wrist" actually being "thumb on slide" (how this doesn't obviously abrade the thumb is unclear).

Be very, very suspect of "limp wrist" offered in explanation for why your gun doesn't work. Ransom rests are easily rented and often provide interesting results...

 

[ceetee]

What benEzra and Webster said.

I'm a fairly accomplished revo shooter, but when I got my first auto (in a serious caliber... not counting that pesky Raven ) I found myself doing two things: First, I was not holding the gun firmly enough (limp-wristing) and second, I was accidentally bumping the slide release on recoil.

No wonder the gun was "jamming" all the time! I soon learned.

 

[JMusic]

Hawk I tend to agree with you it is an overused term with gun dealers. A semi auto works a some fairly basic physics principles. One being for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The reloading process of a semi auto pistol uses this property to some degree depending on action type. Simply put there is an expected amount of resistance to recoil that the pistol needs in order to work properly. Something less than this is limp wristing.

 

[Hawk]

there is an expected amount of resistance to recoil that the pistol needs in order to work properly. Something less than this is limp wristing.

To my mind, that's an excellent definition of the term.

I do maintain that actually doing that is easier said than done. Even with a mini-1911, in a 2-fingered grip, as loose as I could use without risking dropping the thing, I couldn't induce a malf.

On a product diagnosed as "limp wrist", locking it into a rest didn't fix it.

If a normal grip doesn't get the job done, it's not you - it's the gun.

One should never find oneself going to extraordinary measures to cure limp wrist. You won't be able to do it under stress anyway - replace the offending article with something that doesn't need coddling.

 

[JMusic]

I did have it happen to me once and to your point Hawk it probably was the gun. I had purchased a glock 27. It would eat everything but 180's if I held it with a "relaxed" grip. Once broke in it ceased to fail and now will shoot everything.
Jim