Another Range mishap!

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kmw1954

kmw1954

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While working as RO at the 25yd range yesterday I had a customer come in and right away they announce that the one fellow had never shot before and could I watch and help out with pointers. As it were the range was about half full (22 benches) so I couldn't just stand by and observe and assist.

They had 2 semi-auto pistols. one small frame 380 and a S&W SD9VE. The new shooter was an older fellow and quite large framed. He seemed apprehensive the whole time and with his large hands was struggling with the small pistol.

After some instruction and dry fire I could see that his grip was going to cause a problem so I tried to demonstrate and correct his grip. Seemed to help.

They shot for about 1.5hrs OK and then he came up to me and announced he needed help. His hand was covered in blood. Classic Slide Thumb. Called our SRO on the radio and he came to assist. We Had two gauze rolls in the cabinet and he used both. We wrapped him as best we could and sent him and his companion to the ER.

He split that thumb from the 1st knuckle to about 1/2" past the 2nd, Guessing he was going to need multiple stitches. No report back from them. Still it must have been my day because 40minutes later we got another one. Only this one was very minor.

The joys of very new shooters. I just wish I could spend about 2 hours with them before they ever approach a bench.
 
Indoor or outdoor range? Since RSO’s can’t be everywhere, maybe making a poster or two (laminated if outdoor) showing a proper grip may lessen the chances of a slide cut?

Just a suggestion :).

I remember being about 10 when my Dad took me out and let me shoot his Colt Huntsman out in the desert. He curled his right thumb over his left hand (Lefty shooter) and got a small cut on the first shot he fired. Immediate lesson learned, I’ve never repeated it. :thumbup:

Hopefully the injured guys are both ok and continue shooting in the future.

Stay safe.
 
SSN Vet said:
Might be a good idea to require new users to watch a basic range safety video. Might have add'l videos on "handgun basics" etc...

But then again, you may be incurring add'l liability if you train them.
Click to expand...

Facilities stand is that it is not our place to train people, not what we are there for. Sadly I do not have a good answer for this either. I think many people including New Shooters would stay away if we instituted that policy.
 
I think it's an unfortunate result of the subcompact trend. Everyone pushes the smallest pistol available, when the only real benefit is convenience to conceal and carry. You end up seeing the Will Smith MiB Noisy Cricket situation...
will-smith-cricket-gun-20130723-143109.png

I'm NOT a big guy, and DON'T have huge hands. I DO comfortably shoot 1911's, Sig P226, Beretta 92, CZ 75 without issue. Smallest framed gun I have is a P64, smallest I am comfortable shooting without spending extra time on my grip is a CZ 82.

kmw1954 said:
Facilities stand is that it is not our place to train people, not what we are there for. Sadly I do not have a good answer for this either. I think many people including New Shooters would stay away if we instituted that policy
Click to expand...
I think you're right. I know how to shoot, I have my firearm, ammo and targets. I will follow range rules, and will make friendly conversation with the employees at the range I belong to. But I'm not 'taking a class', and not interested in it. I don't want to be bothered when I'm shooting, it's a matter of relaxing for me. Some of these places get all gung-ho, and it's overbearing.
 
I am of the opinion that new shooters should train with the largest frame pistol they can handle (not largest caliber). Recoil will generally be less and there is more room to absorb bad technique or grip. I had someone I knew shoot my CZ 75 SP01 once. That worked well enough even though their grip was poor.

The only pistol I ever cut myself on was an old Jennings 380. It cut the web of my hand as there was little or no beavertail on that pistol (small cut). It surprisingly shot okay, but I never shot it again after that. It never occurred to me that someone could cut open their thumb open putting it in the way of the slide. I guess I learned the right grip (mostly) as a kid and never messed up that bad.
 
kmw1954 said:
While working as RO at the 25yd range yesterday I had a customer come in and right away they announce that the one fellow had never shot before and could I watch and help out with pointers. As it were the range was about half full (22 benches) so I couldn't just stand by and observe and assist.

They had 2 semi-auto pistols. one small frame 380 and a S&W SD9VE. The new shooter was an older fellow and quite large framed. He seemed apprehensive the whole time and with his large hands was struggling with the small pistol.

After some instruction and dry fire I could see that his grip was going to cause a problem so I tried to demonstrate and correct his grip. Seemed to help.

They shot for about 1.5hrs OK and then he came up to me and announced he needed help. His hand was covered in blood. Classic Slide Thumb. Called our SRO on the radio and he came to assist. We Had two gauze rolls in the cabinet and he used both. We wrapped him as best we could and sent him and his companion to the ER.

He split that thumb from the 1st knuckle to about 1/2" past the 2nd, Guessing he was going to need multiple stitches. No report back from them. Still it must have been my day because 40minutes later we got another one. Only this one was very minor.

The joys of very new shooters. I just wish I could spend about 2 hours with them before they ever approach a bench.
Click to expand...

I do hope they cleaned up that pistol well,blood can cause rust dontchaknow !.
 
I have seen new shooters put their thumb up couple times lucky the RO was there . I heard the RO say don't ever put your thumb behind the slide you'll only do it once
 
Ignition Override said:
It might also be " Far Too Much Publicity (not just books) By Navy SEALs" and the influence on regular people who need "tactical" in their lives?

Never mind a prev. White House Admin. leaking the words "Seal Team Six" to the media........
Click to expand...

Nowadays?

Who knows...

I would like to coin the term "Tacticulopathy."

And I want it to have pathological connotations!
 
Well...nothing teaches one how to use a hammer correctly faster than a bloody thumb.

Part of choosing a handgun suitable for oneself is, in fact, finding one which fits their hand comfortably. One might even go so far as to say "properly". This is why I always make this one of the important factors anybody should seriously consider, along with many other things people often talk about.

I've passed on a few handguns I've thought were mightly fine looking and would have loved to have owned...but for the fact that I picked one up and discovered how uncomfortable it was in my hand for one reason or another.

Semi-autos have a very significant exterior moving part that must be given consideration with respect to proper grip. Failure to do so may lead to failure to feed problems to bloody hands.
 
I have almost lost count of how many times I have seen a new shooter square off to a target like this, I'm certain I have saved at least 3 people from ER trips because they were able to hear me over their ear pro. I am not usually one to poke my nose in others business but when you see it you can't help but intervene for their own welfare.

I've even had new shooters under my own instruction, after explicitly demonstrating, "DO NOT DO THIS" with emphasis on correct grip revert back to this weird thumb directly behind the slide hold. It's bad news man....

IMG_20210910_184355.jpg
 
I once had the opportunity to let some people shoot at my back yard range that were visiting from a foreign country, one of them spoke very broken English, none of them had ever held a gun of any type.

Safety was a BIG issue, multiplied many times by the almost total language barrier. One guy in particular kept wanting to hold my 25-2 with his hand around the cylinder.

I tried to explain the gasses coming from the cylinder gap, but he just wasn’t getting it. I finally sent my son after a piece of paper. I held the paper beside the gun and fired it, which of course shredded the paper. Boy the look on his face, I didn’t have to stop him from that again.

fwiw: if you ever get asked to take people shooting and you don’t share a common language, you will probably want to pass.. it is very difficult to convey the dangers and basic safety… I guess all these translation apps may make things easier, but I still want do it again, it was a scary experience.
 
In the Navy I made the mistake of crossing my left thumb over my right with a 1911…Once!
Years later, 35 years later, I was shooting one of my Glocks and decided to shoot left handed for practice and I’ll be darned if I didn’t put my right thumb over my left and BAM! Skinned my thumb knuckle good. I have no idea what the heck I was thinking. Anyway, it was a bit humbling.

One range I used to go to had a poster with a photo of someone improperly gripping a semiauto with a big circle with a slash through it and the words “Watch your grip”. I asked if that poster helped. The gent behind the counter said that he thought it did. He said newbies would look at the poster and ask what it meant and he would explain it to them.
Perhaps a poster might help?

We’ll look what I found:
624187D1-C845-4D8C-9765-6A917BBF4749.jpeg
It’s from this site:
https://www.agirlandagun.org/
 
Last edited:
DustyGmt said:
I have almost lost count of how many times I have seen a new shooter square off to a target like this, I'm certain I have saved at least 3 people from ER trips because they were able to hear me over their ear pro. I am not usually one to poke my nose in others business but when you see it you can't help but intervene for their own welfare.

I've even had new shooters under my own instruction, after explicitly demonstrating, "DO NOT DO THIS" with emphasis on correct grip revert back to this weird thumb directly behind the slide hold. It's bad news man....

View attachment 1024620
Click to expand...
Wow, that is definetely a terrible grip
 
Oh yeah...years ago, before I ever bought my 1st handgun, I took a girl I was trying to date on an outing to the gun range. I hadn't shot many handguns up to that point, but I was trying to impress this girl. I rented a 9mm, a 45, and a 38 to try out. Anyway, I was showing her how to grip the autoloaders, and emphasizing the importance of not wrapping the support hand thumb behind the the strong hand. I had taken a decent bit of meat off my thumb knuckle years before doing that with a PPK. Anyway, I switched to shooting the 38, and then to the 45. I had been wrapping my off hand thumb around with the revolver, and used the same grip with that 45. Whacked my knuckle pretty good and opened up a good size flap of skin. With a trickle of blood dripping off my hand I had to tell this girl, "See, this is what happens if you wrap your thumb around." Tried to play it off, but good lord, did that hurt. Two things never happened again after that day, I've never wrapped my thumb behind shooting any handgun, and I never went on another date with that girl;)
 
It's a basic misunderstanding of how a firearm works. When you see this type of improper grip placement it's evident they are completely clueless as to how the firearm works. They don't know that the slide cycles rearward to eject/feed a new round off the top of the magazine. I have known people that didn't know that the shell ejected out of the gun and thought that the entire cartridge, projectile and all came out the end..... lol
 
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