J Frame Pain Management

Id suggest you send your gun off for magna-porting...its cuts the recoil twist and torque and barrel flip by half in my oppinion.

Deaf Smith said:

Guys,

Just get a ping-pong paddle and every day slap your hand with the paddle ten times. After a few weeks the J .38s won't bother you at all.

I used to own and shoot a S&W 340PD with .357 magnums. Kind of like that ping-pong paddle I tell you.

Deaf

Click to expand...

Deaf,
I feel your pain. I have made that mistake too. As for the OP, My 340PD has rubber grips too and even hot 38's aren't much fun. I've even started trying to educate my left hand.......I am VERY right handed. Aggg!! I have found happiness with a Kahr PM9. I try to hold my range time with it to 50 rounds and the remainder with heavier guns. Hopefully, you will find a good solution too.

My mistake

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Join Date: December 24, 2002
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Quote:
Guys, I don't think you're listening to the OP, he said he has a S&W Bodyguard 38, not a "normal" S&W J frame. I'm not sure it's as easy to change grips on the Bodyguard 38 as with the J frame. Remember, the Bodyguard 38 is the polymer frame revolver and it's a completely different design over the J frame revolver.
A very good point. Unfortunately Smith & Wesson's advertising/sales departments lack the intellect to assign new names to new products, and this can and does sometimes cause confusion. Be sure you know what you are dealing with before making recommendations"

My mistake

Doubletap

I have Houge monogrips on my 44mag and 357 mag. If you can get by the ugly part they are very comfortable. I am more comfortable with the model that leaves the backstrap exposed.

Does anyone know if you can even change grips on this new model polymer gun?

Wear gloves when you practice.

You won't care about the pain if you have to defend yourself, only when practicing. And if it hurts too much, you simply won't practice. So either gloves or a new set of rubber grips that cover the back.

Hogue will make a replacement grip soon: http://www.hoguestore.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=22_35_729&products_id=7868



From the pictured profile, it looks like the Pachmayr grips my father had on his Model 60 Chief's Special when I inherited it. Very comfortable to shoot, but with the long butt not very conducive to concealed carry. I put a Hogue Bantam grip on it, which is a similar profile to the stock grips + Tyler T-Grip, and it is now my daily carry.

Limit you J frame shooting to 10-20 rounds max, I carry mine with factory slim grips and wear a glove at the range except for last 10 rounds.

The Old Fuff has had a radical thought: Why go through all this pain and suffering – not to mention the high risk of doing permanent damage to the bone structure in your wrists, hands and fingers – when you can simply lower the cartridge performance to match the size and weight of the platform?

Is it written that one must shoot .357 Magnum cartridges in ultra-light, small revolvers? How did anyone survive before current manufacturers introduced these platforms? Have bad guys (and occasionally gals) evolved to the point where nothing else will stop them?

The Old Fuff firmly believes that ammunition should be balanced against the size and weight of whatever it's being used in. Even the best (so called) high performance ammunition may not have the hoped-for result if it is not delivered to a precise place in an attacker. Wild follow-up shots are even less affective.

If nothing less then a .357 Magnum or larger will do consider carrying a larger/heavier gun. Your own body will thank you.

My Model 342 Ti-Lite left lingering pain in the base joint of my thumb, lasting 2+ weeks, as I recall. Being no dummy, I sold it, and kept my Airweight, which, though only a few ounces heavier, remained above the point of diminishing returns, leaving me with no lingering pain.

I am in the process of re-examining my carry weapons, and the feasibility of continuing my LE career, as the recoil of my duty SIG P229, in .40, is really scrambling the bones in my right wrist, so that I see the P229 as a torture device. (Keep in mind a P229 has a very hig bore axis, so the weapon applies more torque than a pistol with a lower bore axis.) I reckon
those big-bore magnums I fired in the 1980s are making themselves felt now; I wish I had never heard of the .44 Magnum, as it hurt back then, and is probably what is causing my problems now. Lesson: if it hurts long after the shooting session is over, stop doing it.

Having said that, make sure you are holding your weapon correctly, high on the grip. Holding too low on the grip causes more torque against the base of the thumb and the web of the hand. I sold my first SP101 because it hurt, but then realized I had been holding it too low. I bought another, and hold it high on the grip, so it does not hurt.

I like 125 grain Flat points at about 950 fps out of mine, for both carry and practice.

I am concerned that I will sacrifice both accuracy and penetration using hollowpoints with this gun.

I dunno about this whole J-frame pain management deal.

Sounds like the OP was shooting some hot stuff.

I generally tend to shoot either LRN or some FMJ which has a close POI to my carry ammo.
In addition, I don't tend to shoot the real heavy hitting stuff through my gun, just Federal Nyclads. The way I see it, it's a small gun with relatively decent hitting power. No real need to sit there stoking it with the hottest stuff I can jam into it if that's not what I'm planning on carrying.

Hey, if the J frames are that much of a chore to shoot, why not just find something that works better for you?

As I said earlier, I still shoot my J frames just to stay on top of them, but I rarely carry one anymore. Mostly a Glock 26 has taken their place. Basically they are the same sized gun, that carries twice the on board ammo, and can use my 17 or 19 mags as well, and I can shoot them all day, with no pain, even with hot ammo.

i "tame" the recoil on my S&W "J" frames by installing pachmayr presentation (small size) grips. fills the hand and makes shooting comfortable.

small size presentations havent been made in awhile so you have to scout around for them.

I'm with AK103. The Pachmayr Compaqs were a decent stop-gap measure, but my solution was simply to replace the 442 with a G26.

Simply cannot be worse than a .45 Colt from a Bond Arms derringer. I can get about three of those off before I have to switch back to buck or birdshot .410s.