I am down an arm.

Who else has had to work around this? What did you find was difficult, and any possible solutions?

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My son lost his left arm over 20 years ago.

He regularly carries a 1911 or a Glock with no problems. Only mod is an extended slide release to the Glock. Reloads are easily done by sticking the gun back in the holster.

I did this exact thing. I carried a Glock and learned to manipulate it onehanded. In fact, I had signed up for a class for injured shooters techniques (how convenient) and took it with a cast on my wrist and forearm.

You can do. I found the real world more trouble than the gun.

I also broke my ribs and badly sprained my ankle but took two gun courses in the cast and the ankle gizmo.

I can shoot reasonably well with my off hand now. Glocks are easy to manipulate one handed if manipulating one handed can be said to be easy.

My sympathies!!

mljdeckard said:

This morning I slipped on the ice and broke my left wrist. Yes, it's all yummy.

Of all the things going through my head, I considered how this will affect carry. I'm not sure I will carry at all, because I have too many disadvantages. I may switch from my 1911 to mt wife's XD 9mm. I will move my knife to my strong-side pocket. I doubt I will carry a reload, maybe in my strong-side coat pocket. If I'm spending some time on opiates I can't carry then.

I can't even tie my own shoes.

Who else has had to work around this? What did you find was difficult, and any possible solutions?

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Broke my right hand in Taekwondo way back in college. Drove back home one handed with a stick shift Toyota! Shot my aluminum frame Colt Commander .45 left handed and found I was a ROTTEN SHOT left handed.

Fast forward 40 or so years and you find me shooting with either hand (and can fight one handed if need be.) I learned that the hard way. I hope most of you see the light and practice week hand shooting as well as one handed and be able to use your hand and feet (not hands and feet) to defend yourself.

There are plenty of ways to injure one hand, so don't make your self defense system based on being able to use both hands. Never know when you might injure one of them.

Deaf

Three words :

Small Frame Revolver.

No muss, no fuss, no cocking, no slides- fits in an opposing pocket real nice.

Sorry to hear about your injury- here's to a speedy recovery !

IMHO, the greatest threat to the OP's personal well being right now may well be the risk of addiction to prescription pain killers. I've seen it happen to a co-worker. I suggest only taking them if absolutely necessary... And to be honest, I have a difficult time seeing them as ever being necessary for a broken wrist. Pain builds character

Eta... Ddn't see the comment about not liking the perk..... You should be good to go.

The new "thing" in 1911 rear sights is a robust sight with a ledge that can hook on any edge to cycle the slide... You can easily cycle the slide againstyour belt. Hilton Yam makes a good one.

Sorry to read about that.

Personally, I would still carry. When I practice one-hand drills, it's so I can stay in a fight if I lose the use of a hand. Not carrying beforehand seems similar to throwing my gun away when a hand goes out of commission. My trainer would fuss at me if I did that.

If ever there was an argument for a short barreled top break revolver this is it. The old Webley's and Enfields broke easily with one hand, and kicked out the empties with vigor.

But since double action top breaks are all but non-existant these days, any good short barreled revolver will do.

Reloading one handed is pretty simple and only a bit slower than two handed. If recoil is an issue using one hand, using a 38 spl normal pressure load with a good hollow point is only marginally less effective than all the super bullets that are hawked today. It's always been more important where you hit an adversary that what you hit them with.

Had to deal with the world one-handed for a while.

Footgear:
Sneakers that close with velcro.
"Roper" or similar cowboy boots.
You can also work with a spouse or buddy to tie your shoes loose enough to use them as slip-ons. Double-knot them so they stay tied.

Guns:
Revolvers are very tolerant of weak wrists while learning to shoot with the the weak hand. By using a speedloader, they are fairly easy to reload one-handed. You can take a knee to provide a horizontal surface to use for reloading. The sling holding the damaged arm is useful for this.
Or, carry a second gun for the reload.
A pocket gun or alloy snubbby hides well in a sling.
Cleaning guns one-handed is quite a task. Most solvents and oils will screw up casts, splints, etc.

Be careful not to over-use the good hand, especailly at first. The last thing you need is tendonitis or a sprain.

Once you get our of the cast _no handshaking_ for a while. Far too many people will grab, squash, and pump-shake that recently healing hand.

First, a prayer and wishing you a speedy recovery!

A 1911 with the GI guide rod is a good one-handed gun, and I see you have accomplished that already. I would add that multiple guns, a.k.a. The New York Reload, might be considered as well. I am fortunate to never have had one arm totally disabled, but I do sleep with a splint on one wrist, and used to sleep with both wrists splinted. I am able to properly grip my SP101 revolvers, and up to a K-frame revolver with small Uncle Mike's rubber Boot Grips, with the splint still on my hand. I would think, however, a cast might be too bulky to allow gripping a handgun.

FWIW, I have both left and right carry rigs for several of my carry guns, so I am reasonably equipped to deal with either hand/arm being out of commission.

Injured animals/people draw predators. Do not downgrade your gear.
Broke both forearm bones near my right wrist April 2012, dug out my left hand holsters, moved my knife to left hand. Shot the 3 remaining 3 days of the class LHO.
High capacity (GL19,17, 21 etc...)is your friend, 6 second 1 hand reloads suck, a 2nd high capacity pistol is your friend.
Practice 1 hand malf clearances. Paul Gomez did a lot on this, U tube etc...
Arm is healed now but I got 4000+ rounds LHO practice while casted/braced.
We are all 1 incoming round, fall or injury away from 1 handedness.
YMMV.

Welcome to THR cmcampbell!

Good advice.

Prayers for you to get well fast.

Being down a limb is always rough. I know I'm a little late to the suggestion party, and I feel like I don't have that much to contribute.

Right now, kydex holsters are your friend. If you need to shoot, it gives you a fast way to store your gun for your reloads, and another hard point on your belt for the one handed manipulation drills.

Reloading one handed is pretty simple and only a bit slower than two handed. If recoil is an issue using one hand, using a 38 spl normal pressure load with a good hollow point is only marginally less effective than all the super bullets that are hawked today. It's always been more important where you hit an adversary that what you hit them with.

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Jeepnik, are you refering to one handed revolver manipulation? If so, would you mind outlining the process? I'm having a hard time visualizing how one would go about reloading a revolver using only one hand.

Sorry for the thread drift...

Jeepnik, are you refering to one handed revolver manipulation? If so, would you mind outlining the process? I'm having a hard time visualizing how one would go about reloading a revolver using only one hand.

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A few years ago, my brother broke both the bones in his dominant (left) arm just short of the wrist, and we did some research and practicing of one-handed firearm manipulation as a result.

Here is what I worked out for administrative handling of the revolver one-handed (for someone with hands my size-- large gloves):

With a J-frame .38, if you are using your right hand, the cylinder release is still activated by the right thumb, and then the cylinder is popped open by the trigger finger or a combination of the trigger and middle fingers. Then you shift hand forward, cupping the revolver so that the trigger finder is around the frame under the barrel, the tip of the middle finger gets the ejector rod, the thumb curls over the top of the frame, and the ring and pinky finders curl around the front of the grip frame or the trigger guard, depending on how things fall out for you.

The middle finger actuates the ejector rod. If you are just unloading your gun, they should fall out with gravity, but if you are reloading a gun you have fired dry, on a J-frame with just a fingertip on the ejector rod, in what is probably an awkward manipulation, the empties may not all come out, or not all come out all the way.

That's okay, because the next step is to lay the gun down anyway, with the open cylinder up. Lay it down on your thigh, you shoe, your opposite forearm, a table, a chair, the ground, whatever the circumstances dictate. I've read where someone thought you could stuff the gun down inside your waistband with the ejector rod hooked over your belt, but I've never been able to satisfactorily get that to work, even with a K-frame and a 3 or 4 inch barrel. It'll go in and stay there, but I don't like it. With my little 642, it's never going to work because there isn't enough barrel length to hold it in place, like there might be if your belly and belt work to do that with a longer barreled, heavier gun.

So, for me, the gun is laid down on something or some convenient body part. If the empty cases didn't come out all the way when you did the ejector rod thing, pluck them out individually now.

Access your reload. If they are loose rounds, put the rounds in one at a time and slide them in all the way to the rim. You can turn the cylinder to give you better access to the empty chamber you are trying to load if you need to. If the reload is in a speed strip, do one or two at a time, but make sure that after you strip them into the chambers, you push the rounds all the way in. Once you have finished filling the chambers, hook your thumb around the cylinder, your fingers on the far side of the gun, and push the cylinder back into the window and lock it in place. Pick the gun up and shift it in your grip until you have it back in a shooting position.

If your reload is in a speed loader, you won't be able to put your rounds in while the gun is lying down. You will have to try the belt thing so that the rounds can fall into the chambers. For myself, I fumble speed loaders enough when I have both hands. If I'm one handed, I hope I'm not down to just my speed loaders to reload my revolver, but if I am, I'll dump them out of the speed loader and use them loose in preference to trying to line everything up at once with just the one hand.

Experimenting for yourself is the way to work this out. Please use dummy rounds! Also, to ensure that you are truly doing it one-handed when you practice, if you have the use of both of your hands and you are doing this for future reference, put a sock over the hand you don't intend to use to remind you not to touch the gun with it.

Opening the cylinder left-handed is tricky. I flip the gun around in my hand so that the trigger guard is against my palm, so that I can hook the cylinder release upward with my left thumb and pop the cylinder out with the tip of the middle finger. Holding the cylinder open with the left thumb, the left trigger finger pushes down on the ejector rod while the middle finger is hooked through the frame window. The cases don't usually come out all the way, but can be removed and the revolver reloaded as above. When you close the cylinder, press it into the frame with the tips of the trigger and middle finger, while the thumb is on the opposite side of the frame and the ring and pinky fingers are curled around the grip. Then adjust to firing position for continued action or reholstering.

This process is not fast.

I usually shoot a couple of cylinders full one handed on each side every practice session.

I don't practice shooting it often enough, though. I dry fire it a lot more than actually shooting it.

Sorry to hear that. I had a very short fall in sept 2011. Totally destroyed my right elbow. Nearly lost it. Experimental procedure to save it. I am right handed. Im at therapy laying on a table as I type this. I've been here for 14&1/2 months. Im trying to get into another elbow specialist that may say there is something else he can do. I've been trying this for a few months. After they review my records and xrays they tell me they can not help. I can't touch my face with my right hand. It doesn't bend that far. Worse yet, it wont bend enough to reach the trigger on a long gun. I've developed my own way of shooting from a bench. It works very well. Ill probably never be able to shoot a handgun again other than one handed left handed. There is still tremendous pain from the slightest touch to the elbow or forearm.(the forearm was broken in 3 places and split in half along the length as well) It really sucks. Really bad. But, it could be worse. I've got 2 hands. Just can't use the arm for anything hardly.

My daughter was born one handed, congenital lack of left fore arm, has her left elbow joint. She ties her own shoes and has since before kindergarten. She has my Colt Woodsman and can run it very well. She prefers that to the S&W 642 and 36 that I gave her. She is a good shot and can run all my guns except the lever actions. She is quite deadly with my 10/22 with the folding stock because the pistol grip gives her something to control the gun, She wraps the sling around her left arm to control/support the front.


She does not reload very fast but her accuracy is quite good. She racks the slide either between her side and her short arm or once in a while can grab it in the bend. She rack slides of larger guns on the shooting or some such ledge by catching the front sight. She mostly does a "tac" reload when she has on left in the chamber keeps her counting and in control while shooting and therefore she does not have to rack after a reload.

mljdeckard said:

What to doodle on my cast?

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My daughter had one in Hot pink. Now where did my wife put my sharpie?

I have learned to do some things lefty. I've had other problems from the injury that I wont get into here that has greatly affected me as well. Its been quite an ordeal. Im not whining and complaining, im sharing this with you bc you asked. There is lots more. If you need to vent to somebody that completely understands sometime, feel free to pm me. Im 34, and never missed a single day of work from an injury. 16 years.

Brian, that's horrible. Glad that she seems to get along fairly well. People don't realize how lucky they are when their children are born healthy and deformity free.

Slipped on ice twice in the last 7 years. Put my arthritic right shoulder out of commission for close to a year the first time. My arthritic left should was put out of commission for about 8 months the second time.

My mistake? Because there were no bones broken, I let myself heal on my own terms. Bad move. GO TO A PHYSICAL THERAPIST. He may not make your bones heal faster, but he'll make the pain go away sooner. The drawback is you'll do exercises that will hurt at first. And if he says "don't shoot for a while " DON'T SHOOT FOR AWHILE!

Best wishes on your recovery.