(Note: Answer the poll before doing anything else) and Sorry for the long post! Even if you just answer the poll and nothing else, that would be useful.
Okay, I read it all the time:
"The grip was WAY too big for me, and I have pretty large hands"
or
"It was very comfortable, even for my smallish hands and stubby fingers."
Et cetera.
But I always wonder what constitutes small, medium, large hands. Obviously there are different ways of measuring. But it would be good to know sort of a baseline, so we aren't misleading others. (For example, if I perceive myself to have average hands but they are actually LARGE, then I tell someone on the internet that such and such gun is very easy/comfortable to grip, and they have small hands but perceive themselves to have average hands, there is a huge disparity there.)
So I am bored at work and maybe you are too, and I happen to have a ruler so I measured some things! (No, not THAT thing. See below for how/what I measured) It should only take a few seconds and I think could yield some interesting results if we get enough folks to participate.
* Trigger Finger Length = 4.4"
** Spread = 9.0"
*** Palm length = 4.4"
**** Palm width = 3.6"
Here is how I measured.
* Trigger Finger Length: Find an L somewhere, maybe a corner of a room or in my case, my L-shaped desk. Stick your 3rd knuckle into the corner and straighten your finger. Measure from the corner out to the edge of your finger.
**Spread: Spread your thumb and fingers as WIDE as they will go, comfortably. Kind of like when you made those turkey drawings as a kid. Either outline your hand or just put a dot at the edge of your thumb and pinky, and measure the distance in between them.
***Palm Length: This is kind of the hardest to measure. I just went from the first wrinkle of my middle finger, to the first wrinkle on my wrist. I hope that makes sense.
**** Palm width: I took this measurement at the knuckles. Basically you judo-chop your desk and measure the height of your hand at the knuckles. Or with all 4 fingers together, mark on paper and measure.
Now, I never considered myself to have "big hands" but I have always considered my fingers skinny/long. I have never had trouble gripping a Glock or Beretta 92, and on some smaller guns I don't know what to do with my fingers sometimes. So maybe I have large hands but I dunno! That is the whole point of this. I will answer slightly above average for the poll, maybe after this is all said and done I will discover that my perception was erroneous.
Nerd alert: The goal of the poll is that in theory, we should have a relatively normal (bell-shaped) distribution of the responses, and if it is skewed in either way, or inverse bell curve, then that means either gun-owners hand sizes are not representative of the overall population, or people's perceptions are deceiving them.
Okay, I read it all the time:
"The grip was WAY too big for me, and I have pretty large hands"
or
"It was very comfortable, even for my smallish hands and stubby fingers."
Et cetera.
But I always wonder what constitutes small, medium, large hands. Obviously there are different ways of measuring. But it would be good to know sort of a baseline, so we aren't misleading others. (For example, if I perceive myself to have average hands but they are actually LARGE, then I tell someone on the internet that such and such gun is very easy/comfortable to grip, and they have small hands but perceive themselves to have average hands, there is a huge disparity there.)
So I am bored at work and maybe you are too, and I happen to have a ruler so I measured some things! (No, not THAT thing. See below for how/what I measured) It should only take a few seconds and I think could yield some interesting results if we get enough folks to participate.
* Trigger Finger Length = 4.4"
** Spread = 9.0"
*** Palm length = 4.4"
**** Palm width = 3.6"
Here is how I measured.
* Trigger Finger Length: Find an L somewhere, maybe a corner of a room or in my case, my L-shaped desk. Stick your 3rd knuckle into the corner and straighten your finger. Measure from the corner out to the edge of your finger.
**Spread: Spread your thumb and fingers as WIDE as they will go, comfortably. Kind of like when you made those turkey drawings as a kid. Either outline your hand or just put a dot at the edge of your thumb and pinky, and measure the distance in between them.
***Palm Length: This is kind of the hardest to measure. I just went from the first wrinkle of my middle finger, to the first wrinkle on my wrist. I hope that makes sense.
**** Palm width: I took this measurement at the knuckles. Basically you judo-chop your desk and measure the height of your hand at the knuckles. Or with all 4 fingers together, mark on paper and measure.
Now, I never considered myself to have "big hands" but I have always considered my fingers skinny/long. I have never had trouble gripping a Glock or Beretta 92, and on some smaller guns I don't know what to do with my fingers sometimes. So maybe I have large hands but I dunno! That is the whole point of this. I will answer slightly above average for the poll, maybe after this is all said and done I will discover that my perception was erroneous.
Nerd alert: The goal of the poll is that in theory, we should have a relatively normal (bell-shaped) distribution of the responses, and if it is skewed in either way, or inverse bell curve, then that means either gun-owners hand sizes are not representative of the overall population, or people's perceptions are deceiving them.
There may also be some displacement between the range of hand sizes and how common they are among the general population (i.e. "large" may well be more average among the population than medium, even though medium is presumably the middle of the normal range, independent of population).
