Limp wrist tolerant autos

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If you limpwrist a Glock, especially the 17, it can cause everything from the empties landing on top of your head to failure of the slide to return to battery.
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Had the problem with the empties in addition to stove pipes like mad the first time I shot a handgun, which was a G17. Got better when I tightened up my grip, but it made me decide a Glock 17 probably wasn't going to be my best friend in a high stress situation. :)
 
limp wrist

I have a theory that all else being equal (Which of course, it never is.) a blow back would be less suceptible to limp wirst than a recoil operated action, the reason being the recoil operated action depends on the frame staying more or less put while the slide is pushed back by the recoil while on the other hand the blow back more or less blows itself apart.

The big drawback here is that most blowbacks are either cheap junk or if decent quality, they are 22 target guns or mouse guns. The Browning 380 and its clone the Bersa 380 would be decent quality pistols with decent size although the 380 cartridge is never going to drive the 9 mm Parabellum or the 45 ACP out of business.
 
I will admit my experience is limited. I've shot a few 1911's, an XD, Beretta Bobcat .25, Sig P226, and my own CZ-52 and Bulgarian Makarov.

When I was at my CCW course the woman next to me had a brand new Ruger 9mm, I could see that her grip was too low, and she jammed it about every 3rd round. That got me to thinking, so after the testing was over I had ammo left for my Mak, so I tried to get it to jam in the same manner as the Ruger. Held it as low on the grip as I could and not lose it, relaxed my wrist as much as possible. I was unable to make the Makarov malfunction in any way. I held it at funny angles, almost gangsta style, and did my best to turn my right arm into rubber. The Mak stubbornly refused to jam, FTE, or malfunction in any way.

I feel very good about my choice of carry guns. As a bonus, it cost me $149. :neener:
 
1911Tuner, you may be on to something. When I took out the 20lb spring in my Witness 10mm and replaced it with the stock 14lb one, the malfunctions stopped. However, it made it nearly impossible to shoot more than 30-40 rds.

However, I do need to get my wrists checked for Carpel Tunnel, because with the 20lb spring I still hurt like the dickens, only after 70rds. My wrists are stiff and painful for about the next 36 hours.:(
 
When I first began learning to shoot, I tried several different semi autos. I had the limp wristing problem pretty badly. The Beretta 92 was the only semi-auto I tried that did not care if I had the problem.
I don't have the issue now, I've fired several different semis including the .50 Desert Eagle with no problems.
 
Tuner,

Let's hear some of the other reasons besides the lighter spring to prevent the problem of "limpwristing"...if you don't mind?

I'm down to a 14lb spring, from a 18.5, shooting a power factor of @ 170 and it's sweet. :D
 
Ah, I was going to say my Desert Eagle
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Desert Eagles are very prone to limp wrist jams. At the range the guys next to me had a jammomatic DE, no matter which one of them shot it. I noticed it jammed more with some than others and inquired about it. He was thinking about sending it back and I asked about if they was limping it. Oh no way. So they let me try and it never did jam on me. He was convinced to hold on tight and lock into it. (and then proceeded to show me how to shoot my AR better than I could!)
 
That's interesting. Maybe I'm just gripping stiffer than I suspect. I would think that the gas-op system in the DE would reduce the likelyhood of this but but I can see how it might affect a FTF or the ejection path and cause malfs.
 
In clarification and fairness, the guy's DE that was jamming at the range was a 50 AE, dunno if that makes a difference or not.

My bro had a 44 DE for a few years and it never did it on us, but then again, we're used to shooting autoloaders.
 
From what I've seen with new shooters a "proper" grip is sometimes more important than how strong they actually grip the pistol or how stiff they keep thier arms.

A lot of new shooters for some reason try to grasp the gun too low so when the gun fires it slides down in the hand robbing the momentum it needs to cycle the action no matter how "stiff" a wrist they have. I can see a situation where a gun simply fit someone so bad regardless of form they might have jams while someone else built differently didn't.

Barring odd situation above I agree with Tuner. Every pistol I have will fire reliably even with a very light grip. If you have to have a death grip and have exact proper form for gun to work reliably there is problem with the gun regardless of what a manufacturer may say.
 
I have assorted 9mm Sigs, an H&K, CZ75 PCR, and Kahr P9 that are all very tolerant of 'limp wristing', i.e., it's never happened. The only gun in my aromory that is sensitive to limp wristing is a Kimber Ultra Carry - light, short, & sanppy. It's not chronic, it's operator error - just requires a firm grip.
 
In clarification and fairness, the guy's DE that was jamming at the range was a 50 AE, dunno if that makes a difference or not.
Click to expand...

Just as a side not, when I was testing loads for SWMBOs Desert Eagle 41 Mag, it was interesting when I tried a certain mid load of Blue Dot. In a weaver style stance, it failed to feed the next round but in an isosceles stance, it functioned okay enough to load the next round.
 
Limp wristing

I just want to relate something that happened to me once when I gave a friend of mine's daughter some instruction on firing handguns. All I had on the range that day was my 1911 series 70 and a Glock 30. The girl was only sixteen and not very strong in her arms. She fired the 1911 first. Here she had no problem firing handgun and hitting the six inch bull at 7meters. I the let her fire the Glock 30. She limp wristed it so badly that the Glock would not cycle at all. She had to cycle the Glock by hand after every shot. It is the first time I saw something like this. She still had no problem hitting the bull at 7meters with the Glock. I told her to hold the gun more firmly, after some time se was able to make it cycle. But she had to concentrate hard on holding on to the grip of the Glock.

All I can say it that handguns that are a bit top heavy are more prone to malfunctions if the grip on the handgun is not firm. Secondly, that try before you buy is a good idea.Most important is Proper instruction and regular practice.

wildehond
 
I can't deliberately induce a limp wrist malfunction so I don't worry about unintentional limp wristing.

I am not King Kong, either.

One day at the range, I installed a .40 S&W barrel in my Delta Elite, but I had left my lighter recoil spring at home. So I fired it with the 20# spring I normally use for hotter 10mm loads. No matter how loosely I held the pistol, I could not make it choke.

I do remember firing a small .22LR auto pistol years ago. It would function 100% for several other people, but when I fired it the next cartridge would pop out of the magazine and actually fly OVER the chamber, and completely out of the pistol. Various grip styles did not alter this happening. I could not make it perform properly, and my friend could not make it malfunction, even though we both tried numerous methods of gripping it.

It was a shame because the little gun was incredibly accurate.:banghead:
 
glocks are among the easiest to limp wrist. I tried intentionally limp wristing an XD, no failures whatsoever.

atek3
 
While at a course last year I noticed a lot of problems when we switched to non-dominant hand shooting. The people shooting the glocks had a hard time keeping them going. The USP and sig people faired much better. The revolver people seemed unfazed by the whole ordeal....:D
 
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