One-Hand Shooting - Off Hand Problems

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Doublehelix

Doublehelix

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I will be the first to admit that I do not practice my one-hand shooting often enough. And even less with my off hand (I am a right-handed shooter, so shooting with my left hand only).

I was working on this yesterday since I got word that the classifier for this coming weekend's USPSA match involves some one-handed shooting.

The problem was that the slide kept locking back even though the gun was still full of ammo. This didn't happen every shot of course, just randomly, but sometimes it would happen twice in a row, or even 3 out of 4 shots. Grrrrrr.... :fire:

OK... sounds like my left hand was riding the slide release, right? I kept my hand away pretty well, unless it was hitting during recoil and I could not sense it.

One of the things I just added to my competition gun is the Dawson extended mag release, which is HUGE and sticks out about 15-20 inches from the grip. :)))

When I tried hard to keep my hand away from the mag release, it seemed to help.

Could riding the mag release cause the slide to lock back? The mags never fell out, and stayed locked solid in place, so it was not enough to eject a mag. I have never heard of this happening, so I just wanted to ask so I can work to isolate the cause.

I just can't imagine I was riding the slide release as I was paying pretty close attention to making sure that I wasn't.

Thoughts?
 
Update:

I did some dry fire work this morning using my left hand only, and it guess it does look like my left trigger finger could be hitting the slide lock lever (which is actually a Nitrofin thumb rest). I will do some more dry fire today, and then head back out to the range for some more live fire testing tomorrow.

I am pretty sure that is what is going on now that I have had a chance to evaluate in dry fire.
 
I can't remember if it was from Dawson, but I put a longer mag release on my gun and also ordered a button that screws into the mag release. I had to take the button off cause it was just out there too far and I kept hitting it.
Also another possibility, since it's your "weak" hand you could be limp wristing it just enough at times that your combination of recoil spring/power factor is causing some problem. I'm guessing here though, but....
 
egd said:
I can't remember if it was from Dawson, but I put a longer mag release on my gun and also ordered a button that screws into the mag release. I had to take the button off cause it was just out there too far and I kept hitting it.
Also another possibility, since it's your "weak" hand you could be limp wristing it just enough at times that your combination of recoil spring/power factor is causing some problem. I'm guessing here though, but....
Click to expand...

Dang. That is actually a really great point that I hadn't even thought about before. Thanks for that. I have been trying to grip hard as I can, but you point is an excellent one.
 
I’m going to back the hitting-the-nitro-fin guess.

I was having a not-dissimilar problem, although it was the heel of my left hand during 2-handed during that was generating the lock-backs after I changed thumb rests. I liked the thumbrest. I liked the grip I was getting. I liked everything but the spurious lockbacks. So I ground on the slide stop until it didn’t function as a slide lock anymore! Still running it that way more than a year later. No regrets!
 
ATLDave said:
I’m going to back the hitting-the-nitro-fin guess.

I was having a not-dissimilar problem, although it was the heel of my left hand during 2-handed during that was generating the lock-backs after I changed thumb rests. I liked the thumbrest. I liked the grip I was getting. I liked everything but the spurious lockbacks. So I ground on the slide stop until it didn’t function as a slide lock anymore! Still running it that way more than a year later. No regrets!
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. Very interesting. I love my Nitro Fin, and this the first problem I have had. I need to look into this some more...
 
None of mine were NitroFin related, although the higher thumb line forced/encouraged by the fixed thumb rest I used was in the causal chain. After a few frustrating matches with 1-3 random slide locks, I just decided to grind out the stopping ledge. It just turns out not to matter in limited. I'd rather have everything else about the gun and my grip how I want it and do without slidelock functionality.... which I hope to never use.
 
Drill a dimple into the slide stop so the plunger locks it in place better or do what ATLDave said
 
waktasz said:
Drill a dimple into the slide stop so the plunger locks it in place better or do what ATLDave said
Click to expand...

I actually have done this already, and it really helps with reassembly, that is for sure.

UNFORTUNATELY: Even after practicing with it, it locked back on one shot during the Classifier yesterday. Ugh. Under the stress of the competition, I forgot to keep my hand clear for the first two shots. Had to clear the slide lockback, and in my rush, shot a Mike on the next round. Dang. What a disaster!

I need to figure out something...

ATLDave said:
None of mine were NitroFin related, although the higher thumb line forced/encouraged by the fixed thumb rest I used was in the causal chain. After a few frustrating matches with 1-3 random slide locks, I just decided to grind out the stopping ledge. It just turns out not to matter in limited. I'd rather have everything else about the gun and my grip how I want it and do without slidelock functionality.... which I hope to never use.
Click to expand...

Help me understand this.

So by grinding off the stopping ledge, you can never lock back the slide? Not sure if I want that either. The only time I have ever had a problem is with left-handed-only shooting, which comes up maybe once or twice a year.
 
Doublehelix said:
So by grinding off the stopping ledge, you can never lock back the slide? Not sure if I want that either.
Click to expand...

Correct. To me, it was worth it. Like I said, I wanted my grip a certain way, and I wanted my gun a certain way. I liked everything about how it was going except for the unexpected lockbacks in the middle of stages. They weren't constant... just enough to really surprise the heck out of me and ruin a stage.

I decided that the lockback function just wasn't that important to me, and not worth sacrificing any other aspect of performance. So, yeah, my gun cannot lock back. Also, it's been kind of amusing the one or two times I've been at a static/square public range and had an RO or someone else handle the gun... and try to lock back the slide. I tell them it doesn't, and they don't believe me. They think I'm just doing it wrong by not applying enough force to the lever or whatever. I get a cheap laugh. But that's just a bonus. :p
 
Doublehelix said:
I actually have done this already, and it really helps with reassembly, that is for sure.

UNFORTUNATELY: Even after practicing with it, it locked back on one shot during the Classifier yesterday. Ugh. Under the stress of the competition, I forgot to keep my hand clear for the first two shots. Had to clear the slide lockback, and in my rush, shot a Mike on the next round. Dang. What a disaster!

I need to figure out something...



Help me understand this.

So by grinding off the stopping ledge, you can never lock back the slide? Not sure if I want that either. The only time I have ever had a problem is with left-handed-only shooting, which comes up maybe once or twice a year.
Click to expand...

Just get rid of it and learn to hold the gun right :)
 
You don't understand, we're shooting manly man major PF. Not that airsoft-level production stuff.
 
I have Limited guns too. It's just too easy shooting major scoring with 21 round mags against the locals so I prefer Production ;)
 
Hehe... been out of town for a couple of days, and I see that we have degraded to waddling penguins!!! LOL! :rofl:

As mentioned, I have no problems with a standard two-handed grip, or even strong-hand-only grip, it is just that silly weak hand that gets me into trouble. :mad:

I don't think I am ready (yet) to disable the slide lock, but just need to spend some time working on my weak hand shooting and see how it goes.

OH! And practice my penguin waddle which seems to be in vogue right about now!!!
 
Seems like you have 4 options:
  • Change how you grip the gun when you shoot left-handed;
  • Change to a different thumbrest/slide release that doesn't get bumped by your current grip during left-handed shooting;
  • Disable the slide-locking feature; or
  • Just live with bad times on WHO stages due to unexpected slide locks.
I'll admit that the calculus on 1 or 2 versus 3 is perhaps a little different than when you are getting it during freestyle shooting. Changing your WHO grip may not be that big a deal...
 
Just looking at the Nitro Fin thumb rest

1407294510727194787412.jpg

I'd think you could trim the rear a bit to clear, your support hand trigger finger, without adversely affecting it's inherent functionality.

Personally, for USPSA competition, I'd just disable the slide lock
 
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