DeadMoneyDrew
Member
- Joined
- Jan 20, 2013
- Messages
- 265
Hey folks! Today while on a visit to my local gun range I decided on a whim to rent a snubbie and give it a try. This was the first time that I ever fired a handgun smaller than my brother's compact Glock (and I've only fired that one on a couple of occasions). I rented the Ruger LCR .357 model and shot some .38 through it.
I fully expected to hate the experience since I'm a big guy with big hands, but boy was I pleasantly surprised! That little bugger was a handful but I had an absolute blast popping away with it. The only thing that stopped me from taking one home with me was the fact that I live in Delaware and this gun shop is in Pennsylvania. Booooo stupid firearm transfer laws.
Since this was an impromptu rental, I had no clue how to grip the thing properly, and there was no one around that I could ask for help since it was the middle of the day and I practically had the whole place to myself. After getting home I looked up a couple of instructional videos on YouTube, and of course I found out that when I was shooting I had my thumbs placed totally incorrectly. I was shooting two handed, and I had both of my thumbs on the left side of the frame just below the cylinder. From the YouTube videos I see that I should have had my left thumb crossed along the back side of my right hand. (I'm a rightie.)
Twice when I was shooting I experienced a failure to fire. I'm virtually certain that this was shooter error as opposed to some other problem. Both times it felt and sounded like the cylinder didn't fully rotate. Also it felt like my trigger squeeze was hesitant/sloppy/etc. I'd compare it to a baseball player attempting to check his swing but then hitting a pop up by mistake.
What could have caused that? The bad thumb position? A jerky trigger squeeze? Some other shooter error?
I fully expected to hate the experience since I'm a big guy with big hands, but boy was I pleasantly surprised! That little bugger was a handful but I had an absolute blast popping away with it. The only thing that stopped me from taking one home with me was the fact that I live in Delaware and this gun shop is in Pennsylvania. Booooo stupid firearm transfer laws.
Since this was an impromptu rental, I had no clue how to grip the thing properly, and there was no one around that I could ask for help since it was the middle of the day and I practically had the whole place to myself. After getting home I looked up a couple of instructional videos on YouTube, and of course I found out that when I was shooting I had my thumbs placed totally incorrectly. I was shooting two handed, and I had both of my thumbs on the left side of the frame just below the cylinder. From the YouTube videos I see that I should have had my left thumb crossed along the back side of my right hand. (I'm a rightie.)
Twice when I was shooting I experienced a failure to fire. I'm virtually certain that this was shooter error as opposed to some other problem. Both times it felt and sounded like the cylinder didn't fully rotate. Also it felt like my trigger squeeze was hesitant/sloppy/etc. I'd compare it to a baseball player attempting to check his swing but then hitting a pop up by mistake.
What could have caused that? The bad thumb position? A jerky trigger squeeze? Some other shooter error?
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