Some guns are just hard to shoot

[AZAndy]

Time to upgrade to a .38S&W Regulation Police.



I have a Squeezer like you're talking about, and agree with you. RP is much better.

 

[Carl N. Brown]

If a gun does not fit my hand, too big or too small, or if the controls are just off my fingertip's reach too near or too far, it will be hard for me to shoot it well no matter how great the reputation of the gun may be or how much success others have had with the same gun.

It does not mean the gun is hard to shoot; it means the gun is hard for me to shoot.

Basically for the same reason I would not be able to hike as well in size 12 highdollar hiking boots as in my size 8W army/navy surplus combat boots. One size fits all is a fallacy.

 

[MIOkie]

Chicharrones...

You have inadvertantly helped me resolve a dilemma that has toyed with me for a couple years now.

Should I purchase a NAA Guardian...??

I really like the quality of their mini-revolvers and have assumed their auto would be no different.

But, seeing how yours drove you to aggression, I think I will just cross it off my list of future possibilities. Thank-You...!

To stay on topic, my NAA mini-revolver in .22 mag is quite a little handful. Almost impossible to keep follow-up shots on target without readjusting it. No pain though... aside from the one in my a— trying to hit the target.

I have best results just pointing and shooting the darn thing instead of over-thinking it by trying to aim it with just a front sight.

 

[chicharrones]

Chicharrones...

You have inadvertantly helped me resolve a dilemma that has toyed with me for a couple years now.

Should I purchase a NAA Guardian...??

I really like the quality of their mini-revolvers and have assumed their auto would be no different.

But, seeing how yours drove you to aggression, I think I will just cross it off my list of future possibilities. Thank-You...!

I'd prefer to call it a small gun shooting technique. Lol.

I don't have to use that technique with LCPs or RM380s.

 

[WheelGunMan]

Some guns are hard to shoot well, some guns are painful to shoot, but some guns are just plain hard to operate. That’s my case with one of last years purchases that I finally got around to shooting more than just enough to say I have fired it. Before yesterday I had put 1 cylinder through this one of ridiculously light handloads.

I finally got some factory loaded ammo for 32sw (randomly given to me by a coworker even) and I was shooting the old 32 Safety Hammerless in the yard. Popping snap caps is no issue as your not trying to aim, but trying to actually shoot the gun is very hard for me. The gun is so small it’s hard for me to squeeze down on the safety without putting my hand into a very awkward position. Likely because my hands are on the large side.

Your solution is in your own words. The gun is to small for you. You can remedy that by changing or altering the grips. I have the same problem with my wife's Kimber Micro .380. No matter what I do I can't grip it comfortably, hence, my accuracy with it suffers. I'm fortunate in that it's not my gun and she shoots it well.

You, on the other hand have purchased a gun that doesn't fit you. If you like the gun for it aesthetics, then by all means keep it as a novelty piece to enjoy.

I purchased a Sig P365 that I didn't care for how it fit in my hand. I really liked the look and the size of the gun, shot it well, but no matter what I tried I just couldn't hold onto it comfortably. I ended up selling it. I also have its big brother the XL so that helped to ease the pain somewhat.

 

[GBExpat]

Early Police Positives whack my knuckles, but Ive never had PPK slide bite- go figure.

Yeah, I have two .32-20 Colt Police Positive Specials and large hands. The "tucked-forward" grips make it hard for me to shoot them comfortably. Thank goodness they are not chambered for a more powerful cartridge. And, no, a Tyler T-Grip does not improve that for me (just anticipating a helpful response ).

My mid-80s PPK slide will sometimes slice me when I am not taking care with how I hold the pistol.

 

[doubleh]

I bought a S&W mod. 60 for my wife many, many years ago because she had said she would like to have one. That was in the days when that itty-biity grip was the only way it was made. I found regular 38's to be quite unpleasant and +P's to be seriously painful. She was tougher than me and liked the little gun the way it was. Several months later I found a nice set of cocobola finger groove grips that your could use all your fingers with and they made it much more pleasant to shoot, at least for me. My wife said they were OK so everything was good.

 

[indy1919a4]

m2 50 cal.. a pain to take to the range, its a minimum of 3 - 5 heavy trips to the car... 3 for the gun and ammo and at least 2 for some sandbags.






M53 yugo's answer to mg-42.. Anytime I work it I end up with cuts and scraps on my hands from some of the pressed/stamped metal parts.

 

[indy1919a4]

On the other end of the spectrum the Bayard model 1908, one of the smallest 32 ACP pistols I know. A dream to shoot.. But if you have meaty hands its easy for the web of your hand to move under the back of the slide and get bit.. And bit bad..



On the genius side of this gun, It is heavy fire power for such a small gun and when you field strip it, it breaks down to 5 pieces with the magazine And you take it down with no tools. Really ahead of its time for 1908.

Skip to 3:20 for breakdown..

 

[Roknstevo]

I have tried all manner of glocks and after giving up on them and selling off the last one I owned to rid myself of them I got married to a wonderful woman who at the time was an EMT serving 1 community full time, and 3 others part time on an as needed basis. She decided she wanted a pistol and ended up selecting a brand new offering that had just hit the shelves called the Glock 42. I hated it but I bit my tongue and supported her decision to buy blue label because the gun fit her well, pointed naturally, and was one of only a few that she could easily rack the slide on. I can’t hit squat with it where I could hit well with the medium and large frame guns which are a pain for me. Literally. I have some odd bone structure in the joint where my thumb attaches to my hand and it rides where the small divot is on a Glock frame, and somehow that section of grip rips the knuckle open in the first magazine every time I fire a Glock pistol. Large frames less than medium frame guns. The 42 however is a sweet little gun that I have learned quickly to love. I have carried one a lot, and when I still carried regularly it was with me 99% of the time.

Glock 42 is my carry gun.....love it, trust it, and have hit the broad side of every barn I’ve ever shot at......

 

[Obturation]

Taurus tcp, cool little gun but I can not shoot it to save my life (literally). Like 10" group at 5' kind of bad. My buddy who has larger hands than me can shoot it really well , I just plain gave up. I've shot smaller guns with acceptable results but something about that tcp just hates me.

 

[halfmoonclip]

Concur with the OP and the Smith lemon squeezer. I've a minty 19th Century example, not sure if it's ever been fired, but the trigger is awful...part of the safety thing, I suppose. A New York trigger x 5.
Also concur on the Mauser HSc...what a great looking gun, feels positively wretched in the hand, typical .380 blowback rap when fired. Dumped mine; if I ever find a .32, I may try again.
Worst pistol I've ever fired, Beretta Pico, lousy trigger and ergos.
Moon

 

[Terry G]

Worst one bar none was the Polish P-64 in 9X18 MM. I bought two. They were brand new, but C&R surplus. Terrible DA, and almost too light SA. They really LOOKED cool, small, pocketable, and with a plus .380 punch. The recoil was BAD. Bad enough you didn't want to shoot after the first magazine. I understand you can ease the trigger pull somewhat with new springs, but I couldn't get effective second shots due to that small gun recoil. I have no problem with an LCPII so it wasn't me.

 

[.38 Special]

Just about any of the snub revolvers fall into that category. My Taurus 85CH has a god-awful DAO trigger, and of course the tiny little banana grip. It's incredibly hard to hit with, but at least the recoil isn't horrendous. The S&W 340PD with full power .357 Magnum loads still ranks as the single most unpleasant handgun I have ever fired.

 

[bannockburn]

Reading some of these accounts I was suddenly reminded of a gun that was all too painful for me to shoot: the Astra Model 600. Straight blowback is not so bad in a .32 or even a .380 but it just flat out hurts in a 9mm.! After less than 50 rounds I was done, with the web of my right hand all beat-up and begging me not to shoot that gun anymore!

 

[ThomasT]

Always had a difficult time with factory grips on the Ruger Super Blackhawk; most likely because I couldn't get a good grip on it with my smaller size hand. Finally tried a friend's gun which had large, oversize target grips on it and they made all the difference in the world!

Same here. I have a SBH and the bottom edge of the grip frame would dig into the palm of my hand with the sharp corner. I put some Houge Finger Groove rubber stocks on it and they extend down past the frame and solved the problem.

My bud had the bright idea to sell his Makarov 9x18 and regretted it. So he bought an FEG PA-63 to replace it. Neither one of us like to shoot more than one mag through it. Its brutal to the palm. And I have owned and shot several Makarov's and never had the least bit of problem shooting those.

I have shot many of the 38 snubs everyone likes to complain about but they never bothered me to shoot. But the secret to shooting them is to use lighter ammo. I loaded some warm 38s with Winchester 110gr HP bullets and those aren't bad to shoot at all. I don't think they will expand but if they do its a bonus. But at least they are useable rounds that I think are just a good as the often recommended WC rounds.

 

[bannockburn]

Thomas T

The grips on my friend's Super Blackhawk looked something like these:


Having that space filled in behind the back of the trigger guard made all the difference in the world to me in keeping my hand from being hit every time I fired the gun. I think the grips were made by Mustang Grips; a company that unfortunately is no longer with us.

 

[ThomasT]

I bought another SBH many years ago that came with wood grips that looked like that. IIRC they were Herrits with a thumb rest on the left side. They sure felt good in the hand. The Houges I put on my gun are butt ugly but at least they made the gun shootable without pain. But the two single six 32 mags are just about perfect with the factory grips for me. Those are my favorite single actions to shoot.

 

[Drail]

Ergonomics are something that John Browning understood very well but most other manufacturers seem to not give it any thought at all. I used to always smile every time I would hand a High Power to anyone who had never held or fired one and they ALL said the same thing - "it feels like it was designed for MY hand!" Every single time. I personally really dislike double stack pistols but the High Power doesn't feel like a double stack. Snub revolvers only need a lot of practice to be comfortable but it takes time to become proficient with one.

 

[CapnMac]

I've been around some handguns that just were complicated and contrary for shooting, A Vz.50 leaps to mind, along with some Maks and Toks, and some heche en Eibar less-than masterpieces.
Only one I can say I owned was the XP-100 I won in a raffle.
Worked, mechanically, well enough--but it was a .308 bolt action with a 10" barrel with only a pistol grip to hold it by. So, no good way to rest it on a bench, only about one way to hold it that was ergonomic through the dominant hand. And, did I mention it was a .308 bolt-action pistol?

 

[grampster]

I've had trouble hitting anything at over a few feet with a mouse gun. I have had several and now have a Ruger LCP. In my view they are better than nothing and I don't see myself or anyone getting in an actual gun battle with one. My feeling is they are good for close up, self defense.

 

[WestKentucky]

Just about any of the snub revolvers fall into that category. My Taurus 85CH has a god-awful DAO trigger, and of course the tiny little banana grip. It's incredibly hard to hit with, but at least the recoil isn't horrendous. The S&W 340PD with full power .357 Magnum loads still ranks as the single most unpleasant handgun I have ever fired.

I had an 85ch for a while. Gladly sold it and broke even. I couldn’t shoot the gun well, and being DAO I just didn’t really like the gun. Now that you mention it, I kinda dislike my Safety Hammerless revolvers for the same reason, but the 38 shoots a lot better than the 32 or the Taurus ever thought about.

 

[Mikhail Weiss]

Years ago I shot a S&W 4046 (at least I think that's what it was) that had the heaviest, longest trigger pull of any pistol I'd ever shot. It was bad enough it seemed a liability to users who might need to rely on fast, precise shooting to save their own life.

 

[Mosin77]

I’ve never seen two hands that were exactly alike even on the same person. Stands to reason almost every gun is gonna fit everyone slightly differently. And a design that pushes the envelope in some way in size, high powered round, capacity, etc is going to be inevitably a little less universal to boot.

I have smallish hands for a man and shoot those infamous P3ATs, LCPs and LCRs with reasonable comfort. I sometimes don’t love the model 10 but man it feels like a pussycat after shooting someone’s model 29. So there’s definitely an element of “what are you used to” in there as well.

 

[sparkyv]

J-frames. Can't shoot 'em well with these clubs of mine, and forget about shooting 357 Magnums! Ouch!