Trigger Thumb

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Holly76201

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Has anyone on this Board gotten "Trigger Thumb" from shooting?
I've got one, but was not fortunate enough to get it from shooting too much.
:(
Just curious.

Holly
 
I'm not sure what you mean by trigger thumb, but I do have a callous on my thumb where the thumb safety touches my thumb. The recoil wears on it.
 
Nope, no calluses either.
Trigger thumb is a ligament irritation at the base of the thumb, the joint just above the meaty part.

Holly
 
Does that arise from cocking the hammer of a revolver - sorta repetitive stress induced injury?
 
Holly, I think I know what you are describing. My gun hand thumb has a scar , the fingerprints are back , scar ran from top of thumb extending to the meaty part of hand. I cut some ligaments (I guess...I went thru a bunch of butterflies - no stitches as a kid) and for quite a while I had a heck of a time using that thumb.

Dull throbbing pain, and the thumb didn't want to cooperate.

I had a friend go thru this and Gary I believe is correct , hers was repetitive motion related, file cabinets of all things. A phyical therapist friend had her do some excercises and she is fine. Another thing she had to do was change how whe grasps some things , like using a mop, she does not wrap thumb around ,instead keeps alongside the handle. Little stuff like this.

Repetitive motion , injury /cut, or arthritis is what comes to mind...ligaments sounds like Gary assessed it.

Ask a PT friend about excersises and trying to determine original cause. Maybe you don't need to mop...will affect shooting. ;)

Get well and heal up soon.
 
Poor weapon fit?

What are you shooting that causes this? DO other guns give you the same irritation.

My first thought was a SA revolver....thumbing the hammer back repeatedly.
I've never encountered anything from an auto loader.

Well there was that time I shredded my thumb and fingers on my off hand on the slide serrations, and bruised my palm from doing failure drills.

As Art said, several hundered rounds a day has never caused a problem.

Smoke
 
I've got one.

Of course mine came from holding my grip just a little bit too high with my new semi auto. I've got this nice scar that amazingly enough runs directly in line with the barrel of the pistol (& more importantly with the slide) :rolleyes: .

Oh well, live & learn. At least I don't have two of those like a friend of mine does :D .

Greg
 
Smoke and El Tejon...agree.

That "association to pain" is detrimental. Flinching, fear of gun...etc. Does not have to be recoil.

Ruger 22/45, has a spot that hits certain folks at the area about where Holly describes. Had a lady complain , had a red spot , upset her because this was "supposed " to be her fun gun , cheap practice and help teach daughter. Moleskin worked ...looked tacky ( can't have that :p ) we were able to smooth it out without deterring appearance of firearm. ( Big deal to the 13 yr old...whatever it takes to keep the ladies happy and shootin I say).

Smoothed a Glock for another lady...same exact complaint.

Get it looked at, quit mopping, avoid brooms, don't open pickle jars...and for heavens sake quit hitch-hiking Holly...we want you back 100% and shooting regular soon. :)
 
I used to tear a hole through my skin on the right side of my strong hand thumb knuckle every time that I practiced with my S&W 642, due to the checkered cylinder release button whacking it under recoil. Eventually I removed the release botton and de-horned all its rough edges before replacing it. It hasn't drawn blood since. That's been my only thumb related issue with any handgun.
 
Thanks for all the input. I didn't get my Trigger thumb from shooting, and I'm not able to shoot until I get over it, either with a cortisone shot next week or surgery. The Dr. said if he has to repair my torn Achilles tendon then he might as well permanently fix the thumb while I'm under anyway.
It IS a repetitive motion injury, just not from shooting, for me anyway.
I was just wondering , since there are so many shooters here who shot a LOT if anyone had ever gotten it.
Again, Thanks for the input and concern.

Holly
 
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