My right thumb, hand, and wrist are not aging well. By age 50, in 2011, I had to stop shooting my .40 S&W P229 duty pistol right-handed. In late 2015, my chief OK’ed 9mm duty pistols, so I switched to G19 and G17 for personal-time and duty carry. By 2017, I had to stop shooting 9mm Glock G19 pistols right-handed. As few as 80 rounds of standard-pressure 9mm could provoke swelling and pain, that lasted for a week or so.
G17 pistols, and all-steel, full-sized 1911 pistols remain OK, probably because the long grip frames reach all the way to the “heel bone” of the hand, resulting my much more stability, to mitigate muzzle flip.
How did I train, when I could not shoot my P229 duty pistol, with my right hand? Well, .22 LR became my friend, fired from my S&W Model 17-4 revolver. My P229 was DAK, with a trigger pull that nicely mimics a K-Frame DA revolver trigger. (DAK was my choice; I was a rebel, in adopting the DAK trigger, when some supervisors thought that only DA/SA SIGs were allowed. I had to only qual on night shift, to avoid trouble.)
I believe that much of the damage, in my case, was caused by shooting big-bore Magnums, in the Eighties, with N-Frames, with my K/L-Frame-sized hands. I had started the academy, in 1983, with L-Frames, as having a 4” .357 Mag revolver was required, but after graduation, I thought that I “needed” a big bore, for the street. By the time I transitioned to a .45 ACP 1911 duty/carry pistol, in 1990, I had done plenty of damage.
My left hand is aging more gracefully. There is the general age-related discomfort, but no concentration of pain in the thumb and wrist. I am, actually, left-handed, but somewhat ambidextrous, and chose to carry “primary” at 0300, because I am right-armed, for things like throwing, so drawing big revolvers from the then-mandated, low-slung, flap-style duty rig felt natural. The DA trigger seemed handedness-neutral, to me, and it was easier do get to a weapon on my right hip, while driving. So, I have carried at or near 0300, since then. I reckon that this could well change, sooner or later.
A few years ago, I bought a tiny, very-well-made, right-hand holster, made by C. Rusty Sherrick, for my Seecamp pistol, with the idea that I might use it while transitioning to left-hand “primary” carry. This was so that I have a weapon on my right hip, in case I reflexively reach for 0300, when my “primary” weapon is on the left hip. Carrying two handguns is nothing new, for me, as I tended to do so while I still an LEO, but what would be new is carrying the larger weapon on my left side.