Pat Riot, Rofdac, appreciate you coming forward to tell of
the folly of the constant use of the big banger handguns.
But the warning I posted will fall on "deaf ears" among
many of the young.
They think that because the shooting
they do now doesn't hurt or if it does, the pain will quickly
go away. And it will only to reappear with the addition
of years. The pain or impairments will not go away then.
I understand what you mean. I was “ig’nant” enough to think that I need to carry a .44 Magnum, S&W Model 629, as duty handgun, when I was a police rookie. I also believed in training with Magnum ammo, not just Specials. When I became eligible to tote an auto while on duty, after one year of street duty, I backed all the way down to an all-steel 9mm, the HK P7, for which I had a local leather make a PD-spec old-school flap holster. I did not do this because I believed that 9mm had reached the point, in bullet development, that it was a wonderful duty cartridge. After six months, I resumed big bore sixgun carry, with a “kinder, gentler“ Model 58, .41 Magnum, in late 1985. Not until 1990 did I return to using a duty auto, and non-Magnum duty ammo, when I finally sorted-out a 1911 that I could trust to be reliable.
Part of what made the Model 58 “kinder and gentler” was not the ammo, but the trigger had been sculpted so that my index finger could reach if, for good double-action work, if the gun also wore slim, low-volume grips, which did not cover the back strap. My 629 had been too big for me. The 58 had been modified, to fit a less-than-XL hand.
By my early forties, I stopped shooting S&W J-Frame Airweight revolvers right-handed, with .38 Special ammo. The juice was just not worth the squeeze, anymore.
By age fifty, in 2011, my SIG P229 duty pistol was starting to really hurt my right hand, when fired with .40 S&W ammo. As my October 2015 qual date approached, I considered retiring, before the qual, or, if not, firing that one final October qual, and then retiring in early 2016. My chief then came to the rescue, finally authorizing 9mm to again be an alternative duty cartridge. I immediately bought a Blue Label Gen4 Glock G17. I had already been testing a Gen3 G17, that I had bought pre-owned, for that experiment, and knew that it would not hurt my hand, but the Gen4 was a further improvement, by having a lower-volume grip, that fit my hands better.
During my October 2017 qual, shooting my pair of G19 pistols caused visible swelling and pain to start, soon after the range session. Two weeks later, I qual’ed with my full-sized G17 and 1911 pistols, with no pain or swelling afterward.
Yes, y’all read that right. No more compact pistols for me, at least not for shooting right-handed. In my retirement years, going into old age, when compact pistols would be appreciated, for their lesser weight and bulk, only big pistols remain my friends.
Well, yes, I can still shoot compact pistols with my healthier left hand, and I am reasonably ambidextrous, but, I am VERY much hard-wired to reach for my right hip, in an emergency, so, am quite reluctant to switch to left-side-primary carry. Plus, a “proper, modern” thumbs-forward support-hand technique, while shooting a compact pistol lefty, is a way to torture my right hand, too. So, I cannot be a optimal as I might wish, shooting lefty.
