Posted: 5/21/2015 9:28:37 PM EDT
|
I am the new owner of a S&W E-Series 1911. Love the gun. I've been practicing some draw & dry fire drills with it. Sometimes I am not engaging the grip safety. I shoot my Glocks with my thumbs positioned sort of up and away from the gun. I think this is due to the Glock grip angle. This clearly won't work well on the 1911 because it doesn't always engage the grip safety. The web of my hand is too far away from the grip safety. Here are some pictures of my grip (side note: it is difficult to take a picture without a tripod)...
Should I move my thumbs closer to the gun, almost touching it? Do you position your hand differently on 1911s vs other handguns? I fully blame myself, not the gun. 
|
|
Hard to imagine how you can control a handgun if your strong hand isn't clamped onto the grip. You should hold the gun as if you're going to shoot it one-handed, and then bring the weak hand over the strong. The grip safety should be mashed by the strong hand. Same thing with any handgun.
ETA: Hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like you're really choked up very high on the grip. It's good to be high, but not so much that the beavertail prevents your hand from contacting the grip safety area. |
|
My thumbs ride the slide on the thumbs forward grip. I know a few USPSA shooters that had to deactivate thegrip safetey due to the grip not activating the grip saftey.
http://www.handgunsmag.com/tactics-training/tactics_training_combatg_100306/ also search for brian enos thumbs forward grip, you may be able to find some vid showing how to use it. |
|
Quoted:
Hard to imagine how you can control a handgun if your strong hand isn't clamped onto the grip. You should hold the gun as if you're going to shoot it one-handed, and then bring the weak hand over the strong. The grip safety should be mashed by the strong hand. Same thing with any handgun. ETA: Hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like you're really choked up very high on the grip. It's good to be high, but not so much that the beavertail prevents your hand from contacting the grip safety area. Yeah, that's some serious "Mrgunsandgear" level choking up on your grip. A 1911 doesn't need to be gripped that high. |
|
Quoted:
Yeah, that's some serious "Mrgunsandgear" level choking up on your grip. A 1911 doesn't need to be gripped that high. Quoted:
Quoted:
Hard to imagine how you can control a handgun if your strong hand isn't clamped onto the grip. You should hold the gun as if you're going to shoot it one-handed, and then bring the weak hand over the strong. The grip safety should be mashed by the strong hand. Same thing with any handgun. ETA: Hard to tell from the pics, but it looks like you're really choked up very high on the grip. It's good to be high, but not so much that the beavertail prevents your hand from contacting the grip safety area. Yeah, that's some serious "Mrgunsandgear" level choking up on your grip. A 1911 doesn't need to be gripped that high. My thoughts exactly, grip is way too high. |
|
Quoted: I am the new owner of a S&W E-Series 1911. Love the gun. I've been practicing some draw & dry fire drills with it. Sometimes I am not engaging the grip safety. I shoot my Glocks with my thumbs positioned sort of up and away from the gun. I think this is due to the Glock grip angle. This clearly won't work well on the 1911 because it doesn't always engage the grip safety. The web of my hand is too far away from the grip safety. Here are some pictures of my grip (side note: it is difficult to take a picture without a tripod)... Should I move my thumbs closer to the gun, almost touching it? Do you position your hand differently on 1911s vs other handguns? I fully blame myself, not the gun. http://i.imgur.com/tXTyMiU.jpg?1 http://i.imgur.com/UJiRnFA.jpg?1 Your grip safety has a "memory bump", doesn't it? Anecdotally, I used to have a similar problem with my Desert Warrior. There were too many times when I had to adjust my grip to get it to fire. When I changed out the OEM Kimber "memory bump" grip safety to a Colt "rat tail" grip safety (along with a Colt WWI style thumb safety, the reason for the changes I made), the problem that you described above ceased for me. Two possibilities: a) The factory grip safety wasn't fitted properly. If you want to keep that grip safety profile, you might consider taking it to a 1911 gunsmith and having him check it out. b) Every other 1911 I own or have shot extensively has not had a "memory bump" grip safety. Just the presence of that bump was screwing around with my properly gripping that pistol. In that vein, I do like having my carry (and training) pistols standardized. They all share the same profile thumb and grip safeties now. |
| Had that problem with Kimber TLE II RL when light was attached. Changed out the factory grip with an Ed Brown with memory bump and had no further issues. For some reason many others who tried the Kimber before the change in grip safety had the same problem engaging 100 % percent of the time so it was not just me with that weapon. |