Quote:
Originally Posted by keithwins
I went to the range with my new to me 29-2 today, shot about 20 rounds of 44 sp and 10 rounds of 44 mag. First time I've ever shot mag, and only the second time special. Wow, I understand why so many people consider the mag a punishing round to shoot. Ouch.
I was fascinated to notice that the specials grouped about 4"higher than the mag's at 10 yards. Even when I mixed them in one cylinder, and alternated. I got pretty similar groups to my Glock G26, maybe 3"or a little worse (I've only been shooting a few months, and have mediocre eye sight... Excuses, excuses). Anyway, anyone have any similar experience? I'd done a fair bit of dry firing, familiarizing myself with the gun, so I'm fairly sure my aim and trigger control weren't changing much. The 44 mag were a tighter group, maybe even 2.5". I realize this isn't bragging territory for an 8 3/8"barrel at 10 yards! You gotta start somewhere.
Another question re: grip. I'm still working it out, and mostly I'm struggling with thumb placement right now (I'm trying everything), but what ended my range session earlier, perhaps, than otherwise, was the trigger guard smashing back into the outside of my index knuckle. My finger was pretty beat up by the time I figured out what was going on. I was working hard to get my hand high in the grips for recoil control, but the trade off was that my index finger was sort of wedged between the grip and the trigger guard. When the gun smashed backwards with recoil, my finger got hit pretty hard (numbness an hour later), just on that knuckle.
Brilliant insight welcome
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keithwins,
Welcome to the forum. I shoot .44 mag. regularly with heavy magnum loads, just because I enjoy the challenge of overcoming flinch and shooting a magnum accurately. So I believe I've learned a thing or two at least.
The first question that comes to my mind when someone speaks of experiencing pain, bleeding, bruising, etc. when firing heavily recoiling revolvers is if that person is only used to firing semi-autos and/or less powerful revolvers, especially for defensive shooting. I've discovered this to be the case more than once, for folks here on the forum and people I've encountered at the range(maybe not the case with you -obviously I don't know). The issue is that with defensive shooting, swift follow-up shots are crucial, maybe life-saving. This necessitates keeping the arm and wrist stiff in order to minimize recoil/muzzle jump, which of course slow down one's follow-up shots. In addition, it's important to keep the wrist stiff when firing semi-autos, so that the gun cycles properly.
But attempting to do the above with the big boomers usually results in painful shooting as you have experienced. With these guns, shooting heavy loads comfortably requires
allowing the gun to recoil, rather than trying to stop or "control" it. One does this by first keeping the elbows and wrists bent and relaxed as suggested by one of the above posters. Then when the gun fires, let the muzzle rise upward as far as it wants to go, while guiding the gun only enough to prevent contact with your forehead. This is how I do it, and I never have any pain, no matter how many rounds I shoot. And yes, I get consistently good groups also.
I have to stop there for now. Let us know how things go.
Best wishes,
Andy