Mike,

I'm sure that you are an experienced shooter, so I don't want to offend you here; but to satisfy my curiosity, may I ask if you are allowing the gun to rise/roll as it recoils? I always just let my .44s go where they want to, and it eases the jolt considerably. If you were trying to take down a charging bear, you might not have the time to do that; but on the range or under other safer circumstances that's how I recommend that people shoot the large caliber heavy kickers. Utilizing that practice I usually fire around 30 rounds at least when I am using my .44s, without ill effects. But then I don't have a 4" gun; they might behave differently.

Andy

The first time I ever shot a 44 Mag was when I got my 629 Carry Comp with the 3" barrel and wooden boot grips... launched a cylinders worth of 240gr and that was more than enough for me.

No offense is taken at all! I have no experience with this kind of handgun recoil whatsoever.

Using proper recoil handling should I be able to shoot this gun all day with the wood grips pictured? Without damaging the web of my thumb? I would not be surprised if I was using poor technique. I've never had training for high power handguns.

I've shot thousands of rounds of 45 acp and 357 - but they are nothing compared to this.

Mike,

I don't know if I would say you could shoot it "all day" without discomfort, but certainly you could fire it considerably longer than you did, I would think. Training really isn't necessary, just a little practice. If most of your shooting practice to this point has been defensive in nature, or if you fire semi-autos most of the time, then that might explain why your .44 is hurting you. In defensive practice or in shooting semi-autos, we keep our arms and wrists fairly stiff so as to stay on target for fast follow-up shots or, in the case of semis, to keep from "limp-wristing" the gun and thereby cause cycling problems.

With large caliber magnum revolvers, we want our elbow bent somewhat and both elbow and wrist slightly relaxed, allowing them to flex when the gun recoils, thereby allowing the recoil to take the gun upward and backward without jarring and twisting in the hand as much as it would with our arm in a straight, stiff position. If you've seen any of the Dirty Harry films, Eastwood appears to have mastered the technique(whether the gun recoils as heavily with blanks or not, I don't know). When he fires his 29 in those films, it very much resembles the movement I've experienced with my .44, and it doesn't really cause much discomfort at all.

As others here have indicated, sometimes a different grip helps. But I think I would try the above technique and see if it doesn't help some. Then if you're still getting hurt by the gun, try a different grip.

Best wishes,
Andy

You have nailed it across the board in my technique; my shooting has been defensive practice, and I have spent the most time with semi-autos.

I'm going to give it a try, and thanks!

You're welcome, Mike. It will take a little practice and maybe some fits and starts to get used to. I might describe things another way as follows:

In defensive practice and with semis we force the gun to move as little as possible during recoil; with heavy magnums we allow it to move as much as it wants. The only restriction we place on it is to guide it upward so it doesn't hit us in the forehead(which happens to inexperienced folks occasionally).

You might look up some of the Dirty Harry clips on YouTube for a good visual of what generally should happen when shooting a .44.

Let us know how things go if you get a chance.

Andy