I train to bend my thumb a little to avoid getting burned, so far so good. I'm not really sure if I do it on the clock... I do have long thumbs. Works on my K frame Smith and L frame. My competition ammo makes 121,000 pf. I have shot a few magnums from the M13 with no harm to my left thumb.
You need to keep clear of the flash gap; where the cylinder face meets the forcing cone of the barrel. If your revolver is out of time, the bullets will not be entering the forcing cone squarely, and will shear off bits of each bullet which are then "spit out" at a ninety degree angle to the bore axis.
I have seen revolvers spitting so bad that one or both guys immediately beside a shooter on the line get peppered from 2-3 feet away. I have also seen folks get hit with spatter from THEIR revolver. This is why you should always wear eye pro with side protection while shooting revolver or being around one that is shot.
There was a guy some years back who lost part of a finger while shooting an X-frame .500 S&W from this. Dunno if the gun was out of time, or that beast just spits on general principles. I've never shot one, nor do I plan to.
Bottom line, keep body parts clear of the flash gap.
I realize that the above makes it sound like a huge problem. It isn't… until it happens to you. To get a better idea of just what does exit that aptly-named flash gap, try shooting a revolver, especially with hotter ammunition, in dim light. It is…… an illuminating experience.
Sorry, I couldn't help myself. Please forgive me; I've been fielding mega-derp at a gun show all day.
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I think the finger loss was from flame cutting from normal cylinder barrel gap on the S&W .500. High pressure, high volume of gas.
Along these lines, I'd be interested in thoughts on this: I've got a 3" RB model 65. I've checked the timing visually, per the Jim March method, and everything eyeballs fine. Never had a problem with spitting with most ammo (FBI, 158 jacketed, both .38/.357, 145 silvertip, etc.) *except* 110 .357 a la old-school border patrol. With that ammo, and only that ammo, I occasionally get spitting. Not every cylinder, but what stopped my shooting thumbs unlocked and up, Farnam style, was getting a piece of 110 gr magnum pill back into the pad of my support thumb with enough verve that I was dripping blood from the range to the bathroom--the guy who owned the range (a solid trainer, btw) didn't seem very amused by the scene. Keep in mind that the high unlocked thumb position sees the thumbs pretty much behind the recoil shield, let alone the gap. That crap has to be coming almost straight back to imbed in my thumb, and it happens a lot with 110, albeit usually much smaller pieces. Pretty weird, actually. I'm still trying to figure that one out.Originally Posted by LSP972
At any rate, thumbs locked down for me now, even if I'm cramped up on stock grips with a Tyler T adaptor.
Well I got the Hogues mounted up. I feel somewhat ashamed and suspect some laws are being broken however.
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The low "thumb print over thumb nail" grip seems a bit better than with the Eagles (or certainly the target stocks) but still seems unnatural. By putting my support thumb against the recoil shield, then strong hand thumb over that...I feel its more natural for me. Again, perhaps from years of autoloaders. Is this something I should immediately shy away from?
Ditto on everything that's been said about grips (or stocks--some people get touchy about what to call them). Yes, you can end up buying and testing a lot of revolver grips before you find the right thing, but once you know what that is, it's easy to duplicate on any revolver of the same make and frame size. The hardest part will be finding the parts you need, as they're slowly going out of style.
My favorite setup for a S&W K- or N-frame is the standard service stocks with a Pachmayr Grip Adapter. The grip adapter has probably been out of production for 30 years or more, but a Tyler T-Grip (http://www.t-grips.com/) is a very close second. I arrived at this combination after shortening a set of factory target grips to be flush at the bottom of the frame and taking a lot of girth off of them down toward the bottom. They worked well but they looked horrible and target grips were too expensive to butcher that way. I noticed that they had almost the exact same shape as the setup I described above, so I standardized on that instead. If you go to gun shows, you might be able to find enough old beater grips at affordable prices to try several different combinations and find what works best for you.
As for information on revolvers in general, check out books and articles by Skeeter Skelton, Elmer Keith, and Bob Milek. Some folks put Bill Jordan in this group, but his technique is based almost entirely on point shooting, so it has limitations. Morrision's "The Modern Technique of the Pistol" is pretty much Jeff Cooper's words coming out of someone else's mouth, but the parts on managing the DA revolver deserve study.
Okie John
Maybe I don't quite get what you're saying, but that's sounds like a bad idea (or a good way to injure the thumb, especially with magnums). I shoot thumbs forward on revolvers and autos. Only a problem on J-frames (lost a bit of thumbnail once; won't do that again). K/L/N the thumbs get nowhere near the b/c gap. Support thumb isn't even close to the yoke screw. Strong thumb stays on the thumb rest (monogrips). (For comparison thumbs on a 1911 make it to the slide stop pin hole.)
YMMV?
I've seen people shooting thumbs forward with the meat of the support palm scooshed up on the frame (thumbs making it past the trigger guard) so if you're that far forward yeah, could see that being a problem.
Thanks for the insights.
Im going to the range today and Im bringing the wheelgun and a few boxes of ammo to experiment with at the end of the session. The grip I was trying to explain above, is basically the hight thumb 1911 grip. I'll try to post a few pics.
Shot about 150 rounds of assorted .38spl ammo using the Hogue grips. Interestingly enough, the "thumbprint/thumbnail/low thumb" grip just ended up occurring naturally. Amazing what happens when you just shoot the dang gun.I concentrated on smooth consistant DA pulls using a 2" dot target at about 5yds to start. They all fell within that give or take an inch or so. Happy with that. Moved out to 7yds with similar results. I did about 15-20 SA shots just for giggles...single ragged hole. That made me grin, although it was cheating in my book.
Then it was off to the issued HK and LEM trigger..... ALWAYS work for me.
I need to perfect the grip a bit more I think. Ive read the optimum way to run them is to use the first joint of the finger. I dont know if this is going to work for me as my fingers are a bit short. Maybe tweak the grip more. Maybe a 19-2.Tword the end of the session, I was beginning to get the feel of "rolling rythum" with it for follow up shots. Even with the .38s there was some slight "flip". Id imagine its fairly substantial once you get into magnum loadings. I cant see how this can be avoided due to the top heavy nature of the gun. (Grips again?). Dumb question, but not being Jerry Miculek, what type of split time can I expect to get compared to a semi auto? The recoil impulse seems like it would become a hindrance getting the sight back down.
Didnt work on reloads, although I have some SpeedStrips and loaders. THAT appears to be a whole skillset in itself. Lol
Thanks again for all the insight guys!
.20-.25s is what I was getting. Usually closer to .25. Double taps, Bill Drills, Transitioning between targets < 7/10 yards apart. I always went for cadence over sub .2 splits. Lots of people disagree with this but splits don't, in general, win matches. I may be pilloried for saying it, but there it is.
There was a thread on benos where the revolver guys going for the fastest splits were noticing additional wear on cylinder stops (and eventually a visit from Skip Chambers). Some got down into the teens. I don't think anybody thought it was worth it.
Honestly I wouldn't try for less than .2s for any reason.
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