What are your thoughts on the "thumbs down" grip vs. the "thumbs forward" grip?

[dartariously]

When I first started shooting about 8 years ago, I learned the "thumbs forward" grip.



It's just what I was taught and was very much in fashion. I believe it still is today. I shot very accurately and fairly quickly with it. Over time however, I saw more and more old timers using what I would call the "thumbs down" grip:



I began to see some advantages of the "thumbs down" grip:

1) The strong hand grip is the same whether shooting two handed or one handed. Makes it easy to transition between one and two hands. Like opening a door for instance.
2) The grip is essentially the same when shooting a revolver.
3) For me it "feels" better cause when shooting thumbs forward, my weak hand thumb and hand location sometimes changes between shots and I need to regrip, or at least feel like I need to.
4) When shooting SIGS and similar guns, thumbs forward with my strong hand thumb up high sometimes causes the slide to not lock back after the mag is empty. This does not happen with thumbs down, since the strong hand thumb is curled down.
5) The gun just feels more "secure" in my hand.

So, what are your thoughts? Thank you!

[Malamute]

I think you have a reasonably good understanding of it. I'm one of those old timers that shoots thumbs down. Partly because its what I've done since I started, partly because I carry and shoot revolvers more, and shoot one handed a lot. Partly because I tried the new way and had trouble adjusting or it feeling natural or right to me. I'm sure theres good reason people use it. I'm going to keep muddling along thumbs down for now.

[dbateman]

I'm a thumbs forward kind of of guy but pretty much only shoot 1911, with thumbs forward they are right where they need to be to manipulate the controls.

I don't find I change my firing hand grip going from two hand grip to a one handed grip, unless I have a single side safety.

If I were shooting guns other than a 1911 I would probably change my grip to, well something more fitting of the gun I was using.
I have found when shooting other types of pistols it feels odd because I have "nowhere" to place my thumbs.

[Chuck Haggard]

I transitioned from the old thumbs down grip to thumbs forward several years ago. I started shooting back when cops carried wheelguns, so thumbs down was the thing being taught.

I shoot semi-auto pistols better using thumbs forward. Period.

"Feelings" lie. The timer and the target do not. Some guy named Todd even wrote an article on that subject.

[StraitR]

There's more than one way to skin a cat, and I'm not sure it matters for anyone not trying to shoot as quickly as possible. That being said, thumbs forward provides a higher, more complete coverage grip with the support hand, subsequently allowing the pronation and locking of the support wrist. This helps mitigate recoil and keeps the pistol shooting flatter, which then helps with sight tracking, all of which is a beneficial to speed.

[Chuck Haggard]

There's more than one way to skin a cat, and I'm not sure it matters for anyone not trying to shoot as quickly as possible. That being said, thumbs forward provides a higher, more complete coverage grip with the support hand, subsequently allowing the pronation and locking of the support wrist. This helps mitigate recoil and keeps the pistol shooting flatter, which then helps with sight tracking, all of which is a beneficial to speed.

I think it's also faster in getting the front sight on target. Fast first shot hits can be kind of important.

[gkieser92]

On short barreled guns the thumbs forward grip puts my support thumb too close to the muzzle for comfort. I also find myself pressing on my strong hand fingertips, actually loosening my grip. I have very large hands and there's not enough room for the support hand to make contact with the grip. I really want to use thumbs forward, but building up a consistent grip at speed is my biggest struggle with fundamentals.

[breakingtime91]

I thought this was a thing of the past?

[Surf]

It is a thing of the past for the most part. The crossed thumb or locked thumb grip was mostly a direct holdover from revolver guys/instructors who made the jump into pistols and the revolver grip naturally followed. Also what followed were reasons that justified this grip as times modernized and better grip technique emerged.

Old timers often being stubborn and set in their ways don't always take to change easily. This was especially true in LE circles which obviously translates into defensive shooting. Over a 26 year career I see this with regularity and it isn't just related to firearms but it can be any various TTP's. You will mostly hear the retort that goes something like "we'll I've been doing it for 20 years and it works for me". Followed by "so if it isn't broke don't try to fix it".

It is not an easy transition for some old dogs to make (myself included), especially those of us who cut our teeth on revolvers. The modern combat or thumbs forward grip is a definite superior grip but I will admit it took me a good amount of time to come around. I actually had a brief decline in performancee when I attempted to make the transition but once the light bulb moment happened performance dramatically improved and I mean almost overnight. The same holds Tru IME about 99.9% for everyone that I have directly worked with who has stuck with learning the transition in the thumbs forward grip. Again for myself it was not an overnight thing. I shoot quite a bit and had a lot of deprogramming to do.

[dartariously]

"Feelings" lie. The timer and the target do not.

Good point. I've seen video of myself shooting thumbs down vs. thumbs forward, and found that thumbs forward allows the gun to recoil more naturally and quickly in my hand and allows the front sight to return to target faster.