Support thumb position

[GJM]

Historically I have shot with my thumbs contacting the frame. I don't recall any slide stop lever issues - certainly nothing significant.

Lately, in dealing with a couple of anticipation behaviors, one of which is my support thumb occasionally pushing the gun to the right, I have tried moving my thumbs off the frame so they don't touch it at all, and this has felt like it helps.

Perhaps a discussion is on order on the desirability of the support thumb contacting the frame? And, is it platform specific -- on the Glock it feels right, but less so on a M&P, and even less yet on a HK 45C.

[Failure2Stop]

I swapped my stock slide "stop" (thanks Glock) with the G34 part on my G19 right after I bought it, being used to the release on my G35.
All was well for years, but after recovering from a shoulder injury I suddenly found myself unintentionally locking the slide to the rear with the G34 stop (aptly named in this situation).
I recently acquired a Gen 4 G17, and decided to leave the stock slide stop alone to see if the base of my support hand would continue to cause the problem and hammered reloads for a while to ensure that I could consistently release the slide.
I have not had the problem with the stock part, and find that my firing hand thumb placement is more natural (especially when compared to what I have to do with Sigs).

So, for me, the answer was to stay stock.
And to further digress, this relevation caused me to decide to leave everything (except sights) as received from the factory.

[secondstoryguy]

As a result of this thread I've been playing with several different grips in an attempt to get slighty higher on the gun with no adverse contact with the slide lock. Watching several videos including a few with Dave Sevigny and one of our own members Donovan M in this clip http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F_yNKUAOp6U I would love to see first hand how they get so high on the gun without jacking with the slide lock.

[Serenity]

You can either hang your strong hand thumb slightly outboard (almost a necessity for right handers shooting SIGs)

What do you mean by "outboard"?

[98z28]

Not Todd, but a long time right-handed SIG shooter...

http://www.kyledefoor.com/2009/06/si...r-secrets.html

You put your right thumb on the outside of your left thumb to keep it from contacting the gun. This prevents it from inadvertently activating the slide "stop".

[ToddG]

What do you mean by "outboard"?

I simply rotate my right thumb counter-clockwise slightly. It rests on the meat of my left thumb/hand maybe 1/8" off the gun.