Tactfully addressing safety concerns

[0ddl0t]

Normally I would hesitate to recommend DAO with a long, heavy trigger to an individual with hand issues, but given the skill of this individual, this case is the exception.

I would not have recommended this particular pistol, but the purchasing decision was made before my involvement and was largely based on it being "James Bond's Gun." After 1,000 rounds the operator knows how to use all of the functions, but still struggles with the dexterity required to effortlessly manipulate the magazine release and safety/decocker. I'm pushing to always start out de-cocked even if it means using 2 hands, but I fear it will be carried cocked and unlocked.

Reliability over the 1,000 has been about what I expected - 1 failure to eject and ~10 light primer strikes/hard primers (all the light strikes were fiocchi - about 1 in 20 rounds needed a 2nd strike to fire). Next 1K will all be new republic ammo so hopefully it likes that better.

[Rex G]

Update: It was a little awkward, but taking video worked. Thanks PF!

I am glad that this worked. “Video-or-it-didn’t-happen” becomes “Wow, it did happen…”

The only weapon system that is “safe” to handle, with the index finger within the trigger guard, is a single-action revolver, and that is such an outlier case that I would never want to recommend it, as it is not within Cooper’s Four Rules, as they are generally understood, today. (The single-action revolver’s trigger is effectively “dead,” until the hammer is cocked.) Again, this is a special case, so, I am simply stating this from the handgun nerd perspective.

I was asked, by an elderly neighbor, for help in getting a DA revolver, and assistance in re-learning how to use it. (A relative, sharing the living space, or a worker who was inside her home, probably stole her revolver, years ago.) Seeing the state of her arthritis’ effect on her index finger, I politely ignored/postponed the issue, until she concluded, herself, that she could not safely handle a handgun. She could probably pull a trigger, but finding a safe index, for her trigger finger, was, probably, simply not going to happen. Her best hope is our small city’s statistically fast response to emergency calls. (Now, if only she would accept the smart phone concept, to enable her to verbally tell the device to call 911.)