Scoundrel
12-17-2012, 01:10 AM
My dad is 72 years old.
A while back, I took him shooting. He fired all of my 9mm pistols, and most were tricky for him to hold onto because he has large hands. He liked the Ruger P95 best, which is also the largest pistol I owned at the time. He started getting pretty good with it. I gave it to him. That was about a year and a half ago.
We haven't gone shooting much in the time since then, but on a "recent" outing, he had a few feed jams. I bought all new springs for the pistol and the magazines, and we took it apart and replaced everything. We didn't get a chance to take it shooting to test it though.
Well, today we went to the range, and he was getting feed jams every two or three rounds, and it wasn't locking back on an empty magazine.
I swapped guns with him, and he fired my PPQ without any failures in about 50 rounds.
I fired the P95 and did not experience any failures at all in about 50 rounds. Same ammo, same magazines. Different shooter.
He took the P95 back, and it got to the point where just about every round, or every other one would jam.
We tried changing his grip several different ways.
I had him try pushing forward with his gun hand while holding it back with the other hand.
We tried it with his elbows locked, and then we tried holding it closer to his chest.
No matter what he did, the problem kept happening.
At one point, after firing several rounds from a magazine and having every single one jam, he put the pistol down and said it was a piece of junk.
I picked it up off the bench and finished out the magazine (about 10 more rounds) with no failures.
His thumbs are not touching the slide. The P95 has a nice big frame and it keeps the thumbs off of the slide nicely.
I could see the pistol jumping in his hand, and it was not just a bit of muzzle flip. It looked like it was going to jump right out of his hand.
I asked him to grasp my hand with his and squeeze hard, and try to bend my wrist. His grip and arm strength is not what it once was, but he didn't feel weak either. I didn't try it the other way, where I would have him resist me trying to bend his wrist. I don't want to hurt his wrist or his ego any more than necessary.
So now I'm just not sure what to do.
He's got a set of those hand-held squeeze springy things that are supposed to build up hand and arm strength from when he messed up his left wrist (not the shooting hand) a couple years back, and he said he's going to start using it again, and we'll try again in another month and see where he's at.
We talked about selling the P95 and getting him a revolver, but he's not keen on only having 6 shots.
We talked about swapping it out for a MK III pistol, but he wants a gun for for home defense as well as target shooting.
He can't really afford a PPQ, and while that seems to work pretty well for him, I don't think he can justify the purchase to his wife.
I thought about trying some hotter rounds in it, but if it's a weak grip, I don't want the thing jumping out of his hands, and if he's flinching, I don't know if hotter rounds are a good way to go, they might reinforce the problem.
I considered (too late) handing him a cocked but empty pistol (without him knowing) so I could watch what he's doing when it doesn't go bang, but we had already left the range when it occurred to me.
So my question to you guys is, how should I handle this?
Is there any way to avoid a serious blow to the ego if we can't get him to stop limp-wristing it?
Anyone have suggestions on what else we could try?
A while back, I took him shooting. He fired all of my 9mm pistols, and most were tricky for him to hold onto because he has large hands. He liked the Ruger P95 best, which is also the largest pistol I owned at the time. He started getting pretty good with it. I gave it to him. That was about a year and a half ago.
We haven't gone shooting much in the time since then, but on a "recent" outing, he had a few feed jams. I bought all new springs for the pistol and the magazines, and we took it apart and replaced everything. We didn't get a chance to take it shooting to test it though.
Well, today we went to the range, and he was getting feed jams every two or three rounds, and it wasn't locking back on an empty magazine.
I swapped guns with him, and he fired my PPQ without any failures in about 50 rounds.
I fired the P95 and did not experience any failures at all in about 50 rounds. Same ammo, same magazines. Different shooter.
He took the P95 back, and it got to the point where just about every round, or every other one would jam.
We tried changing his grip several different ways.
I had him try pushing forward with his gun hand while holding it back with the other hand.
We tried it with his elbows locked, and then we tried holding it closer to his chest.
No matter what he did, the problem kept happening.
At one point, after firing several rounds from a magazine and having every single one jam, he put the pistol down and said it was a piece of junk.
I picked it up off the bench and finished out the magazine (about 10 more rounds) with no failures.
His thumbs are not touching the slide. The P95 has a nice big frame and it keeps the thumbs off of the slide nicely.
I could see the pistol jumping in his hand, and it was not just a bit of muzzle flip. It looked like it was going to jump right out of his hand.
I asked him to grasp my hand with his and squeeze hard, and try to bend my wrist. His grip and arm strength is not what it once was, but he didn't feel weak either. I didn't try it the other way, where I would have him resist me trying to bend his wrist. I don't want to hurt his wrist or his ego any more than necessary.
So now I'm just not sure what to do.
He's got a set of those hand-held squeeze springy things that are supposed to build up hand and arm strength from when he messed up his left wrist (not the shooting hand) a couple years back, and he said he's going to start using it again, and we'll try again in another month and see where he's at.
We talked about selling the P95 and getting him a revolver, but he's not keen on only having 6 shots.
We talked about swapping it out for a MK III pistol, but he wants a gun for for home defense as well as target shooting.
He can't really afford a PPQ, and while that seems to work pretty well for him, I don't think he can justify the purchase to his wife.
I thought about trying some hotter rounds in it, but if it's a weak grip, I don't want the thing jumping out of his hands, and if he's flinching, I don't know if hotter rounds are a good way to go, they might reinforce the problem.
I considered (too late) handing him a cocked but empty pistol (without him knowing) so I could watch what he's doing when it doesn't go bang, but we had already left the range when it occurred to me.
So my question to you guys is, how should I handle this?
Is there any way to avoid a serious blow to the ego if we can't get him to stop limp-wristing it?
Anyone have suggestions on what else we could try?