Defective Arm

Hello all,

Let me start by stating, I am a beginner at this sport...

How important is it that my shooting arm be able to be completely straight when extended? I have somewhere between a 10 and 20 degree angle when I extend my arm. The Dr says it is spurs and nothing they can do about it. It seems to completely through off alignment.

Should I consider switching hands?

Thanks.

Stephen

Stephen, many shooters have gone to their "weak" hand when they have injured their shooting side. Injuries are both shooting related as well as none. Some are permanent are result in the shooter continuing to shoot with his send choice hand.

Much of shooting is immediately transferable to the opposite hand. Some skills take time. My advice is begin with your hand/arm that does not have limitations.
Larry (WA)

You may have increased difficulty in 45acp rapid fire, and your hold may perhaps seem more wobbly (versus extended-straight arm), but your trigger finger will be the worst culprit out of everything.

If you have the dedication and discipline, go to your weak hand. Otherwise, you'll be just fine with your strong side. Dry fire, dry fire, dry fire...

I injured my wrist in May of this year and have had to switch to my weak hard and Larry is correct a lot of the basics are easy to switch to the other hand.

I was shooting high expert and master scores with my strong hand. I maintaining my expert score now with the weak hand. After six months I am still refining things like grip and stance much like I had to do when I started with this obsession. The gun in my natural hand feels very comfortable, have not reached that with the weak hand yet.

On another note I shoot with someone that cannot straighten his shooting arm and he does a fair job despite that issue. The big problem will be stability of the gun in that position and your ability to recover and get back on target in sustained fire.

My suggestion would be to work on both! You never know when you may be forced to change hands.

Joe Fobes wrote:
My suggestion would be to work on both! You never know when you may be forced to change hands.

Your timing ...

A week or so after my original post I fell playing with my son on the front lawn. After several X-rays and MRI's later, I just found out that I fractured both my shoulder and arm.

I now have no choice but to switch to my weaker arm for at least the next year.

Joining the weak arm club...

Sorry to hear of the injury, just stick to the fundmentals, concentrate on stance, grip, sight alignment and trigger control. And dry fire!

Hi Stephen,

Just joined and saw your post. I shoot .22 gallery matches averaging 271 this season. This after 2 surgeries to my strong arm's elbow for the same reason. I'm also about 15 degree short of straight. I pronate my wrist about to line up with my dominant right eye with no problems. You can also build up a grip, or buy a Rink, to offset the bore line from the grip center line -- this is designed for Left eye dominant right hand shooters.

Enjoy the sport!
Jab