I’ve been working at a local gun shop called Sparks Firearms here in San Antonio. It’s run by Steve and his dad Ray. Two amazing guys that started with 1 table at a gun show years ago and now have a shop. When I’m working there, I get a lot of people trying to figure out which gun they should get. A lot of people don’t know what to get and just look through the selection for something that will work. Obviously, I’m not very helpful if I tell them anything will work. And it’s the truth, any good shooter can make any gun work, and every gun is a good gun these days. We are in the golden age of guns. But how do we fit a handgun to someone?
First, you want the gun to do what the person wants it to do. I sold a full sized XD 9mm to a lady as her first gun. Most ladies start out with the smaller guns, but she was going to leave it at home or carry it in a purse. She was dressed in the latest women’s fashion (nowhere to hide a gun) but carried a big purse. Most of the time, it was going to be used as home defense. After you pick the size and caliber, which gun?
You need to fit the gun to the person. There are a couple of things that you need to know first. Does the person have any physical handicaps that might make shooting hard (loss of feeling in a hand, arthritis, big finger nails, or a muscle structure problem)? If there are no physical problems, then any gun is open for use. This includes semi-autos for women. They can easily rack the slide after a couple of minutes of instruction and a couple more minutes of practice.
Everyone’s hand size is different and every gun designer/maker has a different idea of what size hand the gun should fit. This is where you fit the gun. First, show the person how to hold the gun in a proper one-handed grip.
Hand all the way up on the back strap, deep in the web of the hand, and centered in the web.
When they grip the gun, you want to make sure that the forearm and barrel are all in line.
Next, you need to make sure the trigger reach is a good fit. Make sure the weapon is clear, even if the dealer hands you the thing. Then, have the person fitting the gun put their finger on the trigger. Is the pad of the finger fitting on the trigger straight for a single or short action gun (Glock, 1911, XD)? For a double action (long trigger pull), does the trigger finger reach to the first knuckle?
In today’s day and age of interchangeable back straps, don’t assume it will fit with the smaller insert, put it on and find out.
With smaller guns, how many fingers can the person get on the gun? Two fingers are acceptable, but need to be comfortable. If the pinky is hanging out in space or wrapped underneath, it’s not a problem. If the ring finger is only half on the gun, it will slip off during recoil and never allow the shooter to have a good grip on the gun or a good feel for it. It will always feel like it’s slipping out of their hand and they won’t like to shoot it. Extended magazines and base plates work well for this problem.
Finally, with the new ultra slim guns coming out, make sure the person’s hands aren’t too big. I have this problem all the time and can’t shoot a Smith and Wesson Shield or a lot of Kahr’s smallest pistols. When the gun is held correctly and the finger is on the trigger, there should be no space between the palm of the shooting hand and the gun. If there is space there, that will allow the gun to torque under recoil and the shooter will not be able to hang onto the gun and can actually have the gun bang on the shooting finger’s knuckle. Trust me, that sucks!
Most people that read this are part of the gun culture, but sometimes we can’t always express ourselves or we are asked to help with something that we never thought of before.
This is a really fun gun, but too big for just about everyone to shoot (including me).
Here are the main points to fitting a handgun to someone:
- Get the correct gun for the way the gun will be used and/or carried
- Correct grip on the gun solves a lot of perceived problems
- With the correct grip the barrel and forearm of the shooter should be one line
- The trigger finger should easily reach the trigger without moving the gun in the hand
- Small guns need to have at least 2 fingers firmly on the grip of the gun
- Big hands need to make sure there is no space between the palm and gun
Stay Safe,
Ben