This summer I broke my wrist and ribs.
Sprained my ankle badly.
It added a new dimension to concealed carry
and home defense.
I broke my dominant hand. Oops! My major
carry gun was a Glock of various flavors.
Although, a 642 was carried quite alot.
There are two dimensions - how do you adapt
after you get patched up and how do you deal
with it when you are initially hurt?.
I had taken a course before which had a series of drills shooting from various positions on the ground and with one hand reloading from
SDSI (www.sdsninet.com) outside of Dallas.
Your problems are reaching for the gun
in your strong side holster with your other
hand. Being slim and limber is a help
as we older, fat boys discovered.
This class emphasized a reloading style that
emphasized holding the gun between your knees
or under your arm. One racking style was
to catch the slide between the crease in
your knee.
A couple of months after the accident, I was
already signed up for another course which
stressed injured shooter drills. I decided
to take it anyway, even though my dominant arm
was still in a cast and ankle in a brace.
This class was at
www.krtraining.com.
Its emphasis was more on racking using belt,
shoe, or holster. The holster was used to
hold the gun during the reload. The pocket
was also demonstrated. See some pictures
at
http://www.krtraining.com/KRTraining/ATIII/ATIII.html. I'm in one of them.
Thus, the styles were different. Instructors
may not like the knees and armpit style of
reload as your muzzle sweeps them and the class. However, in a real world shooting situation - do you care about this, esp.
when hurt? This is an interesting question.
Inserting a gun in a holster or a pocket while
injured is a little finer motor skill than
the knees or pit hold. Could you screw it up
under stress?
Racking is interesting. The first two times
I tried it with my nondominant hand against
my holster using the sights, I double fed the
gun. First, my nondominant hand is clumsy.
Second, I wasn't sure that I had actually
racked it and kind of rode the slide and
jammed it. One handed double feed drills are really exciting. You need to practice.
Fortunately, I found I could shoot quite decently with my nondominant hand both with
a Glock and a 642 (and other assorted semis
that I tried). I don't limp wrist.
I also took LFI-1 with my nondominant
hand, shooting one handed as my weaver
and isosoceles is shaky. Did fine
So, a good course on injured shooting is
a good thing.
My wrist is still messed up with limited
mobility and weak. It also still is painful.
So, what changes did I make?
I switched carry sides. The reasons are
that given the limited mobility and weakness
of my dominant hand, my draw is screwed. There's just a bit of rotation I can't do.
I also carry a 9 mm instead of a 40 as
I've shot the 9mm with my bad hand and
do it well but a 40 hurt. I don't need
to damage it or take the chance that if I
actually need to shoot with the bad hand, given the nondominant good hand gets hurt, I
will not be able to handle the gun.
An interesting nuance is the extra mag.
Normal belt carry of the extra mag on the side
opposite the gun is hard because a position
on my belt that offers concealment just
is a few degrees beyond the rotational
capacity of my wrist. Thus I carry in my
front pocket in a Uncle Mike's 380 pocket
holster. I can get at the 26 mag fine.
I find that I also carry a backup so that
maybe I will short circuit the racking rumba
and go for the NY reload. However, the backup
gun is kind of mousey (22 Mag NAA Mini) - might go for a P-32.
Hopefully, 11 rounds of 9mm will take me
through the worst.
Home defense also changed. The main battery
was a 8 shot Winchester 1300 12 gauage.
Backup was a selection of handguns. I
know guys who just have that shotgun and
will rack it to scare away the cowardly bad guys. I've taken a tactical shotgun class.
Consider this - if you just have the shotgun
as recommended by so many - you might just
fall on your a** in the confrontation. I
fell and busted the crap out of myself.
The shotgun would have been useless. I know
that one of the FBI agents in the Miami shootout was able to use his shotgun with
one arm destroyed but he had to finish with his handgun. I couldn't rack or hold the shotgun so all household defense was predicated on the handguns. In fact, if
I would recommend that if you do have to
move in the house with the shotgun, have
a backup with you.
Pistol grip shotguns - HA HA. I've shot them
and prefer full stocks, but if you injure
yourself, forget it. I haven't tried
the 12 gauge since the accident. Holding
and racking
it is a little difficult as one hand is
weak. I'm going to try it. If I can't - the
solution might be semiauto 12 gauge.
If I was deprived of the use of one hand
for a long time, I might forgo the semis
for carry. I might carry strong side
a 7 shot 686 and a speed loader and
a light weight 342 for backup. You can
practicing racking with one hand but I think
I can one handed a revolver Ok and I don't
want to worry about jams.
My - that was long winded.
.