I keep reading articles that say large hands or freakishly strong small hands are needed to fire the DE.
Bullcrap.
My hand span – thumb tip to pinky tip with fingers spread on a flat surface – is 8 1/2 “. That’s not exactly huge. It’s probably not even average. And while I do stay in shape, my grip strength is nothing to write home about.
In 1975, I bought a .44 AutoMag. The grip measures 5 ½” around and I didn’t have any trouble with it, winning a bunch of metallic silhouette matches over the early years of that sport.
Two years ago, I bought a .44 DE. The grip measures about 6 3/8”. Again, no problem. Actually, both guns are pussycats to shoot. There’s a lot of recoil, but they won’t hurt you. Recoil doesn’t bother me at all. Pain is another issue.
Anyway, if you have less than enormous hands, don’t let that keep you from shooting a DE. It’s a hoot to shoot and is plenty accurate. I like shooting clay birds set on the range backstop at 60 yds. After trimming the front sight, my .44 DE shoots right on the sights at that range and I can break a bird every shot if I pay attention to trigger control. Surprisingly, the DE shoots 240s and 180s to the same POI.
I’ve used my AutoMag for hogs and plan on using the DE next month. A 240 gr XTP at 1360 fps ought to work just fine.
Bullcrap.
My hand span – thumb tip to pinky tip with fingers spread on a flat surface – is 8 1/2 “. That’s not exactly huge. It’s probably not even average. And while I do stay in shape, my grip strength is nothing to write home about.
In 1975, I bought a .44 AutoMag. The grip measures 5 ½” around and I didn’t have any trouble with it, winning a bunch of metallic silhouette matches over the early years of that sport.
Two years ago, I bought a .44 DE. The grip measures about 6 3/8”. Again, no problem. Actually, both guns are pussycats to shoot. There’s a lot of recoil, but they won’t hurt you. Recoil doesn’t bother me at all. Pain is another issue.
Anyway, if you have less than enormous hands, don’t let that keep you from shooting a DE. It’s a hoot to shoot and is plenty accurate. I like shooting clay birds set on the range backstop at 60 yds. After trimming the front sight, my .44 DE shoots right on the sights at that range and I can break a bird every shot if I pay attention to trigger control. Surprisingly, the DE shoots 240s and 180s to the same POI.
I’ve used my AutoMag for hogs and plan on using the DE next month. A 240 gr XTP at 1360 fps ought to work just fine.