24 Comments

  1. I don’t care about your thumb, man, but you gotta do something about those sunglasses.

  2. Sooo, if the gun is smaller and has lower recoil, there is no need for the thumb support, if it’s larger more powerful, you shouldn’t do it; so what’s the point then. I believe you also have said in the past, you should use the same grip/techniques, because in a real-life threat situation, the brain function will be learned response from repetition. If you happen to be carrying the 44 magnum rather than the 38 special which learned response is going to be the instant one? Logic would lend itself to the one you practice more and if you shoot SA’s often and then revolvers more often with the forward thumb, odds are your auto response will be thumb forward. Seems through process of thought then, that thumbs back with the use of revolvers would be the method to practice, regardless of size.

    The real advantage would be to control recoil with the more powerful weapons and then it is not safe to do. Another reason not to place thumbs forward; even if you don’t injure it, the repeated blast can make it numb and it imbeds a lot of residue into the skin (not that your thumb is turning black at all). I had the numbing issue happen from shooting many rounds through a model 632 that way. Also experienced a milder form of the same shooting an NAA Black Widow with 22WMR rounds a lot. Anytime I shoot that, if a lot, I will wear a shooting glove to protect the thumb. After all, unless you are shooting one handed with that little gun, my thumb is near the gap no matter what I do with it. Don’t need no numb thumbs, even if it is temporary.

    1. This technique would work fine with a larger, more powerful gun. It only becomes dangerous if you grip the gun like a retard and put your thumb forward of the cylinder gap.

      1. In the slow-motion video you posted earlier, you can watch your thumb creep further out as you shoot. It ultimately ends up forward of the cylinder.

        I’ve seen a .38 Special cowboy load draw blood from the cylinder gap. The revolver in question was a particularly sloppy Armi San Marco copy of the Colt M1851 Navy.

          1. In the “Epic Wheel Time” video, the tip of your thumb appears to be ahead of the cylinder after the fourth shot on the Taurus 82, after the second shot of the Ruger SP101, and after the first shot of the Colt Cobra. It doesn’t happen with your Ruger Security Six, but your stocks are huge.

        1. Yep you are correct DW., very first trigger pull, thumb creeps forward, clearly in sight line of gap. Frame by frame will expose the issue.

          1. So, you realize that if you are correct and my thumb is forward of the cylinder gap, that just proves my point that this isn’t really as dangerous as people seem to think it is? Because I was shooting .38 Special +P in that video, and yet MY THUMB IS FINE.

  3. I am a life long revolver shhoter and all of this has me flummoxed. First onany revolver I own: j frame,k frame lframe and rugers sp101 and GP I can not get my thumb any where neeneed the cylander gap
    More importantly why would I want a forward pointing thumb? It seems to me to weekend my grip both reducing my ability to control recoil and fend of a gun grab.

    1. Mack, Jerry Miculek doesn’t hold it this way, I think he’s got it down pretty well 😉

      1. Ipse dixit, indeed! Like Caleb I’m a revolver fan, but I shoot with a crossed thumbs grip. A few years ago when I wanted to step up my IDPA semiauto game I really tried to start from the ground up with the thumbs forward grip.I put in a lot of range time and it just never worked for me: groups opened up and times slowed down. Now I’m no great shakes – low Expert in IDPA, and FAST Drill times just under 7 with a revolver and semi – so maybe I just didn’t put in enough time to learn it. But with no signs of improvement, I went back to what worked for me.

        1. No doubt it’s a technique that works and works well for a whole lot of people. Maybe it would have worked for me if I had started with it from day one, or if I had put even more range time into it. But there are certainly cases in shooters both superb (Mr. Miculek) and mediocre (c’est moi) where it’s not the best choice. In my line of work I’m dogmatic about plenty of things (mainly…dogma) – but this isn’t one of them.

          1. Honestly, thumbs locked down is a perfectly fine way to shoot the wheelgun as well. The only reason I made this video was to prove to internet fools that thumbs forward was a perfectly safe way to shoot the gun.

  4. First you ditch AIWB and now you start preaching a thumbs forward revo grip. You are just trolling the interwebs aren’t you?

    The only thumbs forward grip that scares me is with an LCP since my support thumb sticks out further than the barrel!

    At what point would you start to worry about the blast from the cylinder gap? 45ACP? 44 Mag? 454 Casull?

    1. I wouldn’t worry about it with .45 ACP, I’ve run this grip with a 625. I would probably start to worry about it with .44 Mag and anything north of that pressure curve; but again as long as my thumb isn’t forward of the cylinder I’ll be fine.

      I will never use a thumbs forward grip with a Chiappa Rhino.

  5. On my 686 with 38 special all that happens with my thumbs forward grip is a dirty thumb. And my support thumb sticks out just past the gap. Since I was new to revolvers and the guys I practice with are very good wheel gun guys they convinced me to cross my thumbs and that worked OK for me. But as soon as I make master the grip goes back to thumbs forward so I quit having the think about it when I switch guns. For me a dirty thumb is a pretty cool way to show all them semi-auto folks I’m a cool dude with a cool wheel gun and I know how to shoot it.

  6. “I will never use a thumbs forward grip with a Chiappa Rhino.”

    Hold on, let me fix that. . .

    “I will never use a Chiappa Rhino.” 🙂

  7. I know nothing of these wheel-gun thingymabobs. I just came here to say “Chive on”.

  8. I get it. It’s generally safe to use a thumbs-forward grip.

    But because there are exceptions, and because the results of those exceptions can be disastrous, I choose not to.

    For example, my traditional semi-auto grip on my .357 GP100 puts the middle of my thumbnail at the cylinder gap. I have some fairly hot loads that I’ve loaded for a carbine; the gap blast is very visible, and tends to cut burlap sandbags.

  9. I try to only post useful comments, but I just had to say: I LOST MY MIND at “helpful aspie”. I don’t always agree with you, but I keep coming back for things like that.

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