Does your handgun fit YOU?

aiming a handgun

Does your handgun fit you? There is a quick and easy test to see if it does.

Does your handgun fit you?  Odds are that it doesn’t.  For decades (actually for hundreds of years) handguns have pretty much been made to work and to feel “OK” in the hands of the shooter.  However, not until the advent of the “adjustable back-straps” have we had the opportunity to actually fit a fighting handgun to us.  Prior to this period, we didn’t have any other choice but to fit ourselves to our handgun. If you have ever heard anyone say “Glocks point high for me” or “I have to use the flat mainspring housing on a 1911” they are really telling us if their handgun fits them or not.

Handgun Fit

I used to be a 1911 guy back in the day.  Then Glocks came out and I migrated over to them.  However it wasn’t a seemless migration.  Glocks pointed high for me.  In other words, they didn’t fit me as well as 1911’s did (as long as the 1911 had an arched mainspring housing).  SO…I forced myself to fit Glocks, because Glocks didn’t fit me.  I was also issued a M9 Beretta while in the USMC, while it is large for a 9mm, the grip didn’t fit me either.  I had to force myself to fit the M9. So in answer to the question “Does your handgun fit you?” the answer was almost always “no”.

Adjustable Backstraps

The S&W M&P series was the first handgun that I have owned that has had adjustable backstraps.  I thought it a novel idea, without a whole lot of practicality.  I was wrong.  The adjustable backstrap is a GREAT idea.

With an unloaded handgun, in your firing grip, close your eyes.  (Prior to closing your eyes you have already picked out a spot on the wall or something to aim at.)  Then extend the handgun and aim at the spot you have already picked out.  Now open your eyes and see how close the sights are to the spot.  If they are too high or too low, your handgun does not fit you.  Unless it has adjustable backstraps you will have to force you to fit your handgun.

Can your handgun fit you?

However if your handgun does have multiple backstraps, you are in luck.  Repeat the above with different backstraps until you find which one fits you best.  Odds are very good that you will find the right combination that will allow you to “intuitively” aim at the right place, even with your eyes closed.  If you don’t own a handgun, you are in greater luck as you will now have a way to see if the handgun you are looking at “fits you”.

If not, then you will have to do what we all have done prior to the era of adjustable backstraps, which is force you to fit your handgun.

As always, thank you for reading, and if you have any comments or questions, please post them below!

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Categories: Gear

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