Angle on a thumbrest

[Loki999]

Hi all,

what do you use for an angle an your thumbrest?

i've been looking for a topic on this and i saw some pic's some are almost flat while others are almost straight up.

What do you think, the more upright angle the better control?

I realy dont press that hard on mine it's just a part of indexing my grip.

[Jon Merricks]

I wish I had a pic of the ones I used way back when. It was almost flat and I really liked it. May have been made by Bul but I cant recall. The other ones with the angle made it feel like I was pushing the rest too much.

[Aircooled6racer]

Hello: I really like the angle on the Go Guns G-pedal. It puts your hand in the correct spot every time. I don't push on the thumb rest but just place my thumb on it. Make sence? Thanks, Eric

[lneel]

I had some round ones made for my son.....I like them alot just for an indexing mechanism. I don't really press on them for recoil control (my SV IMM comp takes care of that!).

Lee

www.nicholasneel.com

[Foxbat]

I have experimented with the angle and eventually settled on around 55-60 degrees. Here is one of the rests I made and I like it a lot. All my rests are this way.

[G-ManBart]

The angle I went with is the one required to toss them in the garbage (or at least a spot where they can gather prior to being sold). Tried all kinds of rests, ran them for several years, still get better dot tracking and a faster reset without one.

Standing upright, in a classic freestyle stance, the difference is minor. Try shooting while leaning or with your shoulders turned, or anything other than ideally balanced, and the difference was terribly obvious in favor of no rest.

Just something to try...practice leaning around a barrel/wall and shoot with your thumb on and off the rest, and see what happens.

[Loki999]

Thanks!

I'm going to expiriment with it.

[mtheaded]

IMHO, this is one of the most misunderstood and possibly one of the most important subjects in Open shooting.

In a nutshell, it DEPENDS.

It depends on your shooting style.

If you prefer the classic thumbs forward, sometimes called “neutral”as popularized by Leatham and Enos, you will want either no thumb rest or if you want an index but still no involvement of thumb, you will want a low or no angle thumbrest. Examples of top shooters who use this are most and virtually all the old guard. It is highly effective. Something like the Arredondo

If you are one of new school shooters who want their wrist less cammed forward you will want a higher angle of thumbrest. Examples of these shooters are are Eric Graufel and KC Esubio. Examples of this “hybrid” thumb accessory are the RHT.

If you actively want to control recoil and use your thumb for recoil control and your wrists for rapid acquisition, you will want higher angle placed farther aft. This “unlocks” the cammed forward wrist and allows it to participate more actively. The *thumb rest [generic]* has a higher angle but also controls windage error as well as flip which others don’t. It also enables multiple arm and torso positions as opposed to the other methods which dictate upper body position. Example of top shooter who uses this is Chris Tilley.

So there is a spectrum of possibilities for you to choose as an individual to see what is best for you. Whether one method pushes the limit of human performance better than others, time will tell. Some shooters use the newer method but most are still using the classic method quite effectively.

[Foxbat]

The funny part about what I would call an "aggressive" rest (pedals close to vertical) is that I love them, but when I switch to a gun without, I don't seem to even notice. My IMM doesn't have it, and that doesn't bother me. Go figure...

[mtheaded]

The angle I went with is the one required to toss them in the garbage (or at least a spot where they can gather prior to being sold). Tried all kinds of rests, ran them for several years, still get better dot tracking and a faster reset without one.

Standing upright, in a classic freestyle stance, the difference is minor. Try shooting while leaning or with your shoulders turned, or anything other than ideally balanced, and the difference was terribly obvious in favor of no rest.

Just something to try...practice leaning around a barrel/wall and shoot with your thumb on and off the rest, and see what happens.

I would disagree with G-Man Bart, at least in regard to high angle such as the *thumb rest [generic]*. He might be right about low angle ones, I cant say.

,

But off balance, or odd ball shots is where the *thumb rest [generic]* excels. It is very easy to get very tight doubles around a barricade. In fact you rarely need to lean or turn your shoulders because you get a much bigger arc of fire with gun staying upright most of the time, compared to classic neutral grip. It also gives big advantage in tight ports with wide arc of fire. When you do have the occasional odd off angle or non upright shot the dot hardly moves

Because the higher angle unlocks your wrist, you get roughly 30 degrees more arc or fire each way without needing to move your upper body hardly at all.

[mark carr]

Well I would have to agree with G-ManBart it felt better when I first started shooting it but the first couple shoots I shot it in I had more c and d's than i normally do so i did a bunch of drill's front site and bill drills without it i was shooting a's and c's with it on I shot mostly c's and d's not real scientific but our last match with 100 rds pistol I shot without it on and I was back to shooting mostly a's and c's I had only a couple d's . Mark,

[Foxbat]

I guess we all are under an obligation to either agree or disagree with someone... well, my gunsmith, who has 30 years of shooting and is a GM, puts them on guns he builds, and he uses them himself...

If that sounds like I agree with him - I guess you broke the code! But this is the beauty of this sport, that you can make your own decisions.

Most of them are also easy to reverse!

Here is the rest I just made for one of my guns, and I am sticking with 55 degrees:

Edited June 5, 2011 by Foxbat

[mtheaded]

Foxbat’s post where he said he tried a bunch of angles for thumb rest and figured 55-60 degrees was best got me thinking. I pulled out the thumb rest I obtained from sponsor at Area One last year and measured it. The one billed as the original measured 58 degrees, right in middle of what Foxbat said.

Makes me think, hmmm maybe those original guys got it right all along.

And NICE JOB on machining, Foxbat