Thumb Safety

[eric nielsen]

Had the weirdest 3-5 second pause prior to firing a shot last weekend. At first I blamed it on the right side of the ambi-safety hitting my stronghand knuckle. Seemed like it took forever, I almost gave up & did Unload&Show Clear but somehow got it going again.

It wasn't the grip safety, that thing is defeated 3 ways.

Stage had you stand on X's on right side of fence that runs downrange. On the beep, step back & engage 3 paper, 2 steel on the left side of fence, then proceed downrange & finish the rest of the targets.

Should've just stepped back with the right foot & step over with the left foot, no problem. Guess I didn't do that, got really crowded up against the fence with my gun, came down on the other side, no bang. Really pushed down on the safety, it kinda bounced back up & wouldn't let the hammer fall.

Tried that at home & see that my support-hand thumb must've yanked the gun back toward my face to clear that prop, pushed it's way into the safety, popped it up, then planted itself on my nice tacky grip tape. At that point when I push down the safety it pinches the skin of my left palm and will NOT stay down. Ouch.

Funny thing is with all my 40-50 points worth of mistakes, I still finished in the same place overall for the match. Without the thumb pinch I maybe win one stage is all.