High thumbhold grip

[mpeltier]

I did a search and scanned back a couple years worth of pages and found nothing on this subject. I have always gripped the 1911 with my thumb on the safety with good results.

During the draw as I grip the pistol my thumb always started out on top of the safety, ready to push it down as my arms would extend towards the target. The problem for me is it always seems to result in a less than optimal interface between my shooting hand and the pistol. I absolutely must have the grip safety pinned or no bang.

Recently I have been scrutinizing my technique and tried gripping the gun while in the holster with my thumb under the safety, and rotating my thumb over it just before achiving my weekhand grip and engaging it down at the same point as before. There is a noticable differance in how tight the pistol feels in my strong hand without having to squeeze any harder. (draw times are identical with either method)

Yesterday I tested it out by setting up three poppers at 15yds and double tapping each. Went thru about 100 rounds and found that with the new grip method my sight track never left the target zone and achived 100% success of both shots hitting the steel target. The old gripping method did not fare so well.

When do you other High thumbhold get your thumb on the safety and does anyone use or tried my newly discovered method?

[BSeevers]

I put it on the safety from the beginning.

Sounds like you have added extra motion that will slow you down, as you advance to higher draw skill levels. You need to dryfire and establish the proper grip without concious thought everytime. Yes a proper grip and stance allows the fastest most consistant shooting but you can get there without modifying or making and unconvential draw.

Eliminate wasted motion, is a good mantra also.

Edited January 27, 2008 by BSeevers

[mpeltier]

OK, so you start with thumb on it from the start like I always have. I to believe in not wasting any motion and work very hard and believe I am very good with economy of motion. But I think in this case what i am experimenting with is not actualy wasting motion, (my timer was telling me this) and here is why. Brian states in his book about the speed of the draw, "its perfectly ok to make some adjustments as the gun is coming up". My grip on the gun is more secure in what feels like a quicker grab from the holster.Trying to have my thumb in just the right spot takes more effort and adjustment to get a good grip. Rotating my thumb up takes no time away from anything. With more practice my draw times may be faster, only time will tell. But the big difference was the accuracy improvement and splits due to what I percieve as a far better grip with little to no adjustment afterward. This of course is just experimentation on my part and maybe ill end up back where I was but would like to hear if others have tried this or not.

[BSeevers]

What are your draw times and distance?

The timer tells all but sometimes a short term gain(kind of a trick of the day) is later regretted when technique needs to be altered to the correct one. A video posted would get a lot of help too.

Once you can do a sub-one second draw, reducing every tenth is a very big deal and you can't make improvements very easily, if your fundamentals are off.

I am pretty sure Brian is referring to errors in grabbing/drawing, AFTER, you have mastered the draw. I don't think he means to "modify" a good technique, just be open to adjusting it on the way. I do it a lot too.