Can a person shoot a handgun with one hand, if the last two fingers are missing from that hand?



For the purposes of the excercise we will say the gun is a Beretta 96 Inox Semi-Auto Pistol. 49SW caliber bullets with roughly 36 oz in weight w/full clip.

If so, is this a dexterity and hand strength skill that would need to be learned first? and what could a person do to accomplish this?

I happen to be a physicist but need no calculations to answer this question. I am a handgun enthusiast and have direct experience.

When you grip a handgun the majority of the grip comes from your hand not fingers, in fact if you squeeze too tightly with your fingers you will throw off your aim by applying angular forces to the side of the gun, very much not desirable for accuracy.

I am a rather large fellow with large-ish hands (6'4 245 lbs)When firing small hand guns I only use 3 fingers, 2 grip, 1 pulls the trigger. With only 2 fingers I may have some fast follow up shot issues, but would still be able to fire the gun accurately.

The best bet when firing a handgun is to just grip the gun gently yet with a great degree of still-ness. When the gun recoils the forces will be mostly back toward the shooter and slightly upward. The rotational forces will interact with the middle finger and the web of the thumb the most. Unless the pistol is a very powerful magnum you should have plenty of hand strength to deal with that rotational force.

(I can even do this with my .44 mag and hold on to it, wouldn't want to have to, but can . . )


Honestly all you would need to do to accomplish this is practice. On youtube you will find a user called hikok45, he is a rather large individual (6'8) and he likes to shoot small glocks, all he can get on the grip is 2 fingers so its pretty much the same concept. He has videos specifically about this topic.

Clearly over time hand strength will increase, however its my opinion that if you start with a 9MM, you will be more then fine.

Federal Champion series ammo for 9MM is a very light load, and the recoil is easily managed, I would suggest that for while practicing.


(Edit, ahh I see your refering to .40 SW, I do not have pistols chambered in that round, however its energy is not much different than 9MM. (9MM ~ 300-350 ish ft/lbs) while (.40SW ~ 350-400 Ft/lbs) of NRG.

Thank you! I do not deserve to walk in your dojo, but you did me a great service to the God of Curiosity.

You would do most of your gripping with the thumb and hand (I am holding my Beretta trying to figure this out). Trigger finger would go on the trigger like normal but I would put the middle finger as low as you could on the grip to help with the recoil or your muzzle will jump more than it should I would think. It is all about practicing...

Thanks!

Now you better delete this thread because if someone in your life turns up dead and you have two missing fingers...it could be used as evidence against you.

It's a good thing I have all my fingers and toes!

I am going to give this a shot this weekend, ill let ya know how it goes. (pun intended)

Coolness, I'm on pins and needles now!

Dah, didn't get a chance to get out to the range, will report back once I have.

Ok, money and weather cooperated this weekend and I went out to the range to try this out. Its very doable with the 9MM, not even close with the mag, I was scared I was going to loose the thing.

I had more muzzle flip but it was manageble as long as I was patient with follow up shots. My middle finger began to get tired its not used to holding the whole weight of force required to pin the weapon in the web of my hand.

So conclusion, doable with practice for smaller calibers.