Wednesday, February 11, 2009

The Tell-Tale . . . Hands?

While scrubbing gun-cleaning schmutz off my hands, I noticed something. A person who knew what to look for could tell I shoot just by examining them.

There's a trigger callus on the medial side of my right index finger. A hammer-bite scar from my Hi-Powers in the web of my right thumb. And calluses on the palm of my right hand and the heel of my left from the aggressive G10 grips on my 1911's.

Weird.

P.S. -- Eventually a hammer-bite scar doesn't even hurt any more when it gets bit again, but I do advise wiping blood off a blued gun promptly, lest it damage the finish. And when I hear the guys complain about grips or checkering hurting their poor wittle hands, well, they're obviously not shooting enough.

6 comments:

Tam said...

In fairness, an aggressive 20-lpi checkering job doesn't hurt, so much as it leaves your hands chewed to bloody, bandaid and moleskin covered hamburger after a 600-round day at class with a lot of repetitions...

Brian K Miller said...

Does nobody wear gloves anymore?

Hecate said...

Gun school ALWAYS draws blood. I was doing good on my last class until we had a drill that involved shooting while running on an advancing diagonal. Got hit in the arm by my own splatter.

Before ammo became so freakin' scarce and expensive, I used to shoot 300-400 rounds a week year round.

Besides, working with horses toughens up hands, what with stacking 60 lb. hay bales, carrying heavy buckets, building/fixing fence, handling lead ropes, and such. I've always been too dumb to wear gloves for any of that, too.

DouginSalcha said...

I kind of figured out the part about my 'poor wittle hands' all by myself. I don't handle hay bales, buckets, or fencing and I do work in an office so my hands don't have a lot of calluses.

Whenever a new pistol (the grips or the trigger of my newest acquisition a Glock 21) hurts my hands, I just figure I need more practice.

Oh, I do use gloves about half the year (you kind of have to when the temperatures are at or below -35 Fahrenheit). I do like your blog however, thanks...

Hecate said...

Okay, I stand corrected. Despite working in an office, I don't have "office hands" and don't seem to hang around with anyone who does, either. Guess I didn't realize how prevalent they are. Please accept my apologies.

Shooting leaves its mark, all right. I still have a scar on my right arm where a .223 case landed that I had to peel off. A friend learned the hard way why nobody wears shorts to tactical rifle class. While shooting prone, his legs collected a lot of nice hot brass.

Another friend offered to let me see the scar from a rifle case that went down the back of his pants. Uh, no thanks, really.

I need to take a picture of my dinged-up shooting glasses. Speaks eloquently about the importance of eye protection.

Multi-day gun classes always chew up my hands, but that's just part of the deal. And it's not just gun training. I got a nifty bleeding gouge in my foot from a blunt training knife in a disarms class. And empty hand taught by an ex-Navy special ops champion cage fighter can leave serious bruises. But the gain is worth the pain.

Tam said...

"I need to take a picture of my dinged-up shooting glasses. Speaks eloquently about the importance of eye protection."

Can I get an "AMEN!"?