The human hand is an awesome tool. The combination of fingers and opposable thumbs makes our lives easy, especially when it comes to using tools. Guns are tools that we engage with with our hands. What happens when your hands are weak? Your hands may be small, you may have arthritis, or you may have some other problem that affects the strength of your hands and the ability to utilize a gun effectively. With that in mind, I wanted to create a quick, easy reference guide for shooters with hand issues.
What to Avoid
First and foremost, let’s talk about what we should avoid if we have poor hand strength. I assume most people have common sense and understand anything with Magnum in the name isn’t likely a good choice. The two types of handguns that can be a bit sneaky in terms of their recoil are pocket .380s and straight blowback handguns.
I’ve seen a lot of new gun owners assume the smaller the gun is, the easier it is to shoot. In reality, a small pistol can often be harder to shoot, depending on its caliber. A pocket-sized .380 ACP like the Ruger LCP, S&W Bodyguard, and many more are often brutal on the hands.
Calibers like 10mm and .45 ACP offer a bit more recoil than most standard calibers and tend to be large cartridges. Large cartridges create guns with bigger grips overall. A doublestack 10mm or 45 ACP handgun can be too large to handle. However, a single stack may be more viable.
Is a Revolver the Solution?
Revolvers are a very common solution suggested to those with poor hand strength. I tend to avoid suggesting revolvers in most cases. The long, heavy trigger pull is often difficult to manipulate for those with weaker hands or those with smaller hands. Plus, a lot of concealed carry revolvers aim to be very light, which results in increased recoil.
There are revolvers, like the Ruger LCR in .38 Special, .327 Federal Magnum, 22LR, and .22 Magnum, that aren’t a bad choice. Yes, a magnum, but it’s not like most magnums. The Ruger LCR tends to have a very smooth and light trigger. With the .38 Special, there are some very pleasant low recoil loads for short-barreled guns, and the .327 Federal with an 85-grain round is quite a light recoiling.
That’s about the only revolvers I’d suggest for those with reduced hand strength.
The Dedicated Options
The Firearms industry has produced numerous low-recoiling, easy-racking semi-auto handguns. One issue a lot of shooters have is being able to pull the slide rearward to load a round or fix a malfunction. Luckily, there are a few options out there for shooters.
S&W EZ Series
S&W produces both a .380 ACP and 9mm EZ. These are compact handguns that use a variety of features to reduce the recoil and to make manipulations easy. This includes easy-loading magazines and an easy-to-rack slide design. The .380 ACP version offers very little recoil overall, and the 9mm offers a bit more power and admittedly cheaper ammunition.
The EZ series of weapons are an excellent option for concealed carry. They are not micro-sized and allow you to get the best grip possible on your firearm. It’s a hand-fitting grip that’s well-rounded to help displace recoil throughout the hand instead of hyper-focusing it into one part of the hand.
S&W Equalizer
The S&W Equalizer is a 9mm, micro-compact handgun akin to the P365. As a micro-compact pistol, you get decent capacity, which ranges from 10 to 13 rounds in total. This makes the magazine harder to load, but S&W includes a Maglula with the Equalizer to make loading the magazine a bit easier.
The gun keeps the EZ features of being easy to rack and low recoiling. It’s a 9mm only design, so the recoil will be a bit more than a .380 ACP, but not by a large margin. You will get an optics and light-ready design that offers a modern magazine capacity.
Walther CCP M2
One of the original low-recoiling, easy-racking guns is the Walther CCP M2. This gas retarded gun that uses a piston to help operate the weapon. This also helps reduce recoil and makes the weapon very easy to rack and shoot. Walther produces the gun in both 9mm and .380 ACp. The .380 ACP variant delivers very little recoil overall, and the 9mm isn’t bad either.
The Walther CCP series is a very simple and comfortable subcompact single stack 9mms that is very easy to shoot. They can be a great concealed carry option.
SIG P365-380
The SIG P365 is probably the most common concealed-carry gun on the market right now. It’s micro-sized but packs ten rounds. Some can find the 9mm chambering a bit snappy, so recently, SIG released a .380 ACP variant of the gun. The use of .380 ACP reduces recoil and makes the gun a bit easier to handle.
Other than the caliber, there isn’t anything done to reduce recoil. However, the use of a P365 opens you up to tons of holsters and accessories for a very popular gun.
Magazine Loaders
Magazine loads from ETS, Maglula, Speed Beez, and many more can take the sting out of loading a magazine. It can take some serious hand strength to load a magazine, and it can tire your hand out. This makes training a hassle and very difficult.
Finding a magazine loader that fits your specific weapon is often a must-have if you plan to train seriously. Even if you don’t have hand strength issues, these can be very handy.
Consider a Smaller Caliber
We’ve talked a lot about .380 and 9mm, but smaller calibers exist to help deal with recoil. For ultra-small pistols, I really like the .32 ACP round. For a pocket-sized gun, it has half the recoil energy of the .38-0 ACP and tends to be pleasant from very small guns. The 6.6-ounce Kel-Tec P32 is very light, but the recoil is far from harsh.
The little .32 ACP can be expensive and tough to find at times, so the .22LR and .22 Magnum can be good choices. They aren’t optimum but do offer very little recoil. The Magnum round tends to be great in revolvers, as does the .22LR. Additionally, the little .22LR works really well in the micro-sized Ruger LCP in .22LR.
Training With Reduced Hand Strength
If you have reduced strength, shooting often gets tiring quickly. Managing recoil gets rough. With that in mind, dry fire is your absolute best friend. You can practice a lot of things dry, from basic marksmanship to your draw from concealment and fire. You can do quite a bit without getting tired or having your hands beat up. Something like the Mantis Laser Academy can make your dry fire a bit more intense and a lot more fun.
Second, look for training classes that might have lower round counts. Firing 250 rounds a day is a lot easier than managing 500. If this is difficult, there are a few steps you can take. First, I’d advise you to tell the instructor and let them know your hands have issues. They can observe and give you a break if necessary.
A real-life saver is bringing a .22LR pistol alongside your main handgun. When your hands get tired of getting beat up, you can swap to the .22LR. This may require a different holster and mag pouches, but it’s a move worth making to get the most out of your training.
Stay Strong
Don’t give up on your own self-defense just because your hands might be a little weak, small, or just not always up to snuff. Go out there, and get shooting, get trained, and start shooting. These are my ideas on how to deal with hand issues; what are yours? Let us know below!
