Need some help remembering something-

[Eddies M77]

Okay-finally made it out to shoot my wife's new SR9 today. She shot first and there was a failure to feed every shot. Some times it would eject the spent case but not feed the new round. Some times it failed to eject the spent case. I put the other full magazine in and shot without a failure. I told her it must be something wrong with the magazine so I loaded the "good" one up and when she shot, the same thing-failures.

I got the gun back and it shot flawlessly. Then I happened to remember reading on this forum when I first got on here about some women or children (can't remember which) had this problem. But I can't remember why this happens. Can anyone refresh my memory? Is it the grip? Please help-LOL! My wife got very frustrated. Thanks!

 

[hittman]

Limp wrist. Need a firm hold so the slide can perform the action as designed.

Bet if you "Search" limp wrist or limp wristing you'll get quite a few hits.

 

[Cheesewhiz]

I think of "limp wristing" as a generic term. It is just a bad grip, could be too loose, could be too low, with a newer shooter it is most probably both. A firm, high as possible grip will normally solve it. Many are afraid of a slide bite, the SR9 will never slide bite, so you can push your grip as high as possible.

 

[Eddies M77]

Thanks guys! I told her I was thinking it was probably the grip. The 2nd time through she could some times fire as many as 3 in a row without a failure. So I appreciate it!

 

[blume357]

It's the strangest thing, this limp wristing... I can hold my P95 as 'loose as a goose' and it will fire fine. At least I think I'm holding it loose. I tried the same 'grip' with a glock and it jammed every time. I let my sister in law try my P95 and she jammed it every time.

Have your wife hold the pistol on a shooting bag or such and shoot it and she'll see that it works fine.

 

[lakers3234]

eddies: I'm a new gun user and it's probably not having her strengthening her wrist while shooting. I limped wrist my first time shooting with the SR9 on the first try. Now, I don't have any malfunctions/jams cause I corrected my wrist issues.

 

[Pinecone]

blume357, The difference is in how your hand sits in the grip in relation to the "axis" of the bore! The closer the "meat" of your hand (palm/thumb area) is to the "Axis" (bore centerline) the more control you have of the pistol even though it may not seem so. It's really interesting to deal with various customers who have limp wristed a pistol. Your hand is very "flexible", but the gun is set up a specific way. Your grip can be adjusted to prevent "any" limp wristing regardless of the relationship of your hand to the axis of the bore. It's just that the relationship in some pistols make it an easier proposition!.................Dick :wink:

 

[Eddies M77]

Pinecone-is it possible then that it could be due more to her hand not "fitting" the grips? In other words, her hand might be a little small so that the "meat" of her hand doesn't center on the axis? Or am I completely missing what you are saying? Thanks, Eddie

 

[RonS]

Limp wrist is a very generic term. All it means is that there is insufficient support on the frame/grip and it is moving backward and forcing the slide to chase it which means less energy stored in the recoil spring to run the slide back up. If her hands are small, if she is timid about taking a firm grip, if her grip is low on the gun it could be a lot of things.

She might want to look at her grip and experiment, possibly with the two thumbs forward grip that has become so popular lately, that seems like it would be a good grip for the situation.

Just don't let her do the old revolver shooter trick of putting her off thumb around the back of her shooting hand, that makes railroad tracks on the offending thumb.

 

[Eddies M77]

Thanks Ron-understand it better now. She is thinking that the grip is too low. We will experiment and see what works for her. Thanks to all who responded. Eddie

 

[cruzerlou]

Yep linp wrist .Even 1911 will stovepipe if you limp wrist them .The polyermor frame really flxes under recoil ,my Glock G-22 will jam if I limpwrist it .A good high hold on the gun will help with this .I have to really hold my glock real low and light to make it do this .
Lou

 

[Pinecone]

Eddies, Here it is in laymen's terms. It's not just in how the hand fits the grip, but other factors enter in. Try a "little" test. Hold your pistol straight out with the elbow "locked" and fire it. You will feel a nice smooth action and recoil with good control. Now bend your elbow about 45 degrees and fire a round. Feel anything different? The whole idea is to have a very solid stiff hold and stance in order for the "slide" to do it's thing! Remember your high school physics class. For every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction. As soon as the bullet exits the case, the case is moving rearward against the slide and recoil spring resistance as well as other moving parts. If it's a hammer fired gun, then you also have the hammer and it's spring supplying resistance. With a good firm hold, 80% of the rearward energy will be absorbed by the necessary parts movements to allow the pistol to function as designed. The recoil spring is compressed sufficiently to recock the pistol and feed the next cartridge into the chamber. However, when you have anything "less" than a good straight out stiff hold, a lot of that 80% energy is taken up by your "uncontrolled" flopping hand and arm and the gun malfunctions! In my experience, "some" guns will function with 50% energy but most will not. Especially the bigger boomers with higher resistance. Pistols are engineered to be held upright and straight out for "optimum" performance. Holding guns at a "cant" can also absorb some of that recoil energy. That pretty much sums it up!..................Dick :wink:

 

[Eddies M77]

Thanks my friend. Hopefully when we get back from vacation we will be able to go out and hopefully get her problems worked out. Have a blessed week-Eddie

 

[tkarter]

The more the gun gets shot the less apt to limp wrist it will be.
Just take a high as possible firm grip and it will empty mag after mag.

tk