I mentioned in Handgun Fit, that I do not want to be able to access my weapon’s controls while in my firing grip. Today on the range I had a very annoying demonstration of why that is. I was shooting my LTT P30L, trying to video a FAST run for the site. My slide kept failing to lock back when empty, forcing me to manually rack the slide each time. I captured a little video of the issue for your viewing pleasure. Or ridicule, either way.
I have not had this issue happen with this gun before and was pretty surprised when it popped up. The last two weeks have been a lot of Glock and 1911 shooting, but I don’t think that is particularly meaningful as I shoot other guns very frequently. The issue is that on a V3 P30, the slide release is pretty long and extends back very far toward my strong hand thumb. Not as far to the rear as a classic Sig, but pretty close.
When I carried a Sig, I had to kick my strong hand thumb over to the left of my support thumb’s knuckle. This ensured that I did not prematurely hit the slide release. I have not been doing this with the P30, but I am starting to now! On a P30S, the slide release lever is significantly shortened, no doubt to make room for the safety lever. I may look into swapping that shorter lever onto my other P30 pistols, but for now, a simple thumb change will solve the problem.
Failing to lock to the rear is pretty annoying, but is also easily fixed and does not cost much time in the big picture. If my fingers were to inadvertently reach the magazine release, I might be in for a real treat. Extended magazine releases have no place on any of my guns. Not only do they increase the chance of losing my ammo supply at a critical moment, but they also tend to wear my hand pretty badly while shooting.
Likewise, I have no use for ambi controls. If you need a control on the other side of the pistol, then you should put it there, but since I do not need extra controls, I prefer them to be left off. These days, it seems like every gun comes with ambi controls, and in all fairness, the ambi setup on my Glocks have not caused any issues (standard slide release for me, thank you). This is also true of my HK pistols, though their ambi controls are much bigger than the ones on Glocks. On a 1911 I can put up with a good ambi safety, but I don’t prefer them. They do make a nice shelf to rest your thumb.
Speaking of safeties, I obviously want to be able to access them from a firing grip. That doesn’t mean I want a particularly large safety, and I certainly don’t want a very wide, “gas-pedal” type safety. No gun has ever come close to the effectiveness and ease of use that the 1911’s safety provides. Some guns like the M&P are quite useable, others not so much. Why is it seemingly impossible to match the angle and placement of the 1911’s safety?
So, if you can’t reach the controls from your firing grip, how should you reach them? I prefer the time-honored “grip flip”. Most guns use a Browning style magazine release, and with that type of button, I cannot reach it from my firing grip. In order to reload the gun, I “flip” the grip slightly so that the gun turns inboard towards my body ever so slightly. This allows my thumb to move forward on the grip and reach the magazine release. Once I have dropped the magazine, I “flip” it back to my firing grip. I have small hands and can still manage this flip very easily and precisely. In 30 years of doing it I have never come close to dropping my gun, and have never met anyone who has either.
On guns like the 1911, I also cannot reach the slide release. I prefer to drop the slide using my support hand thumb, after it has seated the fresh magazine. On other guns, like the Glock, though I cannot reach the slide release, it is closer to my strong hand thumb than it is on a 1911, so I can reach it during the flip. Once the slide has been released, I flip the gun back into my master grip while on the way out to my two-handed grip. These techniques have served me very well over the years, and I would not prefer to do it another way.
On a gun like the classic series Sigs (which are all their own) I flip the gun to drop the mag, but retain my master grip to drop the slide. As mentioned earlier, I have to move my strong hand thumb out of the way of the slide release, otherwise I will hold it down inadvertently. My support side thumb works the decocker, but if I am shooting strong hand only, then I flip the gun again to decock. Easy peasy.
Slide-mounted decockers like 3rd gen Smiths and Beretta’s are worked with my support thumb. The other controls all require the flip.
Handguns and their related issues are very personal, but almost any motivated user can figure out how to modify their grip in order to make their guns run correctly. A stubborn attitude that refuses to change techniques to fit the gun will not lead to excellence. Ideally, the gun can also be modified so that your grip and gun work together. In the case of my suddenly recalcitrant P30L, I will simply kick my strong thumb over to the left of my support thumb joint. Not only will this cure the issue, but it will also allow me to retain the longer slide release lever which allows for better reloads. Best of both worlds, assuming it works out under pressure testing.
Here’s a link to a video showing this issue.
Never having owned or shot a SIG or H&K, I am unfamiliar with their layout and always learn something from your post, I have large hands so reach of mag releases are not typically a problem for me on my 1911’s or M&P, as to the grip placement, I’m old and grew up with K frames, so I have never been able to switch myself to the thumb forward grip, I placement my strong hand thumb over the top of my support thumb and press my support thumb into the frame, with the thumb forward position I feel as if I have an open grip inside my strong hand, probably only me
Interesting that your altered grip for the P30 to stay off the slidestop is the grip Ernest taught me on the very first class I took with him. I use that grip regardless of pistol I’m shooting, unless it has a safety that needs constant pressure on it, and even then, I will often still run that grip. I find that thumb kicked over to the left provides a stronger, more stable grip than the common thumbs stacked, forward, grip as it allows me to really clamp down on the support hand.
That’s probably a good way to go, but I tend to grip each gun in what I think of as an optimum grip for that particular gun. The funny thing is that for the first few thousand rds, my normal grip caused zero issues with the P30L. Then they cropped up just this past week, This actually touches on a post I’m working on right now about using different guns. Also, my idea of an “optimum grip” is one of the things that has changed the most for me over the years. It would not really be very noticeable from the outside but the way I pressure the gun has changed over time.
I tend to stay away from guns that would require me to change my grip, or alter the guns so they don’t. I added flush safeties to my new TS2 specifically because the factory larger ones interfere with my grip and I hate them. It is a bit more challenging to swipe the safety off on the draw, but doable.
I actually took a dremel to the excess rear material on the slide stops of Walther P99s when I ran those for the same reason, which may be an option if for some reason a P30S slide stop isn’t. That got them short enough for me to not have issues while firing but still plenty close enough to hit with my right thumb for reloads.
But I have very long fingers and thumbs. So long that on 1911s I can use my right thumb to hit the slide release after shifting the gun to drop the mag.
Your point about the curious difficulty in replicating the excellent ergos of the 1911 is well taken. I started out with USPF, and found that to have a great safety that is just not as good with the P30 series, good as the design is otherwise.