Monday, March 21, 2022

Keep your digits away from the flash gap

Note for those not familiar with revolvers: between the breech end of the barrel and the front of the cylinder is a gap; it's only a few thousandths of an inch, but it has to be there.  In most revolvers it's here
Then you have the Chiappa Rhino, which is a strange design, but it does seem to shoot well; its flash gap is here
With most, you just about have to work at it to get your support-hand thumb near the gap, but on the Rhino you don't, and if you use the same thumb forward grip you do on a semi-auto, it's going to hurt.

Which brings us to the story: yesterday a guy came out and asked if we had some bandages.  Yep, he was shooting a Rhino for the first time, and the flash tore a hole in his leather glove and cut a nice, straight line across his thumb, also giving it one hell of a whack.  Had him wash it(turned out the RSO had already told him that), then put some antibiotic and bandaging on it.  He'd been talking about muzzle blast, and something clicked and I asked him if he was using a thumb forward grip, and yes.  Explained about that gap, then strongly suggested either go to a doc-in-a-box or the ER, because even if no other damage that was going to have to be cleaned out.  

Lesson being, if it's a new type of firearm to you, find out if there's a way it can hurt you before you load up.

3 comments:

Tsgt Joe said...

I made a bad mistake once while shooting with my brother in law. He was quite adept with the AR15 and the 1911 so I handed him my .44 revolver without thinking, the flash slashed his thumb bad. He had learned his gun handling in the marines and had never shot a revolver before.

Kevin said...

The really big magnums, the .460 and .500 can take a thumb clean off, or at least the tip.

Firehand said...

Mythbusters tried that with a .500, used chicken bones and ballistic gel to make a hand and put the appropriate fingers over the gap on the left side; the results were gruesome.