Help me brainstorm on a malfunction solution

[SIG_Fiend]

Alright, here's the issue. I now use a very aggressive thumbs forward grip. I used to have my wrist backed off a bit, however now my support hand wrist is fully locked out and as high on the gun as possible. My primary defensive guns are either a Glock 17 or 31. Here's the dilemma. Support hand palm is riding the slide stop and prematurely locking the slide back when I still have ammo. My current solution I'm considering is taking the stock slide stop and cutting off the exposed portion, allowing me to maintain last round lockback without the potential for me to bump it. I figured oh, this is a simple fix. Well it just occurred to me, what if I have to clear a double feed? I will no longer be able to lock the slide to the rear to relieve tension on the mag. Is there a way around this? I can think of multiple options, I'm just not sure what's realistic. Help me brainstorm and figure out what the most realistic solution to this problem is. Here are the options I can see for clearing a double feed with no slide stop lever:

-Rack slide to the rear while simultaneously holding down mag release and thrusting the gun down violently to hopefully drop the mag out. This could work, however I can see how a round half in/half out of the mag could lock it up and require yanking the mag out, and could prove even tougher if the support hand has to yank it and can't hold the slide back

-Simply depress mag release and rip the mag out the bottom, then rack to clear, reload, rack to load. This could work, however again half in/out round could lock the mag up until tension (slide lock) is relieved.


I don't see any realistic, consistent, and robust way around this problem. Also, changing my grip is out of the question. I am getting too good of a grip and it's offering me maximum performance (from what I can tell), so I don't want to go with an inferior grip just to get around this. Here's a pic showing my grip, and granted it's not at full extension but this is pretty close to how it looks at full extension:




Worst case I'll go with the cut off stock lever and just "cave man" it and beat the sh*t out of the gun until it works whenever I have another double feed. lol

 

[matefrio]

Switch platforms to a gun you can shoot with that grip.

 

[MR Redneck]

Shoot with one hand like I do.

 

[Designated]

Could the spring on the slide stop be changed? Maybe something with more tension? Not a glock guy just throwing it out there.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

There's not really any aftermarket spring options for that lever, and I really don't think that would solve the problem.

Shooting one-handed is not ideal, so no dice there.

I don't need to change guns. I have good fundamentals, and since I am well past that point, I am at the point (and have been for awhile) where it is appropriate to modify the gun around me to improve my performance (keeping reliability and durability in mind of course). Everything else is meshing perfectly with me, this is probably just the last hurdle for me to clear.

 

[Designated]

Well like you said I guess you have to remove it then. Maybe leave a little left to push up with a flat tip for trouble shooting and such.

 

[MR Redneck]

What's wrong with shooting one handed? Im real damn good at it.

 

[Jon Payne]

Bro, IMHO you need to tweak your grip just a little. I'll be in the Austin area soon and we can cuss and discuss.

 

[jr urbina]

I agree with Jon, alter your grip slightly. If you get a double feed, just rip that bitch out and reload.

 

[Dawico]

You could just trim the lever so your hand doesn't push it, but leave enough to be able to access it. Or even shave the frame a little there so you can bend the lever in more, but recessed enough so you aren't hitting it. That is a pretty low stress area in the frame, so a little shaving shouldn't hurt it. A combo of these two should keep it from getting unintentionally activated.

 

[matefrio]

Honestly, you're not an old enough dog to state you can't learn new tricks. You're grip is F#$$ing up the function of the gun. Tweak it or keep it as your crutch to wine about when things don't go your way.

 

[jr urbina]

What's wrong with shooting one handed? Im real damn good at it.

+1 One handed shooting's where it's at!

 

[The Lox]

+1 One handed shooting's where it's at!

Only if you can do it with the gun turned sideways brah...

 

[jr urbina]

Only if you can do it with the gun turned sideways brah...

When you start incorporating dynamic movement into your training, in various directions, don't discount anything. If you are training to fight with your handgun, sometimes you need to venture outside of a square range mentality.

 

[txinvestigator]

I agree, you need to change your grip.

Its like the guy who slaps the trigger and his shots are off, so rather than fix his trigger control he wants to "adjust" his sights.

 

[Poink88]

I agree, you need to change your grip.

Its like the guy who slaps the trigger and his shots are off, so rather than fix his trigger control he wants to "adjust" his sights.

I agree. Don't treat the symptom...remedy the cause.

 

[jr urbina]

Sig_Fiend, just guessing here, but looking at your grip, I'm thinking that to facilitate locking out hard on your support hand like that, your elbow is rotated inboard, possibly to the point where the inside of your elbow is facing straight up. Maybe try rotating it down and in slightly while maintaining your grip/wrist lock- out. This should lessen the amount of pressure your palm is putting on the slide stop.

 

[Texas1911]

I think lessening the pressure on the gun, and modifying a grip is a wrong course of action. The grip is more vital than anything else on the platform in terms of reliability. It's what keeps the sights on target, and it's what prevents the gun from malfunctioning. Frankly the Glock was never designed with a thumbs-forward grip in mind, and the location of the slide stop is problematic when used with it.

I think you should cut it off, you don't need to lock the slide back to relieve tension on the mag. I don't bother locking the slide to the rear as frankly, it's less economical in my opinion. You have to move the support hand up, rack to the rear with the slide release up, then move to the mag, rip the mag out, and reload as necessary. On a Glock, you got enough real estate on the magazine to just rip it out. I think Magpul teaches the lock-back method so that they can cover more types of guns; especially the 1911 where you have very little if any real estate on the flush magazine. It's slower, more complex, and unnecessary on a Glock.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

I need to take a picture so this will make more sense to everyone. My support arm is actually just a little higher in relation to my primary when in my shooting stance. My elbow is closer to pointed parallel with the ground (maybe a 45 degree angle). This is actually the exact upper body stance/grip that several top level competition shooters use, and there is a good reason for that. There is a little bit of a subtlety here that some may not realize. There is a less aggressive upper body stance and thumbs forward grip that LOTS of people do. The less aggressive technique usually has the support wrist not quite locked out and backed off just a bit (some refer to this as "thumbs up"), both arms extended evenly but almost bent upwards a little bit. If you think about this from a fulcrum standpoint, having the arms bent upward, even just slightly, the gun is now above the shoulders which drastically increases the fulcrum effect and muzzle flip. In my stance my support wrist is locked out, shoulders rotated forward, support arm slightly higher, head brought down slightly. The end result is the whole upper body stance is inline with the shoulders and offers more of a straight back recoil. Here's a vid of me to give you a better idea:



I can take constructive criticism as well as anyone, but I think people are missing the point here. I'm not a newbie and have been doing this awhile. I'm not having a problem with my fundamentals. I use the upper body stance I'm currently using because I've found it offers me superior performance. I can shoot lots of other guns like this, Sigs, Berettas, S&W's, 1911's, etc and I don't have a problem plus I have good recoil control and consistency. With Glocks, they sit low enough in the hand that the top of my support palm is resting right on the slide release. Without modification, the only way I can see shifting my grip to eliminate this problem would be moving to an inferior grip that will decrease my consistency and increase muzzle flip. Basically I'd be rotating my wrist back so it's not as locked out, both arms extended evenly and at more of a bent position (increasing muzzle flip because of the fulcrum effect). That does not sound like an acceptable change to me.

 

[Texas1911]

I can take constructive criticism as well as anyone, but I think people are missing the point here. I'm not a newbie and have been doing this awhile. I'm not having a problem with my fundamentals. I use the upper body stance I'm currently using because I've found it offers me superior performance. I can shoot lots of other guns like this, Sigs, Berettas, S&W's, 1911's, etc and I don't have a problem plus I have good recoil control and consistency. With Glocks, they sit low enough in the hand that the top of my support palm is resting right on the slide release. Without modification, the only way I can see shifting my grip to eliminate this problem would be moving to an inferior grip that will decrease my consistency and increase muzzle flip. Basically I'd be rotating my wrist back so it's not as locked out, both arms extended evenly and at more of a bent position (increasing muzzle flip because of the fulcrum effect). That does not sound like an acceptable change to me.

It's pretty simple ... if the grip is the issue and you are not changing the grip then you need to change the equipment to accommodate the grip. There isn't much beyond that you can do.

I had the same issue on that 17L ... but for some reason or another the 19 doesn't do it. I even checked my grip and it is all over the slide stop.