Confession time... Spider bits.

[KimberPB]

So for those that don't know what a spider bit is, I'll explain. If a shooter wraps his support hand thumb around the back of a semi auto handgun, instead of having both thumbs on the same side, when the firearm recoils the slide kicks back and takes a nice bit out of your thumb. So confession time! How many of you guys have "Forget", wrap your thumb, and gotten bit?

I'll confess it happened to me once. During one of my advanced defensive hand gun classes I got bit. We were running a shoot while moving to and from behind cover drill. We engaged targets while shooting Righty (strong hand) as you moved to cover. Once we reached cover there were two last targets to the left. We were to switch the firearm to our left hand (That's my weak side) and engage the last two targets shooting lefty. Well, I had done well shooting lefty all day but that one time I got lazy. I double tapped the first target and instantly knew I had made a bad mistake. I move my thumb and put the last three rounds in the second target. I still have the scare to this day. Other then the fact I learned the importance of proper grip but I also learned rubber grips get a bet slick when you add a little blood.....

 

[jtg452]

That's one of the few screw ups I've never done. I've seen it done several times, though.

I had one guy I was teaching to shoot do it twice in about 3 minutes. I explained and demonstrated to him how to hold the pistol (one of my Browning Hi Powers) and told him why he needed to keep both thumbs on the same side of the gun. Naturally, he threw his support hand's thumb across the top of his shooting hand as soon as he dropped the slide and ended up with a nice slice on the second knuckle of said thumb. We stopped, cleared the gun, cleaned both him and the gun up since he was bleeding like a stuck hog and it was a blued gun. Sure enough, he dropped the slide on the first round, wrapped his thumb over the top AGAIN and fired it off. This time, he ended up with a plug torn out of the edge of the first knuckle. So, we repeated our previous steps and he was now running around with 2 band aids on the same thumb.

That was when I dug out the 4 inch barrel for one of my Dan Wesson 357's and he learned to shoot on a DA revolver instead.

(Oddly enough, he kept his thumb in the right spot from then on. :sarcastic: )

 

[mrsandman224455]

I have not done this, however I have seen it done. Does not look fun. I can easily see how it can happen, I haven't been shooting handguns for very long (so I'm sure this will happen to me one day). My fingers are crossed as I hope not to...