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If you've ever taken any serious firearms training, you were taught to prepare and practice with your off hand. Why? Your gun hand might become unusable in a fight.
Well, I've given this advice some serious consideration over the years. I'm somewhat ambidextrous, but shoot left-handed. At the range, I'd send some right-handed rounds downrange. As I've grown older, the onset of arthritis in some fingers gave me concern and reason to prepare for impairment beyond that which might be sustained in a fight. So I've collected some right-handed holsters and accessories just in case I ever needed them. And I thought about and mentally prepared for I would do if I ever had to stop shooting left-handed.
Well, that day came, in a most sudden and unexpected manner. Two weeks ago, I tripped and fell in my backyard, shattering the proximal joint of my left pinkie finger. The surgeon said there were more bone fragments than he could count. Ouch.
The most common treatment for this is to insert a pin through the length of the broken finger and leave it here until the bones mend. Unfortunately, this immobilizes the joints and they generally don't work anymore, often leading to total joint replacements (artificial knuckles). Yuk.
I got lucky. The surgeon on duty didn't respond so the emergency room doctor put me in touch with her husband. He's a surgeon trained in the apparently rarely used, but nonetheless state-of-the-art repair. Instead of a single, immobilizing pin, I have three pins in my finger arranged and secured with rubber bands so as to allow my joints to move while the bones mend, hopefully saving said joints from what would otherwise be a permanent, crippling end. So far, so good. (I'll send pictures if you want, but didn't want to gross everybody out by posting them).
I don't know if I'll ever be able to hold a gun in the left hand again, let alone shoot left-handed. Holding a fork is pretty painful and darn near impossible. But sometimes preparation really does pay off. At this moment, I'm sitting in a restaurant, writing this in my Palm Pilot, open carrying on the *right* side.
Oh, and thankfully my wife can shoot well, too. Life is good.
If you've ever taken any serious firearms training, you were taught to prepare and practice with your off hand. Why? Your gun hand might become unusable in a fight.
Well, I've given this advice some serious consideration over the years. I'm somewhat ambidextrous, but shoot left-handed. At the range, I'd send some right-handed rounds downrange. As I've grown older, the onset of arthritis in some fingers gave me concern and reason to prepare for impairment beyond that which might be sustained in a fight. So I've collected some right-handed holsters and accessories just in case I ever needed them. And I thought about and mentally prepared for I would do if I ever had to stop shooting left-handed.
Well, that day came, in a most sudden and unexpected manner. Two weeks ago, I tripped and fell in my backyard, shattering the proximal joint of my left pinkie finger. The surgeon said there were more bone fragments than he could count. Ouch.
The most common treatment for this is to insert a pin through the length of the broken finger and leave it here until the bones mend. Unfortunately, this immobilizes the joints and they generally don't work anymore, often leading to total joint replacements (artificial knuckles). Yuk.
I got lucky. The surgeon on duty didn't respond so the emergency room doctor put me in touch with her husband. He's a surgeon trained in the apparently rarely used, but nonetheless state-of-the-art repair. Instead of a single, immobilizing pin, I have three pins in my finger arranged and secured with rubber bands so as to allow my joints to move while the bones mend, hopefully saving said joints from what would otherwise be a permanent, crippling end. So far, so good. (I'll send pictures if you want, but didn't want to gross everybody out by posting them).
I don't know if I'll ever be able to hold a gun in the left hand again, let alone shoot left-handed. Holding a fork is pretty painful and darn near impossible. But sometimes preparation really does pay off. At this moment, I'm sitting in a restaurant, writing this in my Palm Pilot, open carrying on the *right* side.
Oh, and thankfully my wife can shoot well, too. Life is good.