Browsing YouTube I came across a video entitled “The 1911 - A Fatal Flaw” (1:27). I think the the classic Colt is a magnificent piece of engineering, so I was intrigued - it makes the claim that because of the placement of the slide stop pin you can’t use a certain technique.
This technique I have never seen before, using your middle finger to squeeze the trigger and placing the index finger along the barrel like this, apparently known as point shooting and originating in the 19th century;
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Putting aside for a moment the claims of the video (as one of the most successful pistols of all time the 1911 can’t have too fatal a flaw) is this technique ever used and does it have any benefit to just using your index finger?
Seems dubious to me. If you try this without a gun in your hand you find (as least I did) that as you pull the trigger with your middle finger there’s a considerable tendency to curve your index finger - which would reliably disturb your aim.
Our dad told us differently (not a factual teaching.) In the unlikely event your trigger finger is injured (like Tom Berenger’s), you either get it out of the way (put in on the slide,) or you make one big finger using both but the middle one doing the squeezing.
Didn’t work for me when I was four years old.
My older brother and I would play cops and robbers with play pistols. My index finger couldn’t pull the trigger, so I used my middle finger. Index finger along the barrel. I had a great shot on the hinge side of the door. My brother shut the door. Finger drops to the floor! The good news was that the finger did grow back. Looks odd, but serviceable.
The only place I’ve ever seen this technique used was in movies where the gun handling was ludicrously bad. Richard Harris fired a Browning High Power in some shitty 70’s movie using this technique, IIRC.
Putting a finger along the slide will interfere with the movement of the slide. Doing this with a revolver will interfere with rotation of the cylinder. In a smallish revolver, it may also put your fingertip near enough to the cylinder gap to give you a really nasty and painful surprise.
There really is such a thing as point shooting, but neither Fairbairn nor Applegate nor any other teachers of whom I am aware ever advocated this goofy technique.
Edited to add:The High Standard derringerwas a gun where a* few* gun writers actually recommended this technique back in the 60’s and 70’s. Even then, though, there was recognition of the fact that large-handed shooters might end up blowing off a fingertip. Most owners fired the piece in the conventional manner.
I used to know a peace officer who, due to the loss of his right index finger in the line of duty, qualified with his service pistol with both hands using both his remaining index finger and middle fingers. I tried shooting this way as well, and found that while it required a modified grip that made it difficult to access the slide release I could achieve serviceable accuracy. Given the reasonable possibility of injuring the index finger, it is not unreasonable for someone who carries a firearm for professional use to learn to fire with both hands, just as you train in TRB drills and one handed reload.
As for the 1911 being “a magnificent piece of engineering”, I would have to disagree, alhtough I don’t think that the placement of the slide release pin is the fatal Achillies heel of that venerable gun. I would point out the delicate slide bushing, the inadequate hammer tang and long hammer spur that causes the dreaded “hammer bite”, a delicate extractor mechanism that is prone to breakage, the overly complicated swinging link, nearly useless sights, the non-ergonomic grip, and a useless grip safety. The frame, while adequate for original spec .45 ACP, cannot withstand a constant diet of +P rounds, which was a fatal flaw when Colt decided to produce the weapon in 10mm Auto. Of course, those are all judgements by modern standards, and for its day, the 1911 was a phenomenal improvement in reliability, power, and durability of the autoloading pistol, which of course is what caused it to become so adopted and adored. The aftermarket industry in the last couple of decades has come up with numerous drop in components, modifications, and significant redesign of the basic platform to address all of the above issues, but that just goes to the point that there were plenty of things to improve upon the basic design of the 1911.
Of John Moses Browning designs, I think the Browning Hi-Power is superior in nearly every way for its intended (military application), though in tems of caliber I prefer larger and heavier rounds for better control of overpenetration. I admit some prejudice in this matter as it was the pistol that I learned to shoot on; however when comparing the feel and fit of a stock WWII era 1911 and Browning Hi-Power, the latter is clearly a better designed and constructed pistol. The 1911 feels like a brick in comparison to the comfort and natural hand placement on the Hi-Power. If I were going to identify a single pistol that is the absolute “best” design I would pick the SIG 210 or the CZ-75.
