Hand Going Numb with Free Pistol

[Gwhite]

I just dusted off my Morini to practice for the state "Olympics" at the end of June. After about 10 shots, my hand starts tingling. I've been shooting this pistol for about 15-20 years, and have never had this issue before. It's been about 10 months since I last shot it.

The pistol isn't different, so I'm guessing either my stance/grip/arm position is pinching something, and/or I'm out of shape & the muscles aren't supporting things properly. I'm 63, and I may also just be aging in some new & annoying way...

I shoot .22 bullseye in a winter league, and never had this issue with my Benelli MP90S, but the league ended shooting about a month ago. The balance, weight & grip of the Morini is quite different, so I'm guessing it may be something to do with that. I've had elbow & shoulder problems in the past, and I may be pinching a nerve bundle someplace. It doesn't feel like a "funny bone" pinch, so it may be my shoulder.

My plan for now is to keep dry firing with breaks between targets to let my hand recover. I'm hoping that regular training will strengthen things up & the problem will go away. What I want to avoid is over-training & making it worse.

Any ideas or suggestions? If I knew what was acting up, there are presumably stretches & exercises that might help.

Thanks!

[shaky hands]

Where exactly do you have the tingling in your hand? Ring/pinky or index/middle finger?

[Gwhite]

All of the above. It's not very localized.

[shaky hands]

I am not a medical doctor, but I had my share of nerve entrapment troubles. There are three major nerves enervating your hand:
1) radial -- impingement would cause numbness at the top of the hand;
2) medial -- you would have numbness felt in thumb, index, middle, and half the ring finger, impingement often happens in carpal tunnel;
3) ulnar -- you wold feel numbness in the outside of the ring finger and pinky, impingement happens equally often in elbow or wrist.

Numbness at the whole hand indicates that all three are impinged before they go separate ways. The group of these three nerves as they go together is called the brachial plexus, localized between the neck and the clavicle. Supposedly strengthening of the back of the shoulder muscles, the muscles of the back, the rotator cuff muscles should help.

Most importantly, take it easy. Use a combination of rest and exercise in moderation.

[Gwhite]

Thanks! I've suspected that it might be my shoulder/rotator cuff. I seem to recall getting the whole hand tingles when that was acting up. I'll have to dig out my stretches & exercises for that.

Dry firing in 10 shot cycles followed by a 10-20 minute break seems to work OK for now. My hand recovers fairly quickly, and it seemed to be a bit better towards the 6th (final) series this morning. I'm hoping that means that stretching will help a lot.

[spektr]

Theres another pressure point to look at.... I'll try to describe this as a right handed thing. If you hang the weight of the gun on the top of your ring finger and the bottom of the palm shelf pushes on the bottom of your hand in that little pocket in front of your metacarpals, a loose grip can produce numbness..... I had this happen when I was messing with a free hold using the palm shelf to support the gun weight pivoting it on my ring finger..... I added some squeeze to the hold and the numbness went away ...

[walter.rothe]

in my opinion it's the support wood of the pistol that is pushing into your hand too mutch, I had the same with my toz 35

[Gwhite]

I've been doing 30 or 40 shots a night for several days now, and the problem seems to have eased. I'm going to the range tomorrow, so we'll see how it goes with 70 shots of live fire.

I think Shaky Hands had the best analysis. If it was only a couple fingers, I might agree that it was more localized somewhere around the pistol. However, the only place all the nerve bundles are close together is up around the shoulder. Rotator cuff stretches before shooting seem to help a lot.

Rotator cuff problems can be aggravated by any activity where you raise your upper arm above the shoulder, and I've been doing some painting lately, which may have annoyed it. The shooting could have just pushed it over the edge.

[shaky hands]

Gwhite, how did it go?

[Gwhite]

No numbness! The one confusing factor is that I had to shoot downhill, which I think puts less strain on my rotator cuff.

My club's outdoor pistol range is closed (again) while they try to figure out a workable baffle system that the combat pistol people won't shoot up. I have to shoot at the club's rifle range, which has 50, 100 and 200 yard targets all in the same direction. They way they achieve this is by having the closer targets lower than the further ones, which means at 50 yard targets are about 8-10 feet lower than level. The difference in the amount of "lift" required is substantial.

I noticed that when I did 70 shots of dry fire the next day in my basement (on the level), by the end my shoulder/rotator cuff was a little unhappy. However, there's has been no sign of the numbness. I think a lot of it was just getting used to the weight & balance again. I've never had the problem with my Morini air pistol.

For the time being, I'm going to continue with my rotator cuff stretches, and try to dry fire a LOT every day. I have a Noptel trainer, and it makes it a lot more fun that just clicking away.

Now, if I could just get my eyes & trigger finger to work a bit better...

[shaky hands]

I often notice that live firing is physically easier than dry firing. At least when I shoot 60 shots with Scatt I am more tired than when I shoot 60 shots in live training. May be the reason is purely psychological, may be it is because I usually train with Scatt in the evening but go to the range in the morning. But often it feels that the actual recoil help muscle recovery. It may be all in my imagination but I like the feeling that the recoil produces in the muscles.

[Gwhite]

The other issue is the optical sensor. The Noptel one is even heavier than the Scatt, so lifting the pistol 60 times without the sensor is much easier than with.