doublegunshop.com - home Forums Thread Like Summary - brused finger?

I was out shooting skeet yesterday with my now "old" New England Arms Arrieta 557 instead of a target gun (they've been gone for quite awhile now, eh?). It was purely for fun and the weather was absolutely perfect (there were even some big buck antelope quite fearlessly grazing just south of us), which struck me as odd considering that all the ranges at the Golden Gun club were quite active then, even crowded(?). In spite of all that, my old shooting buddy (well...he turns 85 this month) and I seemed to have found a semi-private spot in that otherwise busy mix. We had figured on some trap too but since we had this nice little skeet field all to ourselves, we stuck with it. The payoff was me discovering that, at least for skeet with a sxs, the pull-through method works way-better for me than the sustained-lead process I usually employ for my heavy stack-barrel target gun. Not sure why that is? I also re-discovered that even with an articulated trigger protecting my actual "trigger" finger, after 100 rounds or so my middle finger on my trigger hand (my left hand) was bruised and even a little swollen. I never really noticed this before when hunting with this gun (because... I don't usually shoot 100 12-gauge loads with it in fairly rapid succession). I've seen little rubber "bumpers" fitted to the back of trigger guards over the years but never fully understood that need until now. I have had guns do this to me in the past, but I'd written them off as being somehow less-sophisticated and ill-fitting. This made-as left Arrieta fits me about as well as any gun ever has (a very big reason why I still have it) so I really didn't expect this.

Lloyd,
My only remaining guns are now SxS's with double triggers. I noticed the same when I started to use them exclusively. I started to use the Grip Swell SxS gloves which seemed to have padding in all the right places, the middle finger included. I shoot 1 oz. and 7/8 oz. loads at 1170 & 1200 fps. as well in my 12 ga. guns. The big difference I've found was hand position. I set up my grip for the back trigger and simply reach forward to the front trigger for the second shot. It helped a lot and the problem disappeared for me, so I believe that initial grip set up is the key. My stocks are all straight gripped.
Hope this helps,
Karl

Lloyd, here’s my two cents worth: I have the same problem with straight gripped stocks and higher volume shooting. I find that when I slide my hand a tiny bit rearward for the second trigger I’m not gripping the stock as firmly as the with the front trigger. As a result my middle finger gets a beating with the triggerguard. A bump guard might help or you can test it by wrapping some electrical tape around the rear bow behind the rear trigger. Just a thought….