Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Using your pinky for a trigger finger

I have to ask, since the campfire has been getting crazy and crazier in the last 6 months to a year...

Is the OP for real, or just fishing for an answer to a silly question....

No slander intended.....but it sure is a crazy question...

If it was for real, for me... learning to shoot lefty would be the simplest solution....

I imagine it is legit, I know a guy who got into a band saw and ended up with just a pinky at thumb like that at the last place I worked. His nickname ended up being the crab.

My old man lost his trigger finger at work about 15 years ago. They reattached it, but it's basically just decorative; he can't bend it much and has no feeling in it. He didn't lose any others though, so he learned to use his middle finger for shooting.

I’d maybe try to contact these people.

https://beadaptive.com/products/

You may find some resources here

https://buckmasters.com/resources/disabled-hunters/Adaptive-equipment

Almost seems to me the most natural way to work it would be some type of lever that allows you to trip the trigger with your thumb when you are gripping the stock

Only when the trigger guard is too small for my cock.

Sorry you chopped them off.

John Kruger is a sporting clays champion. He blew off his three right hand fingers and part of thumb leaving only his pinky with fireworks when he was a kid. He has used his little trigger finger all his life to shoot shotguns and rifles. I'm sure you could also instead of switching everything around. Check it out.

Yes, thinking Kruger used his ring finger, but no matter. He was once the best Sporting clay shooter in the world & was in the top 5 for years.

He had a velcro pad glued to the grip of his Kriegoff, & wore a glove with the opposing velco sewn in the palm of the glove.

Super talent to begin with, but overcame an accident in style.

Wishing you luck & success Irving. A thumbhole stock might work, or the hook & loop might be an option.

It was about 46 years ago that my right hand was crushed in a sawmill mishap. The result was hand on which the only functional digit was the thumb and it only partially. It took me about three months to get real comfortable shooting off my left shoulder and a little longer to train my eyes. Wearing glasses with just a small piece of tape on the lense will help. Since I have always been a competitive shooter, I worked at it. It was a lot harder to get to where I could hammer a nail without risking further injury! GD

I taught myself to shoot right handed you can teach yourself to shoot left handed

I am legit and I haven't let it stop me, I booked this fishing trip to celebrate my 40th birthday before my accident. They asked if I wanted to cancel and I said he'll no I will figure it out. Like I said in my earlier post I feel I have more recoil control using my left hand to pull the gun into my shoulder and help tame the muzzle.

Our Sawmiller neighbor growing up, cut off all his fingers
in an industrial press at his day job.

He twisted his hand and pulled the trigger with his thumb.

Old farmer dude, he only shot a 22, or 30-30.
Probably had a shotgun, never knew of it.

I'd recommend contacting several custom gunsmiths. Perhaps one of them has devised a solution for a similar issue.

Pulled the 6.5 out of the closet (pun intended) it feels really comfortable with my situation working the action and dry firing a couple times. Big no no I know, having the accu trigger I'm going to dial it down and spend some time on the range.

First thing that came to mind was a thumbhole. If needed, you could work the hole forward for a better reach.

I took a Cape Gun to a LGS in Crystal River, the owner, proprietor pulled out a Cape Gun of his own that had no under frame triggers or trigger guard, it was, as the story goes, made for some early 20th Century Austrian that was handicapped in some way, lost use of 'trigger fingers', the smith of this weapon had done a magnificent job of creating 'Thumb Triggers'....... Buttons, if you will, on the upper tang, left and right, that you slid forward with your thumb to fire each barrel.......

And there is this....

https://ironhorsefirearms.com/the-history-of-thumb-fired-guns/

https://www.gunauction.com/buy/7287532

Way back in my moms day, 1929, they forced lefties to be right handed. I guess a shortage of left handed desks.
I’d agree with previous posters that the simplest although not necessarily the easiest would be to learn to shoot leftie. I was trained to shoot with both eyes open but that still means the non dominant eye will have to adapt.

Shooting sling and lighter, lighter kicking rifle could make controlling the gun with your left arm easier. A light trigger should work for your pinkie. Lots of people work bolts with their palm or just the thumb.

I would stick with my dominant eye regardless.

You're thinking of "Llama Bob."

Only you can decide what works, but I would give the left shoulder a good solid try before doing anything drastic. I can shoot pretty well from either shoulder with both eyes open, but that’s because neither eye is strongly dominant, and also because I began shooting left-handed because I had a Daisy 25 pump I couldn’t pump with my left hand while shouldered.