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I bought a sig p938 recently. I love the gun, love shooting it except that every time I shoot it, the webbing of my hand gets eaten up by the slide. I know I have big hands but hoping to find a way to resolve this.. After it ripped me open today, I put a bandwidth on it which got torn the next shot. I thought of gloves but am afraid they will just get eaten up and be worthless. Extreme options would be see if sig can smooth the back edge and recoat everything or trade for a gun that won't bite me every shot.. Ok forget that thought. Just looked agai and pretty sure it is the hammer hitting my skin. I will attach some pics. Thanks in advance hoping I can come up with a solution other than getting a bigger gun. I need as light as possible. Have a hard enough time keeping my pants up without having a full size 1911 tugging too. ;)
Thanks,
Brian

This is a pic of the carnage.

Picture of gun and hand in question

Showing the skin to slide gap

Holding the gun to shoot

This is why I thought it was the slide

Right handers never have this problem!

It's the slide. Look at the last picture there is blood on the slide not the hammer

At first glance it looked like a classic case of hammer bite. Is that blood on the slide in that last picture?
You do have admirably large hand but I wonder if it is doomed to ride up a bit too high on that 938.

I see it on the slide but the gap between slide and hand seems too large. The hammer seems to be I'm the right area though. Is this a poor form shooting issue or am I just out of luck with this gun? I'd think if it's the hammer a glove will help. If its the slide a glove will just get ripped up.
Brian

the only way I can visualize that happening is if you had a fairly soft or loose grip and allowed the muzzle to rise sharply which might (with a relaxed hand) allow the back of the gun to drop enough for the slide to catch flesh.

Looks like slide bite to me. Are you using mags with the pinky extension? They will really help your grip, especially if you have large hands.

I think I'm gripping it decent most times. Granted there is not enough of a grip to get my second hand on the right side. It does recoil on me. I have one extended mag for it and 2 flush mount mags. Maybe it is recoiling too high and I'm not controlling it. If that's the case I honestly do not know what to change to resolve that.
Thanks for the input.
Brian

Increase grip strength? The fourth picture seems to show pretty well that the slide is catching your hand...

Seems to be either the gun is slightly changing angle when fired so the slide is slapping the inside of your grip there... or possibly the force it is applying to your hand (top of the beavertail) is causing the skin to be pushed upwards? Later seems less likely, there is a pretty big gap there...

I just held it and moved my wrist around. Seems the only way that could happen is if the gun was moving within my grip independent of my wrist. When my wrist moves that distance doesn't change. I don't think I'm allowing the gun to move within my grip of it.
Brian

I realize that you've got an investment in that sig, but there are probably better choices out there that also very small and concealable and that won't bite your hand. Looking at that picture of your open hand holding the gun, and I would say that the gun is just too small for you.

Take a look at the Kahr Arms PM9/CM9 pistols, and the Kel-Tec PF9 and Ruger LC9. All four of those guns are easily pocketable 9mm pistols, and particularly the two Kahr guns are comfortable and easy to shoot.

The P238 is a nice little gun, but if you can't shoot it without drawing blood, then no matter how nice it is, maybe that just isn't the gun for you.

So my other thing is something that I enjoy holding/shooting. I shot a friends lc9. He loves it. It does not do much for me tho. The kahrs that I looked at also did not give me the same sense of joy as the p938 did. I'm going to webers tomorrow. Going to try to focus more and see what happens. Going to try some heavy fabric band aids also. If I can just prevent it for practice I'm fine. I can deal with the possibility of it happening if things get cereal (south park al gore reference). With the extra mags and all I'm probably into the p938 about 860. Oh well. Going to academy now to look at other guns and gloves. At least see if anything else interests me.
Brian

In that third picture the web of your hand is rising above the 938's semi-beavertail. Your grip in that picture seems fairly loose but the skin fold in your hand is only slightly below the slide. If you squeeze your hand much tighter the skin fold might rise high enough to get nipped.

An extended beavertail might help but I am not finding any of those anywhere. My bet is your only real option to tame the 938 is to change your grip.

Yes good observation. The more I grip it the more skin gets exposed. I didn't find Amy gloves That seem like they'd help, so I'll try with the bandaid tomorrow.
Brian

I've never shot a sig and have never experienced "slide bite" or "hammer bite." But while researching about a Walther PPK/S, I came across this interesting thread with pics that talks about slide bite:

http://www.waltherforums.com/forum/faq- ... post104248" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Take a look at the 3rd post in that thread, and in particular, the links to the photos he posted. I don't know if his lower grip advice will help with your sig, especially since it looks like there's enough clearance between the webbing and the slide from the pic you posted, but thought I'd pass this on to you in case it helps.