The Southpaw Conundrum

Been practicing magazine changes this week, after being so close to the 100 second barrier last week at TNS that it hurt!  Mag changes appear to be my slowest point to work on for now.

As a stinkin' southpaw, to operate the safety on my current preferred pistol (a CZ-75B in 9mm), I have to shift my grip slightly so that my index/trigger finger can scrunch back to the mag release, push the release, insert a new magazine with the right hand, re-shift my grip back around, drop the slide release (if locked back), then re-address the trigger.

I need to eliminate those two grip shifts.  They cost me at least 10 seconds throughout the course of the TNS match on all 4 stages and the several mag changes required.

I pulled the Springfield XD9 out of the safe in response to this.  There's a lot of things I don't like about the XD product line:  In general, I dislike striker pistols.  I dislike trigger-dinguses.  There's something not quite "right" about the contour of the grip on the left side of the grip safety, it grinds against the index finger metacarpal uncomfortably in a way that a CZ or 1911 does not do.

However, it DOES have an ambidextrous magazine release.

I've been practicing using my left thumb to release mags.  Almost no grip shift and as I practice, the shift becomes smaller and smaller.  Less attention to detail with my left hand, so I can focus on moving my right hand more quickly to the belt for a fresh magazine.

I need to find a suitable way to rig a 1911 with an ambi mag release (looking into the Smith & Alexander ambi mag release), as well as a CZ.  Or, I need to find a new pet 9mm platform with ambi mag release controls and all the features I like of the CZ-75 series.  Fabrique-Nationale's FNX-9 looks like a potential contender.  Not sure what else is out on the market.

In the meantime, though, the XD9 is back on my hip and on rotation for TNS.