I’d go glock 19 or similar stick to 9mm for recoil with 1 hand will be difficult to control. High cap due to limited need to reload is the way to go. Higher rear sight like 10-8 performance which can be used to help clear malfunctions if needed is the way to go. Most importantly some good training from someone who understands handicaps, like an occupational therapist. May want to contact walter reed or another facility which rehabs military amputees to get input
M&P 9mm, the new one’s come with the ledge type sights.
BTW, I’ve found one of the best ways to one handed reload with the strong hand is to just holster the gun and use it as a platform to reload from.
A few years ago, I suffered an injury at work to my right/strong hand that required multiple sutures and resulted in my hand being encased in fiberglass—in short, I had no use of my right/strong hand for several weeks.
Like many, I had done a fair amount of training where we were required to practice weak hand shooting to simulate an injury to the strong hand. So no problems right? I thought I would just carry my 1911 on the left side and drive on. It turns out that while this sounds great in theory, things got a bit more interesting when having to do it for real. As soon as I was able, I went to the range to check out things…hmmm, not so good. Turned out the 1911 was a bit harder to use purely one handed–mag changes were really slow when one truly only has the use of one hand, also the 1911 torqued a bit when I shot it left handed. Since larger magazine capacity and less recoil suddenly seemed to be a good thing, I shifted over to a G19 for carry. Hits were much better, and while mag changes were still slow, they were not so frequent.
These days, for one handed shooting I would DEFINITELY recommend an M&P9 w/ambi-safety (makes one handed holstering much less problematic) and rear sight w/ledge (Heinie, Warren, 10-8, RDS, etc…) followed by a similarly set-up 3rd Gen 9 mm Glock. I’d also consider always running a weapon light with a grip switch (X300 w/DG switch).
My Glock 19 is not my favorite handgun but it is the simplist to work. No safeties, no decocker levers, easy to load a mag with ammo (especially with the plastic loader), easy to install a loaded mag in the gun. Fairly easy slide and your set. Evertime I shoot my Glock it amazes me how simple it is to manage.
I know a lot of people don’t care for them, but I have always found the Beretta 92 to be the easiest gun to manipulate with my weak hand. It just seems like the slide stop and mag release require so much less effort than a 1911 or Glock.
It would be a little big for CCW, but they are soft shooting, high capacity, and pretty reliable in my experience.
But as others have said any well thought of (Glock, HK, M&P), high-cap 9mm with the right sight setup would probably work for him.
After further thought I believe that Doc nailed it with his last bit of advice.
A 9mm M&P with a safety and a light would be trick for one handed shooting.
If you check out the larger size pic you can see the new M&Ps come with the ledge rear sight, a big improvement from the Novaks.
I finally signed up here because of this thread. I have a physical deformity limiting the use of my right hand, around 75% usage if I had to quantify. I can’t get a good full support hand grip and fumble mag changes sometimes.
Fit is even more important than with a normal shooter. I chose a CZ-85, but I would say any hi-cap 9mm that fits well, with a low bore line and beavertail. Also, frame weight helps. I do not like rotating barrel locking mechanisms like Berettas.
I can’t help with one handed mag changes as much as a good instructor could, but I have an observation when it comes to grip. I run my weapon hand thumb very high; high enough that ejected casings or something on the slide occasionally takes a chunk out of my knuckle. This seems to help mitigate torque to the right during recoil.
I hope this helps.
DOC and TPD223 are all over it. Amazing what happens when a serious topic is discussed and opined upon by BTDT guys