We just read in the latest Wheelgun Wednesday the cautionary tale by Nicholas C about the proper grip technique to be adopted with the Chiappa Rhino. In the same days, Laugo Arms Czechoslovakia published on their YouTube channel a couple of videos explaining how their Alien pistol must be gripped and shot. The analogy easily comes to mind, as both the Rhino and the Alien have the lowest bore axis in their respective categories.

Let’s have a look at the short videos (shot in the dreaded vertical form factor).

Laugo Alien – Right Handed Shooting

Here the Alien, gripped with the thumbs forward and a bit high, shows malfunctions induced by the thumbs touching the slide. Frankly, the issue here appears minimal, it may indeed cause malfunction but the shooter should be able to identify the mistake fairly easily and fast. It may happen to people with particularly large hands or used to keep their thumbs pretty high. This would less likely be an issue with more conventional pistols. Indeed the Alien lets the hands wrap the grip very high, offering less frame surface to rest the thumbs on. This difference is especially true compared to CZ-75 based designs, due to their low profile slide riding within the frame.

Laugo Alien – Left Handed Shooting

The issue with left hand shooting of the Alien is caused again by thumbs being kept too high. However, in this case, they would be obstructing the ejection port causing a failure to eject. While diagnosis and solution should be fairly straightforward, the type of malfunction may bring the shooter to believe that the cause is in the platform.

Conclusions

Compared to the painful outcome of improperly gripping the Chiappa Rhino, the Laugo Alien is much more forgiving. The mistake in handling, in this case, would only affect reliability, and it can be easily corrected.

Both cases, however, show how radical changes in design may have effects on the operation. And these may actually be felt more by shooters with well-trained muscle memory.