I agree, Ken. Here's what Rollin Oswald has to say about leading hand placement in his excellent book I referenced earlier.
"The best place to grip or hold the forearm is at or just forward of the mid-point of the angle formed by the elbow and upper arm, close to 90 degrees. This angle offers a good compromise between supporting the gun and preventing it's lagging behind during swings powered by body rotation (I.e., overcoming inertia)."
Ed's answer is a good example of armchair expert "advice". Oswald has been there and done it. Ken and I have, too.
Believe who you will.
Stan, (or anyone who knows,) this is something kinda rare on this site - an honest question. 😄 I really don't know the answer to this, and you probably do. How do you reconcile Oswald's advice with SxS shotguns that have very small splinter forearms?
I have been told that the only proper way to grip a SxS is with the straight left arm style, and that means the hand is on the barrels. The only purpose of the forearm is to hold the barrels together, and you use a glove to keep your hand from getting burned.
I have seriously tried this method and can't make it work at all. I do much better with a 90 degree elbow, and that is one of the reasons I like a beaver tail forearm - it gives me something substantial to grip and I can live with some calling it an abomination.
But I can't deny that a lot of fine SxS guns have such a small forearm that this method just doesn't work, and it's something I have wondered about.
