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1911 Trigger Technique


RickT

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My 9mm 1911 has a very nice 3lb trigger pull - very little take-up, no creep, minimal over travel.  I shoot steel challenge and that's probably as low a TPW as I want considering age and experience.  I recall a training video by a well known instructor who emphasized being able to stay on target during rapid fire without having to manage the trigger pull.  3 lbs isn't much and I'm think of introducing some drills where I work on "snapping" through the hammer release instead of having the image of rapidly increasing pressure on the trigger.  I realize one size doesn't fit all in terms of target difficulty, but even as a senior citizen I should have a strong enough grip to maintain POI without having to feel my way through the trigger pull.  This would be particularly important during make-up shots and of course double taps in other action sports.  By way of a point of reference I've been shooting SC for 15 months ad my life's goal as a senior to to get to B.

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I strive for my grip on the gun to be tight and my trigger finger relaxed.  In dry fire I look for as little movement of the sights as possible as I'm pressing the trigger, and in live fire too, whether shooting a stage or practicing.  I'm never conscious of pre-travel, hammer-sear let-off or over-travel while shooting a USPSA or Steel Challenge stage.  I don't think of my finger snapping through the trigger.  It presses the trigger and lets off of it quickly.

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  • 3 weeks later...

If you focus too much on your trigger pull you are probably not focusing on that front sight.  As with anything no two persons trigger pull is going to be the same, but their sight alignment and sight picture should.  

 

I learned that overtime practice and lots and lots of rounds downrange, I have a more natural trigger squeeze and completely forget about it 

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i am a fan of the command break. meaning when my eyes say "now!" the shot happens. i'm also a fan of the pressure i exert on the trigger being the same from beginning to end, not a ramping up as you mentioned.

job one though is no matter how you pull the trigger, you do so in a way it doesn't move the sights.

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I have similar goals to you, a favorite 4# 1911, and just recently went through the same transition, so I identified with your post. I saw a video on YouTube by TGO where he basically said "just pull it" and it immediately clarified a bunch of things.

Firstly, too much of my conscious thought was on the trigger pull - like the other posters suggested. I pretty much followed the advice given by all the previous posters after some trial and error. Theirs is good advice and it will save you time to follow it.

Secondly, if you pull rapidly, which is pretty much a necessity in this sport, then there is precious little opportunity for conscious feedback from the trigger and all that remains from the trigger point of view that makes a material difference to accuracy is resistance. I tried a bunch of other guns after I had burned in the technique and neither pre travel, after travel, reset, nor trigger placement made a material difference (ok, maybe a very deep break, but I think that's a personal shortcoming). I still have preferences in those areas, but they didn't materially affect my groups. The one thing was trigger weight, where I sprayed the DA shots a bit with my Sig and some heavy SAs for a while. But even here under about 3.5-4# I couldn't tell any difference. I have a sub 2# CZ with the most beautiful trigger that a strong wind would set off, but in retrospect I don't think it gives me any advantage. Kind of like driving a Ferrari to the supermarket - it's a thing to marvel at and appreciate, but it doesn't really do anything for you. One big take away for me, especially since I'm soon to buy my first striker fired gun, is that I don't need to compromise my ideas of safety on the thing to have a competitive gun. Just to be very clear, I'm not making any objective claims about trigger geometry or weights or anything. YMMV. This is just my personal experience, but it's worth paying attention to yours.

Thirdly, it only took about 300 rounds to rid myself of the trigger fixation and get back to the same groups (shooting much faster), so I don't think it's a difficult transition once you have realized that you need to make it. In my case, it was all about grip and shifting the focus. I did it live fire, but I'm pretty sure you could accomplish it purely with dry fire if you are good at calling your shots.

It works, and it's worthwhile. Good luck. 

Edited by gavagai
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A long time ago when I took a class from Rob Leatham, he had an interesting drill.  He would have us aim the gun without our finger in the trigger guard and he would reach in and slap the trigger.  It got amazingly good results and was sort of his way of showing that as long as you did not disturb the aim, how you applied the trigger was not all that important.  BTW, his 1911 that I got to fondle had about a 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 # trigger.  Very light.

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/8/2016 at 1:54 PM, gregdavidl said:

A long time ago when I took a class from Rob Leatham, he had an interesting drill.  He would have us aim the gun without our finger in the trigger guard and he would reach in and slap the trigger.  It got amazingly good results and was sort of his way of showing that as long as you did not disturb the aim, how you applied the trigger was not all that important.  BTW, his 1911 that I got to fondle had about a 1 1/2 to 1 3/4 # trigger.  Very light.

That's an interesting training technique.  

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been working on my shot groups using Rob's drill (pick a point and fire multiple shots without aiming).  Its not easy. Its relearning how to grip the gun and manage recoil to get the results you want. I'm doing a reasonable amount of live fire (100 to 200 rnds twice a week) and augment with dry fire drills.  My trigger is at 2.5# and its been a couple weeks. Starting to see some improvement but its slow going. 

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