Staging or Prepping

[AzShooter]

Just watched Shooting USA and Strader had a tip for improvement where he taught to prep the trigger before the shot, making the shot much more accurate.

Robbie teaches the same thing in his class that I too.

But am I missunderstanding this? What's the difference between staging and prepping the trigger? Are they the same?

By Staging I mean to bring the trigger back until the slack is taken out. You can feel this on the Smith and Wesson revolver. Then line up your shot and fire.

What am I missing?

[IPSC_PRO]

Just watched Shooting USA and Strader had a tip for improvement where he taught to prep the trigger before the shot, making the shot much more accurate.

Robbie teaches the same thing in his class that I too.

But am I missunderstanding this? What's the difference between staging and prepping the trigger? Are they the same?

By Staging I mean to bring the trigger back until the slack is taken out. You can feel this on the Smith and Wesson revolver. Then line up your shot and fire.

What am I missing?

I'm a noob but I do dry fire and have learned some things just by doing that. Ok staging as you say is taking up the slack on the trigger pull. I'll buy that. What I have been practicing on my 686 is to continue pulling the trigger but trying to stop it just prior to the hammer coming down. When I do that it's like taking a shot in single action. I may have to do that on my 625s as they just shoot in double action only. That one little six inch round plate that you just have to aim real good at and you gotta keep your sight allign when pulling the trigger. Maybe if I ever get good at revolver I will be able to line up my sights as I'm pulling the trigger.

Edited October 7, 2010 by IPSC_PRO

[Carmoney]

Prepping a single-action trigger is different than staging a double-action trigger.

In most instances, revo shooters are better off rolling the trigger right on through without any conscious thought to staging it.

[Matt Griffin]

What Mike said. Prepping a semi trigger means taking it to the sear engagement limit so that you have a nice clean break with minimum movement. Staging a revolver means pulling the trigger far enough and fast enough to cause the cylinder to fully rotate and engage the cylinder stop, leaving just the spring weight to finish the shot. A pretty useless method in USPSA in my opinion, since we rarely require the sort of accuracy that would also justify the loss of speed.

H.

[MrBorland]

What's the difference between staging and prepping the trigger?

My technical understanding of "prepping" and staging" is that they have little to do with each other, and simply indicate when and how the trigger is pulled, respectively.

IIRC, JM uses "prepping the trigger" to mean beginning the (DA revolver) trigger pull as the gun's being presented or transitioning to a target, i.e. not waiting to begin the pull until you're fully on target. It's more to do with getting the shot off quicker, rather than more accurately, in which case one might "stage" the trigger. I suppose one could do both; transitioning to a small popper at long range, for example.

Sounds like Strader may have used the terms interchangeably, though.

Tom

[ben b.]

Interesting. In steel matches where I've observed revo shooters, everyone seems to squeeze enough on the trigger to draw the hammer back during the transitions, and then break the shot when on target. They do not seem to transition, then roll.

ETA: except on close, big gongs.

Edited October 8, 2010 by ben b.

[Matt Griffin]

What's the difference between staging and prepping the trigger?

My technical understanding of "prepping" and staging" is that they have little to do with each other, and simply indicate when and how the trigger is pulled, respectively.

IIRC, JM uses "prepping the trigger" to mean beginning the (DA revolver) trigger pull as the gun's being presented or transitioning to a target, i.e. not waiting to begin the pull until you're fully on target. It's more to do with getting the shot off quicker, rather than more accurately, in which case one might "stage" the trigger. I suppose one could do both; transitioning to a small popper at long range, for example.

Sounds like Strader may have used the terms interchangeably, though.

Tom

Hmm. I would have to specifically check, but I think on something like steel I start a slow roll during transition, with the option to speed up or stop based on my initial sight picture. The trigger is never meant to stop moving, though it could happen if the sights are bad. Staging to me means pulling mostly through the trigger with the intention of stopping at some point.

[Allgoodhits]

The most accurate means of shooting a DA revolver in DA mode that does not have "stop" is to keep the trigger moving. It can be moved slow, or moved fast but the speed should be constant once movement has begun. Once movement has begun it should continue uninterupted, or the shot should be abandoned. (very few exceptions to this)

Having said above, there are some PPC shooters whom have set up their DA mode with a trigger stop. Trigger stop adjustment is more than overtravel adjustment. With the PPC style trigger stop on a revo, there is a definite (positive) stop of the trigger just before let off. In some guns the finger can actually be removed from the trigger and the hammer will stay toward the rear and the hammer cocked. In this mode the final pull is a feel like a SA pull. Most shooters that I am aware off who use this set up actually do not stop pulling the trigger. The initial pull (DA) is the same it's is just that toward the final or last trigger travel there is an opportunity to dress up the sight alignment. The dressing during this last stage can actually make things worse as one may have a tendency to ambush the trigger when things get perfect!

Like most shooting the fine tuning of some of these techniques takes time to master, and a thorough understanding of what it really takes to deliver accurate shots on demand, every time.

MJ

[Matt Griffin]

MJ, I think we're on the same page but coming from different sides. Staging to me means simulating your trigger stop example, you fast-roll through 90 percent of the pull, then slow roll the remainder. I didn't know there was a mechanical way to simulate this. But I agree completely that with any "bad" trigger pull the roll is the correct technique, i think at this point we're hashing out ways to simply shorten the travel.