Trigger finger pain after dry fire

[Eargesplitten]

I’ve started doing a lot more dry fire practice. I’m still very new so I’ve been focusing on just holding the pistol well and pulling the trigger without disturbing the sights. I’ve been “shooting” DA with a stock CZ-85, since I figured that any small mistakes I might miss in SA will be amplified in DA.

 

The problem is that after maybe 5-6 days of this I’m getting pain in my trigger finger. I’m worried that I might be doing something wrong and causing damage to my tendons. I’ve noticed that my trigger finger has to sort of rotate down as well as pulling back because of the way the trigger travels. Is that possibly it, or am I just overtraining since instead of timed drills / draws / transitions I’m just pulling the trigger over and over?

 

I would guess I’m pulling the trigger maybe 50-60 times in a night from DA, which doesn’t seem like it should be that much. Maybe another 10-12 in SA. I could be off, though. It’s just something I do time to time with Netflix in the background or while a game is loading.

 

One thing I had been doing per someone’s recommendation to build up endurance was just holding the pistol out at arm’s length and pulling the trigger until my arm or finger wore out, which really doesn’t take nearly as long as I expected. I’ve stopped all dry firing since I noticed the pain, since it really doesn’t feel like muscle pain.

[AzShooter]

50 - 60 trigger pulls a night is nothing.  I would dry fire my revolver 1000 times a night to get use to the trigger.  Just sit there watching tv and pull that trigger.  It doesn't take long and you will build up straight for those long stages.   

[Eargesplitten]

Should I be concerned about the finger pain? I'm worried about giving myself the finger equivalent of tennis elbow. I'm also on the computer all day so I use that finger a lot for typing.

[Eargesplitten]

Double posting for conclusion: turns out I was using too much trigger finger. The angle of rotation when it was on the first knuckle was causing the pain, if I use the pad of my finger it's fine. I had always heard to use the pad of your finger but I thought it was okay to do otherwise when the trigger was too heavy/slick to do so effectively. Guess I just need to get a stronger grip, my pad slips a little bit when pulling in DA.

[124gr9mm]

Just a thought, but maybe you want to switch up the routine and do 90% single action and 10% double action?

 

It's a more measured/gradual use of the finger/muscles/tendons and more in line with what real life shooting would be.

[shootmove]

13 hours ago, Eargesplitten said:

Double posting for conclusion: turns out I was using too much trigger finger. The angle of rotation when it was on the first knuckle was causing the pain, if I use the pad of my finger it's fine. I had always heard to use the pad of your finger but I thought it was okay to do otherwise when the trigger was too heavy/slick to do so effectively. Guess I just need to get a stronger grip, my pad slips a little bit when pulling in DA.

 

Whatever works for you. FWIW: Both Mike Pannone and Pat Mac (ex Delta guys) either recommend, or are OK with, "lots of trigger finger." I personally don't buy "shoot with the pad" for all cases (esp. heavy triggers or high accuracy), and encourage shooters to experiment. The vice provided by "lots of trigger finger" can grant higher levels of trigger control in my experience. Haven't really tested it for speed, but suspect it helps there too because you are effectively reducing the weight of the trigger.

 

 

[shootmove]

Pat Mac covers the mechanics of "lots of trigger finger" in more details in this video.

[Eargesplitten]

Thanks. I'll play around with it some more. It's possible that it was just the way that I was pulling while using more trigger finger that was causing the pain. I'll try focusing extra hard on pulling straight back and see if maybe I was pulling off-center, which is easy to do like that.

 

Edit: Not disturbing the sight picture is much easier with a lot of trigger finger, like he said. Makes sense, vice is stronger than fulcrum, and less wiggle potential in the finger. And that's a stock DA CZ trigger, not exactly light. SA and it's easy. And yeah, after doing it I could release the magazine with my trigger finger.

Edited January 22, 2019 by Eargesplitten