Help me pull the trigger

[Pittbug]

Before the match this weekend I did some dry fire practicing for a few days. While I think it helped during reloads and better indexing, I found that when I shot the match I would get on target and admire the sight picture instead of pulling the trigger straight away. It felt like I was watching the front sight for about a second before the little voice inside my head told me to pull the trigger.

The only thing I can think of is that it's a ghost of dry firing because all I can do there is to look at the front sight. Should I be doing something specific in my dry fire practice to prevent/lessen this effect? Any tips?

Thx

[Jasonub]

when you dry fire always pull the trigger. if your simulating shooting plates, pull trigger once when the sight picture is right.

If your simulating shooting at a board target simulate pulling the trigger twice

[Catfish]

You should check out Pharoh Bender's Range Diary.... lots of good dry fire practice info there...

Between that and Anderson's dry fire book, all kind of good stuff.

[Pittbug]

Thanks for the tips, I'll have to get a copy of Steve's book once his site is back up and running.

[NSiess]

I would get a timer and start setting par times. keep lowering the time between the beeps and youll learn to get a good sight picture and break the trigger before the second beep.

-N

[Pittbug]

NSiess - I just received a Competition Electronics Pocket Pro II but I just haven't had a chance to use it yet in dry fire practice.

[Jman]

Remember to throw in the other type of practice. Live fire.

A big part of the conditioning you'll need.

Jim

[Flexmoney]

Thanks for the tips, I'll have to get a copy of Steve's book once his site is back up and running.

You can get Refinement & Repetition, Dry Fire Drills for Dramatic Improvement in our hosts store, as well. (Or maybe from Matt Burkett or Saul Kirsch)

[Pittbug]

JimmyM: Hmm... maybe that's the piece that I was missing. I needed to do some live fire after a few days of dry firing. I'll give that a try before the next match.

Flex: Thanks for the link, maybe I'll bump into you next year, I'd like to give USPSA a try.

[Flexmoney]

I see you've made it down to Circleville for IDPA. Looks like we might squeeze one more USPSA match in...1st Saturday in December (weather permiting). Come on down.

[G-ManBart]

A couple of things to throw out there. One, Steve Anderson's book specifically tells you to NOT press the trigger when doing at least some of his drills. You can touch and prep the trigger, but don't drop the hammer. I found that I had to throw in a some where I actually press the trigger, but not all the time.

Two, if the guns comes up, you get on the front sight and are thinking "why haven't I already pressed the trigger", that's a good thing. It means things aren't happening too fast for you to process them. Some of the absolute fastest runs I've ever had were where I was constantly wondering why I hadn't already shot....the sights were already there and it seemed like I was waiting for something.

I wouldn't worry about it too much until you've gotten some more trigger time with a timer to give you a better idea of your baseline times on drills. R,

[Pittbug]

Flex: Thx, I'll stop by and check it out.

G-ManBart: Good to know, thx. I plan on trying the timer tonight and recording some baselines.