Speedy trigger reset

[Z-man]

I've encountered an issue in my shooting that pops up primarily when shooting targets at distance (25y+). I find that I reset the trigger slowly and as soon as it is fully reset, pull the trigger quickly. What results is a less accurate pull and a slower follow up shot. I know that in the past I have been taught that accurate shooting, like group shooting, should be done with a smooth release of the reset followed by a smooth pull of the trigger. However, for our game, a fast immediate reset followed by a smooth pull of the trigger is, IMO, the way to go.

Now that I've diagnosed a problem, how the heck do I break the habit?! Anyone have ideas for drills or ways to correct this? I've been shooting bill drills at distance (50yards) as well as groups with a heavy focus on my reset. Any and all ideas welcomed!

[Matt Griffin]

It's not something that you should have to think about, you should be watching your sights, especially on longer targets. When your eyes are satisfied with the sight picture, your finger should break the shot. The reset should have been accomplished while in recoil, chances are you're trying to grip and control the gun with your index finger during recoil. This causes you to jam the trigger, then when you finally release it, the finger flutters and breaks the shot again, trying to get back to the stop to help with the next recoil.

Quick fix: grip hard with weak hand, let your index and middle of your strong hand go completely limp. Dryfire while exerting the bare minimum of pressure to make the trigger break, while deathgripping the weak hand. The problem will go away.

H.

[Z-man]

Thanks Hougan,

I think I understand what I'm doing, the issue is correcting it. This doesn't occur during most of my shooting, just the long range stuff. I don't think its a grip issue though, as I usually am about 60/40.

Edited May 23, 2009 by Z-man

[mike cyrwus]

Think of it as a cycle; a circular pattern.

Takeup the slack, press through the break, -recoil-, get the trigger past the reset (during recoil), takeup the slack. Every shot should end with taking up the slack.

[CHA-LEE]

In Brian Enos's book he talks about "Looking the shot off". From how I understand it, when you "See" a sight alignment on target that is acceptable the shot breaks subconsciously. Not a thought process of (1) Align the sights (2) Ok sights are aligned now start pulling the trigger (3) Shot breaks now release the trigger for the reset. You need to bake in the process of "Looking the shot off" in order to do this whole process quickly and not even think about it. I didn't even realize I was "Looking the shot off” until I had a live fire practice session where I was purposefully trying to get an optimal sight picture before breaking the shot. I kept drawing on the target and once I would see the sights aligned I would fire automatically. I had to intentionally force myself to NOT pull the trigger while refining the sight picture. This was a very odd experience for sure but now I can transition between both “Modes” fairly easily.

The thing that I have noticed in my dry fire is that if I try an ultra fast draw and get a funky grip that places my strong hand more forward that is should be, even though my finger will move to “Pull” the trigger it doesn’t move enough to actually drop the hammer. This tells me that my finger/brain has been programmed to always apply the same trigger pull depth, stroke, and pressure for every pull of the trigger. To me, there is no difference in trigger pull quality when shooting close or far away. The speed of the trigger pull may change but the quality of it should be the same. If you see the sights wobble when you pull the trigger during dry fire, then they are going to wobble during live fire as well.

[Lawdawg112]

For longer shots, as bullseye shooters say, your only as good as your hold, meaning you can only shoot as good as the sight picture you can maintain while pulling the trigger. Don't worry about the reset, get a clean picture and combine it with an even pull straight back into your strong arm forearm. Get the necessary sight picture, focus on the front sight and evenly squeeze straight back. Try some more dry fire to to bring the confidence up.

[HSMITH]

If the trigger never stops moving it won't be an issue. At 25 yards a .40 split is all you will ever need to pull, and a .40 is dead simple for most of us. Time out some .40 splits, then move out to a 25 yard target, and watch them land in the middle. The hard part is coming off a 7 yard hoser target and not shooting a .20 or a .25 on the long target.....