Trigger Control

[migs316]

I been shooting for years for my job. I have recently noticed that I have problems with trigger control. I have sight picture but I keep jerking the trigger. Any advice or training tips would be helpful.

[Loves2Shoot]

Read "the Book" and feel the trigger. You must learn to pull the trigger without disturbing the sights.

[rhino]

A gun that fits your hand helps.

Lots of dryfire.

Lots of deliberate follow-through during live fire.

[bountyhunter]

As strange as it sounds, the trigger problem could be in your mind. Many shooters think they need to squeeze the shot off when the sights are in perfect (or near perfect) alignment and so they rush the shot. A secondary contributor is muscle fatigue. Vince Lombardi said fatigue makes cowards of us all, and for shooters it makes us afraid if we don't hurry up and shoot the gun will move.

It took me a long time to master this (or at least understand the problem), and it comes down to winning a mental game and driving out the slightest doubt that:

1) You can hold the gun steady for as much as 60 seconds if you want to without letting fatigue ruin the shot.

2) The slight movement of the gun with respect to the target causes an error that is many orders of magnitude less than yanking the trigger will cause.

Addressing #1 required a long program of conditioning in the shoulder area. Since I am really old, it took several months to get up to where I needed to be. I shoot a bullseye gun that probably weighs 70 ounces with ammo in and I shoot it in two successive leagues (open and stock) back to back and I have enough muscle endurance to do that now.

Curing the #2 component was trickier: I use that bullseye gun with a red dot which can shoot 1/2" groups at 25 yards. I shoot freehand groups focusing on EXACTLY where the red dot was when I fired, allowing the gun to move naturally and not fighting it. 99.9% of the time, you overestimate how far off target center the dot was and where the hole will be. After shooting dozens and dozens of ten groups on the bullseye target at 25 yards, the brain finally learns that you don't have to focus on dot location when you fire to hit the ten ring: you put the gun in the right position with respect to the target and then shift all controls over to trigger pull. When my brain finally believed it was when I started shooting perfect scores on occasion (300/300) at 25 yards. Obviously, that isn't 50 yards like the pros do, but it's still damn good shooting.

Another aspect of a smooth trigger pull is that most people don't realize how much they jerk the trigger. If you shoot a red dot gun for the first time and pay attention, you will be surprised how much the gun moves when you pull. When you fine tune it to the point that you actually are executing a smooth pull, you will see a huge difference.... and when you get hurried and rush a shot (and use the old jerky pull) you will immedaitely see the difference as the shot sails into the eight ring and you start kicking yourself.....

[mcoliver]

Shooting for years but only noticing it now, why? Change in gun?

[SherlockWV]

Just started reading "The Book" and am going though a transition from a Glock to a 1911 and the concept of breaking everything into componant parts from the draw to the site picture plus doing everthing in "slow motion" or Thi Chi is really helping me to become in tune with the trigger. Another thing that is helping me is the concept of a "neutral grip and relationship to the trigger" but you would have to read it. Although soon to qualify for super senior, I am just beginning. I recomend BE's book with no hesitation. I have found that there are so many things that I have to unlearn before I can truly build a solid foundation and go forward. Be Safe & Good Shooting.

[spook]

A lot of the problems you have could be in the attitude you have towards the physical process of firing the gun. Lots of people have the urge grip the gun really hard to `control´ the gun. That doesn´t have to be a problem. It becomes a problem when you try to control recoil with your trigger finger.

Your hands control the gun and have to deal with recoil, but your trigger finger is there only to pull the trigger. Isolate it. Your hands drive the gun, and the trigger finger pulls the trigger while the gun is being driven.

And don´t stay on the trigger too long. Pull it and release it while (or before ) the gun is recoiling. Don´t hold it back to get the gun back on target. That job is for the gun and the rest of your hands.

I second what Rhino says. Dry fire. Deliberate follow through helps, but to me it was not something I could ´just do´. I had to learn it. It might take some time.

[vincent]

An accurate .22 and a bunch of those stick-on Shoot-and-See targets is one of my favorite methods of practicing trigger control. Sand bag the gun and fully concentrate on sights and trigger. Use as long of a distance as you can so it amplifies any mistakes.

Dry fire.

Shoot at progressively longer ranges to force trigger control. Steel is nice since it provides immediate feedback.

[TBF]

Migs,

One drill you might try, while you are waiting for Brian's book, is to S-l-o-w-l-y apply pressure to the trigger and focus on the front sight only, you don't even need a target. Watch the front sight for movement as you squeeze so slowly you cannot anticipate the shot . I found that through alot of practice moving very slowly, my trigger control improved at speed by a huge amount.

By narrowing your focus to one set of inputs, your improvement will come easier than trying to process the whole of your shooting.

See and feel, watch and learn.

Get " The book ", and don't let chapter one frustrate you, it's well worth the effort to take the time to understand what Brian is saying.

And don't let a multitude differing opinions confuse the issue, see what works for YOU. If I read between the lines you might be in law enforcement, which has it's fair share of " Mine is the one true way " types.

Iv'e rattled on probably more than I am entitled.

Good luck.

Travis F.

[Paladin]

Hi Guys, Joined today and this is my 1st post!! what I like about this forum is that the focus is on improving your shooting skills and trivia is kept at a minimum..hope I can contribute..

Anyway here goes..a good practice for trigger control is to play with the trigger whilst maintaining your sight alignment (Please remember the 4 main rules of firearm safety when doing this). 'Playing' means you move it along various points along its arc of travel and stop, release or drop the hammer (or striker pin). Focus on holding your sight picture for a second before releasing or dropping the hammer and maintaining the picture once you re-commence movement. You will find that this practice keeps you in the 'now'. Should your thoughts begin to intrude you will notice sight picture disturbance.. This can be a very tiring exercise but good. It really tunes your trigger finger plus your awareness and focus. The real important thing is that the sights provides instant feedback!! You will reach a point when you can 'feel' the sight picture disturbance by poor trigger control and your subconscious will make the adjustment if you let it!!

In Matt's DVD 4, there is a part (Trigger Control) where he carries out an almost similar exercise with Kevin.

Paladin

The Way of the Warrior

[MBaneACP]

You've probably seen Walt Rauch's articles on "trigger-centric" training in the gun rags. As Walt has noted, the heavily trigger-focused method of training came out of the NSSF Media Seminars, where we have a very limited amount of time to get newbies up to speed.

Essentially, it's pay attention to the trigger and let the sights simply serve as a reference. The closer the target, the less emphasis on a perfect sight picture.

You might try Walt's trick of taping over the sights when you're dry-firing and put your whole focus into feeling the trigger squeeze and subsequent reset.

Since I started retraining myself on trigger squeeze, my accuracy has seriously improved.

Michael B

[BigDave]

Shoot NRA action pistol, the Falling Plates (esp @ 25 yards) and the Practical at 50 yds are/were indeed lessons for me in the absolute value of trigger control. I have been known to chant to myself on the Falling Plate line "clean trigger, clean trigger, clean trigger..."

I don't think anyone has mentioned it, but when I first started shooting pistols I used the old dime on the front sight trick. I think this works especially well on DA guns. It might have been lost when the old board crashed, but I think I was able to pull the trigger 20+ times without the dime moving. The trick there with that drill is to maintain your front and rear sight alignment. Visualize pulling the trigger straight back in line with the barrel.

Just my $.02