“Correct” Trigger Control

You may have noticed that I have had a little less shooting content lately. Unfortunately, that is a result of a support hand injury that has kept me from being able to grip the gun well. I am starting to heal and am getting in my dry practice once again, but it may be a little while before I am fully functional. In the meantime and to build on my post about trigger control, I thought it might be useful to see what “correct” trigger control looks like. I put correct in quotes because there are at least several ways to accomplish the mission. I prefer what you see here, but there certainly are other ways to get there.

I view trigger control as a continuum, with an open-ended surprise break at one end, and crashing the trigger at the other. Trigger prep is somewhere in the middle of those two and being in the middle, it is the most generally useful, as you might imagine. In case you are unfamiliar with the term, crashing the trigger refers to pulling the trigger all the way through from its resting position, to breaking the shot, as fast as you can.

The first video will show an open-ended surprise break. This is the kind of trigger control I want when shooting a bullseye course, or a very difficult shot that allows me some time to make it right.

This next video shows a proper trigger prep with a pressout. You can of course prep the trigger from full extension and skip the pressout, but prepping the trigger is perhaps most useful during a pressout.

This last video shows me crashing the trigger. I use this when I have to shoot as fast as possible on a relatively easy target.

If you practice these three techniques, or slight variations on them, you will probably find your trigger control needs well met.