Properly Pressing the Trigger

When it comes to properly engaging the trigger we have to ask ourselves, what's more important? Is it the trigger press or is it properly getting the gun pointed at the target? Where do people struggle? Well I will say this. Over the years of working with a lot of students, you know, what I have found is that most people don't have a significant problem getting the gun pointed properly at the target, but it's what takes place as they're pressing the trigger. So most people like to try to wait until they see what they believe to be a perfect sight picture, you know, with proper sight alignment, all inside of that circle, they wait until it's perfect. And they think that when they have it perfectly studied they hurry up and press the trigger. And what ends up happening a lot of times is they have the gun aimed here. It's on the number, right? It's pointed at the target, it's on the number but as the gun goes off, then all of a sudden, you know, the hole in the paper isn't showing up where they initially had it pointed to. So today I wanna talk a little bit about properly engaging that trigger and what I believe to be a little bit more important with this is exactly how that trigger's being pressed in the first place. You know, what is important is that we wanna make sure that as we're pressing that trigger, that we're not doing things to cause any sort of change in where the gun is pointing. You know, a lot of the popular firearms now, like the Modern Striker Fired Semi-Auto such as this one, you know, have what feels like multiple stages in the trigger. Initially the trigger is very mushy in the beginning, but then it hits more of a wall, kind of a harder spot towards the rear. Well, a lot of times, what I watch with students is the tendency is when they have the gun pointed at the target, they believe it's perfect and they hurry up and press the trigger. And all of a sudden the gun changes, right? The path of that bullet. They've caused some deviation that would not have been there otherwise. And so where, and if we take a look at the target right here, and we'll be able to see a lot of times what people are doing with it is that they wait until they think it's perfect, and I'll even tell 'em, I tell the students, you know, slow down. Take three seconds to press the trigger. A lot of times what happens is they take up the slack, they pin that trigger back, you know, towards that shelf, that wall, that hard spot. And they wait until it's perfect and then hurry up and press it. You know, if you would take a look at this when I've got it right now I've pointed out the target, but I'm gonna do just that. I take up the slack on the actual trigger. I get to that wall and I hurry up and press it towards the rear. When I tell 'em to slow down, tell 'em to take a full three seconds, they wait until just at that last point and hurry up and press the trigger. And as we can see, the hole did not go on the inside of the circle, even though that is exactly where I had the actual gun pointed as I started pressing that trigger back towards the rear. Another thing that we'll do is you'll have the finger on the outside of the trigger guard or even touching the trigger. And again, you're not gonna be able to hold it perfectly, right? You're holding an object out there in front of you. The only way to make the sights perfect is either pause the video, look at it in the textbook, or take us out of the equation. So have their finger on the trigger, right? And it's touching or maybe it's outside of that trigger guard. And they've got the movement of the gun, it's going around. They're struggling because they feel like they can't get it aimed at the target. And when I tell 'em to go ahead and give the go command, they'll start, press it back and then hurry up and press. You can see, I had so much deviation there, that it even missed the paper together going back into the berm, right? And that's a lot of times what I see is when they, people wait for it to be perfect, they cause so much deviation in the gun. So what's really important is instead of waiting till it's perfect and hurry up and pressing, is learn how to press the trigger in such a way that is going to account for the movement taking place with the gun. You know, we can have a little bit of movement. How much deviation or how much movement can we have with the gun pointed at the circle. As long as it's pointed somewhere inside of the target then it's gonna come down to the way that I'm pressing the triggers. We can have a good bit of movement. So if you take a look, I'm going to, instead, I'm gonna get the point gun pointed at the target. But when I press the trigger this time, you know, I'm not going to bring the trigger back and pause. I'm not gonna hurry up and press it. Now we can be fast and still be accurate. But right now in demonstrating this, I'm just gonna have one smooth, continuous press back towards the rear. You know, one smooth, continuous press back towards the rear. You know, with that, you know, I can have a lot of movement in the gun. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and demonstrate where I'm going to intentionally move the firearm, but I'm gonna keep it pointed inside the circle while I'm pressing the trigger. So I've got it out here at this point. I'm gonna make circles on the inside of this circle at this point. And I want to keep the gun pointed inside the circle the entire time that I'm pressing the trigger with it. So you see, that I'm intentionally moving the firearm, and yet I'm still getting hits on the inside of that circle. You know, what's really important is accepting the fact there's gonna be some movement with the gun. You're not gonna be able to hold it perfectly steady, unless you take you outta the equation. So instead, learn how to get one smooth, continuous press of the trigger while maintaining that sight picture, while maintaining the gun being pointed at the target. So accept the movement, smooth continuous press of the trigger while the gun is still pointed at it. And I promise you, your group sizes are going to come in a good bit more. And the more that you can press the trigger while the gun is still moving, whatever that movement is, even though we can get it down a whole lot smaller, we're gonna be able to tighten the groups up more and then we can continue to add the speed. So next time you're out at the range, work on one smooth continuous press of the trigger rather than waiting for it to be perfect. And then hurrying up at that point.