24 replies to this topic

[Sprewell]

The last couple of steel matches has seen a worsening of my scores.  I have diagnosed a good bit of the problem as getting sloppy on the trigger.  I'm normally fairly accurate and I think I have picked up a bad habit trying to push myself to go faster.

 

Loaded up a couple magazines today that had 50% dummy cartridges.  Not good.

 

Any ideas?  Does anybody think "dummy and ball" drills help?

[aceinyerface]

You got 2000 posts on the forum of a dude who writes fucking books answering your question.

Whoop out your copy of Practical Pistol and re-read pages 11-16.

Then...

Whoop out your copy of Dry-Fire Training, get off that god-damned keyboard, and get busy working your way through it.

Then...

Whoop out your copy of Skill and Drills and review the drills in "Marksmanship Training".

Then...

Go shoot the drills, a LOT.

The dummy drill will help you identify which problem you have, but it doesn't fix it.

[Sprewell]

I feel bad now for stopping on page three of said book.

[RMJack]

I feel bad now for stopping on page three of said book.

In spite of my tepid desire to improve, I too seem to spend most of my time in the tits and butt threads.

Lets face it, they're far more entertaining than walking around your basement like a 'tard with your rig on, waving your gat at the wall

 

However, to aceinyerface's point, he actually mentioned 3 books.

 

• Practical Pistol
• Dry-Fire Training
• Skills and Drills

His recommendations are spot on. I've just reread PP, and that, with the Dry-Fire book 2-3x a week is actually makes a difference...  Soon I'll just be slow and wild, instead of fucking slow and dangerous.

[Sweet T]

Lets face it, they're far more entertaining than walking around your basement like a 'tard with your rig on, waving your gat at the wall

 

 

 

You're doing it wrong.

[GuanoLoco]

Dot dril is an obvious candidate, 2 @ 25, 25 yard Bill Drills.

[nwhpfan]

In DF I do a lot of "trigger control at speed."  Hit the timer, sight picture, on the "bbbeee" pull the trigger with goal of completing the press before the ...eeep.  While maintaining proper sight picture and alignment.  For me I believe it has inoculated me from recoil, noise, blast, flash, etc. and taught me to only concern myself with the things I want too... like trigger press, grip, sight picture, alignment, etc, etc, etc...  It is by far the #1 drill I do.

[Will]

When I started I was a huge trigger jerker and I've got most of it under control. Doing the drills in Ben's book were a huge help and I used my sirt pistol and the laser activated shot reporter to track hits under speed.

The sirt, although pricey, is good because you can 1. jack up the trigger to as high as 8 lbs or as low as 3 lbs, 2. you can see your hits and with the software you can record time and score. The software does have problems tracking speed drills like a 2 second bill drill or Blake drill and I'd say it's about 80% accurate at high speeds and is 100% at slower speeds.

[Sprewell]

In DF I do a lot of "trigger control at speed."  Hit the timer, sight picture, on the "bbbeee" pull the trigger with goal of completing the press before the ...eeep.  While maintaining proper sight picture and alignment.  For me I believe it has inoculated me from recoil, noise, blast, flash, etc. and taught me to only concern myself with the things I want too... like trigger press, grip, sight picture, alignment, etc, etc, etc...  It is by far the #1 drill I do.

 

I did this for a while this morning.  I think it is going to be helpful, isolating the trigger press and sight picture from everything else.  It definitely makes a big difference waiting on the beep before pulling the trigger.  Will try with live fire tomorrow.

[bpipe95]

I fight with pulling left at speed. The single largest thing to help me has been to make sure I "smash" the trigger all the way in dryfire. Before I heard Ben mention it in a podcast I never really paid much attention to how I pressed the trigger in dry fire (other than going through the motion)

[Buck Turgidson]

Whatever you do, do not start shooting clays.  That will fuck up your rifle and pistol trigger press like nobody's business.

[Motosapiens]

I did this for a while this morning.  I think it is going to be helpful, isolating the trigger press and sight picture from everything else.  It definitely makes a big difference waiting on the beep before pulling the trigger.  Will try with live fire tomorrow.

 

I hate to sound like a broken enos record, but it is helping me to really make every drill a shot-calling drill, and try to score the targets from my sight pictures (even in dryfire). The more I do that, the more I can see the sights actually moving around when I pull the trigger, so I can start correcting it.

 

It is very easy for me to jerk the trigger and disturb the sights when I'm trying to hurry, but it doesn't seem to be any faster than just pulling the trigger like I know how to pull it.

[GuanoLoco]

Doing 25 yard head-shot only 'bill' drills on steel yesterday gave me some good feedback on my trigger press.

[JimmyO]

Identifying the problem isn't that hard. I'm working on this with my son using dot drills, 25 yard groups and dummy loads. He sees the problem and has improved to left of center a/c zone 5-6" groups at 25. He's 4 weeks into the "new Shooter" plan in the back of Bens dry fire book and I think I'll add the two following things...

 

In DF I do a lot of "trigger control at speed."  Hit the timer, sight picture, on the "bbbeee" pull the trigger with goal of completing the press before the ...eeep.  While maintaining proper sight picture and alignment.  For me I believe it has inoculated me from recoil, noise, blast, flash, etc. and taught me to only concern myself with the things I want too... like trigger press, grip, sight picture, alignment, etc, etc, etc...  It is by far the #1 drill I do.

 

 

I fight with pulling left at speed. The single largest thing to help me has been to make sure I "smash" the trigger all the way in dryfire. Before I heard Ben mention it in a podcast I never really paid much attention to how I pressed the trigger in dry fire (other than going through the motion)

[Sprewell]

Practicing some more with the "trigger control at speed" drill; I find it much harder to break the trigger smoothly if I have my feet planted at an angle to the target.  

[Sprewell]

Had my first match today since working on my trigger press.  I have not shot this poorly since Oct. 2014.  FML.

[BHill]

Don't want to get all Zen on you but you probably traded one focus for another. May want to relax a little and not force it.

[ZackJones]

Had my first match today since working on my trigger press.  I have not shot this poorly since Oct. 2014.  FML.

 

What went wrong? Too many makeup shots or what?

[Sprewell]

What went wrong? Too many makeup shots or what?

 

 

Nothing in particular.  I felt like I was shooting fairly well during the match.  Didn't blow up on one stage or anything.  Just consistently slow.  Had  more make up shots than I would like but they were also kind of spread out.

[yomamma]

Nothing in particular.  I felt like I was shooting fairly well during the match.  Didn't blow up on one stage or anything.  Just consistently slow.  Had  more make up shots than I would like but they were also kind of spread out.

You might be over thinking it and getting tense.  Try to relax and just shoot.  Instead of going at 100% speed, maybe try 85% and focus on getting hits.