Working the Trigger...One Man's Take

[Paul Gomez]

My take on efficiently working the trigger. Let me know what you think.

 

[LJH]

I found it informative and interesting, thanks.

 

[SIG_Fiend]

Good video. My thoughts on the matter are this. Since I see a significant percentage of newer shooters, and particularly people that will likely never take another training class again, or maybe a very few others in their lifetime, I typically tend to teach "series". My feeling is that, if someone is not likely to put in the effort to maintain a higher level of trigger mechanics, series is probably safer and will probably mitigate possibility for ND's. IMO, parallel is definitely an advanced technique that any good shooter will need to graduate to if they want to get any better. I find that it can have a definite performance advantage on long DA pull guns like a Sig, Beretta, revolver, etc and especially on the initial draw and press out to the target.

Occasionally I come across a more switched on shooter, in which case I might initially start with series to make sure their trigger mechanics aren't bad, and then we'll cover parallel to give them an idea of the difference and what they can work on. I don't know that this is necessarily the "right" way, but it's just the way I've been doing it. I've seen a number of newer shooters trying to accelerate way past their speed capability by basically using the parallel method, and negligently pulling past the reset point immediately with the muzzle still significantly elevated, potentially sending a round over the berm or elsewhere undesirable.

 

[Paul Gomez]

Travis,

I agree with your assessment. I start all shooter's with a discussion of trigger attributes [I covered that in the earlier 'Working the Trigger' video] and then spend a bit of time [amount differ's on class format] working skills in series, to better understand trigger attributes and progressing to working skills in parallel.

 

[shortround]

Interesting approach.

Never heard of "sequential" or "parallel" forms of manipulation.

My instructors simply stressed "breathe, sight, press."

With the tip of the trigger finger resting on the trigger, recoil typically causes trigger reset without the shooter being aware of it.

What have I missed in gunnery instruction all these years since?

 

[SIG_Fiend]

It's a subtlety, just another form of minimizing excessive waste movements or minimizing wasted time.

With most semi autos, it has been my experience that with a proper grip for managing recoil as effectively as possible, the recoil of the gun and minimal muzzle flip will not cause enough movement to make the trigger reset. With a less than optimal grip and considerably more muzzle flip I have seen people unintentionally reset under recoil and experience an inadvertent double tap/ND because of it.

Another example of parallel is working the trigger on pressing/punching the gun out to the target. Basically, once the gun is in your sight line during the draw, working the trigger smoothly and continuously those last few inches of pressing it out to the target so the shot breaks right as you're reaching the point of full extension. It's what I consider an "advanced" technique, although I hate to use the term. IMO, someone that's probably not going to put in a fair amount of training to maintain a higher level of trigger skills probably shouldn't be working the trigger in this manner. I have seen a few less than experienced people do it and ND. It's hard to pick up on this clip, but here's a good example at slow speed, and one at full speed to give you an idea on the performance benefits:

Slow:




Fast:



It's not necessarily the way, just a way. A good way to gain speed on shots that require it, but not necessarily something to be doing on every shot.

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Thanks Paul....

 

[CriterionTactical]

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