Any ideas for helping me get better with trigger reset?

G

ghbucky

New member
I shoot a Springfield XDM striker fired.

I have developed a bad habit of holding the trigger back after firing until the sights settle back down, then I allow the trigger to reset. Basically, only doing one thing at a time.

What I want to be doing is starting to go back to reset as soon as the gun fires... simultaneous recover and trigger reset.

If I focus on it I can do it simultaneously, but my default state seems to be doing it sequentially.

Are there any drills or practice anyone can suggest to get me to start doing this by habit?
 
First,since I am Bullseye (precision) taught shooter, you are doing the right thing by concentrating on holding the trigger through the shot, but now have to transisiton to sequential firing with releasing the trigger to reset.

I taught a guy this drill.
When dry firing, hold the trigger back when re racking. Then extend out to presentation, and raise the gun as it would be in recoil. Concentrate on releasing the trigger to reset as the apex of the rise and then concentrate on breaking the trigger as you simulate the gun coming back down to alignment. Then repeat.

Then at the range, you concentrate on exactly the same moment from the raised gun after recoil raise to the trigger break. The only difference is that gun is doing the re racking for you but the drill is exactly the same.
 
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Ghbucky, I wouldn't change a thing with your process. You can't hit what your sights can't see. If you purposely build in bad habits, your grouping/accuracy will start to fail. When discussing Follow Through with students when I was instructing, I used the term "Un-Slapping The Triger". It's just really the same thing as rotten follow through. My humble advice would be to continue holding the trigger back until you get back on target. If you want to speed an area up, maybe look at getting back on target faster- and then releasing to the trigger reset. That can be sped up, and it will keep you pulling the trigger while the sights are properly aligned, because why would you want to pull the trigger again if you're not on your target?
 
because why would you want to pull the trigger again if you're not on your target?
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I don't want to do that. I want to be ready to break the trigger again when the sights are on target.
 
Do exactly what you are doing, just do it faster. Have you ever watched Bill Wilson? Look him up and watch him come totally off the trigger.
 
I'm also a Bullseye Pistol (Precision Pistol) competitor, and can tell you what works for me may not work for you, what works for you may not work for me. My trigger reset / trigger release is done unconsciously. I'm not real sure when or how I do it, I just do it. For timed and rapid fire, what I do know, and what I concentrate on, is when the pistol has finished it's recoil movement up and slightly left, I bring it back down, and when the front sight is back in the black / back into the aiming area, I start applying pressure on the trigger. As the front sight settles to the 6:00 position, Almost all the pressure required to break the sear is on the trigger. Settles into the 6:00 position, press the trigger a tiny bit more, bang, and the process starts over. Maybe, just maybe, you should quit concentrating on trigger reset, let it happen naturally, and concentrate on smooth trigger press, perfect sight alignment and front sight focus. Give it a try. Like I said, may not work for you, but then again, it might. Take my ramblings for what they are worth. I'm not a Master, yet. But I am a Master in PPC, and my trigger reset and recoil recovery is done the same in PPC as I do in Bullseye.
 
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This is a very good video.

https://www.gunsamerica.com/digest/trigger-habits-martin-colman-leatham/

I'm glad Sgt 127 posted it.

I first learned to shoot, good and bad, in the 1970's. Now I'm no expert but, no one that I recall, or that I have read, concerned themselves much with trigger reset. It was not anything that mattered. Well that's not entirely true, with revolvers a person wanting to shoot fast could unintentionally jam the revolver by pulling the trigger before the cylinder fully revolved and the hammer dropped. They would short stroke the trigger. This, short stroking, was more common in wheelguns than in semis. Also more common in panic shooting or in trying to shoot faster than the gun could function.

But this was less about trigger reset than about learning not to shortstroke and allowing the gun to function.

The trend to pay close attention to the trigger reset strikes me as a fairly recent trend, maybe the last 10 to 15 years. It does seem associated with the rise of striker fired polymer guns. But I'm not sure of that. It's also related to trying to shoot a pistol as fast as possible by not releasing the trigger more than is needed for the trigger to reset. In essence you ride the trigger. This may work for some folks.

I recall trainers beginning to show students to listen for the click of the trigger resetting. "It's a short reset with an audible click" became a thing you wanted in a gun, they taught. What use this was skipped by me as I was not gonna hear that while at the range wearing hearing protection, and if shooting, was concentrating more on trigger control than for the sound of a click.

To me it seems like a whole lot of unnecessary thought and work. Once the gun is in recoil holding the trigger all the way to the rear, or not, is no longer critical. It does nothing. You can release the trigger at any point along that route (the gun is back in battery before you realize it) and begin to bring the gun back on target and fire again if wanted.

But again I'm no expert and opinions can vary.

tipoc
 
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The trend to pay close attention to the trigger reset strikes me as a fairly recent trend, maybe the last 10 to 15 years. It does seem associated with the rise of striker fired polymer guns.
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I agree with that correlation. The term seems to have declined, but there for a while, you were not a Kewl Operator unless you were "riding the link."
 
The trend to pay close attention to the trigger reset strikes me as a fairly recent trend, maybe the last 10 to 15 years
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IMO, that trend would be the long reset in striker fired guns combined with the shooting games that emphasize speed.
 
IMO, that trend would be the long reset in striker fired guns combined with the shooting games that emphasize speed
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Yep, I'm not so sure that a micro-second trigger reset is a necessity or even a good idea in a defensive shooting altercation, where a decision needs to be made about each shot fired. Too, I carry both striker fired autos, and S&W revolvers in daily carry depending on location...with vastly different triggers and resets. YMMv Rod
 
Any ideas for helping me get better with trigger reset?
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this may not work for you, or might not be what you want to do, but my advice would be to simply "let go".

Take your finger off the trigger when the gun fires. Put it back on as you recover from recoil and start your next squeeze.

Doing this will avoid the risk of "short stroking" the trigger. And don't worry about the tiny fraction of time you are "wasting", because its not wasted. Done right, you let go as the gun recoils, ensuring a full and positive reset of the trigger and your finger is back on the trigger before your sights are on the target anyway, so no time "wasted".
 
44 AMP said:
this may not work for you, or might not be what you want to do, but my advice would be to simply "let go".

Take your finger off the trigger when the gun fires. Put it back on as you recover from recoil and start your next squeeze.

Doing this will avoid the risk of "short stroking" the trigger. And don't worry about the tiny fraction of time you are "wasting", because its not wasted. Done right, you let go as the gun recoils, ensuring a full and positive reset of the trigger and your finger is back on the trigger before your sights are on the target anyway, so no time "wasted".
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This.
 
The trend to pay close attention to the trigger reset strikes me as a fairly recent trend, maybe the last 10 to 15 years
IMO, that trend would be the long reset in striker fired guns combined with the shooting games that emphasize speed.
Click to expand...

I agree. About the influence of the speed shooting games and the growth of interest in short trigger resets.

Triggers on polymer striker fired guns have improved a great deal over the last decade. Both factory triggers and aftermarket products to improve them.

Trends are common in handgunning. They come and go. This is one of them.

tipoc
 
Shoot faster.

If you've got time to listen for, or feel, a reset, you're behind the curve.

That includes life and dead situations....where no one EVER heard, or felt, a trigger rest.
 
Do some Bill Drills. 6 rounds as fast as you can into the 'A' zone from 7 yards.

Then try with just the round in the chamber and no mag in place. Draw and fire 2. Pay close attention to the dry hammer/striker fall.
 
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