Squeezing Versus Pulling The Trigger

C

CCWBeliever

Inactive
Hello all,

I'm relatively new to shooting, so I have a lot to learn. Yesterday at the range, i was shooting an AK-47 using the iron sites. I was resting on a bench, but still holding the rifle. Only my elbows were resting on the bench for stabilization.

At 50 yards, I was able to hit the 1 foot diameter target almost 100%. I even placed 1 bullseye, though that was likely an accident, because even at 50 yards, the target was relatively small to aim at.

Then at 100 yards, I was able to place about 50% of my shots in the target area. Not bad for a newbie I figured.

So my question is this: I don't understand the difference between "squeezing" and "pulling" the trigger. I was trying all sorts of different things to stabilize the gun and fire when I got it on site. But I could not tell the difference between "pulling" the trigger using the tip of my finger or "squeezing" where the 2nd joint of my index finger and the palm of my hand were trying to squeeze the grip and the trigger together (if I even have that right...) I was trying to see if one felt like it stabilzed the gun more than the other and I could not tell a difference.

As it turns out, it felt more like skeet shooting, where as the target was moving around ever so slightly in my sites, I would fire just as I anticipated it passing dead center. That seemed to place more shots on target.

Anyhow... it's tougher than I thought it would be at 100 yards without a scope. Any advise would help.

Thanks!
 
Trying to fire the gun as the bull passes the sights will not improve your scores. Let the sights move over the bull, constantly correcting toward the bull. Then squeeze the trigger as the sights move so that you don't know when the gun will fire. Hits will average out closer to the bull than if you try to fire as the bull passes the sights. That is a major error of beginning shooters.
 
It's real simple really. Align the sights on the target then squeeze, pull or mash the trigger without disturbing the sight picture and you'll hit the mark. Simple to explain, not so simple to do. It will be easier to learn at closer range, say 25 yards. When you shoot into one hole at 25, go to 50 etc.
 
CCWBeliever said:
So my question is this: I don't understand the difference between "squeezing" and "pulling" the trigger. I was trying all sorts of different things to stabilize the gun and fire when I got it on site. But I could not tell the difference between "pulling" the trigger using the tip of my finger or "squeezing" where the 2nd joint of my index finger and the palm of my hand were trying to squeeze the grip and the trigger together (if I even have that right...) I was trying to see if one felt like it stabilzed the gun more than the other and I could not tell a difference.
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You don't understand what squeezing the trigger means.

It has nothing to do with what part of your finger makes contact with the trigger. Your trigger finger should operate independently from the muscles of the other fingers as they grip the firearm. One way to train this is to use a GripMaster, which is a grip strengthener that allows you to practice moving the trigger finger independently of the other digits (unlike the older grip strengtheners that are just a hairpin spring with wooden or rubber handles):

GmMain.jpg


The point of squeezing the trigger is that you don't want to know or anticipate when the shot will go off. It's simply a function of gradually increasing the pressure on the trigger, rather than applying a burst of force when the mind tells the finger, "NOW!" Think of it as analogous to a camera. My late mother was famous for taking pictures of people without heads. How she did it was obvious when I watched her in action, She would get the shot all lined up, and then punch the shutter button. Predictably, the camera would be pushed down and canted to one side. You could just hear her mind saying "GOT IT!" -- with the result that, invariably, she missed it.

Just like shooting.

The late Colonel Jeff Cooper (and others) referred to it as the "surprise break," meaning that you should NOT know exactly when the shot will break. You are allowing the shot to happen rather than causing the shot to happen.
 
When I took my NRA rifle instructor's certification, the NRA Councilor was Web Wright, Jr., who had, I think, two world records still standing in 300 m International Rifle at the time. After taking us through the required read of NRA "basic principles of marksmanship", of which there were about 8 at the time, he told us he had seen the official number of "basic" principles change a number of times over the years as the training programs evolved. But the truth was, a basic, fundamental principle, if it really is such, never changes. And as far as he could discern, there really were just two basic, fundamental principles of marksmanship that applied to all shooting disciplines. These were:

1.) Line the gun up so the bullet will strike the desired point of impact.

2.) Keep it lined up like that until after the bullet has left the muzzle.

How you make those two things happen is optional and open to all kinds of possibilities. For 1.), you may or may not need to adjust your sights or your hold or your sandbags, use a sling or not use a sling, use optical aids or not use optical aids, wear a pink rabbit's foot or don't. Whatever you need to do in the circumstances you are in, you do. For 2.) you have to avoid disturbing the weapon at all as you release the shot. This means practicing how to operate the trigger without moving the gun, because there is a brief, but real time lag between when the sear releases the firing mechanism and when the bullet actually clears the muzzle and you only have to disturb the muzzle position a tenths of a degree for a 100 yard shot to be off by half a foot. That isn't much movement, and you can easily disturb a muzzle by twice that much just by tensing and operating unnecessary muscles in your body.

CWbeliever said:
I would fire just as I anticipated it passing dead center. That seemed to place more shots on target.
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In target shooting that is called "ambushing the 10 ring". It results in a lot of fliers because it involves a lot of unnecessary muscle operation. In pistol, for a right handed shooter this usually means a lot of shots spread low and left of where the sights appeared to be when you tried to control the exact instant of the shot release, and its low and right for a southpaw. With rifle it's generally just the other way around: low and right for a right handed person and low and left for a southpaw.

The reason for the above is physiological. Your body has both fast twitch (high strength) and slow twitch (long endurance) muscle tissue. When you make a sudden movement, the fast twitch muscle is put into operation, and it operates in an avalanche fashion, setting off a chain of muscles, simultaneously firing those needed for the action and synergistic stabilizing muscles that reinforce your limb position. You can prove this to yourself by wrapping your support hand around the forearm of your trigger side's arm just below the elbow and suddenly moving your trigger finger to the rear. You feel all kinds of tendons and muscles moving in the forearm. But if you move your trigger finger slowly, using slow twitch muscles, you feel very little of that happening if any. And with just a little practice, you feel none at all, meaning you've pretty well isolated the trigger finger movement from the rest of your body. Indeed, you can start out moving the trigger finger fast, then gradually slow it down until you feel the forearm sympathetic muscles stop operating. When that happens, you have found the fastest speed you want your trigger finger to operate at. However, it means accepting that you will not know exactly when the shot will release give or take a quarter to a half second or maybe even a couple of seconds.

Since the gun must not be disturbed, not violating that trigger speed limit is paramount. There's no other way to operate a trigger and achieve consistent accuracy. So you accept the speed limit and work on training your muscles and positions to reduce the area of movement of your sights on the target instead. You learn how to breath to minimize pulse. You learn that the point of minimum movement in a hold usually takes place somewhere around four to seven seconds into your hold, before which your muscles settle into position and stop twitching much, and after which they have used up their short term oxygen and your hold area starts to widen again as the muscle fibers start taking turns releasing and operating so as to get some blood flow, and this causes tremors and shaking. So you generally time your trigger operation so the shot is released somewhere in that minimum movement range; just not any exact place in it.

When you do the above, a couple of things happen. One is that the shot placement is randomly somewhere inside your hold area. Very often, if you are doing everything right, the accuracy of the shot placement is better than it looked like it was going to be. A very good practice is to watch where the sights are at the moment the shot breaks (always an inexact surprise) and note in your book where that was. If you are not disturbing the muzzle during firing, that's where the hole will be. This is referred to as "calling the shot". But I find, when I am shooting well, I might call, say, a ten o'clock 9 but will have a ten o'clock 10 instead. I often shoot about a point better than I call when I am really on my game. I will have the direction of the shot away from the target center called correctly, but the movement of my hold area tends to be toward the center as the shot breaks, getting the hole a little closer to center. And that, I'm sure is a subconscious refinement of control of the slow twitch muscles. But it's nothing I can control consciously, that I've found.
 
CCWBeliever said:
...I don't understand the difference between "squeezing" and "pulling" the trigger....
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First, the basic principles I discuss below apply to both handguns and rifles.

  1. The first principle of accurate shooting is trigger control: a smooth press straight back on the trigger with only the trigger finger moving. Maintain your focus on the front sight (or the reticle if using a scope) as you press the trigger, increasing pressure on the trigger until the shot breaks. Don't try to predict exactly when the gun will go off nor try to cause the shot to break at a particular moment. This is what Jeff Cooper called the "surprise break."

  2. By keeping focus on the front sight and increasing pressure on the trigger until the gun essentially shoots itself, you don’t anticipate the shot breaking. But if you try to make the shot break at that one instant in time when everything seem steady and aligned, you usually wind up jerking the trigger.

  3. Of course the gun will wobble a bit on the target. It is just not possible to hold the gun absolutely steady. Because you are alive, there will always be a slight movement caused by all the tiny movement associated with being alive: your heart beating; tiny muscular movements necessary to maintain your balance, etc. Try not to worry about the wobble and don’t worry about trying to keep the sight aligned on a single point. Just let the front sight be somewhere in a small, imaginary box in the center of the target. And of course, properly using some form of rest will also help minimize wobble.

  4. In our teaching we avoid using the words "squeeze" or "pull" to describe the actuation of the trigger. We prefer to refer to "pressing" the trigger. The word "press" seems to better describe the process of smoothly pressing the trigger straight back, with only the trigger finger moving, to a surprise break.

  5. You'll want to be able to perform the fundamentals reflexively, on demand without conscious thought. You do that by practicing them slowly to develop smoothness. Then smooth becomes fast.

    • Remember that practice doesn't make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect.

    • Practice also makes permanent. If you keep practicing doing something poorly, you will become an expert at doing it poorly.

  6. Many people are uncomfortable with the idea of the gun firing "by surprise." They feel that when using the gun for practical applications, e. g., hunting or self defense, they need to be able to make the gun fire right now. But if you try to make the gun fire right now, you will almost certainly jerk the trigger thus jerking the gun off target and missing your shot. That's where the "compressed surprise break" comes in.

    • As you practice (perfectly) and develop the facility to reflexively (without conscious thought) apply a smooth, continuously increasing pressure to the trigger the time interval between beginning to press and the shot breaking gets progressively shorter until it become indistinguishable from being instantaneous. In other words, that period of uncertainty during which the shot might break, but you don't know exactly when, becomes vanishingly short. And that is the compressed surprise break.

    • Here's an interesting video in which Jeff Cooper explains the compressed surprise break. While he is demonstrating with a handgun, the same principles apply with a rifle.

  7. It may help to understand the way humans learn a physical skill.

    • In learning a physical skill, we all go through a four step process:

      • unconscious incompetence, we can't do something and we don't even know how to do it;

      • conscious incompetence, we can't physically do something even though we know in our mind how to do it;

      • conscious competence, we know how to do something but can only do it right if we concentrate on doing it properly; and

      • unconscious competence, at this final stage we know how to do something and can do it reflexively (as second nature) on demand without having to think about it.

    • To get to the third stage, you need to think through the physical task consciously in order to do it perfectly. You need to start slow; one must walk before he can run. The key here is going slow so that you can perform each repetition properly and smoothly. Don't try to be fast. Try to be smooth. Now here's the kicker: slow is smooth and smooth is fast. You are trying to program your body to perform each of the components of the task properly and efficiently. As the programing takes, you get smoother; and as you get smoother you get more efficient and more sure, and therefore, faster.

    • I have in fact seen this over and over, both in the classes I've been in and with students that I've helped train. Start slow, consciously doing the physical act smoothly. You start to get smooth, and as you get smooth your pace will start to pick up. And about now, you will have reached the stage of conscious competence. You can do something properly and well as long as you think about it.

    • To go from conscious competence to the final stage, unconscious competence, is usually thought to take around 5,000 good repetitions. The good news is that dry practice will count. The bad news is that poor repetitions don't count and can set you back. You need to work at this to get good.

    • If one has reached the stage of unconscious competence as far as trigger control is concerned, he will be able to consistently execute a proper, controlled trigger press quickly and without conscious thought. Of course one needs to practice regularly and properly to maintain proficiency, but it's easier to maintain it once achieved than it was to first achieve it.
 
I'm not a fan of the "surprise break" so to speak --- You should know when the gun is going to go off. Instead of "pulling the trigger" or "squeezing the trigger"..."pressing the trigger" is a better term.

You want to treat your "trigger finger as it's own entity" --- By pressing the trigger evenly across the face --- straight back, while the rest of your firing hand has a "slight rearward pull"--- Follow through on the trigger press, and not just resting your trigger finger on the trigger after the sear breaks (which might lead to a bump fire), but by pressing the trigger all of the way back.


Google: The Zen of Shooting - by Paul Schoch
 
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Erno86 said:
I'm not a fan of the "surprise break" so to speak --- You should know when the gun is going to go off.....
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Well we've had this discussion before.

And again, I'll point out the distinction between knowing exactly when the gun will fire by making the gun fire right now, which you do by jerking the trigger, and knowing only that the gun will fire sometime within a vanishingly small time interval, which you accomplish with a properly executed compressed surprise break. The difference as far as the time of the shot is inconsequential. The difference in accuracy is significant.
 
"Trigger press...Front sight to verify...Let the gun wobble...Press"

"When you press the trigger towards the rear, you will have take-up or slack, which is the amount of movement you experience before you reach the point where the trigger breaks.

When the break happens, the gun should discharge a round. Continue to press until the trigger is completely buried at the back of the trigger guard and hold it.

Now, keeping your finger on the trigger, slowly control the movement of the trigger forward until you reach the reset point. After some practice you will be able to feel it, however at first, you may need to listen for the audible 'click' when the trigger spring resets, signifying you are ready to shoot again. Now stop! Do not move any further forward once you reach the reset.


Depending on the firearm, you may have to take up some slack in the trigger until you reach the break point again. So, press until you travel through the take up to the point where the trigger breaks, press the shot, bury the trigger and so on.

The idea is to accomplish the above series of steps in one continually motion to the rear of the trigger guard, and then one smooth motion to the reset and repeat. At no time does your finger come off the trigger!"

Quote:

http://www.homedefensegun.net/trigger-press
 
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Erno86 said:
"When you press the trigger towards the rear, you will have take-up or slack, which is the amount of movement you experience before you reach the point where the trigger breaks.
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I disagree.

Take-up, or slack, is exactly that: it's the movement of the trigger before the trigger mechanism makes contact with the sear. Once contact has been made, there should be little or no additional movement of the trigger as the pressure increases until the sear is tripped. However, in some firearms the sear has to move a perceptible amount across the contact point on the hammer before releasing. That secondary movement is "creep," and is not to be confused with "slack" or "take-up."
 
I am surprised that no one has mentioned using sandbags to rest the gun on instead of using only your elbows on the bench. Get the gun well snuggled into the sand bags and get comfortable with your position and your trigger pull. You can be a lot more relaxed with the gun on sandbags. (Others have already discussed trigger pull, so I will not go into that.) With the gun on sandbags, you should get a tighter group, and then you can try off-hand or other positions.
 
Do not think 'squeeze' nor 'press'. If you think 'squeeze' that's what you will do, you will squeeze with your entire hand. If you think 'pull' you'll pull your shots by jerking the trigger. You should think ~PRESS~. Slowly press the trigger rearward into your shoulder. Nothing moves but your trigger finger, straight rearward.
 
Now having said all that...I believe that one of the world's best pistol shooter's {Robbie Leatham?} still slaps the hell out of his 1911 triggers. But the truth is, his trigger pulls are worked down to less than a pound, and he is after all, a world class shooter.

It takes time to get accustomed to a new trigger pull weight. Dry firing helps, and so do good triggers with little or no creep.
 
DaleA said:
Pull...Squeeze...Press.

We don't over think these things much do we?
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I guess you don't have a lot of experience teaching shooting, especially complete novices. We have found that that when trying to teach a physical skill the words we use to describe an action will affect how the student translates the description into action.

When teaching shooting to someone with no experience one thing we need to teach is how to apply pressure to the trigger to make the gun fire, but without disrupting the alignment of the gun on target. It's easy to make the gun fire if you don't care about hitting what you want to hit. It's hard, at least for many, to do so without causing the gun to go off target. So we need to find ways to explain the way to make the gun fire without disrupting it, and we need find ways to do so that help the student translate the description into consistent, repeatable action.

We've found in our classes that using the concepts I outlined in post 6 really does work. This group (six rounds at seven yards) was fired during the last part of the live fire period at one of our Basic Handgun classes. It was fired by a middle aged woman who attended our class with her two adult daughters. She had never fired a handgun before our class; she had fired a rifle only a few times. It was fired with a Ruger Red Hawk -- three rounds in .44 Special and three in .44 Magnum.


​


And here is one of her daughters looking with an instructor at a group of six shots she had just fired at seven yards with a Colt Python (three rounds of .38 Special and three of .357 Magnum). She had never fired a gun before.


​
 
Handguns and rifles you squeeze the trigger. In archery if you have a release you squeeze that too. Those shooting disciplines all share that in common.

Shotgun triggers are pulled. It's a totally different shooting discipline.
 
There is a release triggers for shotguns also !
There is a difference between a slow and fast 'squeeze' for handgun also.
The whole point is to do it smoothly ! No jerking ! and never try to outguess the trigger as I've seen many attempt with DA revolvers.

Just idle thoughts about trigers !:rolleyes:
 
I guess you don't have a lot of experience teaching shooting
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Wow. Consider me put in my place.

I'm irritated with the idea that the 'magic word' be it pull, squeeze, press (or jerk or clutch or tug or yank) will miraculously prove to be the correct way to fire the gun and all other words will fail.

I submit with your coaching you could have achieved the same results with whatever word or words you had used.

I doubt my irritation is even directed at you unless you feel you have the one and only true and PERFECT word to describe moving the trigger so that the gun fires and everyone else must use the word you deem fit for the action. I do NOT think YOU have this idea at all I suspect you do not believe in a magic word either.

Mostly I've seen terms and fads come and go and realize there's more than one way to...do something. (I almost said 'there's more than one way to skin a cat' but that's a phrase that currently is under suspicion and could probably get me into hot water too.)
 
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DaleA said:
Wow. Consider me put in my place.

I'm irritated with the idea that the 'magic word' be it pull, squeeze, press (or jerk or clutch or tug or yank) will miraculously prove to be the correct way to fire the gun and all other words will fail.

I submit with your coaching you could have achieved the same results with whatever word or words you had used....
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You might be irritated by the reality that words have meanings; that different words are understood differently; and that the different ways different words are understood can translate to performing the actions described by those words differently. Nonetheless, that is an empirically demonstrated reality.

And thank you for telling how to coach shooting. However, based on your comments I've concluded that I know what I'm doing better than you do; so I plan to disregard your advice.
 
DaleA said:
...I doubt my irritation is even directed at you unless you feel you have the one and only true and PERFECT word to describe moving the trigger so that the gun fires and everyone else must use the word you deem fit for the action. I do NOT think YOU have this idea at all I suspect you do not believe in a magic word either...
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No, I don't believe in magic words. But it has been my experience, having helped coach many hundreds of new shooters, that the way things are explained, and the words used, can make a significant difference. There are definitely better ways to describe thing -- ways that can be significantly more helpful to someone trying to learn how to do something or to improve.

When describing something or explaining how to do something some words will be more precise, more descriptive, more apt than other possible alternatives. As the Chinese say, "The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names."
 
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