Aguila Blanca
Staff
Muscle memory affects all the muscles in the body, not just the muscles in the trigger finger. The muscles "learn" and remember the weight of the firearm, their position relative to one another (fingers, hand, wrist, arm(s), shoulder(s), etc.) This is why the military changed to the arched mainspring housing -- because soldiers who were accustomed (muscle memory) to shooting revolvers found that the M1911 "didn't point right" for them.FireForged said:To me.. pulling the trigger does not need to be "muscle memory", its needs to be a very deliberate and thoughtful action which is precipitated in the moment as a result of a very specific set of conditions.
I occasionally test guns -- generally 1911s, from various manufacturers. I set all my own 1911s for a trigger pull weight of between 4-1/2 and 4-3/4 pounds. When I get a test pistol with a trigger around 6 pounds, accuracy goes down because the gun doesn't go off when the muscles expect it to. Likewise, I've had test pistols with 3-1/2-pound triggers. It takes awhile before I can get any accuracy out of those, too, because at first they go off "before they're supposed to."