Driving muzzle up during trigger pull on DA revolvers?

I've been working on getting comfortable shooting DA revolvers of various sizes, sort of a project for this year. I've begun to notice during dry fire that I am driving my muzzle up a bit during the trigger pull. Watching myself in a mirror, I *think* what is happening is that there's some space between the upper part of my hand and the gun, or at least some non-compressed flesh in the web of my hand, but the lower part of the grip is more securely braced against my palm. So when I press the heavy DA trigger, it pushes the top part of the grip further back into the web of my hand, driving the muzzle up.

I've been training with an LCR wearing hamre forge grips and a 3" GP100 wearing the altamont-style compact grips. It feels like the effect is more noticeable on the GP100- I think either because the trigger pull is heavier, or because of the greater distance from the fulcrum to the muzzle. I'm not sure yet if that's visual exaggeration or if the effect is really more pronounced in practical terms.

I've been using the low thumb, support hand thumb wrapped over the strong hand thumb grip that I'm fairly certain is traditional with these guns. The effect seems slightly less pronounced when I really choke up high on the grip, but that's higher than I can really get consistently on the draw so far, and it's still present.

Any suggestions for addressing this? Grip options for the GP100 seem kind of limited in terms of increasing trigger reach without going huge, and for concealment purposes I'm not sure I want to go any bigger on my LCR. My GP100 came with a set of hogue tamer grips, which I found pretty much unusable. I have long, thin fingers and the finger grooves made the grip feel both too large and too small at the same time, making it very hard to choke up on the gun. So I'm thinking this will need to be addressed with a change in technique.

I learned Old School on the Colt Official Police with standard issue service stocks and a Tyler T-grip.

Do not "stage" the trigger, but use a steady, continuous squeeze, " row the boat" trigger stroke. Get to where you can balance a Nickle on the front sight and squeeze off without dislodging it. After 1000 or so repetitions you will master it. Slow and steady to start. Speed will come as you SMOOTHLY develop the muscle memory.

Search YouTube for old FBI 1960s training videos.

I’d tend to agree with Outpost in suspecting this is probably largely a software issue to be remedied with diligent perfect 🙃 repetitions of dry practice.

With heavier DA triggers, there can be a tendency to increase pressure with the strong hand as one rows through the trigger travel. This can cause a ‘heeling’ tendency that could cause what you’re seeing. Working on ensuring grip pressure stays consistent throughout the press can help mitigate it. You might also explore getting the support hand more involved to help balance the press of the heavier DA trigger.

That said, and with the caveat that grips and hands come in lots of different sizes, I personally have difficulty using a thumb over thumb style grip like you’re describing. I find it actually takes away support hand surface area on the gun, *for me*. I tend to utilize a more traditional semi-auto thumbs forward grip with my revolvers which allows for my support hand thumb’s “fleshy bit” to get more involved in pressure/traction, freeing my strong hand to remain a bit more neutral.

Anyway, just some thoughts as I sit here giving a new model 60 a “dry fire trigger job”. 😊


T

Paul Weston used to teach a staged double action, even making grips cut to give a pressure point.

Lots of PPC shooters used a rubber tipped trigger stop screw or DIY like a piece of pencil eraser or a glob of silicone behind the trigger so they could pull fast until they felt the rubber and then squeeze off the shot.

Weston called Ed McGivern's style a "rowboat pull" not just a smooth stroke to fire but a continuous immediate smooth reset.

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Originally Posted by TDoor

I've been working on getting comfortable shooting DA revolvers of various sizes, sort of a project for this year. I've begun to notice during dry fire that I am driving my muzzle up a bit during the trigger pull. Watching myself in a mirror, I *think* what is happening is that there's some space between the upper part of my hand and the gun, or at least some non-compressed flesh in the web of my hand, but the lower part of the grip is more securely braced against my palm. So when I press the heavy DA trigger, it pushes the top part of the grip further back into the web of my hand, driving the muzzle up.

I've been training with an LCR wearing hamre forge grips and a 3" GP100 wearing the altamont-style compact grips. It feels like the effect is more noticeable on the GP100- I think either because the trigger pull is heavier, or because of the greater distance from the fulcrum to the muzzle. I'm not sure yet if that's visual exaggeration or if the effect is really more pronounced in practical terms.

I've been using the low thumb, support hand thumb wrapped over the strong hand thumb grip that I'm fairly certain is traditional with these guns. The effect seems slightly less pronounced when I really choke up high on the grip, but that's higher than I can really get consistently on the draw so far, and it's still present.

Any suggestions for addressing this? Grip options for the GP100 seem kind of limited in terms of increasing trigger reach without going huge, and for concealment purposes I'm not sure I want to go any bigger on my LCR. My GP100 came with a set of hogue tamer grips, which I found pretty much unusable. I have long, thin fingers and the finger grooves made the grip feel both too large and too small at the same time, making it very hard to choke up on the gun. So I'm thinking this will need to be addressed with a change in technique.

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If the grips you are using have a deeper filler behind the trigger guard it can raise the gun in your hand making it more difficult to get high enough on the backstrap for a consistent grip. Grips are pretty individual as to fit and comfort, this filler level was something of a problem for me with Hogues. I rasped out about 1/4" or more of the filler behind the trigger guard so the gun sat lower, which in turn made the finger grooves not fit right, more rasping, no more finger grooves, and i finally had the K RB Bantams at a usable stage for me.

Many people go through quite a few grips before finding what works best for different uses. Ive ended up reshaping quite a few to get where I like them.