1911's, I dont get it.

[ToddG]

I was shooting with Ernest Langdon last week and he's switched to using his trigger finger on his P30. Ernest has fingers about as long as my arms so I was surprised he reported it had improved the speed of his reload.

The mag button part isn't the biggest issue... Jason Burton (Heirloom Precision) sent me a custom mag catch that makes it very easy to reach and if I wanted I could use the Ed Brown I "fitted" myself which is even longer. But I'm used to dropping the slide as a non-step (by preloading the mag catch with my strong thumb) whereas now I've got to do it with my support thumb before establishing my grip.

[jetfire]

That makes sense to me; I'm shooting a Sig right now and I know that when I get the Colts in I'm going to have to spend a lot of time remembering to actually put my thumb on the slide release with the 1911.

[Alaskapopo]

With all the guns I've been shooting over the past fifteen years, I've used my trigger finger to drop the magazine and my strong hand thumb to release the slide. The goal was to maintain my shooting grip as perfectly as possible.

With the 1911, I cannot drop the mag with my trigger finger. While there are modifications available, generally they've been poorly received and the pros I've spoken with have frowned on them. I cannot reach the slide release with my strong thumb, either, so it requires a separate distinct step of dropping the slide with the support thumb. All in all, the cost is about half a second.



Absolutely. I find the 1911 trigger far easier to anticipate (which is why trigger snatch is such an issue for shooters and instructors who grew up on the 1911) but once you get past that it's easy to shoot well. The LEM, in contrast, is very hard to anticipate but because it's heavier and longer it requires a different priority. Since the biggest chunk of my learning curve was spent shooting DA guns, the LEM trigger is sort of like easy-mode DA. The 1911 is more like the SA stroke on the DA/SA guns I haven't been shooting for the past five years.



I definitely haven't mastered it yet. But no, I don't think it will ever be magical.



No, though there's no question that I need to be more conscious when running one of those triggers now. But that's just me. I'm not very good at jumping from gun to gun. So a few months into my G17 test, I had to slow down when running an LEM. If I pick up a SIG today -- a gun I used to shoot at a very high level, hubris aside -- I need to dial it way back to avoid embarrassing myself.

Call me strange but I like to know when the gun is going to fire. I believe a shooter moves past the point of needing a surprize break. Thats more for new shooters with a tendacy for flinching. Shooting DA guns seems to be more of an excersize in cadance and timing and rythm.
Pat

[jetfire]

That's weird, I know my DA guns are going to fire because I'm pressing the trigger to the rear. If I try to time it or something else that's when I get problems with anticipation. I just press the trigger to the rear as quickly as I can without disturbing the sights and the rest takes care of itself.

[GJM]

Call me strange but I like to know when the gun is going to fire. I believe a shooter moves past the point of needing a surprize break. Thats more for new shooters with a tendacy for flinching. Shooting DA guns seems to be more of an excersize in cadance and timing and rythm.
Pat

I don't think it is necessarily a surprise break, but rather a rolling break that I find desirable.

[ToddG]

Call me strange but I like to know when the gun is going to fire. I believe a shooter moves past the point of needing a surprize break. Thats more for new shooters with a tendacy for flinching. Shooting DA guns seems to be more of an excersize in cadance and timing and rythm.

If you're using cadence/timing with a DA gun it's just as wrong as doing it with an SA gun.

As for surprise break, there's a huge difference between knowing that the gun is going to go off and the gun is going to go off in the next hundredth of a millisecond. I agree that the gun shouldn't surprise you when a loud noise happens, but the closer in time your expectation is to the actual recoil, the greater the chance you'll move the gun in anticipation.

[BLR]

Dry fire practice is your friend.

Close, dear, "help you hide a body" kinda friend.

JMHO.