Week 95: Press Six Hundred

[Mr_White]

Week 95: Press Six Hundred

Results may be posted until February 16th, 2015.

For this drill, all you need is your pistol, a target, and a safe direction. This is going be a dry practice drill that almost everyone can participate in regardless of range restrictions.

At bare minimum, verify gun is unloaded, have no live ammo anywhere in the dry practice area, and keep muzzle in a safe direction. But there is more you can do to ensure safety in dry practice. Please also read Robust Dry Practice Safety Principles and Procedure following the drill description.

Things you must be absolutely disciplined about for dry practice to be productive: grip the gun as hard as you do in live fire, pay attention to the sight picture, and call every dry shot. Be ruthless in evaluation of the quality of your sight picture and trigger press.

We are going to be focusing on one of the very most essential parts of shooting – pressing the trigger without moving the gun excessively. You're going to aim at the target and press the trigger straight back. Watch the sight picture. Hold the sights on target. Don't let the gun move out of alignment with the target.

Designed by Gabe White
Target: 1”square/2” circle/3x5” rectangle – download here: http://pistol-training.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/3-two-1.pdf
Distance: 5 yards
Rounds: 0


Part A: Target is the 1” square.

Do 10 repetitions freestyle where you press the trigger as smoothly as you can so the gun doesn't move – speed is not a factor.

Do 10 repetitions freestyle where you press the trigger as quickly as you can – smoothness is not a factor.

Now that you have a subjective sense of how smoothly you can press the trigger (without regard to time), and how fast you can press the trigger (without regard to smoothness), do at least 50 freestyle repetitions of pressing the trigger smoothly enough for the target, as quickly as you can. Put the two elements of smoothness and speed together. Keep the gun in at least adequate alignment with the target while pressing the trigger as fast as you can. The difficulty of the target defines the precision you need in the sights and trigger.


Part B: Repeat Part A weak hand only.


Part C: Repeat Part A strong hand only.


Repeat the entire sequence (parts A, B, and C) aiming at the 3x5” rectangle – pay attention to the sight picture and call your shots, now to an easier standard.


Repeat the entire sequence (parts A, B, and C) aiming at the 2” circle – pay attention to the sight picture and call your shots, bringing it back to a more difficult standard.


It's not important that you do exactly the number of repetitions called for in the drill. If your hands/arms or attention won't take it, do however many you feel you can. Or maybe you'll do a thousand presses each way. It may be helpful to break this drill into multiple sessions and that's perfectly acceptable.

Report in this thread when you've done this practice, what gun you were using, and feel free to report anything you noticed.

Training with firearms is an inherently dangerous activity. Be sure to follow all safety protocols when using firearms or practicing these drills. These drills are provided for information purposes only. Use at your own risk.



Robust Dry Practice Safety Principles and Procedure (the closer you follow this, the fewer opportunities you will have to ND)


Principles:

Allow no distractions – focus exclusively on the task at hand

Keep muzzle in a safe direction

Use correct trigger finger discipline

Verify no live ammo in gun, on person, or in the dry practice area

Use dedicated dry practice targets that are put away until you consciously choose to begin dry practice, and taken down when you consciously end dry practice

Use dedicated dry practice magazines and dummy rounds/inert training cartridges that stay in the dry practice area (if you use any magazine or cartridges)


Procedure:

Unload gun in a location other than the dry practice area

Leave live ammo, and magazines with live ammo, completely outside the dry practice area

Enter the dry practice area

Verify gun is unloaded, that any magazines do not contain live ammo, and that any cartridges present are inert/dummy cartridges

Consciously choose to begin dry practice

Put up dry practice targets

Do your dry practice

Take down dry practice targets and put them away

Consciously choose to end dry practice

Exit the dry practice area and do something unrelated for a few minutes

Return gun to location and condition of your choosing

[Clobbersaurus]

I just finished this drill. My forearms are dead.

I used my Girsan Compact and I shot the whole drill in DA.

25 rounds into the drill I knew it was going to be an endurance test and that would colour my results somewhat, but I wanted to see what I learned. Once I finished, I was glad that I committed to shooting it DA as I learned a few things and reinforced a few things I thought I knew.

First, this is an excellent drill for training SHO and WHO. I called a LOT of questionable shots throughout the drill, especially once I started to get really fatigued. I liked the feedback it gives about low % shots and the proper cadence needed to get hits. There is still lots of learning to be had there I think. I'll be using this drill more often, though at a reduced round count!

As my trigger finger(s) started to fatigue I had to pinch harder on the gun to get a proper press, and I realized that I'm probably not gripping my guns hard enough overall. So in that respect, I'm grateful for White (don't call him Mister) posting this drill. I'll be working on this from now on. Also, a thinner front sight would be nice, especially on the one inch square.

One last comment; I could not complete my final SHO trigger press. By that point I had taken to alternating 10 or 20 presses between freestyle, WHO and SHO, to give my forearms a chance to rest a bit. I also took a few 20-30 second breaks. But by my last press, my forearms were just burning too badly. I have never shot (or dry fired) to this type of failure before. The Girsan has a D spring in it too....

Again, very informative drill. Thanks to Mr. White for taking the time to post.

[Jared]

Did this today with a Beretta 92FS. I did have to abbreviate it a bit to spare my elbows. I was probably at about "press 400" as opposed to 600.

I did have a bit of an expectation as to what I would see, specifically that if I had a firm enough grip that I would be able to work the trigger quicker than expected with little to no movement of the sight picture. I largely found that to be true. Every time the sights moved, I tightened back up on the grip and they settled right back down. Also found, again, that trying to be slow and smooth on the trigger pull often leads to excess tension that causes thrown shots.

The 1" square washed out badly in the lighting conditions of my dry fire room. Before I do this drill again, I am going to draw another 1" square without the gray coloring on the target.

The surprise part, for me, was the SHO and WHO portions, where I was able to run the trigger a good bit faster than I anticipated and have a solid sight picture. I really need to try the SHO and WHO portions live just to verify this, because it runs a bit counter to what I've had happen shooting one handed previously.

It's a good drill. Definitely going to add this to my regular dry fire work, probably at least once a week.

[luckyman]

Normally I use my SIRT for something like this. Any reason not to go in that direction?

[Mr_White]

Normally I use my SIRT for something like this. Any reason not to go in that direction?

I think it's fine to use a SIRT for this drill.

There are a couple things to consider:

Great idea to use the SIRT if it that is what lets you do the drill as safely as you want (like if you lack a safe direction.)

The SIRT's trigger pull isn't going to be identical to your real Glock (I assume Glock.) It has plenty of value - just won't be exactly the same.

If it were me, and I used a SIRT for this particular drill, I'd tape off the laser. It is very much part of the drill to pay attention to the sight picture and call every shot. If you can do that with the laser on, cool. I'd do better with the laser taped off.

[luckyman]

. . . If it were me, and I used a SIRT for this particular drill, I'd tape off the laser. It is very much part of the drill to pay attention to the sight picture and call every shot. If you can do that with the laser on, cool. I'd do better with the laser taped off.

This is exactly what I was wondering and in retrospect should have stated. I will use my G19 then.

Thanks for the guidance.

[miller_man]

Ok, a drill I can do at home - done.
Glock 19

HOLY DRY FIRE MARATHON! The forearms get burning real good. Used to do lots of presses like this in my dry practice - but haven't done this much consecutive dry fire probably ever.

I stuck to the 50 additional presses for the first series, but didn't have the time or stamina to keep doing 50, switched to 25. Had to take a breaks at 10-15 reps to let the arms rest or else things got sloppy just from arm fatigue.

Really found myself needing to remember to use the "clamp" grip on my SHO, WHO presses and be more careful about finger placement on the trigger.
Felt like as I went back to SHO/WHO in other series, it took a few reps to remember those things, but was easier to get back into the groove again.

The 3x5 felt super easy after the 1" square.
Also felt it became a lot easier to call my shots as I went through this.

[Clusterfrack]

Excellent drill, Gabe. Thanks for posting it.

Gun: G4 G19
Observations:

Starting with the small square set a high standard for attention to any front sight disturbance--even on the large 3x5.
The differences between deliberate and fast presses disappeared as I progressed throught the drill.
I confirmed that prepping the trigger (as I usually do) works better for me than pressing through "revolver" style.
"Bad" trigger presses were almost always caused by a sympathetic squeeze of the other fingers.


This drill also helped me figure out that the CT laser grip I have been trying isn't going to work for me. It alters my grip too much.

[Mr_White]

Did it. I broke it up over a couple of sessions and did some hand switching, same as others.

There are several things I notice when I do this type of drill:

I can press the trigger almost as smoothly as I can, almost as fast as I can. I think one can get most of their available precision along with most of the speed. It's about the qualities of pressing the trigger as straight back as possible, with rapidly and continuously increasing pressure, and not doing anything else.

Gripping the pistol with a large portion (but not all) of my grip strength, enhanced by rolling my elbows somewhat up and out, really helps insulate the gun against the movement of the trigger. It also helps me with the 'not doing anything else' aspect. Gripping like this makes dry practice pretty strenuous for me.

One of the challenges for me in running a Glock trigger is to press it aggressively enough. I really don't like pressing it very slowly. I can do that, and there are shots where I need to crush the trigger as perfectly as possible for absolute maximum smoothness, but for an awful lot of shooting problems, pressing the trigger about as smoothly as I can, about as quickly as I can, is plenty sufficient to hit. But pressing the trigger like that, with a steep curve to the continuous increase in pressure, really helps me not notice the pressure wall in the trigger. Pressing the trigger in this manner makes it kind of like a light, short DA pull. If I don't hit the pressure wall with enough force, then it becomes a big speed bump that tends to induce movement in the gun and sometimes helps me anticipate. Run aggressively, it almost feels as if there is no pressure wall.

I'm really glad to see people participating in such a nuts-and-bolts work drill.

[ssb]

Unsure on what to report, so I'll just give observations.

I broke this up over two sessions. The first was the 1" and 2" segments, and the second was a repeat of the 1" plus the 3x5". I quickly found out that running the practice SHO/WHO in DA only was exhausting -- by the end of the first stage's 50rd WHO, I'd about had it. From there on out, I decided that I'd do 25 of DA and 25 of SA on the 50rd stretches. I did maintain a DA only trigger press for the two-handed portions.

A consistent problem for me is strength in my left hand due to a knife injury I received from an upstanding young Memphian a few years ago. My hand will tremble from time to time. Neither of these things are conducive to maintaining good sight alignment or trigger control. The WHO stages crawled along for me, and I honestly felt like I wasn't getting good practice on the 1" stage due to the constant pauses. As the target size grew, however, I was more confident in the sight picture and trigger press. WHO is something I've never focused on; I'd always used the crutch of "good enough hits." I can shoot an FBI Q target in the face, but don't ask me to pull off a good run on the WHO stage of Dot Torture (average 4/6 hits inside, have only gotten 6/6 twice). I'll see what I can do to fix that. My plan is to run this a few more times and try to see what kind of results I can get on 2" dots @ 5yds.

I am happy with my two-handed trigger control and grip. As recommended, I was very critical of myself. What I have to be careful about at speed is getting into what I think Ernest Langdon calls the "Now! Syndrome," because it's very easy to screw that up and jerk the shot. In subsequent runs of this I'll be working on the speed of the trigger press as it could certainly be faster in DA. The speed issue is exacerbated SHO.

In the interest of working on my mag changes, I did incorporate a slide lock magazine change every five rounds on the 50rd stretches. Two-handed stages were done with both hands, and one-handed stages were done one-handed. I know it's not called for by the drill, but that's an area I need to work on so I went ahead with it. I didn't run these on a timer -- the focus was being smooth. My dedicated reload sessions are run decreasing par times to try to wring out some speed, as that worked well for me as I was getting my drawstroke going.

[luckyman]

Done. Came at a good time, since I have a gout flare up and can't do much else. Did this seated, with my one Glock that has a completely stock trigger. After 630 presses the extra ~1lb really added up. My experience was basically a duplicate of Clusterfrack's.

[Range1]

Just completed using a Glock 34. No new observations. Felt much more in control of trigger on completion. Really drives home the importance of regular dry fire practice.

[40Green]

I did this using an HKP2000. Done two and one handed on alternating days for the last two weeks.

Worked on not clamping down so hard with my support hand and not riding the slide with my thumbs. This was causing me to force the sights to the right and then trying to muscle them back left with my strong hand. I knew I was doing it in live fire just not how much it was affecting my sights, this drill has really brought it to my attention. I also ride the slide release because of this on occasion with my thumbs. Combining it with the Master grip drills has helped me develop a more even and consistent grip pressure. During live fire last week it also meant I had consistent slide lock reloads, it was a novel experience. I also worked on a continuous trigger press. It has helped me to not disturb the sights and not squeeze the grip with the rest of my fingers at the same time. The one inch square was brutal, but it has gotten much easier over the last few days.

Strong hand only worked on the smooth continuous trigger pull. I have gotten much steadier holding on target and not drifting all over the place. It tightened up my 25 yard SHO targets for sure, they weren’t great to begin with but now are much better. Group size has shrunk down at least, still drift one or two off the B8 on the 8x11 but not by much.

Weak hand only has been aggravating. I press the trigger with all my fingers. Had to force myself to only press the trigger with my index finger. Staying on the one inch square and the two inch circle where a challenge. Going to keep working on this one.

[martinmj]

Ouch! The amount of concentration and focus that this drill requires to make sure you're not just going through the motions is demanding...not to mention the forearm burn.

[EricM]

Finished this drill up this morning. Gen 4 G17, OEM - connector. My thoughts overall are pretty similar to those of Clusterfrack and Mr_White in posts #8 (http://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?14655-Week-95-Press-Six-Hundred&p=287692&viewfull=1#post287692) and #9 (http://pistol-forum.com/showthread.php?14655-Week-95-Press-Six-Hundred&p=287782&viewfull=1#post287782).

Freestyle, even on the 1" square, I can pull the trigger pretty much as fast as possible without disturbing the sights IF the slack has been taken out first. I did a lot of extra reps experimenting at this stage before doing the 50 fast-but-smooth-enough presses. With a solid grip, I feel it really didn't matter much even when I intentionally pulled left or pushed right, or placed my finger higher or lower than usual...I had to really exaggerate things and induce movement somewhere other than my trigger finger to throw a shot. I did have to back off a bit when I started pulling as fast as possible from the point of initial contact with the trigger. My approach is normally to only prep for distant or very precise shots, but I've only been shooting Glocks for a few months and haven't taken the time (until now) to really fine tune my pull and to understand exactly how much impact different methods have. So this drill came at a really good time for me.

I tried to zero in on a speed that for me provided constantly increasing pressure from initial contact without throwing off the shot, not taking up the slack in advance, and did all the reps that way from that point on. I have a decent amount of time on traditional double action guns, so while I've by no means mastered it I am comfortable pulling straight through a long and heavy but smooth pull. So in a way I tried to send my trigger finger muscles the same instructions while doing my best to ignore the feedback my nerves were giving me when going through the wall. Hardly a new concept around here, but the first time I'd put in the work to really feel the nuances of it. I'm curious, for a difficult shot, whether it is better (faster/more efficient/more consistent/safer) to (A) consciously take out the slack then pull quickly vs. (B) use a more even pull from initial trigger contact even though (for me at least, right now) the constant "speed" (how rapidly force is applied...not sure about total time) of the total motion would be slower than in the latter portion of the pull after the slack is taken out with option A. I'm guessing today I'd perform better with option A, but option B is what I want to work on, as I think it has the highest performance ceiling over the long term (and I'm not a fan of aggressively taking up the slack at the risk of breaking a shot early under stress).

On another note I have woefully neglected SHO and WHO shooting in the past. I'm kind of amazed how much more confident I feel about both even after such a relatively small amount of dedicated work on it. My weak hand started to fatigue relatively early on in the second set of WHO reps, and I was feeling a weird pull near the base of my trigger finger. I was about to cut short those reps and come back to it later when I realized that my weak hand grip was not a perfect mirror of my strong hand grip. After fixing that I finished the WHO reps with no discomfort and much better results...though each time I regripped the gun I had to consciously make the adjustment. I have several weak side holsters -- being a lefty, it's much easier to acquire right-handed holsters on the secondary market to try different designs! -- and I think some dryfire and live fire WHO holster work will be beneficial in "teaching" my weak hand what a proper grip feels like.

[Corey]

I broke up this drill over 4 days. Using my M&P I was really feeling it in my arms from gripping the gun hard for much longer than I am used to. Been recovering from an elbow injury so I had to be careful with the freestyle and SHO drills but I made up for it with extra WHO reps. I noticed my trigger control at speed drops off sharply from fatigue, need to work on bulding up my grip strength.