Training with a heavier trigger?

[Clobbersaurus]

I’ve decided to keep my Beretta Elite II as my “match gun”, mainly because I want to save the wear and tear that daily training puts on the gun. I am using my Turkish Beretta clone as my dry and live practice training gun. It has a heavier DA and SA trigger compared to my Elite II.

Turkish Clone: 9lb DA, 5.25lb SA
Elite II: 6.75lb DA, 3lb SA

I can shoot the Turkish gun reasonably well compared to my Elite II, but it occurred to me that training with a heavier trigger would probably have some benefits regarding trigger control. Is it reasonable to think that if I can shoot well with a heavier trigger it would have some benefit when I switch back to my competition gun for matches?

I am wondering if there are any downsides to this? Should I try to set up my training guns trigger as close as possible to my competition gun, or just keep it as is?

Thoughts?

[YVK]

This is not uncommonly employed method, and it is done in various ways. I know that Gabe used to run NY triggers on his Glocks. Ben Stoeger did it too. Some do it for trigger control, some just to make trigger finger stronger.
I ain't anywhere where Ben and Gabe are but I've done that before and currently have a heavier mainspring in my dry fire carry gun. There is some line of thought about keeping it the same for carry and practice guns. I think this might be more important for striker guns vs DA/SA guns but that's just my thought.

[txdpd]

Try it, but don't get married to the practice if it doesn't work for you.

If you have a continuous trigger pull it shouldn't be an issue, if you stage the trigger it might be problematic.

[Clobbersaurus]

This is not uncommonly employed method, and it is done in various ways. I know that Gabe used to run NY triggers on his Glocks. Ben Stoeger did it too. Some do it for trigger control, some just to make trigger finger stronger.
I ain't anywhere where Ben and Gabe are but I've done that before and currently have a heavier mainspring in my dry fire carry gun. There is some line of thought about keeping it the same for carry and practice guns. I think this might be more important for striker guns vs DA/SA guns but that's just my thought.

Thanks for the response, I’ve read that about Stoeger but didn’t know that Mr. White used heavier triggers as well.

I do find my trigger finger gets more fatigued with my training gun during extended sessions, especially when using WHO!

[Clobbersaurus]

Try it, but don't get married to the practice if it doesn't work for you.

If you have a continuous trigger pull it shouldn't be an issue, if you stage the trigger it might be problematic.

No staging, I pull straight through.

[GuanoLoco]

Ben definitely had a heavy trigger in his practice gun when he visited a few months ago. Didn’t appear to slow him down much but he did say the lighter triggers seemed really sweet for matches.

[taadski]

I’ve experimented pretty extensively with the concept and I think there is some merit to it. My trainers have full stock weight hammer springs in them, just like my duty/carry pistols. But I’ve dabbled quite a bit with lighter springs and some action work in the match pistols (same brand and model) and they seem to be perhaps a touch more tolerant of errors at speed. On the other hand, it seems like the heavier sprung guns do a bit better a job of keeping one honest technique-wise. But both of these observations are obviously hard to quantify.

I’ll say that for me, the difference of just trigger weight between various guns is less of an issue than other subtle but tangible differences like texture/smoothness, how far to the rear the sear releases, how much creep exists from one pistol to the other, etc...

I don’t know if that helps. Just some observations.

[LittleLebowski]

I like this, have done it with an NY1.

[Clusterfrack]

My Shadow 2s have DA 6#, SA 2.25#, and I do most of my live fire and dryfire training with that setup. I was recently experimenting with an even lighter hammer spring for my match gun (DA 4.75#, SA: 2#) but started to have light strikes and the difference wasn't that noticeable.

I've been warming up with a stock P-07 carry gun (DA 9#. SA 4#). I think there's some value there in refining my pull, and building strength and endurance in my trigger finger. But I also think I prefer to have my practice and match guns as identical as possible.

[GJM]

As long as the heavy DA doesn’t injure your finger, like the stock DA in a USP 45 did to me.

[Clusterfrack]

As long as the heavy DA doesn’t injure your finger, like the stock DA in a USP 45 did to me.

No kidding? So now we have to take care with USPs and Captains of Crush? Finger recovered fully, I hope.

[cheby]

For a couple of years I've shot my practice/dry fire gun with 13# main spring while my match had 11#. Worked great.

[fixer]

In attempting to master the stock DA trigger pull on a 92, I became a better Glock shooter by indescribably large margins.

[randyflycaster]

I've been wondering lately: If it reduce the trigger pull of my CZ 85b - right now the DA pull is about 5 lbs. - will it improve my accuracy?

Randy

[Clobbersaurus]

As long as the heavy DA doesn’t injure your finger, like the stock DA in a USP 45 did to me.

That sucks man.

So far so good in terms of injury and new extended dry practice sessions. I’ve done a lot of dry fire with my practice gun in the past and haven’t injured my SH but I am doubling and trippling my daily practice, so we shall see. I do feel it quite noticeably in my WH when training WHO, but the Theraband has kept most of the major pain away.