Week 280: Sights, Meet Trigger 1

Week 280: Sights, Meet Trigger 1

Results may be posted until September 3rd, 2018.

Designed by: Gabe White
Target: 1" square, 2" circle, 3x5" rectangle, 8.5x11" rectangle (the paper itself) - download here: http://pistol-training.com/wp-conten...03/3-two-1.pdf
Range: 5 yards
Rounds: 0

This dry practice drill is intended to link together the act of bringing the front sight back to the target spot and timing trigger manipulation along with it.

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.

Drill procedure: Start aimed at one of the four targets (either 1" square, 2" circle, 3x5" rectangle, or 8.5x11" rectangle - the paper itself.) Press the trigger and dry fire the gun. Now, continuing to hold the trigger to the rear, use your support hand to cycle the slide enough that the striker is reset or hammer is recocked. Resume your two-handed grip and tilt the muzzle up a little, simulating muzzle flip in recoil. All that was preparation for what we are actually drilling, which is the next part: simultaneously let the trigger forward at least to the reset point (further is good too), as you drive the front sight back to the target spot, and press the trigger so the gun goes click (dry fires) as soon as sufficient gun-target alignment is re-achieved. Repeat many times. Follow this same procedure for the four different target difficulties available. The harder the target, the more you'll need to be careful in precision of sight picture, stopping the gun, and trigger manipulation.

That's how it is going to work with striker fired, single action, and DA/SA guns (this drill addresses shots after the first one, so even a DA/SA gun is essentially going to function as SAO for purposes of the drill.) With a true DAO, you can skip the part where you break grip and cycle the slide to get the mechanism ready to reset.

A few important points:

When your arms/hands get tired and you are going to dismount the gun to rest a little, get your finger in register first.

Take care to grip the gun properly and consistently. There is a lot of ungripping and regripping. Get your grip correct each time.

Avoid 'popping' the gun up as if it were recoiling - just get the front sight set at whatever you think its highest point of travel is, THEN (mentally separately) do the drill of driving the front sight back to the target spot and working the trigger.

This drill does NOT address recoil control - it works on linking the act of bringing the front sight back to the target spot and timing trigger manipulation to go along with that.

Do the drill for a period of time you choose, rather than for a specific number of repetitions.

Video demonstration (first part working on USPSA lower A-zone at 7 yards, second part working on USPSA upper A-zone at 7 yards):

https://youtu.be/9uB2gK2f08c

Please report the following when you post your results in this thread:

Gun used
How much time you spent on the drill
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

Gun used: Primarily G19-5 with a little bit of M&P 2.0C
How much time you spent on the drill: 1-2 minutes per dry fire session
Anything you noticed: This is way more physically demanding than I thought it would be, especially for my strong hand. Normally, drills have periods of rest built in when I reholster/set mags up/get the timer ready/etc. With this one, my strong hand grip was locked in for the duration. I think it's a pretty good micro-drill, especially for people that are still conditioned to pin the trigger back and only reset after the sights have returned to the target.