Week 110: Jerk The Trigger

[Range1]

Gen 3 Glock 34
Ran this between runs of DotW 108: GM Test
All except one round, at the 5 yard line no less, were under the par time (got distracted just as buzzer sounded)

5 – 39 2X 1OT
10 - 47
15 – 44
25 – 39
Total points 169 (179 if OT round is included)

Observations: My trigger press is okay, not great. Having the time to establish grip, sight picture and alignment makes a huge difference. I "just" need to work on getting all that done much more quickly without screwing up the trigger press any more.

[olstyn]

Ideal might be to run the whole thing DA for every shot, scored. Then the whole thing again SA for every shot, scored. Naturally w/o a timer it's a little different but the difference in targets might be instructive.

Indeed the difference in targets is instructive. It tells me that I need (bigtime) to work on my DA trigger press at speed. SA results weren't exactly great, but DA was downright abysmal. The next time I dry fired, I replicated the "pull the trigger as fast as possible" exercise in the wall drill, and took careful note of my front sight's motion. It seemed to be consistently dropping a little bit down and to the right just as the trigger broke in DA. SA, it mostly sat still. I'm not sure how to fix this, but obviously I need to.

On a side note, can anybody offer a reasonable explanation as to why my lone "x" (and it actually shot out the little x, dead center) was at 25 yards vs a closer distance?

Walther P99c AS 9mm
124 gr Montana Gold JHP handloads
Shortest distance my range will allow is actually 7 yards, so I substituted that for the 5 yard distance.

DA:

7 yd: 26
10 yd: 14
15 yd: 7
25 yd: 17

Total: 64

SA:

7 yd: 43
10 yd: 43
15 yd: 42
25 yd: 27-1x
Total: 157-1x

[olstyn]

Err, looking back, I just caught myself in a math error. Total on the SA was 155-1x.

[Mr_White]

Did this twice, both with Gen3 G34.

1st run, prepped trigger
5 yards: 50-5x, no overtime shots
10 yards: 50-4x, no overtime shots
15 yards: 48-1x, no overtime shots
25 yards: 39-0x, no overtime shots
Total: 187/200
Observations: Most of the shots were fired in about .15 to .20. Heeled the heck out of a few at 25.

[img]20150516_080906 by OrigamiAK, on Flickr[/img]

2nd run, touching trigger but no prep
5 yards: 50-5x, no overtime shots
10 yards: 50-3x, no overtime shots
15 yards: 50-3x, no overtime shots
25 yards: 42-1x, no overtime shots
Total: 192/200
Observations: Most of the shots were fired in about .18 to .25. Jerked the heck out of a couple at 25.

[img]20150516_081659 by OrigamiAK, on Flickr[/img]

[EricM]

Ran this twice, both with Gen 4 G34, both times pulling from initial contact with trigger, tried to not even depress the trigger safety. (I know from DOTW 95 - Press 600 that this is quite a bit harder for me.) First time was at the indoor range a couple weeks ago where I was dumb and didn't score it after each distance. I had one shot past time at each distance, remaining shots ranged from 0.18 to .35. There did not seem to be any correlation between distance and time...my longest time of 0.51 was at 5 yards and one of my 0.18's was at 25 yards. Seems I'm not very consistent in how I react to the timer. Between not scoring it until the end and putting some shots seriously close to the lines, it was kinda hard to score but I'll give it a 149-6X overall, assuming all my over time shots were X's because I don't know otherwise.



Ran it again today at the outdoor range. Again no correlation between over time shots and distance...had the first shot over time at 5 yards, two out at 10 yards, one out at 15, two out at 25. Disappointed to have so many out...I'll blame it on the Glock trigger feeling a mile long after working long guns all day.

5 yards: 40-2X (one over time at 0.42)
10 yards: 30-2X (two over time at 0.39 and 0.38)
15 yards: 36-0X (one over time at 0.44, I'll assume it was my lone X)
25 yards: 22-0X (two over time at 0.36 and 0.37)
Total: 128-4X (ouch)

Closing thoughts...ought to shoot this when I'm fresh. I'd have done a whole lot better with a par time of 0.45. When my shots were over time, sometimes I knew I didn't react well to the timer, other times I knew I didn't pull at full speed because I wasn't feeling the sight picture when the timer went off, sometimes I wasn't sure or maybe it was a bit of both. Might be best to run this drill with someone else running the timer but that's not usually an option for me. Wish I could set a longer duration random delay on my timer. A voice-activated start would be awesome so I wouldn't have to break my grip, as it seems a solid grip is a big help when it comes to jerking the trigger.

[Wayne Dobbs]

VP9
Par time: 0.25 seconds
No overtime shots

7 yards: 50 - 5X
10 yards: 50 - 3X
15 yards: 49 - 3X
25 yards: 47 - 2X

Cumulative: 196 - 13X

[Mr_White]

VP9
Par time: 0.25 seconds
No overtime shots

7 yards: 50 - 5X
10 yards: 50 - 3X
15 yards: 49 - 3X
25 yards: 47 - 2X

Cumulative: 196 - 13X

Very nice!

[Wayne Dobbs]

Very nice!

Thanks, Gabe. I've shot variations of this drill for years and find it to be one of the best drills I can do to keep trigger control at a high level. Doing it strong hand only, support hand only and at 50 yards (8" plate) are some useful variations to keep working hard.

[Mr_White]

I agree Wayne, it is an excellent drill. It is something I stumbled onto several years ago when training up on a NY1 trigger, forgot about for while, and then more recently been reminded of it by the different variations disseminated by both Stoeger and Vickers. I think it has particular use out in the world, where the intermixing of decisionmaking with target availability and the technical skills of presentations and trigger control can combine to force a person into starting a trigger press, needing to halt it, then resume and complete it in pretty short time frames.

[okie john]

Pistol was my EDC: a Gen3 G17 with the frame lightly stippled and cut for G19 mags. I replaced the OEM barrel with a fitted Wilson Combat barrel. Rear sight is a Meprolight adjustable night sight, the front is a tall 0.125” tritium post painted red. Lockwork mods include an OEM (-) connector and 25-cent trigger job. The pistol is stock in every other respect. All springs were replaced at the beginning of the year.

5 yards: It's not possible to shoot at 5 yards on my club’s range, so no score.
10 yards: 50/4x
15 yards: 50/2x
25: 46/0x

Observations:

1. No overtime shots. Most broke around 0.25 second. I have no idea why, but a surprising number broke at exactly 0.17 second.
2. I love this drill. A few months ago, I shot the version that Mr. Dobbs described, and for my troubles I got one of the tightest 25-yard groups I’ve ever shot.

Okie John