Trigger Finger Motion or Pressing the trigger straight to the rear

[spinmove_]

Ok, so I've suffered from a fairly consistent and, at times, horrible left-hand push when shooting pistol. I've tried a ton of different things to try to remedy the situation to no positive benefit and it's starting to drive me mad. At this point I'm wondering if I'm just fundamentally pressing the trigger to the rear incorrectly. I don't think it's a pre-ignition push, but I'll get to that in a minute.

I primarily shoot a G19Gen4. Yesterday I went to the range with a friend of mine and shot my G19, my (new to me) G17Gen2, his M&P45, and a rented G21Gen4. For the record, I think my G19 has the worst trigger pull of the bunch, I'm seriously considering grabbing a Gen3 smooth trigger bar and going that route. Out of all of those pistols, I shot the G21 the best, BY FAR. I've never shot a G21 before, and to be honest, I didn't think I was going to do all that well with it because of how big and block that grip is. While I was still shooting that G21 slightly left, it was nowhere near that of my G19 or G17 which were ridiculously left (I'm talking sometimes 4-5 left at 21 ft.). It seemed the more I tried taking my time and doing a clean trigger press, the worse it got. The faster I went, the better it got, but it was still predominantly left of where I was actually aiming. Regardless of how left I'm shooting, however, Pretty much all rounds are going to the same spot, so I'm REALLY consistent.

At this point I'm not sure what to do. I have an idea or two of what I might be doing wrong, but figured I'd ping the group think here before I went too far off the deep end and created another scar or issue for myself. What I THINK I'm doing is ultimately hooking my trigger finger around the left side of the trigger which would explain a left-hand push. Examining that further, I notice that when I go to reproduce the trigger press with nothing in my hand, I notice that the part of my finger from the base knuckle to the middle knuckle moves slightly left.

To correct this motion and focus on the pad of my finger moving perfectly rearward, I look at the same part of my finger again. I notice that in this situation, from base knuckle to middle knuckle, that part of the finger moves right. Is this indicative of correct motion? Am I way off?

[StraitR]

Try using more finger, possibly a lot more. There's a thread about this here somewhere. If I find it, I'll link.

Here is Pat Mac's opinion on finger placement... http://soldiersystems.net/2013/10/26...t-mcnamara-14/

[Luke]

Things I would do:

1. Have your buddy load a mag and somewhere hidden in it place a snap cap. DONT let him show/tell you where it is. Shoot semi slow fire and observe.

2. Dry fire drill. (Dry) gun on target, find touching trigger but NO prepping/pressure applied to trigger. On start beep from timer crush the trigger. Try and finish the "shot" BEFORE the start been ends (roughly .3 seconds depending on timer). Observe what happens.

[spinmove_]

Try using more finger, possibly a lot more. There's a thread about this here somewhere. If I find it, I'll link.

Here is Pat Mac's opinion on finger placement... http://soldiersystems.net/2013/10/26...t-mcnamara-14/

Yup, I'm well aware of his thoughts on the subject. Sadly, my hands are nowhere near the size of his nor his buddy's who has "big dick beaters". Putting more finger on the trigger usually results in no change to exacerbating the problem.

Edit: Maybe I'll see if I can take/post some pictures of my ability to grasp and manipulate the G19. Hopefully that'll give you guys more to work with.

[spinmove_]

Things I would do:

1. Have your buddy load a mag and somewhere hidden in it place a snap cap. DONT let him show/tell you where it is. Shoot semi slow fire and observe.

2. Dry fire drill. (Dry) gun on target, find touching trigger but NO prepping/pressure applied to trigger. On start beep from timer crush the trigger. Try and finish the "shot" BEFORE the start been ends (roughly .3 seconds depending on timer). Observe what happens.

I've never done the ball and dummy drill before. I'll see if I can find some super cheap dummy rounds that I don't care losing as the only places I have available to shoot are indoor ranges.

I also lack a timer. I'll give this a shot tonight, but can you or someone else a good timer app that would work in the interim?

[Doublestack45]

I have always had good luck burying myself in the archive section on this site pertaining to grip and trigger control.
Not trying to be a jerk, but you will find much of what you seek there. This one comes to mind first.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....dated-07-21-15

[JHC]

Have you ever read Surf's long treatise on Glock gripping and shooting on PF? Might take some hunting. I never noticed if it got a sticky or not as some requested.

[spinmove_]

I have always had good luck burying myself in the archive section on this site pertaining to grip and trigger control.
Not trying to be a jerk, but you will find much of what you seek there. This one comes to mind first.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....dated-07-21-15

No offense taken. I asked the question, and if the information that I seek is already here in another location, then link away. I may very well try searching the forum again to see if I can find other useful nuggets. There is some content in the OP of that thread linked that sounds like might be pointing towards my issue. It sounds like I'm trying to literally over-think the entire process of trigger manipulation to the point of completely screwing up. Case in point, I started reading through this thread (https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ied-to-pistols) and noticed some other key things that are somewhat resonating off of what I'm observing. The point being is that I'm taking WAY too much time to shoot the perfect shot and ultimately shoot the worst shot because of it. GJM and others who are shooting to 25yds and beyond regularly seem to be taking WAY less time between shots than what I would have guessed and that may very well be the root cause of my issue.

I'm going to take that information, plus the info in the thread you linked me to and combine it with Luke's second suggestion this evening.

[spinmove_]

Have you ever read Surf's long treatise on Glock gripping and shooting on PF? Might take some hunting. I never noticed if it got a sticky or not as some requested.

I don't think so, but I'll see if I can find it. If you happen to stumble across it, please link me. I'll edit this post if I find it first.


EDIT: I'm thinking you're referring to one of these two threads?

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....59-Glock-Stuff
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ts-on-the-grip

[JHC]

I don't think so, but I'll see if I can find it. If you happen to stumble across it, please link me. I'll edit this post if I find it first.


EDIT: I'm thinking you're referring to one of these two threads?

https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....59-Glock-Stuff
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ts-on-the-grip

I was definitely thinking of the latter of those two. Plus this one which JV linked to in post #2 of the 2nd Surf thread. This one was the inspiration I think to Surf starting a couple of others. https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....nger-placement