Let me offer my humble perspective on running DA/SA guns for striker guys or for those struggling with that dreaded first shot.
I learned to shoot on a p226. I LOVE DA/SA, I shoot it at work and for fun but I also game with a striker fire pistol (p320) and I've never had a problem with the transition. Because... I NEVER take double action shots. I do this by employing a particular style of trigger control.
Take what I say with a grain of salt. I am not a GM yet. I am not an operator. I am a nobody. But, I've had the good fortune of training with a handful of the the most talented people in the industry, I shoot a fair amount, I teach professionally, and I think and read a WHOLE LOT about shooting and "stuff".
I first learned to shoot with that p226. I took a class with Bruce Gray 5 weeks after I bought it. He tough me to "prep" the trigger. I still do. He and Mr Langdon and others who's opinion i respect have already proven it's the way. I ABSOLUTELY begin my DA press while pressing out on the target. It is faster and it is more forgiving for most shooters. But I still struggled with getting it right. I could not find the same consistency at 35 yards that I had at 7 . The issue for me was the timing. The issue I see with a lot of shooters is the ability to have that shot break at or shortly after full extension. Many break shots early, oops, or shooters stop pressing half way and "stage" the trigger in order to wait for the sight picture to be acceptable. This often causes them to "yank" it when the sight show a green light in the minds. They couldn't meter the presentation with trigger speed in order to make more difficult shots, and the staging just made it worse as they had to over come the static friction incurred by having to restart the stroke/pull.
Now before anyone tells me speed doesn't matter and they can "slap" a trigger with a screwdriver and still make perfect/acceptable shots please understand that I agree. If we press/stroke that thing strait back without disturbing the sights then we can crush it anyway we want with whatever we want. But... most of us can't. We watch the Robbie Leathams "slap" at incredible distances and the Ben Stoegers hold hard and "pull" that trigger hard and fast straight back to the frame with incredible results and we desire to do that. Robbie has millions of rounds on us and Ben is a freak who likes to practice 4 hours a day. I needed a plan for mortals.
I did it and taught it the way I had been shown by Bruce and Earnie for a long time. But it wasn't enough, and for those of you teaching, public or private, especially in LEO academies or recurrent training venues you understand the constraints that time and ammo availability put on us. I wanted a method that was easier to learn and faster to develop and a method that WAS NOT an end unto itself, rather a technique that would lead us toward that elusive "slap" without disturbing the sight picture. So here is what I came up with... stop taking double action shots.
I had a 226 tuned by Bruce Gray, it was awesome. My buddy used another shop, it was different and the trigger was lighter. For a minute I though I preferred his. Then I shot it and could not hit $hit. That lighter trigger didn't "stack" I had no choice but to be perfect with my "slap". It rolled through the double action like an old revolver and broke like a dirty icicle. Side by side I realized Bruce had, by preserving the safety values in my 226, kept the "stack" at the end of the trigger pull. It was light and stupid smooth, but it was still there. I realized I shot it better because I used that feel to manage my trigger control. This is how I do it.
Clear you DA/SA pistol of choice, clear it again, remove all sources of ammo and clear it again. Now take your pistol, point in a safe direction and pull through the double action. My stock 229/226/gamer226/92/and HK all stack/get heavy toward the end of the DA just before the hammer falls. Every stock DA/SA gun I've shot does. Most people hate this. I advocate loving it.
I was taught to begin my trigger "stroke" during my press out. I've been told to start at different points by different instructors but the goal was the same. Get started sooner and you will finish sooner. But still that damn timing. What I realized playing with my buddies gun was I needed the trigger to "stack" or get "heavy" just before the hammer fell. I needed it because I used it as a tactile reference that informed my trigger control.
We all dry fire and we all want to "slap" without disturbing the sights. How many of us can do it consistently? What if instead of rolling all the way through the DA during the press out we prepped very aggressively to the point where the trigger stacks or gets heavy, just before the hammer falls, and slow down every moment there after? Instead of trying to "time" the break with the press out and sights we now can use a tactile reference that would tell us it's about to go boom. Then we slow down as much as as we need to achieve an acceptable sight picture and then finish rolling through the trigger stroke/press. We are no longer reliant on timing or 80/20 70/30 methods. We can FEEL where to start being careful.
If I learn to index the gun appropriately then...
7 yards I don't slow down. Rock and roll.
15 yards I slow down a little to make sure the sight picture is acceptable
35 yards I slows down a lot
And so on.
I DO NOT let the trigger stop at any point. There is no staging. I do not slow down to actively make better/cleaner trigger strokes/presses. That I can address in dry fire. I slow down to allow myself more time to guarantee the sight picture is acceptable for the given shot. The secondary benefit is this slow down allows the trigger to roll through the release allowing me to break cleaner shots.
When I teach this I often describe a big hill...long slope down into the valley... small hill and the hammer falls.
The big hill--I prep aggressively through the initial movement of the trigger.
The slope--I continue through this aggressively
The valley-- I easy off
The small hill-- roll up this as slow as needed to clean the sight picture
Crest the small hill-- hammer falls.
I accomplish most of this prep to the slow down in the first half of my press out on target. Everything after that is dictated by how clean my sight picture needs to be. Because I prep aggressively to the valley for every shot and roll over the small hill I am essentially ALWAYS TAKING SINGLE ACTION SHOTS.
I don't ever think about long double actions because they are not a part of my process. It's just a thing that helps me be more aggressive to the point where I can feel something that will allow me to slow down if I need for a given distance or difficult shot. It does not take long to learn. It's been working for me and my guys.
Here is the secret sauce. Now that timing is out and it's all about feel I gain more control. How fast I get to high ready is irrelevant. How fast I press out is irrelevant. It's just what I feel in the trigger and how much my eyes tell me to slow down.
It is also a roadmap to the perfect slap. If I learn this and begin by always slowing down at the start of the valley then fine. As my index/grip and everything else begins to improve during dry fire then I can start to slow down later/ deeper in the valley. When you start to gain more control and familiarity you can prep into the up side of that small hill.
We can always start slowing later in the process as we get better. Eventually we don't need to slow down on....
7 yard targets
Then
15
Then
20
Then
25... and so on.
We have a way to teach ourselves to slap when our index catches up with a finger control and feel that we learned a long time ago. We don't have to relearn timing as we get better.
Long winded but it's how I does trigger control. I can't be the first to see this. All DA/SA guns have it. If you have not tried it give it a shot. Do a bunch of dry press outs or complete draws being aggressive to the valley then slow down. Ask your self if you have more control. Ask yourself what you could do with it. Go to the range and find out.
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Originally Posted by Hrhawk
