Master of One or Jack of All Triggers?

[P.E. Kelley]

I like all guns and don't limit myself to one specific pistol brand/trigger style, one specific rifle family or one specific shotgun style. Sometimes I hunt with my A400, other times it's my Over/Under. Sometimes I shoot my bolt guns, other times it's my ARs and other times it's my AKs. I carry what I feel like carrying at that point of the year. Guns are one of my main hobbies...I don't just shoot for self defense or gaming. I like mechanical items and guns tick off a lot of those boxes for me. Getting proficient with TDA guns opened a whole new world to me besides what I grew up on, which was just "Glock." To me, only shooting one type/brand of gun is just boring. I still chase perfomance goals but I'll also chase those goals with multiple guns to see if I can reach them. Just keeps it interesting. I was solely Beretta for the last ~8,000 rounds, now I'm having a love fest with my Gen 5 Glocks, and I'm sure I'll be carrying something else by Christmas. If that's gonna get me kilt in da skreetz then so be it

I think I'm gonna focus on 1911s/EDC X9 after I finish my little honeymoon with my Gen 5s. Mix it up a little.

That^^^ Is pretty much me.

I do have the added distinction? of having two trigger fingers. I shoot long guns right handed and handguns left handed.

I have learned SO MUCH about shooting and what really counts over the last three years having not shot the same gun
twice over that period with my "Out of the Box to Match" review series.

[beenalongtime]

Personally I would love to have the time and budget to be jack of all triggers, but both make me want to be the master of what I found to be my preference platform. (PX4) I am where I shoot comparatively with the subcompact, verse the compact on slow firing. But I would say a tighter grouping with the compact with double taps. I have a couple other guns, and have taken one to the range, it just wasn't my preference/didn't have features I wanted.

[Maple Syrup Actual]

I shoot a million different triggers for work so there's no way for me to standardize completely on something. I know I'd shoot better if I specialized but even if I could, I'm not sure I'd really benefit from that enough in my life to warrant cutting out all kinds of stuff I like to shoot.

Sent from my SM-N900W8 using Tapatalk

[Bucky]

Compete with 1911s, DA/SA, and Glock. There was a time I would match my carry to whatever I was competing with at the time. Not anymore. I feel comfortable switching.

[OlongJohnson]

I have learned SO MUCH about shooting and what really counts over the last three years having not shot the same gun twice over that period with my "Out of the Box to Match" review series.

My goal is still to learn to shoot as well as I drive. I didn't buy a pistol until my late thirties, but I've spent my adult life doing car stuff full time. I loved my first good sports car, and invested a lot fixing it up and making it work better. It was good. It did certain things better than any other car I've ever driven. But when I started to drive other cars in controlled environments, I realized there were some things my little sweetheart did really, really poorly, and as a result, I had severe skills deficits due to never having learned to do those things well. There was one incident where this nearly led to me becoming a bad statistic. In time, as I drove more and more cars, I gained skills and learned about myself, driving and cars in ways that made the whole experience much more rewarding. And I became a much better driver.

I can also affirm the value of valuable training. Two days with a one-on-one coach in a variety of cars on a variety of closed-course conditions raised me several levels immediately and became a foundation for much more in the years that followed. That experience is not available for commercial purchase, that I am aware of. It would be inordinately expensive if it was.

I see real value in focusing on building a high level of performance with one system, but it's also very valuable to gain experience with other systems. Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of both your focused choice and the alternatives can help you avoid blind spots, get unstuck, or realize when you're seeing the limitations of the you-machine combination and make changes if needed. Seeing how another system works in a particular situation may help you understand how to work with your focused system better in similar situations, or that there may be an opportunity to improve it by making some mechanical change. I also personally value the breadth of knowledge and experience to be able to get into the majority of common platforms and achieve at least competent results with any of them. You may be fine-tuned with one, but being unable to function reasonably effectively with another system just because it has some differences (essentially, being competent with only one flavor of mechanical system) would bother me.

[Nephrology]

That^^^ Is pretty much me.

I do have the added distinction? of having two trigger fingers. I shoot long guns right handed and handguns left handed.

I have learned SO MUCH about shooting and what really counts over the last three years having not shot the same gun
twice over that period with my "Out of the Box to Match" review series.

I shoot striker pistols almost exclusively, but I will admit that I think I would grow as a pistol shooter if I bought into a TDA platform. I am eyeing the PX4 for that reason but right now the finances just aren't there. One of these days

[Jesting Devil]

I've shot and carried glock exclusively for the last few years and just switched to competing with a tuned CZ SP01.

I think putting in a lot of time with one gun, especially a glock has helped my shooting a lot. While easy to shoot ok with, shooting a glock trigger really well took me a lot of work and I feel that the reaching that level first before switching gave me a good foundation to work from. Jumping to the CZ I've been surprised how some areas are a little weaker (draws, reloads, and occasional trigger freeze) but others are better than ever (splits, accuracy at speed, sight tracking). First classifier with it was right on par with the glock and running it again in practice gave me a GM score, a personal best.

So my answer is a bit of both, master one first to build a foundation, then branch out to learn the nuance of others and improve your shooting overall.

[John J. McCarthy, Jr.]

All my training is towards self-defense shooting. If I carry it, I master its trigger.

http://www.anamericanwithagun.com/

[Gio]

I think it is hard to be at the razor edge of performance with more than one trigger system, and maybe even with more than one exact pistol. Fortunately, that level of performance is mainly germane to gaming.

This is spot on. I find that the gains I make on a G34/35 for gaming directly cross over to the G19/17 I use for every day carry and work, much more so than when I try to pick up a 1911, DA/SA, or other pistol. From an outsider looking in, I think it would be hard to actually see the performance difference as I'm still shooting those other pistols at a GM level, but I can definitely tell a performance and comfort difference with the Glocks compared to the others.

[GardoneVT]

The relevance of this question rests entirely on the resources of the shooter.
It's a material fact 100 rounds a week in one gun will get a shooter a lot further then 25 rounds x 4 totally different weapons.

Not only has ToddG commented on the matter ,it's something I've seen as an RSO. The best shooters I've noticed were ones who showed up with one or two guns max & shot the piss outta them. The people with a Bag o' Guns frequently called themselves experts with different systems ,but their targets said otherwise.

Now someone who's a high round count shooter has a much bigger training and resource base to build skill with. Jerry Michulek puts more rounds through his guns in one sitting then probably I do all year long across every gun fired,including my friends'. He (and folks of his level) can be true experts across multiple systems for that reason.