Dry Practice Misconceptions - Updated 01-22-19

[Schmetallurgy]

There's a nice wide happy place between riding the reset to the nearest bilimeter and slapping the trigger with most pistols.

When you try to ride the reset precisely you're building up a skill that requires precision. In fact, I'd say it requires more precision that a decent trigger press. Given that most people expect their trigger finger manipulation to suffer under stress it seems fair to expect a precise reset to suffer under stress. When my trigger pull is off a little bit, I shoot an inch or two off my POA. When my reset is off a little bit, I can short stroke the trigger induce what is, in essence, a stoppage (pull trigger, no bang).

I try to maintain contact with the trigger at all times and certainly don't exaggerate the reset but neither do I try to control the forward motion of the trigger so strictly that I run the risk of short stroking.

Is a bilimeter two millimeters?

[ToddG]

Is a bilimeter two millimeters?

Eleventy billionths of a millimeter.

[Schmetallurgy]

Eleventy billionths of a millimeter.

I should have paid attention in school. How embarrassing.

[Chuck Haggard]

Since, at work at least, I am carrying a G17 and a couple of 642s, along with a Mossberg 590 and a Colt AR, I often ask the reset advocates which of said resets I should master.

[Jay Cunningham]

While I have shot Glocks and other striker pistols with mid-length pulls and short resets, I've never owned one and so haven't been able to form a thorough, experimentation-based opinion on catching the reset, though it definitely seems to help with Glocks from the times I've played with it.

This can screw you on guns with a long reset. When shooting my Ruger LCR, I've short-stroked it many times. The trigger needs to pretty much come all the way out.

I tend to think it's beneficial for speed with precision, and I'm curious if you have a more thorough technical explanation of why you disagree?

I would be happy to try and give you an answer, but you need to first give me your own reasoning why you think it's better for speed with precision.

I could see it perhaps being too much of a precision gear change to expect to manage under life or death stress, though I'm not sure if I buy that any more than slapping the trigger being unavoidable under the same situation.

This is just my opinion, but there is slapping the trigger and then there is slapping the trigger. Depending on who you talk to, the implication could be competitors with race guns with 1 lb. triggers that the shooters literally slap (finger comes completely of the trigger between shots). On the other end of the spectrum this could mean a controlled "slap"... like 12 lb. DA triggers that the shooter simply presses straight through instead of staging.

But as for gaming I figure it's a pretty well used and effective technique with pistols that operate in the relevant fashion. I also see the difficulty in meaningfully simulating catching the reset in dry-fire, but I'm not sure that limitation of dry-fire practice, among others, is justification for discarding the technique vs acknowledging that it requires live-fire practice or a SIRT to really get down.

I'm not a competitive shooter so I can't really comment on most effective techniques in that realm, or if they're specialized in any way. The reason *I* recommend discarding the technique is because instead of your front sight being the go/no-go signal for pressing the next shot, resetting the trigger winds up being the go/no-go.

A full trigger press while trying to re-align the sights seems more difficult than a partial press from reset and certainly feels that way to me because of the greater trigger travel, but mostly because of the greater weight change from 0lbs to full break weight at speed vs prep to break.

If you're gripping the pistol correctly and allowing it to recoil in a controlled fashion, you shouldn't need to do any realigning of the sights. The sights should pretty much be tracking up/down/up/down in a consistent, predicatable rhythm. Also - on your first shot, you're pretty much always going to press the trigger through it's full stroke of travel. I know this can be argued back-and-forth a bit, but if you draw your gun to shoot a threat are you going to slowly take up on the trigger for your first shot?

Also, doesn't it pretty much simulate, on the followup shot, the state the trigger/finger is in at the end of press-out on the first shot from presentation, where the trigger has been prepped during press-out, something I also thought was SOP these days for the sake of speed? Otherwise aren't you negating that speed advantage you gained on the draw during followups? Unless you're saying to let out only to the reset mid-recoil, but that seems like it would be far trickier to hit with the gun still moving and not worth the resulting inconsistency.

Not everyone teaches the pressout as a general one-size-fits-all presentation. It's a different approach to solving the same problem. Todd is quite clearly the SME on the pressout presentation and knows the nuances of that technique inside and out. Prepping the trigger is an inherent part of a proper pressout (to the best of my determination). I don't necessarily advocate prepping the trigger on a conventional index draw, though I'm not saying it's incorrect either.

[Jay Cunningham]

I try to maintain contact with the trigger at all times and certainly don't exaggerate the reset but neither do I try to control the forward motion of the trigger so strictly that I run the risk of short stroking.

This is what I strive to do and what I advocate.

[ToddG]

On the other end of the spectrum this could mean a controlled "slap"... like 12 lb. DA triggers that the shooter simply presses straight through instead of staging.

I've never heard anyone refer to that as slapping the trigger. That's just a good trigger press, IMHO.

The reason *I* recommend discarding the technique is because instead of your front sight being the go/no-go signal for pressing the next shot, resetting the trigger winds up being the go/no-go.

That's excellent. Consider it stolen.

I don't necessarily advocate prepping the trigger on a conventional index draw, though I'm not saying it's incorrect either.

I wouldn't advocate prepping the trigger on an index draw. By "index draw" I mean one in which the gun goes in the straightest, shortest line from holster to full extension. The shooter isn't on the sights and the muzzle isn't on the desired POI until the gun gets to extension so touching the trigger before then is, by definition, a violation of fundamental safety rules.

[Chuck Haggard]

I'm not a competitive shooter so I can't really comment on most effective techniques in that realm, or if they're specialized in any way. The reason *I* recommend discarding the technique is because instead of your front sight being the go/no-go signal for pressing the next shot, resetting the trigger winds up being the go/no-go.

This also, in my experience, makes for slower shooting. One can reset during recoil and be ready to go when the sights settle. Reset guys tend to let the sights settle, then reset, then start the trigger squeeze.

[Jay Cunningham]

I've never heard anyone refer to that as slapping the trigger. That's just a good trigger press, IMHO.

Yeah, I would tend to agree. However someobody recently pointed me to a video where an instructor was attempting to differentiate between certain techniques and he referred to the above as "slapping the trigger". So once again, we run into the issue of language, definitions, and semantics. The best we can do is try to be as descriptive as we can, I suppose.

That's excellent. Consider it stolen.

Coolio.

I wouldn't advocate prepping the trigger on an index draw. By "index draw" I mean one in which the gun goes in the straightest, shortest line from holster to full extension. The shooter isn't on the sights and the muzzle isn't on the desired POI until the gun gets to extension so touching the trigger before then is, by definition, a violation of fundamental safety rules.

Once again we are in agreement. But I do know some instructors teach prepping the trigger on an index draw (you and I define that draw the same way) and they are good, experienced instructors.


My main problem with trigger prep - aside from the cardinal rules violation that you pointed out in the specific above example - is that the difference between trigger prep and trigger staging is widely misunderstood. And even when the *concept* is understood, in far too many cases I see shooters prepping the trigger on their presentation - then pausing *for whatever reason* - thus killing the initial gain of the trigger prep and now putting them in the mental state of "I'm all prepped and ready to go but oh shit I paused and didn't take the shot yet wait I'm behind the power curve I better take my shot NOW" BANG! and then snatching the trigger due to the mental anticipation game inside their head.

A certain decisiveness needs to be part of the trigger press on the index draw or in the prep during the pressout. Otherwise it turns into staging which IMO is a precursor to jerking/snatching the trigger.

Range psychology! lolz

[ToddG]

JC -- Agree on all points.