This week, Beth shares a tip to help you increase your trigger control. You can practice this almost anywhere and without a gun.
This is good exercise for those of us who don’t make it to the range or dry fire as often as we would like. Trigger-finger discipline, or control, is one of the fundamentals of shooting. How your finger presses the trigger has a huge impact on your accuracy. A smooth, consistent trigger press can be a challenge for new and experienced shooters alike. Often, shooters tend to squeeze with their whole hand instead of isolating the trigger finger. This squeezing motion creates additional movement in the grip and results in poor muzzle management and pulling shots off target.
To start this exercise, take your support hand and put your index finger, middle finger and ring finger together to simulate the grip of your pistol. Now grip your support hand fingers with your dominant hand just as you would your pistol. Your index finger should be just above and free to move as if you are pulling a trigger. Press your index finger in and then let it go back out to its pre-press starting point. Continue to do this for multiple repetitions. As you’re pressing, be aware of any movement in the gripping three fingers of your dominant hand. If your trigger finger is not isolated, you will feel a tightening and loosening of the hand as you press the imaginary trigger. The focus is to only move your trigger finger and to keep the rest of your hand completely static.
Minimize Movement
Remember, the key is to minimize any movement or squeezing of the other dominant-hand fingers in your grip. Isolate the movement to that of only your trigger finger. The beauty of this great exercise is that you can do it anywhere, anytime and at no cost. Try it out while you’re sitting at home or at work, in the grocery store or in your kitchen. With enough repetitions, you will create a smooth, consistent trigger press that results in noticeably increased accuracy on the range.
Vary your training. Keep it fun. Keep it safe. And keep practicing.
