How To Gently Squeeze Trigger In Rapid Fire?

[Rexster]

Any tips for moving from the slow-fire gentle squeeze to a more rapid pace while still maintaining proper trigger pull?

Well, words matter, in one's mental thought process. I never "squeeze" a trigger. Squeezing is not something I visualize doing with one finger, but with a whole hand. Visualization is very important when shooting. Squeezing with the whole hand is not conducive to accuracy, in fast or slow fire. Purge all notions of "Squeeze" from the brain. What has been heard, so many times, must be un-heard.

I am meaning this to be an humble contribution; my "tone" is not meant to be "heard" as lecturing.

One piece of visualization that helped me learn double-action shooting, at an increasingly faster pace, is to imagine the trigger is linked to the front sight, and that I am pulling the front sight toward the rear sight. This helps maintain the centering of the front sight in the rear notch.

Another tip: Control the trigger reset/return, no matter how fast the pace. Letting the trigger fly forward, out of control, means having to re-establish control before the next shot.

 

[taliv]

I've found slowing down slightly helps me go faster. heh

seriously, I try to go as fast as my finger will move. i tend to throw some shots in every string when I do this. then, after pushing as hard as I can, I back it off just a hair, and accuracy improves dramatically.

example, last night, I fired 5 half drills (10 rounds, 5 yards, 5 seconds from the holster on black bull of B-8 target)
the first 4 i was mostly doing 3.77 or 3.74 seconds (raw), and then adding 2 seconds in penalties for 2 in the white on almost every target (except the target where I had 4 in the white). Then I slowed it down on the 5th attempt slightly to 3.97 seconds (raw) and shot it clean with one 9 and 5 Xs.

(for the record that's 4 fails and 1 success, but failing a lot is how you get faster.
although, i am still trying to get a lot better, I think that's pretty reasonable practical accuracy as my worst shot of the 50 rounds was still in the 7 ring which is still inside the -0 zone of an IDPA target, and if you cut out my abysmal 1.85s draws, it's about 10 rounds in 1.9 sec or .19 splits)

 

[Arizona_Mike]

i continue to have a theory

in the HAM radio world, where you used to have to take a morse code test to get a license and the entry level license was something like 5 words per minute and the advanced was something like 20. (i may be misremembering the numbers), there is a general agreement that anyone can learn to do morse at 20+ words per minute.... except for the people that learned morse code at 5 words per minute.

The Mose Code requirement for a HAM license started when the military and civil defense shared the same frequencies and canned requests to clear the channel were broadcast at a fixed steady 5 WPM. Even today, aviation station identifiers are fixed at 5 WPM. Initially it was a reasonable requirement. It remained long after the military and civil defense stopped sharing frequencies with HAM and was gradually increased to 13 WMP (20 at the highest level) due to lobbying from insiders wanting to keep the riff raff out of the hobby.

It had become the equivalent of requiring someone to demonstrate loading a cap and ball revolver to get a CCW.

With respect to the OP's question, years ago dry firing while balancing a dime on the front sight was a very helpful drill for me.

Mike

 

[taliv]

it used to be 5 wpm for technician or general or something. but it was 20 for extra

 

[Walkalong]

There is a fine line between "jerking" the trigger and "pulling" it very fast. Bottom line is it has to be controlled. There have been plenty of times I have "jerked" (intentionally) the sights on target as I pulled the trigger quickly. (And off the target as well. (Unintentionally. )

That said, I am by no means a great shooter.

You have to go as slow as needed to hit targets, then speed it up with more practice. Catchers in baseball will speed up throws to second as fast as they can in practice, to the point of making bad throws, but in a game will use the fastest speed they have control at.

 

[jmorris]

Any tips for moving from the slow-fire gentle squeeze to a more rapid pace while still maintaining proper trigger pull?

Dry fire will help you see what you are doing, how "rapid" are you wanting to go .5 second split times or .1?

 

[Coyote3855]

Great thread with lots of wisdom. All due respect to Rob Leatham, it took me years to recover from "jerking the trigger" in IPSC competition. I only made it to A class, but those habits of a flash sight picture and a trigger slap (I prefer that term) seriously affected my ability to do a controlled press shooting at distance with a rifle.

 

[ATLDave]

^ I resemble that remark!