Pulling trigger vs. Squeezing trigger?

[ol' geeser]

Plunky you are asking great questions.....please don't hesitate to ask anything.

Squeezing the trigger allows you to aim the pistol and apply pressure to the trigger until it goes off allowing you to hit where you are aiming.

Pulling the trigger is a deliberate act to make the gun go bang.....it generally will also not allow you to be as accurate with your weapon for a couple of reasons:
1. Pulling the trigger actually can pull the weapon off sight and your accuracy will suffer
2. It is an anticipated act and you expect the weapon to fire (flinching)....when you squeeze the trigger, it should be a surprise when it fires.

Many people don't advocate dry firing but I can't stress it enough....dry fire your weapon and learn to feel the difference between squeezing the trigger and pulling the trigger.

Hope this helps.....

Envision the motion of milking a cow or goat...pulling the trigger evokes that motion of the hand...it is sometimes refered to as "milking" a trigger
Squeezing or pressing the trigger is only done with the trigger finger in an isolated motion....I agree with others here in that dry firing with a laser is great practice...

 

[scott625b]

Here is a simple hint I use when training/re-training/re-re-re-training shooters. Pull the trigger back to its most rearward position, like you are pulling back the string on a tiny, tiny, tiny bow. You cannot shoot a bow and arrow by yanking quickly, you use a uniform and deliberate pull.

 

[jimjc]

I think the proper movement of the finger on the trigger can only happen if the gun is held properly...Bottom 3 fingers and heel of the hand need to be very firm with no side squeezing of the fingers on the grip...elbow locked and wrist straight...The trigger finger needs to work independently of the rest of the hand by moving straight back in one smooth motion until after the bullet has fired and through the forward release of the trigger...My thoughts are everything is interrelated with the rest of your body ie. how you stand how your head is positioned and your posture but that is getting a little to deep and a bit away from the OP`s question...Jim

 

[robctwo]

I started out on semi-auto pistols, lots of SA. Pressing straight back on the trigger with the pad of the finger, using the trigger finger only, gives best results. You can actually see this if you dry fire your gun and look down on the gun. If I have the proper grip I'm pressing my finger pad straight back as if I were going to touch the web at the base of my thumb. If the joint at the base of the trigger finger is moving, so is the end of the barrel.

At the range I like to shoot .22 along with my center fire. It's easy to hold steady through the shot to recoil, and see the front sight at ignition. When I'm shooting well I almost always see a bit of spark from the muzzle flash on all my hand guns. If I'm not seeing a spark, I'm probably anticipating the recoil. Most call that a flinch, I call that an early follow though, it makes me feel better about myself.

Dry firing gives me good muscle memory. Shooting the .22 gives me good muscle memory with recoil. My golf teacher told me he could not teach me to not slice. He told me he could teach me how to hit a draw, and develop the muscle memory for that shot. I can't learn to not flinch, I can learn to have a good sight picture at ignition.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

A firm stroke usually does it for me.

 

[Chris_D]

Squeezing the trigger does cause new shooters to squeeze the whole grip which certainly isn't what you want to do. The words used to describe the action of the trigger finger are varied so forget which word is right or wrong. Rather, know this....

The trigger must move perfectly inline with the point of aim towards the rear of the gun. You cannot allow the trigger finger to alter your point of aim during this process.

Two handed shooters (action pistol) can get away with a LOT of bad trigger control, however, conventional pistol shooters can only use one hand to hold the gun. With the one hand hold, developing proper trigger control is mandatory to shooting high scores. You may want to drop by this website which has a lot of information on precision pistol shooting..

BullseyeShooting

Chris D

I prefer to say "Now press the trigger straight back moving only your trigger finger."

Why? "Squeeze" to a beginner may translate to squeezing with the whole hand, "milking" the grip and moving the gun, resulting in "something is wrong with my gun, it shoots low."

The object is of course to move the trigger smoothly straight back without moving the gun, so however that can be visualized is all to the good.

 

[Yiogo]

I shoot my target pistol with one hand bullseye style which gives a great indication of bad trigger control. For me, assuming good sight adjustments, if I jerk the trigger my rounds go left. Yogo

 

[bp231986]

Plunky you are asking great questions.....please don't hesitate to ask anything.

Squeezing the trigger allows you to aim the pistol and apply pressure to the trigger until it goes off allowing you to hit where you are aiming.

Pulling the trigger is a deliberate act to make the gun go bang.....it generally will also not allow you to be as accurate with your weapon for a couple of reasons:
1. Pulling the trigger actually can pull the weapon off sight and your accuracy will suffer
2. It is an anticipated act and you expect the weapon to fire (flinching)....when you squeeze the trigger, it should be a surprise when it fires.

Many people don't advocate dry firing but I can't stress it enough....dry fire your weapon and learn to feel the difference between squeezing the trigger and pulling the trigger.

Hope this helps.....

Make sure you can dry fire your weapon. Some you can and others you cant. should say on manual. and you want to sqeeze that trigger. always think sqeeze. One way of telling if your pulling the trigger is that most people that do they shots fall to the right of target area. Something that can be fixed with practice

 

[goldenbb]

I can't quite put my finger on it, but there's something odd about using the word "press" to describe the action of activating the trigger on a firearm. It's just one of those loaded terms that trainers who charge too much use to make you think they're smart.

 

[spirit4earth]

This thread really helped me at the range today. I did a little dry firing last night to get a feel for moving ONLY my trigger finger. My aim was so much better today because I stayed aware of keeping my hand grip steady and still, while moving only my trigger finger. I didn't squeeze or jerk my hand (mostly), so......THANKS AGAIN FOR A GREAT FORUM!!

 

[QuercusMax]

Besides dry firing (which I strongly recommend), one thing that has *really* helped me is getting a laser training aid that pinpoints where the bullet would have gone when the trigger was pressed. I got the LaserLyte LT-9 for my various 9mm's and really like it.

Some time ago I got a "carryable" 9mm (not S&W), and could not hit anything with it. Safest place for any observer was behind the target!

I started practicing dry firing - over and over - using snap caps, and my technique improved a fair amount.

Then I got the LaserLyte LT-9 (also available in other calibers besides 9mm), and I could immediately see where I was pointing, and other problems. For example, I could see that I was "jerking" under some circumstances. It gave me a lot of good feedback, and I practice with it almost daily.

There are several models, including the LT-Pro which fits several calibers thus seems attractive. However, it is sound activated and requires you to remove the tiny batteries after every use. The LT-9 (and similar) that I have is like a snap cap and is activated by the firing pin, which I like better.