muzzle jump and stabilize an auto’s frame against the recoiling slide. The web should feel as if it is pressing up into the grip tang on the auto, and should be at the very apex of the grip frame of the revolver. The long bones of the forearm should be directly in line with the barrel of the gun. This properly aligns skeleto-muscular support structure not only with the handgun’s recoil path, but also with the direction of the trigger pull. The trigger finger, we mustn’t forget, is an extension of the arm.
Although the Glock was designed to be shot using the pad of the trigger finger; the author finds he has better control in extreme rapid fire with his finger deeper into the trigger guard.
Many prefer the short-reach trigger on a 1911, particularly those with small hands or those who use distal joint contact on the trigger as the author does. This is a 10mm Colt Delta Elite customized by Mark Morris.
When the gun doesn’t fit and the finger can barely reach the trigger, it will tend to pull the whole gun inboard. That is, a right-handed shooter will tend to pull the shot to the left. If the gun is too small for the hand and the finger goes into the trigger guard past the distal joint, the angle of the finger’s flexion during the pull will tend to yank the shot outboard, i.e., to a right-handed shooter’s right.
This is why gun fit is critical. The key dimension of determining the fit of the gun to the hand is “trigger reach.” On the gun, it is measured from the center of the backstrap where the web of the hand would sit, to the center of the trigger. On the hand, it is measured from the point of trigger contact (distal joint suggested) to the center of the web of the hand in line with the radius and ulna bones of the forearm.
Avoid if possible the expedient hand position called the “h-grip,” intended for adapting a too-small hand to a too-large handgun. In it, the hand is turned so that, with the hand at the side, hand and forearm would resemble a lower case letter “h.” This brings the backstrap of the gun to the base joint of the thumb and brings the index finger forward far enough for proper placement on the trigger.
While this can work with a .22 or something else with light loads, it’s a matter of robbing Peter to pay Paul. What is gained in getting the trigger forward is lost by a weakened hand grasp on the gun. Recoil now goes directly into the proximal joint of the thumb. Doctors tell me that this is a quick short-cut to developing artificially-induced arthritis in that joint. Such a grip was one of the “remedial” techniques employed by FBI instructors in the late 1970s for small-handed female agent recruits firing +P ammunition. It not only failed to work, it beat up their hands. It was one reason that in the landmark case of Christine Hansen, et. al. v. FBI we won reinstatement and compensation for a number of female agents who had been fired because they couldn’t qualify with the old-fashioned bad techniques. The same court ordered FBI to “revise and update its obsolete and sexist firearms training.”
Distal joint contact works well even for single-action autos. Even when the pull weight is relatively light, “leverage equals power, and power controls the pistol.” This placement of the finger eliminates the old shibboleth of double-action first shot pistols that said one had to change finger position between the double-action first round and the single-action follow-up shots. Place the distal joint on the trigger for the first heavy pull, keep it there for subsequent shots, and all will be well.
With DA-to-SA pistol, like this Beretta 92G, placing finger at distal joint will give good control with both types of trigger pull.
Rolling Pace
From here on, it’s a matter of pace. Learn trigger control as you would develop any other physical skill. Remember what I call “Chapman’s Dictum”: Smoothness is 5/6 of speed. Crawl before you walk, and walk before you run.
Start slowly. Do lots of dry fire. Watch the sights as they sit silhouetted against a safe backstop. Do not let the sights move out of alignment at any point in the trigger stroke, particularly when the trigger releases and the “shot breaks.” Then, gradually, accelerate the pace.
Generations of combat shooters can tell you: accuracy first, speed second will develop fast and accurate shooting skills much more quickly than a curriculum of speed first and accuracy second. If you stay with it for several thousand repetitions, you will find that you can roll the trigger back as fast as your finger will go, without jerking your sights off target. Put another way, we can learn to hit as fast as we were missing before.
Proper trigger finger placement for DA work with K-frame S&W .357.
Trigger control is all the more important with more difficult tasks like one-handed double-action work with a light gun, such as this Colt Magnum Carry .357 snub.
The key to trigger manipulation under stress is to distribute the trigger pressure. A sudden 4-pound jerk will inevitably pull a 2-pound gun off target. Smooth, evenly distributed trigger pressure done at the same speed will fire the gun just as quickly, but without moving the alignment of bore to target. The key words here are smooth and even.
Generations of shooters and gunfighters have learned to talk themselves through the perfect shot. They chant it to themselves like a mantra. “Front sight! Squeeze the trigger. Squee-e-eze…” One instructor says “squeeze,” another says “press”; this writer uses “roll.” To me, the word “roll” connotes the smooth, even, uninterrupted pressure that I want. The word doesn’t matter so much as the concept.
Don’t try to “stage” or “trigger-cock” the pistol. This is fine motor intensive, and our fine motor skills go down the drain when we’re in danger and our body instinctively reacts. Such skills just won’t be with you in a fight. Learn from the beginning to keep the stroke smooth and even, executed in a single stage.
A smooth double-action trigger stroke is bringing the next .357 round under the hammer of this S&W Bodyguard.
A workable solution. This Colt Python has a serrated trigger, usually undesirable for double-action work, but the ridges between the serration grooves have been polished glass smooth, solving the problem.
A word on “surprise trigger break.” Marksmanship instructors tell us to let the trigger go off by surprise so we don’t anticipate the final release and jerk the gun. However, if you say in court that the shot went off by surprise, it sounds to anyone without your training as if you didn’t mean for it to go off. That can turn a justifiable,
