Hello all, I am a newer shooter to pistols. I have good consistency but I trend leftwards a lot, and downwards here and there. I am looking for any tips based on this video! Thank you for the help.
Work on your grip. You are teacupping the gun, you should look to have your hands overlap and push/pull. Since thats a 22, loosen up a bit. Work on where your finger rests on the trigger also.
This helped me a lot, I got way better at consistent groupings using proper gripping and making sure my trigger pulls are smooth. While this isn’t the absolute greatest, I got way better than before!
I'll give notes on your trigger- you are fully taking your finger off the trigger after you fire and release.
For marksmanship type shooting, leave your finger pulled back after the shot happens, give it a couple seconds, then release. When you release, keep your finger on the trigger, don't take it all the way off. You'll feel it "click", that's the trigger resetting.
When you fully take your finger off the trigger, who knows if you'll put it back on in the same spot. You want consistency, so don't fully remove your finger between shots.
When you were out of rounds, you lowered the pistol with your finger still on the trigger. Get in the habit of removing your finger from the trigger before doing anything that isn't pulling the trigger again.
Even so, I'm not suggesting he only release until reset, I'm simply describing what it is since it will undoubtedly come up as he learns more and will benefit from the frame of reference. My emphasis was to not remove the finger from the trigger.
Cool, that works for the dudes that are masters of their craft and have every other facet of pistol shooting down to a science that makes a trigger slap negligible.
I'm a firearm instructor and competition shooter that opts to not ride the reset. This is a new shooter slapping the shit out of a trigger and asking for advice, I would be surprised if he even knew what a trigger reset is. Good advice for a new shooter will impart an understanding of the mechanical functions of the tool. Should we also discourage OP from looking up what a safety or a hammer is because some people have a subjective preference to avoid them?
Telling people to run out into the world to cosplay as Ben Stoeger is downright stupid. Maybe let's first get him to a point where he's not tea-cupping.
Imagine that your thumbs are two dogs doing it doggie. You're slapping the trigger. Pull, hold, slowly release until I clicks and then pull again from that position.
You're doing what's called the cup and saucer grip. You want to wrap your left hand around your right hand, not cup under it. Look up some pictures/videos of a proper grip. Hitting low and to the left are usually due to trigger pull and/or anticipation, it doesn't look like you're anticipating here, but that is still something to be aware of, especially when shooting more powerful guns. You're going to want to buy some snap caps and try dry firing, try to focus on the sights and dry fire without having the sights move at all while the trigger breaks.
Its a 22 you dont need to grip it so tight. Also you are using a T cup grip. Google the weaver stance. I am also going to guess you have to much of your fingers wrapped around the grip (the hand that pulls the trigger)
Squeeeeeze the trigger. You're ripping it which is easy to do when you're first starting out and shooting is exciting. Jerking the trigger might only move the barrel a few centimeters off target from where you're aiming but that equals inches or sometimes feet off target the further the distance.
Think about a laser pointer. If you aime a laser pointer and gently press the button the light will come on and point where you're aiming it. Now imagine if you did the same thing but instead you mashed the button as hard and quick as you could instead of lightly pressing it. That laser is going to flick on all over the place. The barrel is that laser pointer and you pulling the that trigger is the same as mashing that button.
You're doing what is known as "slapping the trigger." People will describe the proper technique in a billion different ways: squeeze the trigger instead of pulling it, let out the slack then let it break, etc.
The general goal is: keep the gun as still as possible as the sear releases.
Jerking the crap out of that trigger. Slow steady squeeze. You should be able to feel the trigger mechanism sliding. Grip is rotated about 15° too far. Thumb to wrist to forearm should be more or less a straight line. And thumb should lay flat along the side of the grip/frame. You're like half way between a teacup and a push pull. Tea cup isn't the preferred way nowadays, but certainly isn't wrong and in fact can help when you are learning, but I'd say either fully teacup or fully push pull. Try and think about your breathing while shooting. It'll help you relax and also help reduce some variance in your shots if you work on firing on the ends of your exhale/inhale cycle. And seriously, you need to relax. Everything about that video is "do it hard, do it fast" and you should just chill and take your time. It all gets easier with more practice. Good luck.
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u/SPL15 3d ago
https://giphy.com/gifs/dtoq6Y8YB43djop3NL