TargetTalk

I'm a rifle guy but I read the pistol stuff a lot, because a lot of the drills you think are normal I don't hear about in rifle.

I have always adjusted the trigger stop so that there is maximum movement after the second stage breaks. My idea was the pellet would be out of the barrel before the trigger hit the stop and the gun moved. Reading an article on pistol, I discovered the opposite recommendation. Set the stop as soon after the trigger breaks as possible so there is no slack after the break and it doesn't cause movement.

Sitting here writing, the rifle triggers are set really light, and some pistol trigger are very heavy in comparison.

Help me think this through...

Big mistake - don't think it through. Switch off your conscious brain; press the trigger; it will stop moving when it does; and the pellet will punch the target where the sights were aligned when the shot broke.

I think OP is asking about setting the trigger overtravel (trigger movement after the trigger break).
I am also a rifle guy and pistol newby. I prefer a maximum overtravel on my rifle.
I get better results with the minimum overtravel shooting air pistol.

redschietti wrote:I have always adjusted the trigger stop so that there is maximum movement after the second stage breaks. My idea was the pellet would be out of the barrel before the trigger hit the stop and the gun moved. Reading an article on pistol, I discovered the opposite recommendation. Set the stop as soon after the trigger breaks as possible so there is no slack after the break and it doesn't cause movement.

One of the major reasons why, in pistol, the trigger break is set so close to the trigger realise point is that, some of the weight of the trigger is given by friction of the sear to the hammer. And this can vary from a little to a lot!
Springs alone don't amount for the full weight. And as the shot breaks that friction is gone, your trigger gets lighter and your finger surges back.
This happens on .22 and above (1000 grams minimum trigger weight) as well as air (500 grams minimum trigger weight).
For free pistol (no trigger weight minimum), where triggers are normally set up from 5g up to 100g, the trigger stop is not used that much.
Some pistols don't even have them, like the TOZ35 for example (and I believe the Morini CM84 hasn't as well but I'm not certain).

Now, the trigger release will always cause movement, as the gun NEVER gets still.
The key is it always causes the same amount of movement. Consistent from shot to shot.

There is also a personal element to this, as some shooters prefer a close trigger stop while others want the opposite.
The only way is to try and see how it works for you.

Hope this helps

Thanks to all three of you!

Trigger stops in pistol can be tricky.
For precision you can set it very fine but any poor triggering will pull your shot off.
Free and some Air with no trigger collapse after release you are better off with no stop.
For rapidfire where the trigger is sequenced multiple times a much bigger stop gap is required.
For mixed events (Std/CF/Sport) the trigger stop needs to be a comprimise, med gap.
Play with your stop setting and see what your trigger style performs best.

I dont use the trigger stop. Never bother to try it... just assumed it was a bad principle! Always thought it would be best for me to learn mastering the trigger without it!
But after reading this thread, I will try it for sure in a near future... and I hope it will increase my scores.
But, my bottom line is: start with the basics, you'll have plenty of time to adjust the trigger stop! ;)

It seems to me that there are 2 choices for a trigger stop, either a hard stop or no stop.

Does anyone know if a soft stop has been tried for pistol?
What I mean, is it possible to have the trigger press against a second spring or elastic stop, independent of the main trigger and hammer springs?
What this would do is dramatically increase the trigger weight just after the sear lets the hammer go, so that there is no felt loss of trigger pressure. Would this be similar to an electronic trigger, with a consistent trigger weight and no felt release point?

I have thought about this many times, but I have never tried to do something like a soft trigger stop.

Any thoughts?

In the old days of Bullseye, so I've been told, some shooters would glue pencil erasers behind thier revolver triggers to give a bump stop just before the break, kind of seeming like a secong stage. It would also give the type of final stop you're describing.

Ed Hall wrote:In the old days of Bullseye, so I've been told, some shooters would glue pencil erasers behind their revolver triggers to give a bump stop just before the break, kind of seeming like a second stage. It would also give the type of final stop you're describing.

That would be my advice too.

Depending on the gun you may be able to do that inside the frame. It would look better.

The reason why I think that it's not used, is because, if ill adjusted you will get a wall before the shot breaks, with the tendency to increase your errors.
Second, it would add some complexity to the trigger system, which would make the gun more expensive to manufacture (and sell!)

[quote]Does anyone know if a soft stop has been tried for pistol?
What I mean, is it possible to have the trigger press against a second spring or elastic stop, independent of the main trigger and hammer springs?
What this would do is dramatically increase the trigger weight just after the sear lets the hammer go, so that there is no felt loss of trigger pressure. Would this be similar to an electronic trigger, with a consistent trigger weight and no felt release point?

I have thought about this many times, but I have never tried to do something like a soft trigger stop.

Any thoughts?[/quote]

you mean,like this:
http://toz35.blogspot.de/2011/06/adjust ... eight.html

it depends on the trigger design, but most current pistols that stretch the spring in the first stage(morini, matchguns, etc) have that characteristic. so if you can handle it, there's no need for a trigger stop on that design as the weight of the first stage increases after the shot breaks. in contrast, the only pistol with the same characteristic and a compressed spring in the first stage i know of is the lp10e, and here's no possibility to adjust the trigger stop as there is none.

so, if you want to try use a sponge/foam like igor
(and read the article linked in the link above, GREAT stuff)

flolo wrote: you mean,like this:
http://toz35.blogspot.de/2011/06/adjust ... eight.html

Igor isn't using the foam as a trigger stop, he is supporting the trigger finger either side of the trigger.

yeah, you're right, wrong link, but somewhere he used some rubber/ foam to increase trigger weight.

This link:

http://toz35.blogspot.de/2010/03/toz-35 ... tings.html

you could also put some rubber/foam in the same way behind the trigger blade to get some sort of soft trigger-stop.