Steve Swartz wrote:
Of course, Perfect trigger is a PREREQUISITE for everything else.
This much *everybody* agrees on
The recent umm "discussions" have centered around the "religious" question of "do you let the trigger drive the sights into alignment, or do you let the alignment signal the trigger?"
Steve,
I think this goes beyond faith. Because it is so hard to measure things, you perhaps simply don't realize that your good shots are finger led shots? (just kidding)
At any rate, looking back at the beginning of the thread, I think we have made some progress.
The AMU guide seems like a good place to start . . .
Settling in Aiming Area
Sight Alignment
Trigger Control
We now agree that these three elements are ass-backwards. As you stipulated earlier, you put on the first stage and a little more before or as you align, and then move into the zone, so the initial settle-sight-trigger should definitely be replaced with Trigger-Sight-Settle, even though we must take note that you personally still reserve just a little tad of trigger for the very end.
Actually, though, what I really want to talk about here is settle.
We are told to ignore the movement of the sights and not try for a perfect stillness because this is not humanly possible. Well, the ten ring on the ISSF precision target is two inches wide. This means that someone like Bill can reliably hold to within one inch to either side. Except that that deviation is down range at fifty yards. If the arm and pistol are taken roughly as one metre, then the deviation at the muzzle is one fiftieth of that, which is to say dead centre plus or minus one fiftieth of an inch.
Please. take out a ruler and try to see an interval that small. Mine stops at thirty seconds. What I am saying, is that to to make a shot like that, other than by fluke, the gun has to be very, very, very close to perfectly still.
And how is that stillness to be acheived? One might say through relaxation and that is surely part of it, but it can't be all. There has to be a rigidity in the muscles. Assuming that the skelleton is perfectly placed, the muscles have to keep it that way. The raised arm has to stay raised. The hand has got to offset the trigger pull. Muscular tension is like the tension of guy wires applied to any structure. That is what stops things from going all floppy.
How about this: The settle is not a settle, it is actually an act of pointing. It is an act which becomes more precise, with a stiffer pointer, which is to say more muscular work, as time goes by. And after only a very few seconds, it become untenable. In this description, the settle is not a constant state in which we just keep things the way they are and squeeze the trigger. On the contrary, we are pointing dynamically more and more firmly into the heart of the target. As we lock on to the zone we increase stiffness, and increased stiffness brings an increasing likelihod of controlled penetration of the target.
But the trigger has to go off before we get tired of doing that. So the trigger can not be held back. It must be allowed to come. It must be made to come before it is too late.
And we have to fight to maintain alignment while we are pointing and squeezing.
And if this is done right, I think the muzzle will be virtually motionless when the shot flies.
I say all of this merely to dispell a misconception that I think beginners get of it being ok to wave the gun around and squeeze the trigger. It is not ok. You have to hold the gun still. And I think the same misconception works more subtly at higher levels, to the effect that the shooter can watch the minimum movement getting better and when it is optimal start to squeeze (or finish the squeeze of) the trigger.
The trigger squeeze and the stiffness of the hand and arm are intimately related as hammer and anvil, action and reaction. They must occur simultaneously with no notion of sequence.
But while it is ok for the trigger to come a little too soon, too late is something else entirely. Too early in the hold is still near and on the road to perfect. Too late in the hold is usually signalled by some gross movement which will ruin the shot if it is too late to pull up short.
So let's recap: Trigger and hold are both efforts which should ideally come to a perfect climax together. If the trigger comes too soon, its ok, but if the hold peaks too soon it is at best a sudden halt, and at worst a wild shot.
So, does it not seem most sensible to lead with the trigger?
Best Regards,
Gordon