TargetTalk

hye..i'm new here and i need advice on how to improve my AP score..my current score now is 560+..i've been shooting for 4 years.. having prob wit my triggering...can any1 help??

I can assure you that every single person here has problems with their tirggering. I'm afraid it is not possible to offer specific advice to general problem, other to point to sources that cover the issue in more general scope, such as

http://www.pilkguns.com/anatoli.shtml
http://www.pilkguns.com/anatoli2.shtml

zero, not to be flippant, but most of us here wish we had your problem of being stuck in the 560's. I would suggest that at your skill level, you might want to seek out a world class coach to get you shooting in the 580's. If you got where you are in four years on your own, you have achieved about as much as you can on your own. If you cannot find one, I'd suggest getting a RIKA training system.

Look under pilkguns coaching section: expecially JP O'Connor's series is full of advice, samples and way to help a person willing to take his game to the next level.

Nice shooting,
LukeP.

What do you mean by "triggering problem?"*

This like saying "I have a transportation problem."

Car? Shoes? Airplane? Star Trek Transporter beam?

A few of us would be delighted to help; but diagnosing a technique error from 4,500 miles away will be a bit problematic.

Steve

*(Or we could just skip all that diagnosis stuff and jump right to throwing advice at you!)

to steve: the prob i meant is i cant squeeze my trigger well when i'm focusing
on the sight. i'll always jerk it..its like hard to focus on the sight and the triggering part at the same time..and i would like to know what cn i do to improve my score..tq..

zero wrote:..its like hard to focus on the sight and the triggering part at the same time..

The best advice I can offer (I'm also learning this, and I'm *not* averaging in the 560's), don't think about the trigger all the way through the shot breaking. Think about Starting trigger pressure and then go back to focusing on sights. The shot will likely break on it's own and be a complete surprise.

This is one of those practice things that comes with LOTS of dry-firing. I only dry-fire about 1:1 to live shots, and everything I've read says it should be more like 3:1.

Best of luck,

Brian

ShootingAir.com

A few specific drills come to mind- note that each drill will need to be repeated hundreds or thousands of times for the triggering to become smooth and automatic.

1. Dry Fire, Eyes Closed, Resting: grip UNLOADED pistol (seated o.k.) and, with eyes closed, visualize perfect sight ALIGNMENT (NOT "sight picture!") while activating trigger smoothly and consistently. Visualize perfect trigger manipulation- straight, smooth, rapid, with no disturbance to front sight.

2. Dry Fire, Eyes Open, Resting: same drill but now seated with arm supported, maintaining perfect sight alignment against BLANK SURFACE. Again, perfect manipulations of trigger while maintaining alignment.

Note that for ALL DRILLS adding a distraction bull or *any* type of "aiming" element will not only prevent the primary training effect but will embed very bad habits in your processing of the information that will be very difficult to overcome later . . .

3. Dry Fire, Eyes Open, Standing with Shot Plan: Blank Surface! Go through complete shot paln to include viaualization of perfect shot during breathing cycle immediately prior to loft.

Note that Drill 3 can and should be done with *both* "dry fire" mode and simply pumping trigger against spring resistance (if your equipment allows it). The point is- as always- to burn into your brain the smooth, rapid, perfect manipulation of the trigger during the maintenance of perfect sight ALIGNMENT.

You must "polish a rough surface" (mentally). The sight PICTURE is like a sharp, raised burr on a metal surface between your finger and the release of the shot. You must use your finger 1,000 times rubbing smoothly over this mental burr to make it smooth.

As soon as you add something to aim at, you are introducing another metal burr.

The trigger manipulation must become physically perfected, 100% consistent, and 100% automatic. It must be free to flow whenever teh perfect sight alignment is achieved. The approach into the settling area represents the final inhibitor/barrier to the release of the shot. As the perfectly aligned sights move into the settling area, the finger will do (subconscioulsy) what it has been *trained* to do.

Or not.

Have you trained your finger yet? Are you right now inadvertently training your finger to look at the distraction bull?

Steve

As far as dry firing goes I dry fire about 10:1 or more in Free and less in Air mostly because I can shoot Air at home.

The last few years for me have not allowed much time to shoot a lot of free pistol at the range so I have been doing much more dry firing than normal and I was able to shoot free last month and was only 2 points below my personal best.

When in doubt Dry Fire and utilize what Steve said.

steve, i've been trying to try focus only my triggering but sumtimes inadvertently focus on the distraction..and thanx for the drills. i'll try my best to master it..

thank you very much to all for your replies and feedback..
i really appreciate that.. happy shooting every one..