Toughts about the trigger, its shape and use.

Anschutz trigger shoe

At the last match of the year we took some time shooting different rifles to get some relative comparisons.  One such rifle I shot I found it hard to work the trigger.  Try as I might to squeeze the trigger I could not make it work for me.  Each "snap" of the trigger resulted in a downed animal.  Odd I thought to myself.

At the time the issue bothered me.  The entire pad of my finger engaged in the wide, curved trigger shoe is what felt different.  I am not going to suggest I understand the physiological make up the of the human finger pad, but for me, I like to feel the trigger pushing through all the "flesh" right to the bone.  Not sure that makes sense to anyone but I will expand.

When I shoot my gun I actually put the very tip of my finger pad on the bottom of the trigger.  Effectively I am pushing on the bottom "point" of the crescent shaped trigger shoe.  Sure, sounds odd, but it works for me.  Not only does it give me a different point of leverage, but it gives me a very certain engagement of the pad of my trigger finger.  I don't like to have 160 degrees of my finger engaged in the trigger.  I want just 5 degrees of my finger pad engaged so I can really feel what is going on.

As I think back to various exposures I had, this preference does make sense to me.  For those fortunate enough to have the 5018 Anschutz trigger, you can fit all sorts of trigger shoes to it because it has a "rail" on which the trigger staff and shoe can be fitted.  This enables adjustment forward and back as well as cant.  In short, you can hang just about anything off the trigger due to the handy rail which might be a reason so many people fit this trigger to other actions.  The caption picture came from the Anschutz website and I recall one gentleman raving about this trigger.  At the time I was a novice and I did not even try it, but I filed it away in the memory banks for this blog entry 10 years later.  Back then I was still trying to figure out how to sight in my rifle let alone the arcane world of changing out your trigger shoe!

You don't have to have an Anschutz to try this concept.  Put your finger on the very end of the trigger.  See what it feels like.  See if you can get a non "fleshy" 5 degree engagement of the trigger and whether it feels better for you.  To me it is crisper.

Tubb trigger, see article

For more on trigger technique your can read the article below.  See that they too get away from the crescent shape and strive for a smaller "contact" patch of your trigger finger.

This entry is getting a tad obscure but I am running out of new material.  If you have something you want discussed shoot me a comment.  Of course you can always use a bent nail.  :)

Enjoy!

Tubb article on trigger technique.

Air guns as a practice tool

With the temp just at freezing this morning it is a good sign that outdoor shooting will soon be less than optimal for both equipment and human.  I will say that my buddy John C. in Alaska shoots year round.  Hint hint.  But, for now, NH is a fair weather crowd and given the amount of effort it is to put on a match, that is fine with me.

But I am going to work hard on air this season.  Most of what I would write is available on other sites so I will keep it brief and share only one personal experience and then provide some links for ongoing reading.

When in Dallas I had a three car garage.  Keep in mind your garage was also the only storage you had.  I was able to create a nice 33 ft range and I practiced all the time.  At first I had a cheap Chinese knock off which I tuned as best one could.  In other words, I learned a lot about spring airguns.  I shot it a bunch and finally took it to an airgun silhouette match and shot well enough to start in AA.  I was hooked.  I did the math as to range fees, ammo, miles driven, time etc and justified the purchase of a TX200 mfg by AirArms.  This gun could be used as both a practice tool and was appropriate to shoot in 2 of the 3 MS Airgun divisions.  Why not!  I spent 3x on an airgun than what I had spent on my first rimfire!  CRAZY!

I started shooting it in my garage and wow what a difference!  What a beautiful instrument.  My at home scores went up but more importantly, I TRULY had a revelation of what Lanny Bassham writes about.  The subconscious or "reflexive shooting".  Meaning, you don't think about taking the shot, you just reflexively take the shot.

I was at some match in small bore and my practice took over.  It is hard to describe but effectively I envisioned my dot on the animal at home and simply repeated what I was doing at home at the match.  Dot here, wiggle there, finger squeeze.....pow....ding.  I was not thinking about anything, I was just repeating what I had been doing at home over and over.  Sadly, that level of practice has not been attained again.  But I know it works and I know what I need to do if I want to improve.

I am a huge advocate of at home air practice.  It would be best to use a scope on some form of scaled animal.  I will see if I can include a link to the scaled 10m animals for air.

Here is one by Dave Imas, a very good shooter and coach on the left coast.  He is also the one with mile high scope rings under Too hot, too cold.

Imas

Second, is one of the best off hand shooters in Silhouette.  David Tubb's review of how to get the most out of an airgun for at home practice.

Tubb part 1.   
Tubb part 2.

10m scaled Silhouette target

10 meter air in Munich 2011

Tom W. recently asked me to do a write up for the Pioneer website regarding our fledgling air program.  There are a few blogs which I also watch which are heavy to Pistol Bullseye. Tom is working very hard to improve the indoor range and the overall condition of the PSI club house.  Under the basic rule of thumb, people will take care of something that looks nice, we are not only improving the mechanicals but also the cosmetics..  We are also doubling the air handling equipment which has an advanced "multistage" air filtration system.  They are being installed this week.

In my write up I mentioned that in Europe, 10m air is a huge sport.  Although I am only a web based spectator and reader of what goes on, I believe my assessment is accurate.  To demonstrate, I thought I would include the photo above.

To give proper credit, the photo came from the below link under the Munich 2011 album.

https://picasaweb.google.com/110058510710131713019

Evapo-Rust continued

Evapo-Rust helped my mould but I did not take any pictures.  I was organizing tools, inherited tools.  Trying to have the tools I need at the ready and the tools I own but don't need in storage so they won't rust.  This nice antique Stanley carpenters square sadly got left in a drawer where mice made a nest and their pee destroyed some nice stuff.  In short, mice can ruin just about anything with either teeth or their waste.

Click one, then again to enlarge

I put the square in a open container and let it sit for about 18 hours.  For me, the experiment is done.  it works well and the non toxic part is a plus.  But it ain't cheap.  $9 for a quart.  Small pieces , it is great.  Big stuff, you have to buy a lot to get it immersed.

To the left is a picture demonstrating the results.  My container would not let the square lay flat so only half of the square was in the liquid solution.  This exercise was more for experimentation than the desire to return this square to its original condition.  There is not much I can do about the pitting.  Right side is basically a "before" and left is an "after" illustration.  As always, click on the picture  to enlarge.

I would give it two thumbs up.  The appeal, it ONLY goes after rust and not the rest of the metal or wood or brass.  Just the iron oxide.

I guess I could test out electrolysis rust removal on the other side some day.