Trigger Control

I've been asked to comment on trigger control.  The question is, do you hold and wait for an unexpected trigger release or do you hold, and when you like the sight picture, do you deliberately squeeze the trigger?  The shooter had been advised or was of the opinion that a surprise or "unexpected" break was better than a "deliberate" break.  But, recent results at the range was disproving his belief that "unexpected" was better than "deliberate".  And, the concern was, "deliberate" trigger technique would create bad habits.

Because silhouette is shot outdoors, we have wind to contend with.  The likelihood of success by holding on the animal and waiting for the trigger to break while the wind is calm is low.  I support a concept put forth by Lanny Bassham, the subconscious yet deliberate release.  This is far more sophisticated than what I would call "snatching" at the trigger while the sights are on the animal.  I think this is the bad habit the shooter is worried about by adopting a deliberate break.

When I started out with my NS522, which had more creep than my Anschutz, I developed what I called the "boa constrictor" trigger release.  With a solid 2lb trigger I would gently squeeze the trigger just a little more each time I had a good sight picture.  Eventually, the trigger would go off while on the animal with trigger SQUEEZE, not pull or "snatch".  This worked very well for me and broke the tendency to "snatch" at the trigger.

When I moved to the Anschutz two stage trigger, I found this technique unnecessary.  Either it broke cleaner or I improved my technique.  But, my technique comes from a great deal of practice in order to develop what Lanny calls the "subconscious" shot.  You really need to read the book discussed here or an article that can be found here.  Navigate to [Document Library], scroll down to [Training] and click on 1.  Truly, buy the book used from Half.com. 

The general concept i'll compare to driving a standard car.  When you need to shift you don't think about the timing of the clutch.  You subconsciously depress the clutch, shift, release the clutch.  It should be the same with shooting.  You have to practice so that when the sight picture is right, you subconsciously squeeze the trigger without thinking.  If you have to think about squeezing the trigger then unwanted results will occur.

The next major issue is the isolation of the trigger finger from ones hold.  This is my biggest challenge.  Clean breaks where there is no movement after you break the shot.   You should watch the bullet in the scope go down range, see the animal fall and hopefully the paint fly.  This is where we all want to be.  Yes Virginia, you should always see the animal fall in your scope!  And, now you know why white animals are preferred.  You can see your hits as they happen.  Much harder to pick up the point of impact on fast moving black animals.

The only way to work on this is by using various drills.  Here are a few that I have picked up but I am sure there are others.

• The Troy Lawton circle drill as found here.  This was covered in post found here.
• The modified Troy Lawton drill.  I met with Troy when I was first starting off and he watched me shoot.  His counsel, at home, take the bolt out of the gun and hold on a dot and simply work the trigger back and forth and discover the hold, the whatever, to ensure the gun does not move while your trigger finger is moving.  Whether technique or muscle memory, work through it to reduce any movement of the rifle when the trigger finger breaks the shot.
• Dry fire, dry fire dry fire at home.  And, at the range.  Chris Winstead also coached me and he gave me two big nuggets.  First, never take your finger off the trigger after releasing the shot.  Stay with the trigger.  Any muscle movement that close to follow through is a bad thing.  Second, when practicing with live ammo, always shoot once and then dry fire on the shell three times noting any issues and taking corrective action.  Then shoot another live and repeat and repeat and repeat.....
• Practice practice practice to build up the subconscious.  It works!
• See this POST and watch the trigger finger.  Bill dry fires 100 shells every lunch break.  At home, he has 33 feet and dry fires whenever he can.

So, in short, in my opinion, you have to break deliberately on the animal using your subconscious trigger finger. And, to do that, you have to develop a serious at home drill regimen.