Last night fortune smiled upon me and I was actually able to sit down and watch some of the shooting shows on the Outdoor Network. On one show they had Rob Leatham and Todd Jarret doing some fairly basic drills.
When watching Rob shoot it looked to me like he was completely breaking contact with the trigger to reset it and then pressing straight through to make his shots. I thought I was seeing things but they also had a commercial for Springfield Armory that showed him shooting an XD and he appeared to be doing the same thing in the commercial.
This leads me to my question…
I know some of you guys know how to shoot pretty fast and I was wondering:
Was I really seeing what I thought I was seeing?
Is this a desirable way to reset the trigger and prepare for the next shot?
Another good question. Of course I couldn’t say with certainty but it appeared to me that they were using fairly stock 1911’s from their respective sponsors. Todd’s weapon appeared to be a traditional single action rather than the LDA. I didn’t really notice Todd’s reset but Robb’s caught my eye because of how much his trigger finger was moving to reset the trigger.
I’ve heard different trainers recommend different ways. Breaking contact with the trigger immediately when the shot breaks, and also keeping the finger in contact and resetting.
I think it is 6 of one a half dozen of the other. If you can press straight to the rear either way you have it licked.
I can only say that in my personal training history I have never had an instructor tell me to break contact with the trigger between shots.
As an aside, Larry Vickers switched me onto the concept of resetting the trigger during the recoil cycle and not after. This may seem obvious but I have been heavily influenced by, shall we say, more conservative techniques and this was a “lightbulb” moment for me that I am still struggling to master.
For the most part, their triggers maybe lighter than normal. However, with practice and you are consistent, you won’t influence the gun. Smooth steady press. I’ve known and seen a couple guys run stock Sig 226’s this way and hit everytime. When I had a DAO Smith for duty, you got pretty good with trigger work.
The problem people run into is starting the press nice-then–wham!
I prefer to keep contact, reset and take up any slack during recoil.
I’ve talked to guys who know Rob Leatham and they say he “slaps” the trigger and your eyes weren’t fooling you. The deal is: what Rob Leatham can do and mere humans can do are usually two different things.
It’s a known fact among the competition shooters that Rob Leatham, Todd Jarrett and Bill Wilson “slap” the trigger. Yes, Virginia, Bill Wilson was a tough competitor at one time. But they “slap” the trigger consistently and everytime. Also, using light, single action trigger didn’t hurt them either. But those are not your usual everyday run of the mill shooters. They shoot ten thousands of rounds a year, not many of us get to practice trigger reset or slap the trigger nearly as much.
Todd Jarrett actually teaches people to slap the trigger, according to folks I know who’ve trained with him. He also tends to have guns with trigger pulls in the 2-3# range.
Rob Leatham is a big believer that it’s anticipation much more than trigger jerk that causes the majority of dropped shots/misses we experience when trying to go fast.
One part of it, as others have said, deals with the trigger pull weight and type of trigger they’re using. As your trigger pull weight begins to approach the weight of your pistol (light trigger pull on heavy steel 1911), you can afford to slap the trigger … think trap/skeet. It just won’t cause enough upset to the sight alignment to matter. They’ve also normally got guns with very short stroke triggers. Think about how much less pre-travel there is in a competition-tuned 1911 compared to, say, a stock Glock (or a TDA SIG in SA mode, to borrow one of the other comparisons made above). Keeping their fingers on the trigger would require a lot finer movement than is required when I am shooting my M&P.
Another part of it has to do with what they’re trying to hit. Are we trying to put all our hits into a 2" circle at 10yd? Nobody is slapping the trigger there. Trying to fire as fast as you can to hit an 8" circle at 3yd multiple times? Just about everyone is slapping there.
I don’t teach it or advocate it, but I do understand it’s a natural tendency when speed starts to get pushed to the max. My advice is to be conscious about the reset, and conscious about moving the trigger far enough forward to reset the trigger every time without going farther than necessary … the rest will work itself out.
Yes, Rob slaps the bejesus out of the trigger. But I’m pretty sure he’s not human. It works for him. I haven’t found that to be the case for most mortals.
For us mere mortals, slapping the trigger inevitably disturbs out sight picture and the projectile’s POI. As far as Todd Jarret and Rob Leatham, their overall technique is so solid doing this generally does not make them miss.
Also, I seem to remember an interview in which Rob Leatham stated why his finger looses contact with the trigger when he shoots. As it turns out, this technique allows him to be just as effective when shooting handguns of varying actions and trigger pull weights. In other words, he does not have to learn the reset for any handgun he picks up and uses (i.e.: in Open Division, In Production Class, etc.).
As for me, my shooting got a lot better when tey showed me how to use the Glock trigger reset at the first GSSF match I ever attended (Waldorf, MD back in 1999?). So I tend to use th reset when I shoot regardless of what firearm I am using. JM2CW.
That’s a very legit query. I have a Glock 35 with a Vanek trigger kit. I had to learn a completely different method of resetting the trigger (trigger flip) in order to control it at speed. The classic reset technique was a sure way to break shots too early. I still don’t slap the trigger, though.
Both Todd and Rob have built habits that do not work for the average shooter;
they are used to very light, below service grade triggers
they have shot so much that most of the time, for most of the shots they make, they have seperated the actual pulling of the trigger with anticipating the shot
This is the not the norm for most people shooting duty weapons - and the trigger slap technique for the overwhelming majority of shooters is absolutely the wrong way to pull the trigger - just because they do it does not mean you should
When you live in the world of CCW and litigation following the advice of competition shooters who live in the world of hanging 2 shots on paper as fast as possible is not always the wise thing to do
Don’t take this as a ding against these guys - I know them both and Rob Leatham is a personal friend of mine; second to Ken Hackathorn I learned more from Rob than anyone about shooting
This Wisconsin textbook for LEO academy firearms training really emphasizes maintaining contact with the trigger and resetting the sear, not a bad thing.
However, I have seen several shooters that misemploy that technique by spending >90% of their time and energy by slowly and carefully resetting the sear after the shot, and then CANKING off the next shot so quickly and horribly that they may or may not keep it on the PAPER.
It takes a lot to retrain them that it is much more important how the bang switch moves to the rear to launch the missle, than how it moves forward to pick up the sear.
The next step is then to teach them to reset the sear during recoil, so that in rapid fire, dedicated shot situations, they are actually pressing it again when the sights settle back into target so as not to waste valuable time.
I don’t, and wouldn’t ever teach the trigger slap for reasons listed above (I read somewhere that TGO said it was more important to his speed to get OFF the trigger faster), but it surely is a good example why the trigger reset can be over emphasized.
Was I really seeing what I thought I was seeing?
I see what I need to see to make the shot. For some large exposed targets in bright daylight while up close my sight picture is a little sloppier than a 20 yard head shot in lowlight. I have found a tall front sight post with a U notch to be very easy and fast to find, align, and track through the various shooting pieces. I almost exclusively shoot Glocks, and all have Warren Sights.
Is this a desirable way to reset the trigger and prepare for the next shot?
Slapping the trigger works when you have really light trigger… and because Rob Leatham is a cyborg.
What you do to reset the trigger?
I aim to reset during recoil, and if that does not happen it is riding the trigger to the reset point and taking up any slack for the next shot.
Typical trigger reset being: after the shot breaks, releasing the trigger until the mechanism resets (without the finger coming completely off the trigger), then taking up the slack in the trigger before a second shot. Pull, release, slack, pull again.
The flip is: after the shot breaks, holding the trigger to the rear, then releasing the trigger and pulling it again in one fluid motion. Pull & hold, release & pull again. I do this only with superlight (<3#) triggers.
Single targets are no big deal; multiple targets were another matter. The problem I encountered is because the Vanek trigger is very light, has no perceptible takeup, and has very little overtravel, that if I tried to prep the trigger between targets, the shot almost invariably broke early or doubled. So, I bastardized a technique that I picked up at Rogers Shooting School.
Target 1 - pull & hold; transition to target 2 - release & pull in one motion when the front sight moves onto the point of aim. If the firing grip is solid, everything else takes care of itself.
When shooting fast with weapons that do not have a distinct reset point, e.g., Sig 226 and, to a lesser extent, the Beretta 92, the resetting technique results in periodic trigger freeze. Larry and I talked about this just yesterday.
Pretty entertaining to watch. The sequence usually goes as follows:
three hard yanks on a non-reset trigger,
finger flies off trigger into register position,
shooter looks at gun,
attempts to fire again,
gun fires,
bullet misses target completely, sometimes hitting the cover immediately in front of the shooter (the wall at our range),
shooter shouts expletive.
I’ve seen it at least 50 times.
Leatham’s comment about resetting not being a universal technique is well put.
